[DeTomaso] LocTite and Pantera Rear Axles and Debonder

[Chris Difani]

Guys:

I learned something.

As I so often do... thru the mistakes of others... (and, I'm sorry to say, my own). In this particular episode, it turned out that I had to disassemble my rear axles due to the wrong wheel studs being installed. This led to an entire parade of problems. 

The largest problem was that whoever had assembled the axle upright/bearing assembly had used LocTite, LOTS of LocTite. And when I say "LOTS", I'm talking entire large, bottles here. Not just a bit, I'm talking cups! And as you can guess, the manual's instructions on "press the axle out" didn't really apply to me. 

I fabricated a screw press and got one axle apart, fairly easily. But the other side, wow! They didn't use just LocTite, they used LocTite Bearing Retainer. Which is a whole degree of magnitude worse. 

To get to the end here, I learned two things. First of all, heat is LocTite's enemy, you need to heat the parts, especially the LocTite's location, up to 300-350°F. Of course the hazard here is that you can also destroy things with this heat. One of those non-contact IR thermometers is a very helpful tool during this process. 

But heat's not new. Read the fine print, and you'll see that it's one of the recommended means of disassembly. 

The other thing I learned is that LocTite can be dissolved. There's a product called "Debonder" that will do this. Another product is "nail polish remover" (and not the "safe" stuff). Or, from the hobby shops, "Debonder". You see LocTite is from the family of superglues. And superglue is widely used in the hobby world. Since men and boys are into the hobby world, glued together fingers is a common occurrence. Hence the need for some kind of solvent, which is called "Debonder". 

I applied Debonder liberally to the affected joints, and I had "lift off", or rather "slide off". The debonder is what gave me the final success. 

As you can guess it can be tricky getting the debonder down, into the joint, where the LocTite is, but with time, and liberal application, you will achieve success. 

And of course, your milage is really going to vary!

Chris

Chris Difani
'73 L #5829 "LITNNG"
Sacramento, CA
Email: cdifani at pacbell.net