[DeTomaso] the first day (NUTS!)

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Thanks Larry!

Unfortunately I'll be spending my first day as a Lt Col thrashing on my 
Pantera (and not behind the wheel).

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and as PCNC had been invited to display their 
Panteras at the free comedy festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, I 
fired up my Pantera and headed that way.   I have an old friend from college 
who lives south of the city, so the plan was to pick him up and then join the 
PCNC convoy to the park.

The drive was perfectly normal until I exited the freeway near his house.   
Suddenly there was a painful SCRREEEEEE noise from the left front, and the 
steering jerked to the left, as though the left brake had applied itself.

A second later it was fine.

Huh?

I continued along, and a few second later, the steering wheel jerked to the 
left again, just for a second, and then all was normal.   Or so it felt.   But 
I knew something was wrong.   I was thinking that perhaps a bolt had fallen 
out of the brake caliper or something?

I very carefully limped the two remaining blocks to my friend's house, ears 
cocked and fingertips on the wheel to feel anything untoward.   Near his house 
I heard a wocka wocka wocka sound from the left front.

I pulled in front of his house, busted out his floor jack, raised the front 
end and found the wheel flopping all around--deathly loose wheel bearing.   I 
pulled the wheel off, then the dust cap, and found this:

http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/nut.jpg

The nut which secures the hub features a lip which is intended to be peened 
into a slot milled into the spindle.   The lip had shattered, allowing the nut 
to back off until it hit the cotter pin, which is the only thing that kept the 
whole assembly from falling apart.

Note that most Panteras (mine included) don't come with provisions for a 
cotter pin--under advisement from this forum many years ago, I drilled my spindles 
and added them.   I'm sure glad I did!

In retrospect, I would have been better off inserting shims between the face 
of the nut and the cotter pin, which would have prevented it from backing off 
in the event of failure.

Anyway, I tightened the nut a little, removed the cotter pin, then removed 
the nut.   The rotor/hub were sloppy loose on the spindle and I hoped that I 
could simply withdraw them, change the bearing, and be back on my way.

Unfortunately, when I pulled the metal retainer off and got a look at the 
bearing, it looked pretty grim.

http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/badbearing.jpg

The rollers in the bearing had literally MELTED and fused into solid masses 
of metal.   The inner portion of the outer bearing is stuck firmly to the 
spindle.   Fortunately the bearing had slipped outward from its proper location 
about 1/4 inch before it happened, so the proper area of the spindle may be 
untouched.

I buttoned everything back up, and we took my buddy's Toyota to the comedy 
festival.   That evening I called AAA for the tow home (gotta love the 100-mile 
tow program!); it took two and a half hours for the tow truck to arrive, and 
it was another two and a half hours before I was home.   I gingerly drove the 
car onto and off the truck, and into the garage.

Now I have to pull the spindle/rotor off, and I'm going to take it to Chris 
Difani's barn where he will use a variety of sophisticated tools and techniques 
to extract everything without damaging the rare and expensive spindle--I 
hope!!!

Mike


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