[DeTomaso] Axles and rotors and bearings. . . oh my
Will Kooiman
wkooiman at earthlink.net
Fri Jul 25 12:55:20 EDT 2008
My opinion? (which may not be worth much)
Replace the bearings with stock style replacements. They work fine. They
just don't last very long - or I should say the rubber seal that keeps the
water out and the grease in doesn't last long. If you take your original
bearings to a bearing store, you can get replacements for about $80 for all
4.
Consider replacing the sleeve that fits between the inner and outer
bearings. I didn't, but I'm starting to believe the comments that the stock
sleeve is too soft.
The only negative to using the stock bearings is you should probably do this
exercise again in 5 years or so. I don't know how long the seals last.
Clean everything. Grease everything - including the lower a-arm shaft -
with either the Pantera East shaft or the home-brew zerks. I don't remember
which method you decided on.
Buy an impact wrench. My uncle has an electric impact. I thought it was a
great idea. It's the hammering action that gets the stubborn nuts off.
(unintentional Larry bait). I don't know how much the electric impacts cost
nor do I know how many ft-lbs you can get. At any rate, it's an easy way to
get an impact w/out needing an air compressor. I have an air impact. I've
used it about 3 times, but it was invaluable.
-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of asajay at asajay.com
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 11:07 AM
To: detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Axles and rotors and bearings. . . oh my
In the continuing saga of living vicariously through others, I bring
you the night we tore the uprights apart.
It all started several weeks ago when I pulled the uprights out of the
Pantera. A trivial bushing problem caused a minor distraction but we
finally got back to the uprights a couple nights ago.
After severely bending (and nearly breaking) a half-inch breaker bar
in an attempt to remove the axle nuts (yes, we -were- turning them the
correct way). I took them to my local driveline shop and they zipped
them right off with an air tool. (note to self, I have GOT to get me
one of those).
Back to my hillbilly shop last night, I proceeded to press out the
axles and bearings.
I first marked each hub indexed to the axle along with which side it
went to, using steel letter punches. I also marked the upright
itself. Once marked, I tried to figure out how to hold the rotor
assembly to press the axle out. Hmm, well, not having any appropriate
sized sewer pipe handy, I happened across an old ring gear from a Jeep
front differential we pulled a few years back. It just happened to
fit just outside the edge of the axle flange. Perfect!
I set it all up in my 19th century screw press and out came the axles.
Next I removed the retainers for the bearings and pressed them out
as well.
Good Lord, what a mess.
The first thing to note was the light mocha brown color of the grease,
and the amount of water. There had certainly been water intrusion. I
could also see where grease has been heated and cooled, as there were
places of hardened yucky grease. After pressing everything out. It
appears the center portion of the upright had been packed with grease,
-or- all the grease from the bearings leaked out the inside around the
spacer. Either way, I have tons of grease, it's all yucky, icky,
sticky and I'm not really looking forward to the clean up.
I took a good shop rag and cleaned the axle stubs and they look -very-
nice. No burs or heavy wear. I will take a micrometer to them this
evening (or this weekend) to determine if I need replacements. Photos
to follow.
At this point, I am very glad I took these apart before heading to
Silver State. I would not have wanted this amount of water and bad
grease in there. I believe the amount of grease in the assembly
prevented any rusting, as I've not found any yet. I do believe these
have been serviced in the past, I'd just have to look back in the
receipts to know for certain.
My next decision is what bearing option to use for replacements. I
don't wish to machine the uprights in any fashion. One option is
something Steve Wilkinison told me he supplies, which is a new tapered
roller bearing for the inboard side (I think) and requires machining
the sleeve a half in shorter, but no machining of the upright itself.
This seems to appear to me, but I'd like to get some opinions first.
What are my bearing options if I don't want to machine the upright?
Thanks,
Asa Jay
_______________________________________________
Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
DeTomaso mailing list
DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
More information about the DeTomaso
mailing list