[DeTomaso] Rear upright removal, photo gallery

[Asa Jay Laughton]

In the continuing saga of living vicariously through others, we bring 
you the disassembly of the rear end in Pantera 5533.

http://www.teampanteraracing.com/gallery2/v/asajay/rear_susp/


After removing the brake calipers and wiring them up out of the way, I 
first removed the coil-over shocks.  Then the upper ball joint was 
hammered loose.  The sway bar brackets were taken off and the a-arms 
removed.  Before removing the lower a-arm completely though, I did 
disassemble the lower shaft assembly in the upright.

So, what so folks have been going through to remove the shaft, was -not- 
what I was met with.  When I first took the ball joint loose, I found 
the upright pivoted on the shaft sufficiently to allow it plenty of 
travel.  In fact, the passenger side shaft seemed almost loose, the 
upright moving freely for over 90 degrees.

Once out, the shafts appeared to be in great shape, the inner sleeves 
looked a bit more worn and in fact on one, it looked like some of the 
bronze (or is it brass?  It looked like bronze to me) bushing inside the 
upright had stuck to the sleeve.  See this photo:
http://www.teampanteraracing.com/gallery2/v/asajay/rear_susp/P6280043.JPG.html

See the bronze looking stuff on the left?  That part didn't clean off as 
well and seemed to be pretty well stuck to the sleeve.  This worries me 
a little bit.  What I need an answer to is if this bushing is 
available.  If so, I should probably go to the trouble of replacing 
them.  Otherwise the shafts and sleeves look pretty good.  See the other 
photos.  Any suggestions?  Should I get kits from a vendor to replace 
them all or just lube it all up and re-install?

The last thing that gives me some worry, although I could not get any 
movement out of the axles while on the car, once out and spinning them 
freely on the bench, I get a little metal on metal sound.  It's very 
smooth, like someone dragging a piece of tin across the rotor and only 
happens in one position of the circumference.  It does not sound like a 
bearing but you can never quite tell.  Using my poor man's stethoscope, 
I listened at the hub, the disk, the upright and the bearing race (or 
seal), and it definitely sounded like it was coming from the bearing 
assembly.  However, the axle on that upright moves very smoothly through 
the entire travel, in fact, a quick flick of the wrist puts the assembly 
in motion for a good six or seven revolutions before it drags to a stop. 

The passenger side was a bit different.  This time, I could hear what 
sounded like the "clack-clack" of bearings striking each other on the 
first couple of turns, and then the sound when away (redistribution of 
grease?).  Wait a little while, turn the axle again and it would 
"clack-clack" for a couple turns and go away.  This upright however 
would only spin for one and a half revolutions before stopping, i.e. 
lots of drag on this one.

So, I guess I'm going to be removing axles.  <sigh>
I could use some good pointers on how to do this.  The Northwest Pantera 
chapter was kind enough to send me the spanner, so I at least have 
that.  Thanks go to John Maffeo for loaning me the spanner.  How do I 
hold the entire assembly, to keep it from turning, while I try and 
muscle off the axle nut?  How many people does this normally take.  Do I 
need an overdose of gamma radiation before taking on this challenge?  <sigh>

In other news, I now need to get a party together to pull the ZF.  It's 
a good time to do it and I just got a good set of seals and gaskets from 
Marino so I can stop some of the leaks I have before I go racing.  Funny 
how they don't like leaks on the racetrack
:)

My new brake hoses arrived as well as the caliper rebuild kits.  As for 
the axle bearings, I better start checking the deTomaso database entries.

Overall it was a good day, things came apart very nicely and I was 
thrilled to not have frozen shafts.

I'll see you guys tomorrow.
Asa Jay

<boy I can sure see how one thing leads to another and pretty soon a guy 
(or girl) has their Pantera all apart and waiting to go back together 
over the course of several years.  as others will attest to, one of my 
primary goals in driving this Pantera was to never have it down for 
maintenance more than a weekend.  Well, this latest adventure is taking 
a whole lot longer than that..

Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired

& Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA

1973 Pantera L 5533
[ASASCAT]
    
******************************     
http://www.asajay.com
http://www.351c.info
  



John Taphorn wrote:
> I recently helped an individual overseas by obtaining keys locally for his Pantera and sending them to him.
>
> The quest ended up tougher than I expected.  To make a long story short, my local supplier had thrown out his older inventory of keys that I assumed he still had.  This included over 90 Pantera keys!!!
>
> We were able to track down replacements; however, I had to purchase 10 of each blank even though we required only three sets.
>
> Thus, I have seven sets of Pantera keys for sale.  Each includes the ignition and door/decklid.  The sets are for sale for $5 plus shipping.
>
> First come, first served.  E-mail me if you would like a set or more.
>
> Thanks
> JT
> _______________________________________________
>
> 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
>
>
>