[DeTomaso] Rear upright removal, photo gallery

Sun Jun 29 12:28:51 EDT 2008

Asa

On the dragging sound, it's possible that when you swung the upright down
and rested it on it's nose that one or more of the wheel studs where pushed
in slightly, and the head of the stud is simply contacting the upright as it
turns.

I got my rebuilds back from Larry Stock and they both sounded as you
described, scared the crap out of me after all the $$ I had spent.  I simply
laid the upright on it's back on the garage floor, put the wheel on and
snugged down the lug nuts.  When I took the wheel back off, everything was
smooth and quiet.

Mike Thomas
Panteras Northwest

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Asa Jay Laughton
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:12 PM
To: detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Rear upright removal, photo gallery

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.ht
ml

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
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