[DeTomaso] Rear Bushings and Shafts

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/9/09 11:23:24 PM, tborcich writes:

> I'm replacing my lower rear A-arm bushings and am wondering if I need to 
> do anything to the lower upright shaft and bushings/bearings that connect 
> the upright and A-arm? They move smoothly...but I'm sure they are original. 
> For some wierd reason the upper bushings have been replaced, but the lowers 
> were ignored?
> 
Inside the lower housing is a hardened steel spacer that keeps the lower 
ends of the upright from crushing inward when the nuts on the long stud are 
tightened, and it also runs in bronze bushings at each end. Without grease, 
the bushings wear giving slight noise and odd handling, but more important- 
the inside of the upright generates condensation. Hardened steel corrodes 
faster than mild steel so without periodic disassembly and greasing, as rust 
progresses, the spacer rusts solidly to the long stud. This prevents easy 
disassembly even though the stud may still rotate. If rust continues, the spacer 
may sieze in the bushings and either break an a-arm end or the long stud, 
dropping the car to its knees! Disassemble the lower shaft if possible and 
liberally grease everything inside. Various schemes have been tried over the 
years to grease the stud and especially the spacer without disassembly. Some 
are more effective than others. 
As far as the rear wheel bearings, they don't often cause trouble. What 
does happen is, many of the OEM stub axles were incorrectly made at the factory 
(no press-fit occurred)   so the hardened bearings run loosely on the mild 
steel axles. This wears the axles, causing them to need replacement; most 
guys also replace the perfectly-good wheel bearings. Stub-axle wear of only 
0.0005" (yes, the decimal is correct!) will cause a rear tire to wobble 
visually, giving a weird feeling in corners and wearing your expensive rear tires 
more rapidly. A bad rear wobble may have wear on its hollow axle larger than 
1/8"!
The real fix is to repair or replace the stub axle(s) with ones that have a 
correct press-fit dimension of 0.0004"-0.0008". Wheel bearings are cheap at 
any bearing supply house; replacement stub axles are not but the current 
factory replacements are much stronger than OEM, are properly sized for std 
ball bearings and can be replaced at home if you own a hydraulic press.
good luck- J Deryke