[DeTomaso] lower pantera shafts link

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Mon Oct 5 01:07:42 EDT 2009


In a message dated 10/4/09 8 38 31, jtaphorn at kingwoodcable.com writes:


> Nice job, Bill.  Now your rear suspension can compress without bending 
> the
> lower a-arm.  That has got to feel better.
> 
> I've seen these lower a-arms frozen on many Pantera's including two of 
> mine.
> I am surprised that there are few reported incidences of the lower a-arm
> failing.
> 

Our tech session today was stymied badly by frozen shafts.   I don't know 
why, but I had assumed (hoped) that it wouldn't be an issue and thus we 
weren't armed with replacement shafts/cups/etc.

A whole lot of innovation was employed in order to successfully remove one 
of the shafts, but it took the better part of three hours.   In the end, I 
believe the winning technique involved sacrificing the nylock nuts.   Washers 
were stacked up against the side of the A-arm, large enough for the shaft 
to pass through, then the impact gun was used against the nut, while somebody 
on the other end used a BFH and a drift.   That got it about halfway out, 
at which point it became well and truly stuck.

We eventually gave up, and removed the lower A-arm from the car.   That 
gave us a better angle to punish the offending parts.   With the thing turned 
on its side, an even bigger BFH was employed, hammering against an anvil with 
a perfectly located hole in the middle, and eventually the shaft popped 
free.

Interestingly, the shaft was perfectly happy to rotate; it just wouldn't 
come out of the assembly.   The OD of the shaft had rusted to the ID of the 
sleeve inside the hub carrier, but it was perfectly happy to turn on the 
bearings in the ends of the hub carrier.

We decided to take the easy way out, and not try to take the other side 
apart.   Again, the hub carrier was happy to rotate on the A-arm, so we just 
removed both components and kept them together, while we pressed the old axles 
out and the new ones in.   This side of the car had an axle among the worst 
I've seen in terms of wear.   With the axle nut removed, I tapped each of 
the studs back in until they bottomed out against the outside surface of the 
hub carrier.   I then inverted the assembly and prepared to carry it over to 
the press, and with a clank, the axle and the rotor simply fell out and 
onto the bench!

Mike



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