[DeTomaso] Squeaky suspension

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Tue Oct 15 14:20:33 EDT 2013


In a message dated 10/15/13 3 44 1, shbailey at att.net writes:


> Mike Drew covered the concern for frozen shafts in the hub carrier. He is 
> correct about this concern. When I built my car Hall Panera had a mod for 
> that, He sold shafts that were machined to a accept grease at the bearing 
> locations. All you had to do was drill and tap the carrier at the bearings 
> for zerk fittings.
> 

>>>My car is equipped with a different version, which are no longer be 
available?   Mine shafts have a zerk fitting in one end, and are gun-drilled 
through the center and then have holes and cavities to allow grease to get 
between the shaft and the inner sleeve, although it does not address the hub 
carrier bearings.

I don't know why they are no longer available, as they work quite well.   I 
was dreading the task of removing them for inspection, but was pleasantly 
surprised that they came out with nothing but gentle taps.   The fit is 
absolutely precise, there was grease from one end to the other, and in general, 
things were all tickety-boo.

Having said that, I made no attempt to remove the sleeve from the center of 
the hub carrier.   Ideally, the shaft and sleeve are to remain fixed 
together, and the sleeve is supposed to rotate inside the hub carrier bearings.  
The current kits are designed to promote this, by enabling a grease path from 
the underside of the hub carrier, through to the outside of the sleeve, and 
thence to the bearings. 

http://hallpantera.com/cgi-bin/p/awtp-product.cgi?d=hallpantera-inc&
item=22512

This keeps things rotating nicely, but doesn't address the issue of the 
center shaft potentially rusting to the inside of the sleeve.

In this scenario, the suspension will operate perfectly well but could be 
next to impossible to take apart.   I think the ideal scenario would be to 
have both types of lubrication.   (I really have no way of knowing if my 
sleeves are rotating in the hub carriers as intended, or if my suspension is 
rotating on the shaft instead, which would certainly be less optimal).

Mike



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