"Underneath", installment #13
One night my rear-axle helper came by, we installed the pinion
and its bearings, then the ring gears and limited-slip unit. The shim
thicknesses had already been set-up on a previous visit. The outer
pinion bearing, closest the driveshaft yoke, "slips" on to the pinion
gear's shaft, but it's such a tight fit it really needs a press to
install. We cheated. The pinion gear (inner bearing already installed)
went into the freezer for a couple of weeks, got it cold so it would
contract. Then we heated the outer bearing in the oven at low
temperature (below 400 degrees to protect the metal) so it would expand.
Then, we assembled everything before the temperatures could equalize.
First time I'd used an oven mitt while working on the car. Everything
popped right in. Then the ring gear and LSD bolted in; that's when we
realized that the service manual did _not_ have the torque specs for the
bearing cap bolts. Found out later it's 80-90 ft-lb. It has been
recommended that I do not try doing the axle shafts until the housing is
in the car; first, because the housing will weigh so much less while
maneuvering it under the car if the shafts aren't in it, and second, all
of the pulling and yanking while setting the end float is easier once
the housing is securely attached to the car. OK, I took that at face
value, I'll try it that way.
Got the rear springs in OK (I'm using a set of Dale's,
remember). Checking whether bolts will slide into the mounts and both
front & rear is a good idea; mine were all fouled a bit with
undercoating I had put in, and/or other crud. A couple of minutes with
rat-tail file cleaned up the openings fine; I didn't want to have the
complication, once the holes were lined up, of undersized holes. Same
thing was true of the springs themselves due to my sloppy application of
the POR-15 coating around the spring eyes. Obviously, the fronts went in
rather easy, as I could maneuver the entire spring to line up the holes.
Once that was done, the rear bolts took longer. The shackle is
effectively spring-loaded due to the rubber bushing at the 'top' bolt,
and needs to move back a bit to line up; plus, for some reason, there is
a bit of 'twist' to the spring, <1/4" but enough that you're trying to
push the shackle back (screwdriver), the spring up (heel of hand) and
twist the spring (big Crescent wrench on leaves 6-8" back along the
spring) all at the same time.
Probably less than two hours, looked like a five-minute job at
first. I'd go faster but I'm still being extra-careful not to shake the
car until the jackstands are on a wider footprint. The new springs, in
addition to the clamps, have a locating pin in the center, with a nut
below, right where the axle housing has two 'studs" projecting down from
the spring saddles. Well, I hope they're exactly in the right place.
They came right out, anyway.
The front wheel bearings are about ready so I can add the
hub/rotor assemblies to the front suspension. The old races, you may
remember, were marked up, so I drove them out with a punch. I figured
the new ones would be a tight fit, so I decided to try the freezer trick
again. The races chilled overnight, and I only took them out of the
freezer one at a time to tap them into the hubs with the same punch
(don't slip! don't want to scratch the surface!). Didn't have to heat
the hubs in the oven. There's a notch in the hub to enable getting a
punch on the backside to facilitate getting the races out, but no such
help when getting the new ones back in. On both inner and outer races,
they need to be driven _below_ a ledge for the bearing seals and/or dust
cap, so you're perching the punch right on the edge of the race.
The bearings themselves were no big deal, just messy. I had
access to two bearing packers, so I tried that first. However, the
Tiger's wheel bearings have the inner race, the one against the spindle,
integral with the bearing. Therefore, there's really no way to force
grease in from the back, which is what a bearing packer does. There's a
tiny space at the top and bottom of the bearing, but insufficient; made
a mess, that's all. So, I packed them by hand as I was shown when I was
a kid. One palmful of grease, hold the bearing in the other hand, force
the grease between bearing and palm until it oozes out everywhere. Yuk!
The rest of the rear suspension should be easy, the rear brakes
perhaps not so, and I'm still hoping for advise on the brake lines up
front (see earlier installment).
Lawrence R. Wright
Purchasing Analyst
Andrews Office Products Div. of USOP
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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