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Gents,
Getting the crap out of the existing joint, especially on the one with the cracked boot will be the fun part. At least I caught it early and hopefully no "grinding paste" in there. Maybe I can get the joint ultrasonically cleaned?
You just keep sloshing it in a bucket of kero until there is no more dirt. Low tech.
Some shafts have closed homokinetics on the outside, some half shafts can be taken aparts just like the inner homokinetic. The ones that can be taken apart ate best taken apart completely so you can clean tje ***** and the cage separately. Especially the one with torn manchet. It is fun the find out how to put iyt together again. Do one homokinetic at the same time so you do not mix up the parts. Or lay them out on a clean cardboard with the ***** on M10 nuts to prevent them rolling away.
I had to seek out a stout press to remove the inner "race" of the inner joint. It put up quite a fight.
I had to do other unpleasant things as mentioned previously, as detailed in a thread I started last year. You'll need a 3/4-inch drive and a piece of pipe - 400-500 ft-lbs needed to loosen the axle nut. Or go to a truck repair shop and have them loosen them for you. The ***** will fall out of the inner joint eventually, so take them out on purpose and enjoy the puzzle of getting them back in.
I suspended the axle by the inner end to clean the outer end, over a bucket. I was able to agitate solvent around the joint by alternately plugging the hole in the shaft with my finger, and working it like a toilet plunger.
I found I have 2 torn boots on my '80, so CV joints are now on my to do list. I've been studying the process have really appreciated this post.
Dwayne noted that the orientation needs to be maintained (as per the WSM 42-25). I was curious on the others opinion to changing the side of the of the ball hub, while still matching the bearings (i.e. left to right and right to left). The video linked below is for a 914, but the CV joints look similar. At the 7 min mark he describes switching the orientation of the ball hub to change the wear pattern and extend the life of the ball hub.
Years ago I bought a cheap 3/4" drive socket set from the local ag supply place. These have been invaluable for breaking large nuts. Put a long enough piece of pipe over the end of the breaker bar that comes with the set and you can achieve mightly torque levels for dis-assembly. For re-assembly I stand on a bathroom scale and do the math based on the length of my breaker bar to see how much weight increase I need to see on the scales to obtain the required torque. Or stand on the other side and experience temporary weight loss
Regarding 944 CV joints, I have found that splined connection between the axle and the CV joint to be extremely hard to break free. Loaded my Harbor Freight 12 ton press to the max. But that is something you can take to a local shop for assistance.
Question to the group? With limited slip cars, does the required torque for the retaining nut ever tend to cause the LSD to slip before the required torque is obtained?
Years ago I bought a cheap 3/4" drive socket set from the local ag supply place. These have been invaluable for breaking large nuts. Put a long enough piece of pipe over the end of the breaker bar that comes with the set and you can achieve mightly torque levels for dis-assembly. For re-assembly I stand on a bathroom scale and do the math based on the length of my breaker bar to see how much weight increase I need to see on the scales to obtain the required torque. Or stand on the other side and experience temporary weight loss
Regarding 944 CV joints, I have found that splined connection between the axle and the CV joint to be extremely hard to break free. Loaded my Harbor Freight 12 ton press to the max. But that is something you can take to a local shop for assistance.
Question to the group? With limited slip cars, does the required torque for the retaining nut ever tend to cause the LSD to slip before the required torque is obtained?
Harvey,
Intend to pop down to my local hardware store to see what they have in 3/4 inch oddments. They used to have a chunky breaker bar and ad hoc 3/4inch drive sockets for sale. If those things are torqued to 340 ft lbs of torque then it is going to take quite an effort to get the nut off. The crank bolt took a big lever and a 3/4 inch x27mm socket to get that off but that would be easy by comparison I suspect.
Does anyone know the correct metric size of nut by any chance? If the imperial size is 1 1/4 inch then metric equivalent will be about 32mm which is the biggest 1/2 inch socket in my set.
Waste no time with the 1/2" drive sockets for the stub axle nut. The drive end of the best breaker bar becomes sacrificial when you put a few feet of 'cheater' on the end of it. Suckers twist off like butter, but only after bending the handle on the bar. Like the crank bolt but more so, seriousl torque requires serious tools, and those start at 3/4" drive and go up from there. Good news is that you can often rent the bigger tools for these once-in-a-while projects.
Waste no time with the 1/2" drive sockets for the stub axle nut. The drive end of the best breaker bar becomes sacrificial when you put a few feet of 'cheater' on the end of it. Suckers twist off like butter, but only after bending the handle on the bar. Like the crank bolt but more so, seriousl torque requires serious tools, and those start at 3/4" drive and go up from there. Good news is that you can often rent the bigger tools for these once-in-a-while projects.
And rent a torque multiplier while you are at it- 320 at the nut = 80 at your arm with a 4:1. Indispensable to me.
Waste no time with the 1/2" drive sockets for the stub axle nut. The drive end of the best breaker bar becomes sacrificial when you put a few feet of 'cheater' on the end of it. Suckers twist off like butter, but only after bending the handle on the bar. Like the crank bolt but more so, seriousl torque requires serious tools, and those start at 3/4" drive and go up from there. Good news is that you can often rent the bigger tools for these once-in-a-while projects.
Top quality tools might work at 1/2 inch sq drive but Pling Plong rubber steel is just not that good. I have a very comprehensive set I purchased from the Dragon Mall in Dubai for about 40 bucks- most of it works well but first time I used the short extension it "rubberised". So fully agree with you- heavy duty requires heavy muscle.
We do not have the luxury of selection like you chaps do but there are a couple of good hardware outlets here that I use and they have the luxury of being able to purchase specific sockets. They also sell a heavy duty 3/4 inch sq drive breaker bar for about 40 bucks so I will probably pick one up on Saturday together with a socket.
I managed to torque the crank bolt to 210 ft lbs with my new torque wrench and one of those deep socket keys but that is about the limit I would like to use with 1/2 inch sq drive. With the 3/4 inch breaker bar it should handle a 1 metre piece of scaffolding tube which is about the leverage needed to undo 340 ft pounds- if that makes sense! That is what my pal at the local dealers helped me with when I wanted to undo the crank bolt for the water pump job last year.
My body weight of about 170 lbs applied at a radius of 2 feet should do nicely as a torque wrench!
My casual experince has been that a bolt or nut allegedly torqued to a certain spec will take more to remove than to install. There's undoubtedly some complex theory and formula that explains this, but I suspect that many who work on cars just tighten things to "that ain't goin' anywhere!" tight. They might follow your correct 170 lbs at two feet equals 340 lbs/ft, but their bar is a little longer, and they jumped on the end a couple times 'just to make sure'. So a longer bit of scaffolding pipe might be needed to remove those nuts, relative to what's needed to tighten them correctly.
If you haven't already figured this out, the nuts will come loose more easily if you can pop the wheel center caps and fit the socket with the car on the ground, in gear, parking brake engaged. Wheels are less likely to spin with the wrench attached if they are on the ground. Maybe get you executive assistant to plant a foot hard on the brake pedal as you get the initial breakaway done on the nut.
My casual experince has been that a bolt or nut allegedly torqued to a certain spec will take more to remove than to install.
Bob,
+1 on that one. Bolts that are exposed to the atmosphere and particularly ones that could see a lot of crap [mud, salt etc] sloshing around probably suffer from the threads experiencing minor corrosion causing additional stiction.
I like the idea of having the car on its wheels as long as the aperture is big enough to accommodate a 3/4 inch drive socket. I will say one thing for the local dealers-anything they tighten up does not usually come loose by itself!
Took Dr Bob's excellent advice and got some chunkier tools including a 3/4 inch drive socket set, a set of 3/4 impact sockets, a 3/4 inch x 40 inch long breaker bar, windy gun and a 3/4 inch torque wrench.
Managed to remove the half shafts today and now have to work out how to press the inner bearing off the shaft- will probably ask the local dealers to do it in their workshop in my presence if it is that difficult to remove.
I noted on Dwayne's excellent write up he used a blue thread locker on the 8mm allen bolts- any opinions on this? I instinctively feel such should not be needed at 60 ft lbs a pop but...?
08-11-2015, 06:10 AM
