Perry 951

This damn car!!! Every time I go to the garage, I find a few more things I attach the "Might as well since I am in there" label to. Christ, I haven't even sent the block to Garrity yet, replaced the A arms or the rear shocks!!!! Good thing is the parts are rolling in to rebuild from the fire, and that I have a high credit limit!

Anyway... since the car has 128k on it, I thought it would be worthwile to do the torque tube bearings. No one has gone into detail on the list on the procedure to get the bearings out and back in. I would assume that there are 3 bearings, an the tough one is a bearing in the center of the tube, and it needs to be seated on something square. What the hell should I use? Anyone have a cost idea?

Thanks for the info. Time to finish the workday (yea, sucks to work New Years Eve and Day) then head home to hit the garage and get hypothermia in the friggin 10 degree weather in Cincinnati.

Can you tell I am frustrated?

Ski

Perry,

I understand. But I've got one item for you if your interested,,,I just put some new Bilsteins on the rear of my car and took the 4k mile KYBs off. They barely have the paint dirty. I was going to put them on ebay but man,,,after everything you've been through; if you want them send me your address and I'll get them in the mail.

Merry Christmas

Dave

If it's of any help, I was planning to give the Fuchs a good cleaning today before I put them away for the winter. It's 19 deg. here, the hose will not be used today

Fuch-cicle

Perry 951

I have 3K on the rears (KYB's). They just aren;t stiff enough to match the front.

Untier

back to the torque tube, anyone?

Tabor

I think emilysgranny talked about this once. It might have been on the old board though.

David Floyd

I think Martin Taylor rebuilt his a while back.

Greg Hammond

Engine Builder's Supply used to have rebuilt 944 torque tubes - I seem to remember the price was right around $350 after the core exchange.

Mine needs to be rebuilt badly, but it's going to wait until something connected TO it breaks first.

Greg

Wachuko

I hate to ask (thinking I will start seeing/hearing the symptoms in my car )... what are the signs that the torque tube needs attention??

Perry 951

A whirring or grinding sound usually, and sometimes vibration.

$350!!! You gotta be kidding me. All that is in there is a few bearings! Someone must have an idea or a write up.

Skip.. what are the chances you have part numbers for the bearings? I will go to the library tomorrow and look up the exploded view on my manuals.

Martin

To recondition a Torque tube:

Order 4 of 6006ZB C4 Bearings, they are an odd size and can be hard to
locate (at least in New Zealand) so get them first.

Remove the Torque tube from the car, this can be done without disconnecting
the brake lines or cables, but it may be easier to do so (the transmission
must be removed first).

Measure how far into the tube each of the end bearings are located from the
end, mark the tube or write it down.

Get a piece of steel pipe that fits over the drive shaft, the thicker the
pipe the better.

I added a flat piece to the end that pushed evenly on the bearing housing so
as not to deform or twist it.

Remove the shaft by belting the hell out of it, I held the tube in a vice
and had an assistant steady the end of the pipe while I hit it with a sledge
hammer (this can be done with threaded rods as a puller but is not
necessary)

After the shaft and bearings are out I put the end of the shaft against a
block of wood and belted the bearings down the shaft with just the weight
and impact of the steel pipe.

After the bearings are removed press the plastic sleeve out of the inside of
the bearing (a socket and a hammer will do this) do not throw these away as
they are reused.

Next drill the six rivets out of the bearing retainers (5mm drill bit) and
separate the two halves, later cars do not have riveted bearing carriers
(easier).

Throw the old bearings away and reassemble the new bearings in the housings
with new rivets if necessary, I ground part of the rivets away so it would
fit in the
groove (this is obvious when you can see it), I also used a small spacer
between the rivet gun and the rivets so they would pull in evenly.

I then pushed the shaft in from the gearbox end with the bearing closest to
that end fitted to the shaft, the shaft goes in until it is 49mm +/- 0.5mm
from the edge of the gearbox end bellhousing (specs from factory manual).

Next I put the assembly hard up against a solid wall with a piece of wood
jammed between the driveshaft and the wall, this stops the drive shaft
sliding back out when fitting the other bearings.

Next I installed the bearings by pushing the housings down to there
appropriate position with the steel pipe, I put marks on the pipe so I
wouldn't push the bearings too far.

After installing all four check the shaft end is still 49mm +/- 0.5mm from
the edge of the gearbox end bellhousing.

The new bearings are quieter than the old ones but not silent.

Total cost was 110$ NZ (including shipping the bearings from Japan) about
55$US
Not too difficult but time consuming.

Before you do this I would suggest running the engine wiht the transaxel coupling slid back into the transmission and verify that it is noisy as the gear boxes make a racket on these cars.

Danno

Remember also that sealed cartridge bearings are graded in quality. Get the highest quality you can and it should last the lifetime of your car.

This is a common practice with inline-skate racers. Simply by replacing the stock bearings in their wheels with higher-quality, closer-tolerance units, they can pick up a couple of MPH easily.

Skip

Rather than the part#'s, Rennlist has its own "martin" to answer these hard questions.

Thanks Martin!

Skip (WTF's up with Danno's rating??? grrr! )

Jeff Lamb

I know that Garrity does a lot of torque tube rebuilding. Have you contacted him for any advice??

Jeff

Perry 951

He's doing my motor as we speak, did not ask about the torque tube. I am going to let it go until it makes noises. Then I will attempt the procedure myself.