Hi guys.

Having just imported my car from Boston to Melbourne, Australia, I put it up on the hoist for a once over. With the car jacked up I was able to lift the rear left wheel about 1/2" up and down, but not side to side. This indicated to me a wheel bearing issue, but researching the history of my car it has had all 4 corners rebuilt in the last year.

I understand the hub is like an older Ferrari with a ring nut requiring a special tool at the rear of the hub behing where the CV or universal attaches.

Is there any other adjustment other than this ring nut, and if not, can anybody tell me the torque setting for the ring nut? I have a paper copy of the service manual, but this doesnt give me the torque figure for this nut.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Is the axle moving in the upright or is the upright moving in the control arm ends? If the axle was that loose I would think the rotor would be rubbing big time on the caliper frame.

Mike

Pretty sure I have bad news.

This sounds like classic worn stub axles.

Briefly, there was a mismatch between the stub axle O.D. and the bearing's I.D. This allowed some wobble in the assembly. Over time, the softer stub axle gets worn down by the harder bearing inner race.

Fix?

Spray weld the axles and re-machine.

Or, much easier, buy new stub axles. Wilkinson now offers a set, with nuts, for about $400.

You can also easily upgrade to a double-wide inner bearing at the same time. Wilkinson sells them with the shortened spacer you will need.

OOOPS - your GT5 may have the double wides already, if a true GT5. Not too sure on that, though.

The tool can be bought from any vendor for about $100, or from IPSCO for about $70:

http://www.ipsco.org/Pantera%2...s/AXLE%20SCOKETS.htm

To answer you question, the torque for the nut is about 400 foot pounds. Do not use red loctite!

Larry

Thanks Mike and Larry.

Pretty sure my car is a GT-L with flare kit. It originally came out of Georgia and a well known owner did the work on it.

With the 13" wide rear wheels, I expect that it puts one hell of a load on the standard stubs.

All of the bushing was done on the car recently so the contrl arms should be fine, but this morning I do need to check the upper ball joint to see if the movement is there.

In an early Ferrari, when you do up the ring nut (168ft/lb only) then there are two grooves into which you tap a raised section of the locking ring nut so that it can't come undone.

Is the Pantera a similar system.

The nut is self locking but you need to first check where the slop is. From my experience, I would be surprised if the caliper is letting the rotor move that far indicating that it is not the axle. But I don’t know if you have stock calipers or not. Also if you had that much play in the axel, with stock rotors they would be rubbing on the upright caliper mounts when you tried to drive the car. It makes a heck of a noise. The upper ball joint may have come loose or the lower shaft assembly letting the complete upright assembly move. Just check it out very carefully before you start taking thing apart. Check out this page on Pantera Place for detailed info http://www.panteraplace.com/page87.htm


Mike

Thanks again Mike.

I just had a good look, fitting a standard ford skinny wheel on so I could move it easy and still get my boof head in there from behind.

Definately in the hub.

Brakes are standard. Seems to be in the outer wheel bearing. IE: most movement is originating from the outer and with the car lifted and standing under the car, if I push outwards on the lower edge of the tyre, it rocks inwards and outwards at the bottom. You can actually see where the axle goes through the rear seal, it's moving there and the universal is moving up and down also.

So I'll pull it down today and see if it's all okay inside. You always wonder when someone has been in there (relatively recently) and changed wheel bearings etc, wether they actually did it right.

Shall keep you posted.

If that is the case Bob may have upgraded to tapered rollers and the preload has been lost from the nut coming loose. I guess we will know soon. Let’s hope it doesn’t have ball bearings and the axle is trashed.

Mike

Spot on Mike. Yes, it's BR's old car. Had a brief stint in Boston for 18 months and has now found a dedicated and caring owner 'down under'.

...Yes, thats what I first thought, that the Nut had come loose. Been done before; that the axles were installed on the wrong sides. The left side (Drivers-in America) Has the 'Left-Hand' Thread so the torque of 'forward rotation' keeps tightening the nut, and keeps it Tight! And Visa-Versa for the Right side. I machined the '4-Prong' Tool in School, lathed and Milled it out of Chrome-Moly in about 3 hours. Perfect Fit onto the Nut! Drilled a 3/4" Hole through it, so a 3/4", 4 foot Bar of steel could be used to touque The Nuts on. The torque setting? As tight as You can get it!! You'll Know You attained the Correct Torque, because You won't be able to rotate the nut any further!! Don't ask Me to Machine one for You, it would be way too expensive...

Got it apart, sure enough, the shaft is worn.

Middle of shaft measures 40.04mm, and the area under the outer wheel bearing is 39.75mm.

By the way, with the wheel bearings still mounted in the hub suction, outside to outside of the wheel bearings and spacer tube measures 98.94mm. Wonder if anybody can verify this measurement to see if my spacer tube has crushed at all?