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Good luck, Dougo. If you're replacing the bearings because the rear wheel wobbles a bit, know that in a vast majority of cases, it's NOT due the bearings but an inadequate press-fit dimension on many factory stub axles. The very hard bearings running loose causes fretting of the mild steel axle, wearing a channel in the shaft surface. Less than 0.001" of wear will cause a wobble and I've seen 0.125" or more. Do not bother trying to fix a bad axle; I've repaired dozens and I recommend using a far stronger billet axle, or the replacement units from the vendors, made of better steel to the right dimensions. Note you'll also need a hydraulic press & some other uncommon tools.
You should also ensure that the rear-wheel play is not in the bushings or the pivot rod that holds the uprights to the A-Arms. My bushings were worn, and that's where my rear-wheel play was coming from.


See the write-up on #5357 in the Specific Car Forum..... My buddy made me a set of bushings, but I believe the vendors sell them too.

You probably want to grease those bushings while you are working on your suspension, as well.
Here is the home made one we've been using. It was made from a 1-11/16" 3/4" drive socket.

Here (http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7350045562/m/8731056356) is how we held the axle assembly while loosening the axle nut, YMMV.

Holding the axle is only part of the battle, keeping the socket on the nut is the other part. The 2x4 enabled us to put down pressure on the socket, otherwise it just pops up and disengages. Again, YMMV, but somehow you'll have to do the same.

I suppose an impact wrench would also work for the loosening, though it may shear off the little fingers if you pound away for too long.

Good luck.

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Larry's homemade unit is designed as the original OEM Ford socket, with external teeth.

While certainly functional, it is known to slip off the nut, or to shear off one of the four teeth.

There is an improved version that hopefully is the only version still being sold by the vendors.

I bought mine from Mark Johnson at IPSCO. One-man machine shop with excellent attention to detail and quality.

Socket accepts a 3/4" drive, or a 1 1/4" socket.

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A couple of other details: first, on the threaded end of each axle will be a stamp- either 'D' or 'S'. S- 'sinistro' denotes a LEFT-HAND Thread. Owners have BROKEN original sockets trying to unscrew a nut the wrong way.

And the torques you're dealing with are 'above 300 ft-lbs'. for both thread nuts. They can be considerably higher if someone added Lock-tite to the nut. Don't be worried about stripping threads- SAE says that thread size will hold 1100 ft-lbs in mild steel. Large torque wrenches are occasionally available cheap on E-Bay because they're so bulky. Even though the handles dismount for storage. Air-impact wrenches, whacking the nut notches with a punch and other blacksmith techniques are NOT advised. I bought a 0-600 ft-lb Snap-on torque wrench for less than $100 off E-Bay some years ago. Snap-On still makes that model for $500 retail.
Bosswrench and others,
Yea, thanks for all the support! I swear this forum has the best people on it. Why I'm I doing this axle thing? The inside bearing on the R/R is spinning in the housing. I noticed this a couple years ago, I've kinda ignored it. I want to fix now. I'm also going to do the "A" arm bushing while I have everything apart. No doubt I'll find something whilst I dig into this project. Oh, also I've got George in my "hood" for all the info that one could need.
Dougo, there are tolerances on everything mechanical and while the bearings are supposed to be slip-fit in the upright and a light-press-fit on the stub-axle, I've seen cars in which this was reversed. If the bearing has been spinning inside, it may have thrashed way more clearance in the cast iron upright than DeTomaso planned. It is not a real simple fix, but if a new bearing is still a sloppy fit, what you can do is strip the upright, take the upright and a new bearing to a local machine shop (mom & pop places are best) and ask him to bore the thrash-marks out and shrink-fit a steel spacer in, then bore that for a proper fit on your new bearing. Far cheaper than finding a spare upright.

My friend Shelly's solution likely will not work for you. She's very cute and had much the same problem with her Pantera. Shelly put on a scoop-neck top & short skirt, then went to a bearing supply house in San Jose, CA with her parts. She told me she got the undivided attention of 3 countermen who spent hours going through their entire stock of bearings to select-fit a couple to her upright and stub axle, without machining. Then they wholesaled the bearings to her. Man, sometimes life ain't fair... Good luck.
One other point to remember is that the axle nuts are cinch nuts with a cut in them and distorted thread so they can feel tight and yet not be fully tight. These style nuts are designed to be single use.

I also recommend to check tolerances on all the spacers and renew the chamfered thrust washer on the axle. The axles were rebuilt on one of my cars and the thrust washers not replaced; I had to rebuild them again within a couple thousand miles.

Julian

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