Is there any way to tell if the ring gear bolts are safety wired with out removing the bottom cover? I don't want to take the transmission apart if I don't have to. The transmission is on a bench. I am replacing the clutch.
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There is NO way short of taking the inspection cover off. Not having safety wire in the ring grear bolts doe not necessarily mean your ZF is going to blow apart, but there is a chance this will happen. Doing the safety wiring wrong can also cause the very problem you're trying to avoid.
A major vendor in SoCal says safety wiring is not needed if your ZF has never been opened. The problem occurs when folks reuse the original bolts after opening the ZF. Your thoughts?
[This message has been edited by Wataboutbob (edited 06-30-2003).]
[This message has been edited by Wataboutbob (edited 06-30-2003).]
Better to remove the bottom cover and check.
And if they are not done, better to do them and be safe and not sorry.
For the little money it cost to safety wire them, it's worth the piece of mind !
And if they are not done, better to do them and be safe and not sorry.
For the little money it cost to safety wire them, it's worth the piece of mind !
I disagree. The DeTomaso Forum is full of unmolested-car owners that first discovered their ring gear bolts were a problem when a bolt-head appeared in their ZF drain oil! One owner bought a low-mileage car in Arizona last year and was detailing his engine compartment. He had removed the ZF to have it polished and an attack of guilt made him open up the lower cover for a look. ALL TEN BOLTS WERE BROKEN! The ring gear was wobbling around on the bolt shoulders and the bolt heads had been rattling around in there so long, they were round, not hexagonal..... I watched Wilkinson sell a guy a spare lower cover for a ZF 10 yrs ago at 'Vegas, when just after arriving from LA, the owner put his ZF in reverse to change parking spaces, and a broken bolt-head caught in the gear mesh and was spat out hard enough to break the lower cover. A gallon of hot 90-wt covers a very large area of the average parking lot.....True, not ALL ring-gear bolts will loosen or break. But to me, the risk of destroying a $6000 transaxle is matched by changing 10 known-to-often-be-defective Euro-bolts to cheaper but stronger US-made ones, and safety-wiring them correctly is simple insurance. Your choice-
Who ever told you that has NO CLUE what he or she is talking about,As I have said before the stock bolts have a seration on the backside of the head that is HARD and you have a Diff housing that is also HARD, so when you have two hard surfaces mating one smooth and one jagged and big V8 power over 30+ years one of the surfaces is going to get brittle, then you have a gap between the two,and out comes the bolts. Lloyd@RBT
Lloyd@RBT:
What's a ball-park price to get a project done? Let's say I drove my '73-L into your shop, could you safety wire it, install the taller 5th gear you're advertizing (in Spring 2003 PI issue) and polish the ZF and Bell Housing for $2,000 +/-? I have no idea. How long would it take, by appointment, when business is at a not too frantic pace? Feel free to email me a quote or post it in this Forum. Thanks.
s/ Ron
Ronaldcnorman@wmconnect.com
[This message has been edited by ron norman (edited 07-01-2003).]
What's a ball-park price to get a project done? Let's say I drove my '73-L into your shop, could you safety wire it, install the taller 5th gear you're advertizing (in Spring 2003 PI issue) and polish the ZF and Bell Housing for $2,000 +/-? I have no idea. How long would it take, by appointment, when business is at a not too frantic pace? Feel free to email me a quote or post it in this Forum. Thanks.
s/ Ron
Ronaldcnorman@wmconnect.com
[This message has been edited by ron norman (edited 07-01-2003).]