Wish me "T40" luck...

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brokencase
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Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Yea, you know what I'm about to do...

When I bought the car two years ago with 72k miles I thought to myself..."You know...those cv boots are going to tear soon."
I knew this because I had played this game back in the 90's with my prior Scorpio.

I had this whole plan where I would regularly inspect the boots and upon the first sight of a tear I would intervene quickly with a "split boot" and grease re-pack before the problem worsened. I figured this way I would not have to do the whole axle replacement thing again.
Had the boot kit that I wanted to use bookmarked and everything.

Best laid plans of mice and mechanics in the garage...

Last Wednesday I was headed off to work in the morning and after a few miles I notice the thump, thump, thump, in the right rear.
I'm pretty certain I know what it is. It gets worse as I apply torque. I turn around and head back home and take my other vehicle to work.

When I get home that night, I crawl under the Scorpio with a flashlight and take a look at the right side boots.
They look OK. I then reach up and tug and pull on the right outside boot. As if by magic, a previously invisible tear around the full circumference is revealed! ...and it looks bone dry inside too! Yeeha!

Moral...you just can't look at the boots from afar. You gotta fondle them to inspect them!

So that night I ordered the two axles from Rockauto. They showed up here tonight. Tomorrow is rainy and mid 50s.
Sounds like a good CV axle replacement day...

The Surtrack/Trackmotive axles look pretty good. They are not rebuilt. They even come with new 8mm cap head allen bolts.
Just hope i can get the old bolts off.

I've got three T40s in my toolbox - a Harbor Freight impact, a Craftsman, and then a Taiwanese one that looks the best.
I think I'll start with the impact one on the easier inner bolts and move to the others as I go along...
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Ed Lijewski
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by Ed Lijewski »

Many have wrestled with CV replacement consideration, and maybe then actuation. Forum and mail list sagas from earliest years almost uniformly describe issues with bolt removal.

That colored my view of what to expect on my initiation to the task the first time ~ 20 years ago so much so that after searching and luckily finding (pre Google...by calling Ford parts desks) a packet of new Ford bolts at a Ford dealer100 miles away. I happily made that round trip with a smile on my face.

Since then I've done the CV removal on two other Merkurs in my long term stable.

I haven't stripped any Torx heads. I did ruin one T40, a Craftsman and replaced it with another Craftsman, at my cost since I believed it was my error in not using it correctly, by hand (no air tools)

I still have that packet of OEM Ford CV bolts. Dug it out for a photo; seems I used one of the six in the packet to substitue for an original with iffy Torx angles.

Of course....

YMMV
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Well, I as I recall the whole key was the sideways drift smack to the bolt heads to break the rust line free. I did not have success with the impact gun when I had done this before, so I will use the long breaker bar.

But I'm looking under the car now and wondering if its better to put the jack stands under lower trailing arms or put them under the frame and let the trailing arms hang? Can't remember how I did that before.
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Looks like the manual says to let the rear wheels hang.
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by Ed Lijewski »

That's what I did; you need as much room for whichever tools you use.

YMM
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Right side out. Pretty easy. I started with the Harbor freight T40. It let go on the first bolt. But I was expecting that. Brittle.
I think I bought it at a flea market as part of an "incomplete" set for $1. Its not even worth that!

The Craftsmen is holding up fine. Cleaning the bolts with the dental pick and giving them a wack is the key. It's just slow going - getting up and down to release and re-set the emergency brake.

On a side note I have enough of the old suspension rebound on the right side to get measurements so I can CAD model and 3d print a new rebound.

I was able to pull it out from between the spring coils without damage. It is that foamy polyurethane stuff. I already 3d printed 90 durometer solid bushings for the Sprite and I am really impressed how well those came out. I think in this case I will print them at around 70-80% infill and it will mimic the "foamyness" of the originals - plus it should be flexible enough to allow me to force it back in through the spring coils. I'll post progress in that other thread...
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by Ed Lijewski »

FYI photo

YMMV
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Where did he get them from? I still think I'm going to try the 3d printed solution. I don't feel like dropping the lower swing arms to put the solid ones in.

I'm doing a test print now of a small cube at 50% infill to see what it will feel like. I want the feel of the original material AND I want to be able to squish it through the coils springs like I pulled the original out. Maybe lube it up with something so it will slip through easier.

I have to justify the cost of this 3d printer that I bought over the holidays...
https://www.gearbest.com/3d-printers-3d ... 01645.html

It was $290 over the holidays and I couldn't resist! It's been fun as heck to play with.

BTW i got the right side axle in, but I decided to do the left side tomorrow. I took a break and painted my exhaust from the CAT back with that high temp brush on stuff.
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by Ed Lijewski »

He hasn't yet shared his source.

$390 now.

YMMV
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Other axle is in, Took her for a test drive and all is OK. I printed some test cubes last night and it looks like 30% infill mimics the original material.
So I'm going to start work on a model of a new rebound. I was going to keep it a simple cylindrical shape. I will probably modify one of the parametric bushing models already up on thingiverse.com

I would say that the SureTrack CV axles are better than OEM. They have gaskets were they mate to the hubs to keep the grease from migrating out. On the boot side there is a flange that attaches to the boot. I put a bead of silicone on the inside edge of this flange to keep things sealed on that side.

When I was all done I wiped everything down with solvent. I then sprayed fast dry clear coat over all the flanges/bolt heads and the exposed axles. I figure this will keep the corrosion at bay, although I don't plan on revisiting these axles anytime soon. But you never know...

One thing I am finding to be a pain in the neck is the polyurethane sway bar bushings I installed last fall. When I installed them I drilled the mount for a grease zirt. I then drilled a corresponding hole through the bushing. On the inside surface I dremeled a thin spiral channel away from the grease hole so the grease could spread out. This all seems to work as planned. The problem is I have to hit it with grease like every 1-2 months. Otherwise it creaks. The creaking is so bad you would swear that something was broken in the front suspension.
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Re: Wish me "T40" luck...

Post by brokencase »

Rebound model is made. It will take 16 hours to print one.
I'll take some pics once I get them mounted in the car
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2806986
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