Anglin's Road Car Projects and History

[Ray]

WOW. Nice work on those lights.

Put a coat of wax or two on there while you're at it.

[anglin]

Thanks. The work was SO easy that it was ridiculous.

Put a coat of wax or two on there while you're at it.

On the car? That grille is in primer, actually. The rest of the car is in pretty poor shape. Just about the only thing that ever gets washed on the car are the windows and the front wheels to get rid of the brake dust.

[xr4outcast]

Go to a boat store they have special plastic wax with extra UV stuff inside. I refinish headlights as part of my detailing business, and w/the boat stuff I have never had one come back.

By the way this is a great thread for the Newbies out there. Very informative !!

[DPDISXR4Ti]

The J3 chip seems to be slightly quirky, though.

Haven't checked in on this thread in a while - my bad.... Any way, when the "quirkyness" raises it's head, do you fall out of closed-loop operation momentarily? That's what I've experienced - it's the J3 adapter loosing it's connection and you're flying blind until it re-syncs. It's more common with the J3-attached EEC Tuner, but I've also experienced it with a J3 adapter. On the way home from Carlisle in 2006, I blew a fire ball at Dan West when this happened while going up a steep hill. He didn't follow so close after that.

[mental_junkyard]

Don't you wish you could blow fireballs like that on command, though? I do!

[Ed Lijewski]

Thanks. The work was SO easy that it was ridiculous.

Put a coat of wax or two on there while you're at it.

On the car?

On the headlights. Carnauba wax; it gives the best protection.

YMMV

[CV12Steve]

Don't you wish you could blow fireballs like that on command, though? I do!

Do we really want to discuss blowing fiery balls?

[anglin]

Revisting this thread. Never did wax the headlights. I'll probably save that for the time when I do a careful job at polishing the headlamps rather than a quickie. Here's a link to "thesameguy's" work on the headlamps. I'm putting the link in here because of his reference to the material he used for protecting the cleaned up lamps.

http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11304

Put the snow tires on the car this evening because weather.com says the word "snow" in our forecast. I figured I'd better do the swap now rather than risk having to get a ride to school if there's a layer on the ground in the morning. (I can't drive out of my driveway on those Kumho MXs if there is so much as a light dusting... and it is *downhill* to the street. Okay, small exaggeration.) Of course this means that the sense of cornering confidence is now gone. yay.



I also slapped on new wiper blades and filled the tank with gas that was $2.339 per gallon. BTW, Michelin wiper blades don't quite fit the wiper arms properly. The stock wiper arm has a small hole cut in it for a small tab on the wiper to latch into. The Michelin wiper blades don't fit quite as well as the Bosch wiper blades. The wiper blades always wanted to work their way out of the wiper arm while they were in use (I put Bosch blades on today).

[Ed Lijewski]

Revisting this thread. Never did wax the headlights. I'll probably save that for the time when I do a careful job at polishing the headlamps rather than a quickie. Here's a link to "thesameguy's" work on the headlamps. I'm putting the link in here because of his reference to the material he used for protecting the cleaned up lamps.

http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11304

You don't need special equipment to clean the headlights; plain old cleaner w/wax or better yet as the first step polishing compound with do it, using either elbox grease or a power buffer. And I've got several pairs of headlights that looko brand new, cleaned that way a couple of years ago, on 2 XRs and 2 Scorpios to prove it.

YMMV

[anglin]

You don't need special equipment to clean the headlights

Right, but I do need to be willing to spend the time to do it right, not just haul ass through the task to accept an 80%-perfect job.

[Ray]

wash lights
dry lights
apply wax
remove wax

dont anglinifiy it too much.

[Ed Lijewski]

Yeah, Gif; don't Gifify it too much.

YMMV

[anglin]

The current project for my winter break is installing a 'rebuilt' driveshaft. The car has u-joint clunking when engaging the clutch and substantial rumbling under certain conditions at highway speed which all point to worn components. I have a low-mile driveshaft that's been sitting in my shed for several years and I decided to replace the guibo and center support bearing (CSB) and stick it in the car. The front slip yoke was rusty, so I cleaned it up. See the following thread.

http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13143

I'm working on a complete write-up with pictures right now. It's not done yet but I have some information I want to share here in the meanwhile so I don't lose what I've written down in the meanwhile.

There is a small needle bearing that goes between the slip yoke and the main driveshaft which rides on a small journal that passes through the center of the guibo. It looks replaceable (I'm not replacing mine). The PN is SKF 364418AC. I can't find anything about it after a very brief search on the SKF page ( www.skf.com ).

The bolt that holds the CSB assembly together is:
M10 x 1.00 x 25 with a zinc/cad plating, 8.8 grade and a 17 mm head

The guibo bolts are:
M12 x 1.75 x 80 with a black oxide finish, 8.8 grade and 19 mm head

The guibo nuts are:
M12 x 1.75 full height, stoverized mechanical locking with a zinc/cad plating and a 19 mm head

Ford PN on the CSB housing:
83BB or 83BG 4K080 AA

Rubber isolator in the CSB housing:
83BG 4846 AA

I cannot find a PN on the actual bearing portion of the CSB. There are PNs on the seals.

There should be plenty of pictures coming when I am farther along in this procedure. This is all I have for the time being. I'm headed back out to the garage to keep working.

[anglin]

I put together some pictures from the driveshaft disassembly - specifically the center support bearing (CSB) disassembly, simply because it doesn't seem completely obvious at first, like the guibo. For example, guibo removal instructions are like this.

To remove the guibo:
Step 1: undo 6 nuts from their bolts with 19 mm wrench/socket
Step 2: wash hands

So, here is the stuff associated with the CSB removal.

A bolt with a 17 mm head buried inside the center u-joint area has to be loosened (as opposed to completely removed) to separate the driveshaft halves. It doesn't have to be removed. A large U-shaped washer will drop out once the bolt is sufficently loose. Here are the pictures for this stage.

CSB assembly, bolt head visible inside the u-joint assembly


Because of the design, it's not particularly easy to tighten the bolt to the correct preload to keep it from coming loose, so a thin washer is installed and then bent up on one side to keep the bolt from backing out. This can be folded down easily with a screwdriver, small punch or a similar tool.

washer folded against one of the flats on the bolt head


not all 17 mm open end wrenches will fit in the space in the u-joint


smaller Craftsman wrench fit in the joint fine


You could grind down the head on a spare wrench if you like. Fortunately mine wasn't very tight. Once I broke it loose I was able to work the bolt loose with my fingers. The bolt only needs to be backed out somewhere around 3 or 4 turns for the retaining nipple on the big U-shaped washer to come free from the u-joint assembly. Once the big washer is removed, the splined end of the driveshaft and CSB will slide right out of the u-joint assembly.

loose washer and CSB


female splined side on the u-joint assembly


The CSB has three main components; the bracked/housing, the rubber isolator and the roller bearing section itself. Here are all three together in their rusty, worn out glory.

CSB


The roller bearing assembly pulls right out of the rubber isolator without much effort.

roller bearing on driveshaft

[anglin]

The roller bearing has two shields installed to help the seals keep the crud out. They don't have to be removed, but they may come off while you are removing the roller bearing from the shaft. No biggie. The new CSB *should* have new shields with it. I'll report back when I get them if it doesn't.

roller bearing with one shield removed (hanging off the splined section)


I removed the bearing with a small hammer and drift. A press would have made quick work of the task.

midway through removal


side view with bearing partially off


bearing completely removed


Now back to the bracket/housing and rubber isolator. The rubber is removed from the housing fairly easily. The housing has 6 tabs folded over a rim on the inside of the rubber isolator; three on each side. Don't try to bend the tabs back. I used a screwdriver to push them free from the backside. PB Blaster helped the rubber come free of the tabs easily.

one of six tabs visible through the hole


prying the rubber isolator free


this tab has a pretty good grip on the rubber isolator


PB Blaster helps the process


At this point, (with the guibo removed by the fantastic instructions in my previous post - FWIW, I used an impact wrench to dramatically speed up the process of guibo removal) the driveshaft is completely disassembled and I'm just waiting on the CSB and guibo to arrive to complete the assembly. I'll post another set of pictures when I put everything back together.