HOTLNC
LOD Officer
I’ve been working on the wife’s brick, a 94 Continental, getting it ready for a high speed run toward Richmond VA. We’re going to spend a week there, looking at the Civil war sites. This is assuming the sites and my wife’s timeshare condo is still there after all the hurricanes pass through.
Currently I have replaced all of the front-end pieces. All but the steering linkages. The half axles, the stabilizer links, and finally the struts have all been replaced. I had a little trouble with the struts after getting them in. the driver’s side strut was leaking air from the valve. Apparently I buggered it up during my man handling of the strut install. Oh well. A quick call to Torrie fixed me up. He found parts and had the one critical part shipped out a day before he bailed out of Florida.
The part came Friday and I installed it. It worked great. At least I would be able to have a four wheel alignment checked and I can go off to San Diego without feeling guilty that I left my wife with a broken car while I go on a small 3 day business trip.
So I tightened the wheel lugs to spec and got in to pull it out of the garage. I started it up and put it in reverse. Car didn’t move. Opps, I left the emergency brake on. I popped it off and the car still did not move. I moved it into drive. Nothing. Oh, man I busted the tranny some how! I moved it back into park and then heard the ratchet sound you get when you do such a thing while the car is still moving. Huh? But the car is not moving.
I moved back into reverse. The speedometer was saying it was going backwards at 8 MPH without moving. That’s good trick. I pushed down on the emergency brake and exited the non-moving car that was going 8 MPH. Looking underneath the front of the car, the left side wheel looked normal. The right side didn’t look normal. The wheel’s hub was fixed, not moving. But the shaft was spinning merrily along, I assume at some RPM that would have been 8 MPH had there been connection to the wheel. The grease boot was twisted in the torque of the non-moving wheel. The shaft was NOT centered in the drive shaft joint (The part with the speed sensor teeth on it.)
Saying a good quantity of magic words, I shut everything down and sought out the BOOK. According to Section 05, Chapter 04, Page 11 and 12, the shaft is held inside the driveshaft joint with a circlip. Most of the spine shafts on this car are held together with these same clips. A good sharp blow with a dead head hammer can be used into assemble such components. Assuming I didn’t screw up anything.
I had removed this hub from the right side wheel to see if it would be any easier to put the strut into the too small hub slot. It wasn’t easier, but I didn’t know that then. I guess, when I pulled the hub from the wheel, I pulled hard enough to make the circlip loose it’s grip on the internal ball cage that made up the universal joint.
Hoping to be able to re-assemble the shaft while everything was on the car, I broke the straps holding the boot on and pushed it back. Warm grease flowed out of the boot. The shaft appeared wedged to the side of the ball cage. The cage itself was at a bad angle. There was no way I would able to move the shaft far enough toward the tranny to re-center the cage and put it back into the cage. So out it must come.
I drug out the front suspension service kit and pulled the right half axel. I was an expert at it, since this was my third removal. I pulled the center nut off and pushed the hub’s spine out of the wheel, using the special puller. That’s when I found out I would not be able to remove both the parts without removing the lower ball joint at the front wheel knuckle. More magic words reverberated around the garage. I remove the knuckle bolt and retrieved the 36 inch long wreaking bar. One push down at the proper spot and the two pieces came apart. The hub was out of the wheel. I put it on the bench, wiped the grease around and inspected it for broken parts. It looked and felt OK. There were no missing ball bearings from the cage. There were no broken metal parts mixed in with the new grease. The Lincoln Repair Good Fairy smiled upon me. That is better than getting attention from the Lincoln Practical Joke Goddess, which has been around a lot lately. She’s a bitch.
Next I assembled the half-axel removal tool and popped the tranny side universal out. Yes, it uses a circlip to hold the shaft inside the tranny. Bringing it to the bench, I cleaned it up. I centered the cage, mated the shaft with the cage and using a dead blow hammer, popped the wheel side back onto the shaft. By hand, everything works like it should, I guessed. I filled the assembly with grease that I’d lost during removal and found out I needed new clamps for the boot. So I used tie wraps, with a promise to myself that I would replace it with steel ASAP.
I reassembled it all and put the wheel back on. NOW when I put it in reverse, it actually moves at 8 MPH.
I just got back from having the alignment checked on all four wheels. All good. No adjustment needed. Now I have to remember to replace plastic with steel, before all of that new grease gets spun out. <sigh>
Currently I have replaced all of the front-end pieces. All but the steering linkages. The half axles, the stabilizer links, and finally the struts have all been replaced. I had a little trouble with the struts after getting them in. the driver’s side strut was leaking air from the valve. Apparently I buggered it up during my man handling of the strut install. Oh well. A quick call to Torrie fixed me up. He found parts and had the one critical part shipped out a day before he bailed out of Florida.
The part came Friday and I installed it. It worked great. At least I would be able to have a four wheel alignment checked and I can go off to San Diego without feeling guilty that I left my wife with a broken car while I go on a small 3 day business trip.
So I tightened the wheel lugs to spec and got in to pull it out of the garage. I started it up and put it in reverse. Car didn’t move. Opps, I left the emergency brake on. I popped it off and the car still did not move. I moved it into drive. Nothing. Oh, man I busted the tranny some how! I moved it back into park and then heard the ratchet sound you get when you do such a thing while the car is still moving. Huh? But the car is not moving.
I moved back into reverse. The speedometer was saying it was going backwards at 8 MPH without moving. That’s good trick. I pushed down on the emergency brake and exited the non-moving car that was going 8 MPH. Looking underneath the front of the car, the left side wheel looked normal. The right side didn’t look normal. The wheel’s hub was fixed, not moving. But the shaft was spinning merrily along, I assume at some RPM that would have been 8 MPH had there been connection to the wheel. The grease boot was twisted in the torque of the non-moving wheel. The shaft was NOT centered in the drive shaft joint (The part with the speed sensor teeth on it.)
Saying a good quantity of magic words, I shut everything down and sought out the BOOK. According to Section 05, Chapter 04, Page 11 and 12, the shaft is held inside the driveshaft joint with a circlip. Most of the spine shafts on this car are held together with these same clips. A good sharp blow with a dead head hammer can be used into assemble such components. Assuming I didn’t screw up anything.
I had removed this hub from the right side wheel to see if it would be any easier to put the strut into the too small hub slot. It wasn’t easier, but I didn’t know that then. I guess, when I pulled the hub from the wheel, I pulled hard enough to make the circlip loose it’s grip on the internal ball cage that made up the universal joint.
Hoping to be able to re-assemble the shaft while everything was on the car, I broke the straps holding the boot on and pushed it back. Warm grease flowed out of the boot. The shaft appeared wedged to the side of the ball cage. The cage itself was at a bad angle. There was no way I would able to move the shaft far enough toward the tranny to re-center the cage and put it back into the cage. So out it must come.
I drug out the front suspension service kit and pulled the right half axel. I was an expert at it, since this was my third removal. I pulled the center nut off and pushed the hub’s spine out of the wheel, using the special puller. That’s when I found out I would not be able to remove both the parts without removing the lower ball joint at the front wheel knuckle. More magic words reverberated around the garage. I remove the knuckle bolt and retrieved the 36 inch long wreaking bar. One push down at the proper spot and the two pieces came apart. The hub was out of the wheel. I put it on the bench, wiped the grease around and inspected it for broken parts. It looked and felt OK. There were no missing ball bearings from the cage. There were no broken metal parts mixed in with the new grease. The Lincoln Repair Good Fairy smiled upon me. That is better than getting attention from the Lincoln Practical Joke Goddess, which has been around a lot lately. She’s a bitch.
Next I assembled the half-axel removal tool and popped the tranny side universal out. Yes, it uses a circlip to hold the shaft inside the tranny. Bringing it to the bench, I cleaned it up. I centered the cage, mated the shaft with the cage and using a dead blow hammer, popped the wheel side back onto the shaft. By hand, everything works like it should, I guessed. I filled the assembly with grease that I’d lost during removal and found out I needed new clamps for the boot. So I used tie wraps, with a promise to myself that I would replace it with steel ASAP.
I reassembled it all and put the wheel back on. NOW when I put it in reverse, it actually moves at 8 MPH.
I just got back from having the alignment checked on all four wheels. All good. No adjustment needed. Now I have to remember to replace plastic with steel, before all of that new grease gets spun out. <sigh>