2007 Fpv Tornado Ute - Tinkering & Setup

[k31th]

unlucky for both front hubs to be stuck on there... I guess when a vehicle gets repossessed it's not usually a car that's treated with much care. Gear puller FTW! worth every cent of the purchase price.

[Ralph Wiggum]

MAP gas torch will have those bearings off in a jiffy.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/151581198716?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=107&chn=ps

Heat the inner and outer, inner bearing race with the torch (gently) and then give it a tap,only needs to be around 200degc for the bearing race to grow.

Also available from Supercheap

[arronm]

Dude. That ute is falling to bits.

[JETURBO]

Love the colour phil

And love reading your threads, good work keep the posts coming mate

[PhilMeUp]

MAP gas torch will have those bearings off in a jiffy.

Heat the inner and outer, inner bearing race with the torch (gently) and then give it a tap,only needs to be around 200degc for the bearing race to grow.

I've got something like that here, but figured it would take forever for the heat to get from the outside of the bearing hub through to the inner race.

And then the heat has to get past the actual ball bearings.

I took the spindles to a taxi workshop this afternoon and watched a mechanic have a go at it with his gear puller. Both bearing hubs put up one hell of a fight!

I actually had some spare spindles put aside for this exact possibility, but threw them out a few weeks ago. I'll be keeping a spare pair in the future.

Dude. That ute is falling to bits.

It has become more work than I expected, but it's all just common everyday BA/BF Falcon stuff.

And I know that particular series of Falcon pretty well these days, so I know what parts to check and replace.

That's the blessing and the curse - I can make a list of things to check easily enough, but pretty much all of those things on the list will need replacing.

At least I get the parts cheap enough, and the labour isn't costing me anything.

Will be a bloody good ute once I've finished the list.

[Tocchi]

Dude. That ute is falling to bits.

It's a falcon - it's expected - just be glad it's a dry QLD car and not a flood damaged one

[PhilMeUp]

Wednesday, 1st July, 2015

After bombing out with getting the bearing hubs off the spindles late last night I took them to a taxi workshop this afternoon. The mechanic used a gear puller to pull the bearing hubs off, but it took a few attempts. The bearing hubs put up one hell of a fight.

The studs on each spindle had corrosion.

My usual drill and wire brush didn’t have any effect so I got some wet & dry sandpaper and rubbed the stub smooth.

Then I tested it by sliding one of the bearing hubs on. All good.

The other spindle had even more corrosion.

After I had cleaned it up with the wet & dry.

Then it was time for the drill and wire brush to clean the insides of the disc rotors.

These discs will be replaced with some brand new DBA4000s later on

Putting the passenger side spindle back in place.

I bought this Snap-On TECH3FR250 a few years ago specifically for this task - it has the capacity to tighten nuts and bolts to 300Nm.

After two nights on what should have been a half-hour job, I finally had one of the bearing hubs in place.

After putting the calipers back on I put some grease on each of the wheel studs and inside the wheel nuts. I also put new wheel nuts on.

This is how I tighten wheel nuts. I let the trolley jack down enough so that the tyre is in contact with the ground. This stops the wheel from rotating when I tighten the wheel nuts. However, I don’t let the suspension compress.

I took the car for a test drive. After accelerating to 60km/h I put the transmission into neutral and let the car coast along. There was no bearing noise that I could hear.

Back to the engine bay again, to replace the radiator hoses and drive belt.

When I topped up the power steering fluid last week I put too much in and it has overflowed.

I drained some of the power steering fluid with a syringe and cleaned up the area.

The new drive belt and two radiator hoses. The existing parts don’t look like they’ve got a problem, but these parts are cheap and replacing them now will hopefully ensure that they won’t fail in the future.

[PhilMeUp]

Removing the thermo fans.

This is the belt that I wanted to replace. If that belt breaks then the car can’t be driven.

I used my AmPro extendable 1/2” drive ratchet with a 3/8” adaptor to rotate the tension arm so that I could remove the old belt.

This is also why I put a belt routing decal on any Falcon that I deal with. The last thing I need when dealing with a drive belt is trying to figure out how it goes back on.

Putting the new belt on. I finally figured out to start at the tension arm pulley and route the belt from there.

The new belt in place.

Then it was time to replace the two radiator hoses. I figured that I’d get the more difficult one (ie the lower one) over with first.

However, some clown had put the hose clamp on the wrong way around. It could only be accessed from underneath the car.

The hose on the left is the one from the coolant tank to the radiator. The hose in the middle of the photo goes from the radiator to the water pump.

I jacked up the front of the car and removed the black plastic splash guard. That silver bit in the middle of the photo is the hose clamp.

I removed the lower hose and watched the new coolant that I put in a few days ago flow out onto the carport floor. Another brain fade moment - I should have had the new hose ready to immediately put on the radiator outlet to stop the coolant from flowing out. And, waited on replacing the coolant until I had the new radiator hoses so that I could have done both jobs at once.

Getting the new hose into place was difficult - there wasn’t the usual space because of the large turbo intake pipe.

Because of the large intake pipe being in the way I had trouble with getting the new hose onto the water pump intake.

Eventually I got the new hose secured on properly at each end. And put the lower hose clamp on the right way around.

The old upper hose. It was in good condition but I wanted to replace it anyway.

The new upper hose in place. This took seconds to do.

After sitting on ramps and axle stands for a few days the car was back on wheels and mobile again.

I’m starting to make some decent progress on this car now - there’s still quite a lengthy list of things to do, but the list of things that I’ve completed is also growing.

Tonight I also went out and bought a set of replacement rear leaf springs that were on a brand new XR6 Turbo ute for only a few weeks before they were replaced with lower ones. The car is sitting lower than it should, so those and new front springs will get it back up to an acceptable height. Its lowered state also explains why there is so much damage underneath the front bumper and on the splash guard.

[k31th]

nice work on those spindles... so much rust! I've seen cars with 400k km on them with less rust there... The previous owner might have done some driving in big puddles haha

[arronm]

Besides mods it looks like this car never saw a spanner