(Author: ikom Saturday July 3, 2004 ,
Jul,03,2004Jul,03,2004
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Saturday July 3, 2004
The weather is not at all conducive to working on the ULTIMA today - It rained all day yesterday and continued into today. Several parts of the city suffered severe flooding and underpasses were filled with meter deep water. Manhole covers were blown off because of the massive rush of water and ensuing pressure and drivers had to abandon their cars when negotiating what appeared to be seemingly innocuous pools of water.
I have to take care of the weekly grocery shopping in any case, so I resolve to start work on the ULTIMA when I return home at around 4:00PM after completing all of my errands.
We are going to install the front uprights today both of which I had taken over to a mechanic friend to complete during the week. He has a giant torque wrench and a ¾" drive impact gun in his shop which will fit the 41mm (1 5/8") socket that I had to buy from "Princess Auto" - they are the only reasonably priced stockists of such heavy duty oilfield type tools in the city. - My friend, Edward torqued the axle nuts to around 250 foot pounds and then used the ¾" drive impact wrench to seat the nut a little further probably in the range of 280 foot pounds which is very close to the factory recommended lower torque value of 288 - 360ft lbs for these nuts.
Mistake number one - do not work on the ULTIMA if you are not fully alert.
My son joins me and we unpack the front uprights. We go over the work to be done and he notes the small manufacturer stamped "L" and "R" on the hubs. I had previously marked the uprights as well based on the direction of the axle nut thread orientation but the stamped markings on the hubs give them greater credibility so we proceed to install the uprights based on these markings - the "L" on the left hand side and the "R" on the right hand side.
As a matter of course we smear a little grease on the upper and lower ball joints and proceed to torque the nuts to the requisite 40 - 45 ft lbs. We very quickly discover that the grease makes it impossible for the tapered ball joints to achieve their torque value settings without spinning (even when tightly clamped) so I decide to undo the nuts and to degrease all of the surfaces. I do not have a ball joint pickle fork handy so I carefully use a large pry-bar to attempt to dislodge the uprights from their tapered seats.
With great difficulty, I manage to pry out both the upper and lower uprights but the steel tapered inserts remain stuck to their respective ball joints. I rig up a three jaw puller and eventually free the steel inserts from the tapered ball joints. We degrease everything and install the uprights once more. We manage to torque them successfully this time though and install the track rod arms.
I start reading the factory manual out aloud to determine the next step in the installation process and my son interrupts me and asks me to reread the step outlining the positioning of each hub on the chassis.
The factory manual states:
"The front upright with the right hand thread is on the left hand side of the car and visa versa with the left hand thread."
A light goes on in both our heads simultaneously - We have installed the uprights on the wrong sides of the chassis - the "L" and "R" stamped on the hubs simply denote their thread orientation and they have to be switched around if the forward rotation of their axles are to tighten the hub nuts. Simply stated; the "L" marked hub goes on the right side of the car and the "R" marked hub on the left.
(Not to confuse the reader/builder any more but this is necessary because the front uprights have their axle nuts positioned on the inboard side of the hub and this flip of the hub reverses their thread orientation relative to the forward motion of the car.)
I am tired and cannot believe that we have to take the uprights off the wishbones once again.
At this point we decide to take a break and have supper. I mull over this setback all through supper knowing how difficult it was to pull the uprights off the wishbones the first time and I am definitely not looking forward to doing it a second time. The mood over supper is not good to say the least.
We return to the garage after supper and I try to organize my thoughts and prepare a plan of action. My son had arranged to go out to a late movie with his girlfriend however, so I am going to have to pull both uprights off the wishbones and to reinstall them by myself.
I decide to make a tool to push the ball joint tapered end out of the upright - I do not want to use prying or any brute force on these pieces and to regret it afterwards. I measure the distance between the top of the ball joint tapered end and the inside top of the upright and cut a length of heavy threaded rod the same length (about 105mm). With a large coupling nut at one end and using a wrench, I am successful at slowly pushing out the ball joint taper by tightening the coupling nut against the top of the upright thereby forcing the ball joint and steel insert out of the upright.
The steel tapered insert is easily pulled free with the three jaw puller I had previously rigged up. No harm done - the other side comes apart just as easily. The upper ball joint is left in place and screwed out of the wishbone together with the upright as a complete assembly.
The uprights are switched over and I am back in business - It is however 11:00PM and I retire for the day. This is really not the kind of day that I want to remember when I reminisce about the ULTIMA build but I guess the universe has a way of evening things out.
