How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

The right side steering knuckle is all rebuilt. The only thing left to do is put some safety wire through the 4 bolts. Can anyone post a drawing of how the wire should go?

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Jordan

Were you able to set up your bearings with the required shims as per the shop manual????

Doing a great job....messy but great.... I used Moly grease for the front axle.... took weeks to get it all out from under my finger nails....... that is when I discovered that rubber/latex/vinyl gloves from Princess had an expiration date....... never stock up when on sale!!!!!! they dry up sitting on the shelf.

Cheers

[Jordan Baker]

Yes the shins were fine. The caps already had all the shims and everything lined up just fine. I made sure to mark each shim cap so they all went back on in the same spot.

Now to my annoyance, I discovered I forgot to install the outer front hub bearing spacer before I installed the bearings. I fear the bearings won’t come out without damage and I’ll have to order new ones. But I’ll go carefully and slowly.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

Can anyone post a drawing of how the wire should go?

As the final position of each bolt and it's safety wire hole will be in a random orientation, there is no "Authorised" pattern or layout to follow. The wire is just there to ensure the the bolts don't unscrew in an anti-clockwise direction. sometimes the wire can run direct to the next bolt, sometimes it needs to be wrapped once around the head of the bolt, always in a clockwise direction.

Some people run the wire in a square around the perimeter, some in an "X" pattern across the middle. Sometimes a single strand is used, other times a twisted pair of wires are used to increase tension. All are good, as long as the wire is run to prevent the bolt heads from turning anti clockwise.

[David Herbert]

Tony,

What a nice drawing, showing most of the possible orientations. As you say, the wire is there to stop the bolts unscrewing so ideally should be in tension on both sides of the bolt head if the bolt is trying to undo. Another way to look at it is that the wire between two bolts should be trying to tighten both bolts as it is under tension. Otherwise one bolt undoing is trying to take the next bolt with it.

Bob,
I was taught not to use molly grease on anything with ball or roller bearings as it is so good that it can make the balls/rollers skid rather than roll. Quite what harm this would do was never explained as it seemed to me that any flatspotting would need metal to metal contact and that would make the rollers roll way before any harm was done. Maybe some sort of partial skidding was meant but what do you think ?

David

[Perry Kitson]

Jordan,
Regarding your question about the bearing fit on the splined shaft. The bearing should be a press fit on the shaft. Same as the corresponding cup should fit tight in the bore. You want the rolling elements of the bearing to do all the work, not the inner or outer race spinning on the rotating parts.

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks Tony for doing the drawing.

Perry that was my thoughts too. But now I’m confused.

The following refers to those parts circled in the red on the exploded parts drawing. The parts lists referees to the bearing cone as Timken #462. This is what I removed from the knuckle when I first pulled it apart and have since ordered. The new and old bearing match up.

[Jordan Baker]

Here is the axle shaft in question. Both sides are the same. This goes from the CV joint to the hub.

E5414F7D-AEE6-4EEE-A3DB-E607390CD8D3.jpeg

This is the grease slinger. My understanding is that it fits on so it sits flush against the shaft. The lip would point towards the splines.

3BDBD94F-1A0F-4F6B-822E-76B1DB00A682.jpeg

Here is the original Timken #462 bearing cone. This was my concern as it has quite a loose fit. However the wear marks on the grease slinger match up to bearing surfaces.

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Last shot of the left side assembly all together on the bench.

[Perry Kitson]

Jordan,
Is there something on the hub that fits into the cone when assembled? Surely that splined shaft can't be left flopping around inside the cone.