removing N/S upright, advice?

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hi guys,

So i've been gathering advice while having trouble removing my N/S front driveshaft. As it happens my N/S front hub is also having...umm, issues let's say. So I want to take the upright off to take it to a garage to press off the hub and replace it and the wheel bearing if necessary. Planning on removing the upright myself, does anyone have any advice? Trickiest thing I guess it removing the upright from the damper mount? Again, any help appreciated guys, wanna try this tomorrow

Cheers,
Aran

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hello!

So, i've had a go this morning and am stuck at one point. I posted another thread about having trouble removing my driveshaft, but luckily my mate had a driveshaft pusher I borrowed; however, the shaft still didn't want to move...it's in there good!!

So, then I figured "well, i'm taking the upright to a garage to press off the hub / bearing anyway, so I'll leave the driveshaft in there and they can press that out at the same time". The driveshaft is fully disconnected from the gearbox. So, see the picture below to see how far i've gotten. Basically I have removed every bolt necessary to get the upright off, only thing holding it on now is friction / corrosion between the upright and the shock mount. I don't really want to hit it with a hammer because I'd put a shock load on the spring/damper/mount/tower bolts etc. Also because it's only connected via those bolts in the tower the whole thing is very flexible, so I can't twist it off either. ELSAWIN says to use some separating tool at the back of the c-clamp, I guess to "break the seal" as it were between the upright and the shock mount. Hopefully this would mean I could pull the whole thing off a bit more gently. Obviously I don't have one of these. Any bright ideas as to how to continue? Can you buy C-clamp separators anywhere? Has anyone taken one of these off by themselves before?

Thanks guys,
Aran

 

[jezzy]

i used a crow bar when changing to collies

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

Mind if I ask a stupid question? Where did you place the crowbar when you prised it off? What did you lever against?

 

[jezzy]

i used a small chisel to tap into the split on the hub.
Then just put crow bar in and a little leverage to open up and some wd inside, but i had to use a hammer tap it out.
You have undone everything so it should just push down or a gentle tap should work

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

alright, I did try hammer a screwdriver into that slot to try and open it up a bit; think I need the crowbar as you say to open it up a bit more. Already WD soaked it, think I just need to keep trying at it with bigger bars lol

 

[jezzy]

you could just undo the top nut on the suspension and whole lot will just fall out?

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

Could do, yeah - just changed the top mounts and would rather just take the upright off, especially cuz I'm giving it all to someone else to press the hub off etc. But, you're right, i'll keep it as a last resort if I have to

 

[jezzy]

on another note i think you have seized your drive shaft to the hub.

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

well, something obviously happened to the car before I bought it to give the hub the massive runout it has - perhaps that damaged the spline on the shaft at the same time. I don't much care about the shaft as I'm replacing it anyway; but I would like to save the hub and bearing if possible (which I've been informed is unlikely). Either way, when I put it back together it will be greased properly (and driven properly lol) so that it doesn't happen again

On another side note; my mate bought a mitsubishi galant vr4 recently and needed to change his wheel bearing. It was so seized into the hub that it broke the garages 20 ton press!!

 

[Tooks]

If the bottom of the damper has been in the hub a while, they can take some shifting, but a few whacks with a lump hammer and a block of wood got my hub off, along with plenty of penetrating oil.

In your position, I'd be tempted to just get a new hub and get a new bearing pressed into that.

If it has got that much run out, why would you want to fix it? Isn't machining more expensive than a new one?

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hi Tooks, well I work at a company that manufactures cars, so we've got a workshop with CNC lathe, mill, balancing machine etc which I can use for free, so was hoping to save some money that way. Have you got part numbers for the bearing and hub? If they aren't too expensive, then yeah I'll just go for new parts.

Anyway, in other news. Finally got it off!! woo!

Took a big screwdriver being wedged into the split in the C-clamp; then a lot! of WD40, patience, wood and a hammer You can see my entirely split boot too; everywhere around there in the car is covered in the grease that was supposed to be in the CV joint!

Next step is figure out the hub etc then fit the new driveshaft and put the upright back. Will update my project post when that all gets done

Thanks for all the help guys, incredibly helpful!

Cheers,
Aran

 

[Tooks]

Well done mate!

Ah, I see, if you work for an engineering company, then why not give the machining a go! I'm all for recycling!

That grease does get everywhere doesn't it, and sticky doesn't even begin to describe it.

Ive long since lost the receipt with a hub part number on it I'm afraid, it was for my old A3 TDI quattro anyway.

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

oh god, yeah that grease is a nightmare lol - believe it is that Lithium Manganese stuff, no?

I'll give the machining a go and will update later