Aaarrrghhh! Another trip to the parts store!

[Husky44]

It's been sunny and beautiful most of the week here in Anchorage. Where's the Vert? Up on jackstands in the garage.

I started LAST Friday on the ring and pinion swap (installing 3.73s). Figured if the one dude could do it in 4 hours, I ought to be able to knock it out in a weekend.

First problem: While pulling the rear brakes, I notice that the PS pad has welded to the rotor. Crap! Order new pads and rotors. No problem, they'll be here by Tuesday.

Pull the old carrier, do the teardown, (Oh, yeah, spent half of Friday running around buying a good digital caliper, inch-pound torque wrench, and dial indicator with magnetic base--this gear swap just got more expensive than I thought. No worries, those are tools I'll use a lot...). Teardown's going pretty good. Go to the auto craft shop to press off the old bearings, on with the new.

Out-thought myself with the pinion spacer measurement, so Sunday I have to go back and pull the bearing back off, to change the spacer. Destroy the bearing in the process. Run to NAPA before they close to buy a new bearing. Install new spacer and press bearing back on.

Spent more than 4 hours just trying to get the pinion bearing preload set. What a PITA!!!! OK, now it should get easy...Everyone says these FRPP gears use the same shims, they're manufactured so tight. Apparently mine are "Ferd" Racing gears, made in China. We're WAAAAAAYYYYY off. Install the carrier, and can't even rotate the stupid thing, it's so tight with the same shims. Pull everything apart to reduce shim sizes. Only, the big honking shims that were in there were one piece per side. Kit I have has a whole bunch of little bitty ones. Nothing even close to what I took out.

Shim--dial indicator--not enough backlash...pull it back out.
Shim--dial indicator--too much backlash...pull it back out.
Shim--dial indicator--crap, it's midnight, and I gotta go to work tomorrow.

Monday night after work--pick up where I left off, still trying to adjust from what was in there from the factory. Spend three hours on the creeper. Nothing but frustration and really sore neck and shoulders to show for it.

Tuesday and Wednesday night--life gets in the way of working on the car at all. Sunny and in the 50s both evenings on the drive home from work--convertibles are out everywhere.

Thursday night--momma left town for a trip Outside. I've got all night to work on the car. Gonna get this thing done and drive it to work tomorrow...

Get the Ford shop instructions on how to set up a new carrier, starting from scratch. Carrier is in in about an hour and a half. WHY didn't I try that SUNDAY???

Who cares, it's finally going together. Check gear pattern. Hey, looks good to me! Install new axle bearings (the original problem that gave me the "while I'm at it" excuse to install new gears), axles in, everything bolted together, diff cover on...Hey! I'm gonna make it! It'll be after midnight, but so what, all that's left is to throw the rear brakes on, mount the tires, quick test drive, and in bed for a short nap before I drive the vert to work Friday morning!

OK, brakes...read something about not compressing the pistons. How's that work??? Read the manual--figures--you need a special tool, according to Ford. So what, FORD says you need a special tool for everything. What do they know? Check StangNet, there's gotta be a workaround...Do a search (yes, I did!!!). Crap, no workaround.

While I'm pondering this, I'll start putting some other things together. Then brilliance hits!!! I'll make the tool! I've got a welder, plenty of steel, should be a piece of cake! Only take me...an hour or so. That'll be after 3 am. Gotta get up at 5. Reality strikes--no vert for the Friday drive. Gotta get at least 3 hours sleep.

Pick up the tool on the way home Friday evening. No one here to distract me. Baloney sandwich for dinner, bottle of water, and I'm at work on the car.

Start on the PS. Stupid box tool doesn't have any pins that line up on the piston reliefs. WTH??? Screw it, go to Schucks, they'll have a different tool. Nope, they're out. Go back home. Fabricate tool. Go back to PS. Can't move the piston to save my life!!! Hose it down with brake parts cleaner, and it finally starts moving. YES! This won't take long now. Turn, turn, turn...how come the piston's not compressing any???? Turn, turn, turn... ????

OK, let's try the DS. Won't move. Brake parts cleaner.... nothing. Go back in the house, do search on :SNSign:--"rear brakes".

Read 400 posts where someone says "how come I can't get my rear pistons to compress in with the C clamp?" Followed by the standard response--DON'T USE A C CLAMP! YOU'VE GOT TO SCREW IT IN--DO A SEARCH! Wait, there on PAGE SEVEN of the search responses--something new! Line up the reliefs with the pins on the pad? OK, that ought to be a sticky, but I found it! Now it's finally going to start moving.

Back to PS...turn, turn, turn...this thing is not moving in at ALL. Try the DS. Turn, turn, turn...crap, that was quick! Bam, bam, bam...DS is done!

Now, we're finally cooking! PS--turn, turn...you get the idea. OK, pull the caliper, disassemble, tear the dust boot, and look at that, it's 11 pm! I spent five freakin' hours putting on ONE pair of brake pads?!?!?
And I've got to wait until morning to go try to chase down a dust boot before I can do anything else??? And I still don't know that I'm not going to have to tear it all down because the gears are all jacked up somehow!

Watch it rain all next week.

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

Your car and mine must have been put together on the same day.

 

[ProKiller]

wow dude, i haven't that much trouble with an install since i stripped out my blower belt tensionor pivot bolt.

sucks man. hope you get it to work.

 

[XxFaceYourFear]

Wow man, you must be fuming with frustration, just remember, "Serenity now!"

Just for future reference, I fought with my mustangs and jettas rear brakes before trying to compress those rear caliper pistons with that box tool, until I found this.

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

This tool makes it sooooo easy I kicked myself for not finding it earlier. It's like a special C clamp that forces the piston to turn and compress. You put the screwing part in through a metal brake pad shaped washer that sits where the brake pad opposite the piston would and put the adapter that lines up with the notches on the piston onto the tool. When you screw it in, it spins and compresses the piston by pushing back on the caliper. It's a pretty ingenious tool, or at least I thought so.

 

[94stangvert]

Deng dude that took 4 evers but eyyy its worth it went u feel that wind on top of ur head... thats priceless ...

 

[Husky44]

Wow man, you must be fuming with frustration, just remember, "Serenity now!"

Just for future reference, I fought with my mustangs and jettas rear brakes before trying to compress those rear caliper pistons with that box tool, until I found this.

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

This tool makes it sooooo easy I kicked myself for not finding it earlier. It's like a special C clamp that forces the piston to turn and compress. You put the screwing part in through a metal brake pad shaped washer that sits where the brake pad opposite the piston would and put the adapter that lines up with the notches on the piston onto the tool. When you screw it in, it spins and compresses the piston by pushing back on the caliper. It's a pretty ingenious tool, or at least I thought so.

That is nice. Once I got it made to the right size, and got the piston broken loose, the tool did OK. My problem appeared to be that the PS cylinder was completely off the threads, and had too much hydraulic pressure to get it to thread back on. That kit might have helped, by giving me some pressure in addition to the turning. Might just have to order one of those.

I do miss having a Harbor Freight just down the street. As long as you know what to buy, and what not to, you can get some decent deals there. Plus, I really like their one-time use, disposable pickle forks. Chinese pot metal split in half on a tie rod end, but I got it off, then took it back and got my money back!

I may have to order that one. Do ALL rear disc brakes do the screw-in deal? I don't remember having to deal with that on my Excursion. Will the 03 Cobra rears on my 67 give me this same problem?

Looking online, I may end up buying a whole new caliper just to replace the torn dust boot. And so starts the SECOND Saturday...

 

[wytstang]

Napa sells the circle rear brake tool. For some reason every one always looks for the "box" version found at AZ or AA. No need to order it if you have a Napa near you. I think it cost me under $10, hook it up to an extension and ratchet and go ape $h!t.

 

[Chythar]

I got just the circle part at Napa as well, but the Harbor Freight tool would have been really nice. In my case, both my rear calipers had come out of the threads; they were turning but weren't screwing in. I did it the hard way - I pushed the tool in while turning, and they FINALLY caught. I was sweating it, too - I had to drive this car the next day to work.

We feel your pain, Husky44. We've all been there at one time or another.

 

[Black Stampede]

I don't know what took longer. You to fix the car or me to read your post.

Nice work man.

 

[RIO5.0]

Damn...ain't that the way things go...kinda makes you wish you never learned how to turn a wrench.... I was smirking all thru the post... we all been there is right...
I still have the OEM pads on my rears and they need to be replaced this year...I know odds are im gonna run into the same chit as they never been apart...

Odd on your gear install..most swap right out...Murphys law I guess...

 

[Husky44]

The Final Chapter--I hope

Damn...ain't that the way things go...kinda makes you wish you never learned how to turn a wrench.... I was smirking all thru the post... we all been there is right...

The bad part is, it isn't like I haven't turned a wrench much! This should have been a cake-walk.

Odd on your gear install..most swap right out...Murphys law I guess...

That's another one that ticks me off--It's my law, and some jerk named Murphy goes and gets all the credit!

So, the (hopefully final) update: Call all over the Anchorage area this morning. NAPA, Schucks, Car Quest (the only 3 chains we have up here)--none of them carry the caliper rebuild kit I need to replace the torn dust boot. They can get me one from Seattle on Wednesday, if I pay air freight.

I finally find one at the LAST independent parts store up here. It's a 40 minute drive, one way, to the other side of town, for a 10 dollar part. Get it, get the caliper put back together, screw the piston all the way down (now wasn't that easy...). Install the pads--Oops, forgot to align the little notches with the pin on the pad. Fix that, bleed the brake, now just gotta hook the emergency brake cables up, and we're done. Holy &@#*%! Batman! Pull, wrestle, take the spring off, wrestle some more...Finally, got the stupid things on, springs reinstalled.

Hmmm, if the cable's that tight, wonder what kinda drag is on the brakes...you guessed it! Can't turn the rear axles with a freakin breaker bar! This is totally out of control. Check the Haynes manual. Oooohhh, gotta do something on the front end first. OK, start disassembly of the console to get to the brake lever.

Unscrew shifter knob. That's what it says, right there in the manual. OK, here we go. Pretty tight, but it's coming now. WTH??? Broke the knob loose from the threaded insert. Un-be-lievable.

Grab the channel locks, and start unscrewing the threaded insert. Man, this thing is tight...but it's coming off. Hey, how come the threads are all stripped??? I finally get the insert off, look in the hole, and whadda ya know...there's set screws. Now, I have no freakin idea how you get to the heads of these set screws, because that's one of the first things I looked for. There's THREE of them, buried under some sort of collar that I can't figure out (still) how it comes off. Oh well, kinda wanted one of those cue-ball shifters anyway. Hey, while I'm in here, might as well clean up the leak coming from the top of the shifter.

That, actually, went without a hitch. Back to the e-brake. You know what, screw the e-brake. I don't want to get it all fixed, hooked back up, and then find out that I gotta tear it all back down to readjust the pinion depth, or some such thing. I'll just unhook them. Who needs an e-brake anyway? Driveway's flat, parking lot at work's flat, and I'm not gonna do any of them Dukes-of-Hazzard 180's anytime soon anyway.

Disconnect e-brake cables. Still hard as hell to rotate the wheels. Wait, dummy, maybe it's because you don't have wheels on here, and the rotors are floating?

Bolt the wheels on, still on jackstands, let's see (before I get it down on the ground) if the gears are gonna clank and squeal...

NOPE!!!! Happy freakin day!!!! Looks like something's actually going to work right!

Gee, let's test the brakes...Car's on jackstands, in first gear, idling. Apply brakes (ought to stall the car, right?) ...Nope. Lugs the engine a little, but full pedal doesn't even stop the wheels from turning. (note to self--need to look seriously at installing an adjustable prop valve--but not now. If the new brakes are that weak, just think how bad the old ones must have been!).

Let's get this puppy on the road!

After a real tenative test drive through the neighborhood, I head out to the highway. So far, so good. Wait, wait, wait, don't hammer it yet.

Go easy on these gears, let everything seat....still doing good! OK, hammer it--you know you want to!

So, verdict's in---3.73s are definitely a worthwhile upgrade--just don't have me install them for you! The old 3.08s were ok, but I did a LOT of driving in 1st gear. Not now! First is for launching! And it runs out pretty quick. SOTP dyno tells me I've added like 75 rice-hp. OK, not really. But it's certainly got a little more scoot when you step on the go-pedal. This thing's never gonna be a screamer, but that's not what I wanted anyway. That's what the 67's for.

End of the story: Re-threaded the shifter and knob (cut threads into the dumb set screws--not perfect, but it keeps it on there). Seafoamed the engine (not a lot of smoke, but didn't really expect it with only 62k miles), took her for about an hour drive, ran through the car wash, and tucked her into the garage for the night. Almost looking forward to going to work on Monday.

E-brake will have to wait. Gonna have to get it back up on jacks to change the speedo gear anyway. While I'm at it, I'll try to chase that pesky exhaust leak. Seafoam's a great way to find out that your collectors aren't real tight. Who knows, while I'm at it, I might just go ahead and throw on one of those Dr. Gas X-pipes. That'll take care of that leaky exhaust!

Good night, :SNSign:

 

[02 281 GT]

Sweet! I love my 3.73s.

 

[1987Rock]

Must be something about yellow cars. My car does that s$!t on some of the simplest tasks too...

I'm gonna be puttin on Cobra brakes this summer and I guess I'll do the prop valve and put new pads in the stock rears....but after readin all that idk if wanna screw with it