We have a project in the shop now that's too new to be here, a 2003 mustang. We were taking apart the front spindle to look at the wheel bearings. Sounds simple enough eh? Well theres this goddamed nut with another sheetmetal nut formed over the top of it to hold on the front hub. I mean WTF is that? We have no Idea how to remove that sucker. What was wrong with the castle nut and cotter key that worked successfully for fity plus years? Sometimes I just dont get this "change for change sake" shit. Can ya tell I'm frustrated? I pity the next poor bastard that asks me why I dont want a new car. Oh yeah, if anyone can tell me how to get that nut off it'd be appreciated.
call ford tomorrow and ask them, or go to O' Reilly's auto parts they have the info in their computer from their website.
Your not alone brother. I had to deal with the same thing a week or two ago at work. Yes it seems the nut and cotter pin stopped working My theory? Engineers have figured out that they need to reinvent stuff so they can keep there jobs. Iv always said they invented the engineer so retards could have a job. Now im not so sure. I think im the.......
as per motor on line Raise the vehicle until the tire is off the floor. NOTE: Make sure the wheel rotates freely and the brake pads are retracted sufficiently to allow movement of the tire and wheel assembly. Grasp each tire at the top and bottom and move the wheel inward and outward while lifting the weight of the tire off the wheel If the tire and wheel hub is loose on the wheel spindle or does not rotate freely, install a new front wheel hub
AMEN brother! Engineers delibrately making things more complicated and expensive. Take drive-by-wire for instance. All your new cars no longer use throttle cables. Instead they have an electronic servo to move the throttle. I just don't trust those things. Chaz, as for the sheet metal cover, its nothing to worry about. As soon as you pull the cotter pin it just falls off and you unscrew the nut underneath. Its really a non issue, but I hear where you are coming from.
Automotive History Part I: We spend the first half century getting cars right. Automotive History Part II: We spend the next half century fucking them up.
No dude, This aint like the old nut cover with the cotter pin. There's no cotterpin at all! The sheetmetal cover wraps completely around the nut- a six sided fold over the sides AND top. If I could find that particular engineer I'd punch hin in the neck.
if its what im thinking then there is a sheet metal peice that is behind the nut with pieces folded over the nut. just bend them back, but im probably wrong, if i saw a picture i could probably tell ya
I have replaced just the bearing on a 99 mustang before. Got the new Timkin bearing at advance auto for 60-70 bucks I think. As for the nut IIRC I just put a 21mm socket on the impact and took it off in one shot. I think it is torqued to 140 ft lb's
They are trying to make it so that you can only have repairs done at the dealerships now, they don't want even the independent shops to be able to work on new cars so they make everything with a required tool to do the repair and a special method of how to do it.
I think whats happening is that most parts arrive at the plant as sub-assemblies, supplied by independant suppliers. Cuts down on the assembly time, the number of inplant subassembly lines...and more importantly...gives the car companies someone to blame if a part goes bad. "WHAT? Mustang door panels are peeling? Call the subcontractor that supplied them and tell THEM to redesign and resupply for a Mustang recall or we'll SUE. It's in their contract!!!"
As a tech at the local Ford dealer, Just thought I would ad to this. The sheetmetal part is actually a piece of the nut. If you take the sheetmetal off of the nut you might as well throw it away and buy a new nut(which will come wrapped in sheetmetal). Just my 2cents.....
Sounds like they are trying to save a couple pennies on assembly time. Obviously,maintenance is not a design priority.
cars these days are not built with repairs down the road in mind. if ford or anyone else can do something to save 2 bucks on every car that will cost the owner 500 bucks 5 years from now if something wears out they will do it
This turned out to be kind of an interesting post. As it shook out the part is a single piece. A nut wrapped in sheetmetal. There is no cotterpin. The sucker is just torqued to 250 foot pounds. No adjustment capabilities. So I'll just put a big airwrench on it and spin it off. No adjustment, no finesse , no capability to get any extra life out of it. Sorry, but the castlenut and cotterpin made me involved with the car. I can adjust, I can fine tune.. That capability is gone with remove and replace mechanics. This is just one reason I love old cars. I can actually interact with them. I know this is a little thing, but its really just an example of where we lost it.
Hey Chaz....not sure if you found the answer yet, but I removed a wheel bearing off an '01 GT. It should be the same as a 2003. Here's what I did: I used a 36mm socket, breaker bar and a sh*t load of muscle. It's actually a multiple nut configuration with what appears to be a C channel wrapped around the outage edge of the Nut(s). The channel actual holds the nuts together as one unit. Once you pull the nut, the whole bearing/hub assembles pulls off...it is one non serviceable unit. Cost about $55-$80 (maybe more) depending on the brand. When you put the unit back on, Ford says to torque it to 258 ft-lbs. Hope this helps. Cheers.
Even simple things they have messed up. Yesterday I went to check the oil in the T-5 transmission of my 99 Sonoma and it required an 5/8" hex internial drive socket. I tried a bolt that fit with two nuts jamed together and that did not work, three stores later on Sunday no luck until Tractor supply and a 1/2 inch connectoer nut used with my socket. So latter I looked at the T-5 in my Falcon ( 86Mustang GT ) and that has a 3/4" square drive like every other transmission/ rear end I have ever seen.
It's ALL been goin' downhill since Buddy Holley died. Or at least when cables got replaced with vacuum hoses.
That's another one of those things done to make manufacturing easier. Sealed bearings can be set in place by a robot easier than something that has to be greased. Then assembly and the nut can be installed and tightened by a robot. Very precise, very measurable, very repeatable, and very fast. Good for the robot, good for the manufacturer, bad for human assembly line workers and maintainers later.
Think that's bad, a lot of transmissions now do not have fill plugs because they are not designed to be serviced. You never can convince the sheep though why we prefer our old cars that require maintenance are better than the new junk out there.
Yea, Chevy is the same way. Had a front bearing going out in my 2002 pick-up. I thought it was still the spindle,castle nut and cotter pin deal. I figured $40.00 in new bearings and seals and I would be back in business. Jacked up the front and pulled the tire only to find out it was a hub assembly. Easy to change, but I didn't think I would need a home equity loan to buy the new parts. Dealer price..$300.00... Bennet Auto...&160.00. So much for doing both fronts. I'll wait for the other one to go out.
How many miles are on that Mustang? I've got similar setup on my '97 Saturn, 163000 miles on the original bearings. Sometimes things do improve with age, even if they change some.
I disagree. I'd say it's GREAT for people that need to service later. In my opinion, the days of the skilled technician are GONE! With the majority of people taking their cars to Pep Boys and the like for service, this type of sealed assembly is idiot proof - Crank it down and go. Do you really want to rely on some low-paid hack mechanic to set your bearings the correct way? Think about it: Old way: remove hub, clean all old grease from hub, press out old bearing races, install new races, pack bearings, set preload, install cotter key. New way: Remove big-ass nut and pull hub assembly. Remove new part from box, slide on spindle, torque big-ass nut. A lot more opportunity for "user error" (dirt, improper assembly, etc) in the "old way". No offense to anyone that may work at one of these "chain" stores, but I barely trust those folks to install tires, let alone pack bearings, keep them clean, and set them properly. You see the same lack of knowledge at the parts counter.
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