Went out with a mate for a recce drive tonight, the location is not important so dont ask me where i was, and on the way home i got this evil noise from the front passengers side wheel. Almost like a noise you get when a rock gets stuck in the brake disc guards, but about 10 times louder.
Anyway, get home and jack the wheel up to take it off. Before undoing the wheel nuts i gave the hub a quick rego style check to see if any bearings or ball joints had given way. I must have had at least 10mm movement at the rim from side to side, next to nothing up and down.
Check all the ball joints, yeh they are all tight and coshure. Check up and down movement once more, still no excessive play. Then i check out the steering arm on top of the hub and notice that the arm stays still whilst the hub is moving. Yippee.
Rip off the wheel, check the tension of the nuts holding on the arm, all loose. Goody im thinking at this point. Undo all the nuts and make sure the studs arent busted, nope no broken studs. Just loose nuts. Tap the collets (cone washers) out with a hammer (at 1 in the morning) and pull off the steering arm to check the bearing hasn't collapsed. I didn't think it would have considering just the nuts were loose, but it never hurts to check anyway. Pull off the arm and drop a whole shitload of dirt into the hub because im too lazy to clean it off.
At this point Mom runs out into the garage spewing about the noise and my swearing, so to save my sanity and my ears i've packed up the show and will pull the hub swivell bearings off tomorow morning and clean the dust out, check the bearings and put the whole show back together.
Ive got this and a ford 9inch to rebuild in a commodore that a mate blew up at a drifting contest at wakefield on saturday, so im going to be a rather busy bee.
I guess the point of my story is two fold,
1. Has anyone had these nuts come loose, if so, what came about? and...
2. Do you think its "australian" to be fixing a 350hp Holden VK V8 5 litre rally car with a ford diff on australia day?
Im going to bed now, nighty night all.
