never mix beer,mates,car repairs

[willvine]

Tonight i had a very scary thing happen. The front passenger wheel came off doing about 80 clicks and rolled about 100 meters just missing cars comming the other way. :(:(:(. i had a mate help me get the series 3 ready for a camping trip this weekend, i had my mate jack up and check the brakes, bearings,shocks on the passenger side and hub fluid , after that we had a few bevies and went back to it. I did my side and lowered the car, then retightened the wheel nuts, he must have forgot to do his side up :twisted::twisted: out for the test run and after 10 minites bang and i see the wheel overtaking me, holy sheet i said,. this could have ended much worse and i count my self lucky no one was hurt.

So now I will be doing things my self. good thing though was that there was no damage to the car other than a slightly grinded brake drum.

[p38arover]

:eek:

Ruddy lucky.

Glad to see no damage.

[JDNSW]

Easy to do (or not do) - when I swapped wheels before going to Cooma, I failed to retighten the wheels after letting the jack down. But after driving about half a mile, a strange noise led to my stopping and finding both left hand wheels had all their nuts loose by about two turns! Right hand wheels had tightened themselves. This is why some vehicles have LH threads on the LH side.

John

[long stroke]

:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o

[Psimpson7]

Are you saying you went out to test the car just after drinking a few beers.....?

[Tusker]

Not much fun is it, I've a rear come off twice, on different cars. Always in a corner under load.

Anyway, good to hear the S3 is fighting fit for the weekend.

Regards
Max P

[JDNSW]

In fifty years on the road, although I have never lost a wheel, I have had them come loose, and on Landcruisers nearly lost one due to broken studs, several times. My son lost a rear wheel on a Beetle due to failure of a mechanic to split pin the hub nut - which, since on them the hub and brake drum are one piece, left him with no brakes - footbrake single circuit, so all braking went to the wheel with no drum, and the equaliser on the handbrake similarly ensured all effort went to the wheel with no drum!

My brother once lost a rear wheel on his ID19 - no real problem as they can be driven on three wheels.

John

[dobbo]

Similar thing happened to me years ago with the sump plug, luckily I was told about the leak in time so the only damage was very expensive oil flush.

[lokka]

jeezz your lucky no one or nothing was damaged id be gving that mate a good slap up the head also :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Ive never had a wheel come off a car i was driving but ive left one loose and the vibration made me stop and check them as it was verry simalar vib i got in my old HQ statesman as it use to snap frontwheel studs like carrots ....

[disco2hse]

In fifty years on the road, although I have never lost a wheel, I have had them come loose, and on Landcruisers nearly lost one due to broken studs, several times. My son lost a rear wheel on a Beetle due to failure of a mechanic to split pin the hub nut - which, since on them the hub and brake drum are one piece, left him with no brakes - footbrake single circuit, so all braking went to the wheel with no drum, and the equaliser on the handbrake similarly ensured all effort went to the wheel with no drum!

My brother once lost a rear wheel on his ID19 - no real problem as they can be driven on three wheels.

John

Never lost a wheel but did lose brakes on a Beetle once. Brake line collapsed through corrosion and the peddle went straight to the floor as I approached an intersection, a line of stopped cars, and cars coming the other way. Lucky there were no pedestrians on the footpath :eek::eek:

[moose]

A mate of mine decided to check my coolant before we were off on a longish drive, didn't put the bloody cap back on the radiator did he?!
It's amazing how far we made it before it started overheating and I pulled over to check.:o Lucky I usually carry water with me.

[WOLLAPIT85]

beer,mates,car repairs...
That's how nost of our mods get done down here in Vic...wouldn't have it any other way.. :wasntme:



Yes, it is lucky no one was hurt.

[loanrangie]

Had a mate have his 35" simex on disco rim come off and overtake him while he was just about to take a corner, it bounded over 4 lanes of highway without hitting anything and then hitting a fence :o. Nice flat spot on his brake rotor and a broken LRA flare and chewed guard but otherwise ok.

[Tote]

I had a falcon ute where the axle is retained by a ring pressed on the axle behind the bearing. The axle parted company with the diff at 100Km/h on a dirt road. we skidded along until the u bolts on the spring let go allowing the axle to move back dropping the tailshaft onto the road which pole vaulted us on to the roof. The ute was a write off but luckily the wife (then G/F) and myself were only shaken, left hanging upside down in our seatbelts. I'm very particular about wheel bearings these days. Apparently it was a pretty common thing for GTHOs to do as well since they used the same arrangement.

Regards,
Tote

[willvine]

Are you saying you went out to test the car just after drinking a few beers.....?

I did say bevies diddnt I, yea i know dumb thing to do but I only had 2. Then went for a drive 2 hours after that so was fine.

Thanks for the support everyone, It is not a nice thing to happen.

[Bigbjorn]

I had a falcon ute where the axle is retained by a ring pressed on the axle behind the bearing. The axle parted company with the diff at 100Km/h on a dirt road. we skidded along until the u bolts on the spring let go allowing the axle to move back dropping the tailshaft onto the road which pole vaulted us on to the roof. The ute was a write off but luckily the wife (then G/F) and myself were only shaken, left hanging upside down in our seatbelts. I'm very particular about wheel bearings these days. Apparently it was a pretty common thing for GTHOs to do as well since they used the same arrangement.

Regards,
Tote

That is the reason NASCAR use full floating axles. You would not want to lose one at 200mph on the high banking at Talladega or Daytona.

[lewy]

i lost one off the volksie once ,didnt make any difference though:)

[Tank]

I had a falcon ute where the axle is retained by a ring pressed on the axle behind the bearing. The axle parted company with the diff at 100Km/h on a dirt road. we skidded along until the u bolts on the spring let go allowing the axle to move back dropping the tailshaft onto the road which pole vaulted us on to the roof. The ute was a write off but luckily the wife (then G/F) and myself were only shaken, left hanging upside down in our seatbelts. I'm very particular about wheel bearings these days. Apparently it was a pretty common thing for GTHOs to do as well since they used the same arrangement.

Regards,
Tote
If you read the Ford w/shop manual for the cars in question you will find that Ford requires the whole axle complete with bearing and retainer fitted to be replaced as a Unit, because would be if they could be backyard mechanics don't know how to fit the retaining ring correctly, most non fully floating axles are retained the same as the Ford, Regards Frank.

[rovercare]

Had a mate have his 35" simex on disco rim come off and overtake him while he was just about to take a corner, it bounded over 4 lanes of highway without hitting anything and then hitting a fence :o. Nice flat spot on his brake rotor and a broken LRA flare and chewed guard but otherwise ok.

I've done it, I use a 2' breaker now:eek:

[Tote]

If you read the Ford w/shop manual for the cars in question you will find that Ford requires the whole axle complete with bearing and retainer fitted to be replaced as a Unit, because would be if they could be backyard mechanics don't know how to fit the retaining ring correctly, most non fully floating axles are retained the same as the Ford, Regards Frank.

Yep, I'll just slip down to supercheap now and get an axle for a 1968 falcon
/sarcasm off

Actually I just had a look at the Ford service manual and it gives detailed instructions on removing the bearing and replacing it.

Tote

[Jeff]

A few times I got distracted and would leave tools inside the car or bike only to hear a strange rattle and find a 10mm spanner or the like. Luckily before it hit anything.

Lost a trailer wheel recently, had only just bought it, first trip to Oran Park and nuts worked loose wrecking the wheel as it went off.

Jeff

:rocket:

[Tank]

Yep, I'll just slip down to supercheap now and get an axle for a 1968 falcon
/sarcasm off

Actually I just had a look at the Ford service manual and it gives detailed instructions on removing the bearing and replacing it.

Tote
Well you have a different w/shop manual to mine, mine says replace bearing as a UNIT with the axle. I have never replaced an axle and bearing as a UNIT, I have always removed and replaced the retaining collar and bearing. Ford stopped selling rear axle bearings (Ford Diffs, not BWdiffs) when backyard mechanics started to weld the retaining ring on, which caused the axle to snap at the weld with the loss of the rear wheel. To replace, the bearing and the retaining ring should be heated to specs. and pressed into place, "staking or Welding should never be done", if done correctly there should be no problem, Regards Frank.

[Chucaro]

I was very busy back in the 70's so we took the Valiant VF to a servo to do a tuneup.
Next day my wife was driving on the Sydney Harbour bridge when the front RH wheel complete with disc assembly and other parts come out of the car.
Bloody mechanic, potential murderer. :mad::mad:
That was his way to create work for the future. :mad:
It is impossible to loose the complete assembly in the VF without loose or remove the safety plate that lock the bolts.
Apart for a bad experience nothing serious happens.
Cheers

[Davo]

I had a loose wheel just as I was leaving Melbourne docks after I picked up the Landie when I returned to Oz. I have a vague memory of that wheel going flat in Canada after I left and my brother changed it or something, but really I have no idea how it happened. The nuts were just loose. This never happens on this car so someone monkeyed with something.

I caught it right away and so no damage was done and I was going slowly anyhow. But, ultimately, it was my fault since as the driver I didn't check the car over properly before leaving!

I'm notoriously picky about checking these things now.

(Note: No beer was involved either! :p )