Ford Explorer 2011

[Shade Tree Welder]

So back in March, I replaced most of the front suspension components.
Mostly as they needed it, 200,000 miles and all on the car. Strut assy.,
lower control arms (bad bushing on the pass. side, did both) Bearing, CV
half axle on the pass. side also bad bearings and did the brakes all around.

It has a shimmy or vibration but was not an unbalanced tire kinda vibration.

Well after all that work, still had it but it was less, fuck.

Well the last week of March was a visit to SC to see the Sailor with the
younger boy. Then a week in Japan, a week in Korea home but then off
to Cleveland.

So this week I have had the car up on stand and have the rear end tore
apart. I found the offending component. But some pictures for the pic
whores out there...

While the bearings were 'okay'; I replaced them. 200k on them. Had to
press them out but needed to make some fixtures to do it. The dust shields
for the brakes cannot be removed with the bearing still on the knuckles,
yeah! Fucking engineers. So it I made a box frame from some tubing I had
in the resource pile. Also I made a punch with a pilot to hold thing in place.

I took all the screws out holding the dust shield in place to get behind it to
the knuckle casting for support to press out the bearing. Only 1/2 plate
would fit and the box frame is 16"x16" ID.

Now 1/2" plate supported over a 16" gets springy, with a 20 ton press...

It got a bit sporty, but I got the bearings out without damage to anything,
in particular myself.

[Shade Tree Welder]

So the upper bushing (really more of a horizontal ball joint) was the
offending component. Both were bad. This is connects the knuckle
to the upper control arm. They are a 0.010" interference fit, WTF.

I removed the old ones with my C-frame press, they came out hard,
but no damage.

Putting the new ones in became a bit of a challenge, I tried a few methods
none worked, did a little damage to the cast aluminum knuckle. But I was
able to remove the burr I raised.

What finally worked, I took a piece of round stock, OD was ~1.900" I drilled
and then bored out the end to an ID of 1.633". This passed over rubber
seal and wire retainer and sat on the body of the bushing and then I was
able to press the bushing into the hole with the press.

I really use the lathe a lot for making special tooling for projects like this.
I really comes in handy!

[Shade Tree Welder]

So pressing in the bushing required a second set of hands as the knuckle
really needed to be supported so Matthew assisted when he got home from
work, he is a good kid.

[MetalWolf]

Shade. Sometimes I think it is just easier to buy the whole assembly from RA
Then it is to have to go through all that extra work to replace some parts.
Only because sometimes IMO the savings is moot, compared to the labor-intensive repair work.

By the way... Nice job, I like the way you are getting it done and able to take pics too...

[LKeithR]

Originally Posted by Shade Tree Welder

...I really use the lathe a lot for making special tooling for projects like this. I really comes in handy!

I like doing that kind of work too. It can be a pain in the ass but it always feels good when you can outwit the nitwit engineers that design some of these assemblies. Sadly we don't do this kind of work that much anymore because--you guessed it--people don't replace parts any more; they just replace whole assemblies. Really takes all the fun out of it. We used to keep quite busy just doing repairs; making special tools and sometimes just figuring things out.

I'm just finishing up a repair project that required me to make a special puller--technically a "pusher" since it works backwards. I took a bunch of pictures and plan to post them up over the weekend.

And no offense meant with the "nitwit engineer" comment. First, because you're a chemical engineer and nobody understands what you're talking about anyway. And second, because you've always struck me as having your head screwed on pretty straight. Believe me when I say from 40+ years of experience that there are a lot of engineers out there who don't...

[cramd]

I will preface my story with the disclosure that I have had 3 engineers in my family, one mechanical, one civil and one chemical,so have no particular bias toward engineers in general.
I will say that I have to agree with your thoughts on engineers who don't have their heads on straight. I had to deal with engineers frequently in my years on the maintenance end of my career, and some of them were pretty good, while others were a royal pain in the ass, one in particular that I tried not to have much to do with, but couldn't avoid totally.
I also used to live next door to a civil engineer many years ago who was a nice guy, very smart but when it came to laying out his driveway for getting concrete poured, the guy down the street with the grade 6 education who was going to do the work was much smarter. To me, that particular experience proved that practical experience can trump book learning at times, no matter how smart the person with the book learning is.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by MetalWolf

Shade. Sometimes I think it is just easier to buy the whole assembly from RA
Then it is to have to go through all that extra work to replace some parts.
Only because sometimes IMO the savings is moot, compared to the labor-intensive repair work.

By the way... Nice job, I like the way you are getting it done and able to take pics too...

Ahhhh, but you are assuming the assembly is available, it is not.
It was considered.

And the bushing was less than $10...

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by LKeithR

I like doing that kind of work too. It can be a pain in the ass but it always feels good when you can outwit the nitwit engineers that design some of these assemblies. Sadly we don't do this kind of work that much anymore because--you guessed it--people don't replace parts any more; they just replace whole assemblies.

Completely agree! It is nice to be able to do it.

Originally Posted by LKeithR

And no offense meant with the "nitwit engineer" comment. First, because you're a chemical engineer...

No offense taken as I am not a Chemical Engineer; and Chem E's are just
overpaid plumbers anyway. Kinda like Mechanical Engineers are over
educated mechanics...

PS. I am a Chemist, I actually understand chemistry...

[MetalWolf]

Originally Posted by Shade Tree Welder

Ahhhh, but you are assuming the assembly is available, it is not.
It was considered.

And the bushing was less than $10...

If RA didn't have the complete assembly. Then, I'd be going the route you are.
Because I would not try to find it anywhere else... as then it would no doubt "not be cost-effective"... But 10 bucks for the bushing. well, that's for sure a no brainer there even for me.

Usually, I run into. Are the parts are sometimes just shy by a few bucks of just buying a whole assembly. Maybe not everything but when its front end work it usually turns out that way and it saves me a lot of time in the long run over buying the individual bushings and ball joints etc...

Although for even that sort of stuff RA is the best place to get the parts from over the local Parts House... and even then For me, it's more for the sake of time-saving than anything else.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by MetalWolf

If RA didn't have the complete assembly. Then, I'd be going the route you are.
Because I would not try to find it anywhere else... as then it would no doubt "not be cost-effective"... But 10 bucks for the bushing. well, that's for sure a no brainer there even for me.

Usually, I run into. Are the parts are sometimes just shy by a few bucks of just buying a whole assembly. Maybe not everything but when its front end work it usually turns out that way and it saves me a lot of time in the long run over buying the individual bushings and ball joints etc...

Although for even that sort of stuff RA is the best place to get the parts from over the local Parts House... and even then For me, it's more for the sake of time-saving than anything else.

I agree.

Nobody has the whole assy. even listed. I am sure Ford has it
but you know they are pricing it through the roof.

Even when I am working on my own shit. I look at assy. pricing
vs. parts and have to ask myself is it worth the time, to save $X.

This time when I did the front shock assy. I did got the parts
route. Not so much as to save a few bucks, about $100 in savings.
But I did it so I could teach my son, Matt, how to do it. If it was
just me. I would have bought the assy. from RA and saved the time.

But you cant pass on a teachable moment.