TC fuel tank strap change questions, discussion (They are the same on GM & CV)

[jaywish]

The studs came right out but I needed to hot wrench the nuts off, needed a vise. Tried double nutting the other end of the stud and putting the doubled nuts end in the vise but it just forced the doubled nuts to spin, torquing the threads so I had to put the naked stud in the vise. It has the unthreaded portion of the stud which went into the vise jaws but there was still damage to clean up with the thread repair tools. Having new studs & nuts on hand would have just made things a little easier.
I guess this is one time I should be grateful for the nut rusting solid to the stud. Since it was probably a good thing that the stud spun right out with the impact gun. The J hook end of the stud apparently was coated with some locking formulation which I guess kept it from rusting. Yes I used a goodly amount of blue locker on install.

[jaywish]

I made a bit of progress on the other issues. Right side the seal is changed, the new shoes are on and the axle & C lip are back in place.
The right side after a wash with Windex.

The seal. The destroyed part is me being lazy and trying to remove it without removing the backing plate. Very easy after plate removal.


Box from national seal part #866OS Made in Taiwan. Note they are a different style then the ford. There is no outer lip they just tap into the housing.

Out & in easy with plate removed. I greased it a little bit went in like butter.

[jaywish]

New shoes and springs. Note plate bolts are 50lbs torque. Also having the plate off made it easy to remove the rust boils on the contact bosses. Just tap hit it lightly on the grinder. The boils just fracture off. for some reason the picture loaded 90deg left rotation.

The left side before cleaning. You can see how thin the shoes are. Also I am not sure if the brake levering device is in right side up or not. This is the side that disengage from the cable. Also it was rusted pretty solid so it rests in evaporust for the night.

A shot of a shot shoe.

[jaywish]

I am wondering if the lever device locked in the applied position when it let go. Will see how it likes Evaporust.

Also wondering if I put the new seal in backwards. Without an outer lip it could go in either way. And does it matter?

[jaywish]

Kishy that is exactly what I did a few threads into the clip etc.

I have been making very slow progress on the other stuff. It seems that the culprit for the parking brake was the lever had frozen keeping pressure on the shoes wearing them out. Also eventually it stuck open far enough to allow the cable hook to unlatch. I don't know if it had deformed because after a day in rust remover and applying Free All while working it open and closed with pliers for some time it never moved freely.

I got the shoes mounted and the axles back in. Had accidentally rotated the spider gears just enough so I had to remove them and the spring to get it all back together. torque for the set screw is 22lbs. Relatively easy using vise grips to compress the spring

So after a light grinding of the drum area got the disks on and tried the E-Brake a few times and so far so good. It applies and releases. So next is to button up & fill the pumpkin, prep the calipers and get finished with the rear end stuff. Just because the car is old I intend to try and open the rear calipers to change the fluid. On the front I am planning to replace 1 caliper & both hoses so will be running in new fluid in the front anyway. Still got that exhaust leak between the cats and the H-pipe to finagle.

The up side of this work is it forced me to take the SL out of the garage. I always forget how nice that car runs and handles. Wish I had replaced the 2 leaky top hydraulic cylinders so I could drop the top but hey can't have everything.

Dorman was the only brand that was available next day. It comes in a set of two.

[jaywish]

creeping along. Gave a through scrub and wash to the rear rims. Started a gravity bleed on the RR caliper to flush the old fluid. Started to fill the dif. For some reason it did not like to take more than a trickle without belching it back out. Guess I will rotate the axles a bit see if that helps. PITA.
Note the TC rotor. 10 hole unit with a heavier hat. I mention this because it is also the Marauder rotor that came from the factory. Most if not all parts listing show the wrong standard CV/GM lighter 5 hole rotor for the Marauder.

[massacre]

I'm a little late to the gas tank strap party here-
but re-using the strap studs was almost impossible for me, could not get the new straps onto the old studs.
Ended up buying new studs from Ford, they are longer than necessary but have a "snap-off" portion that you snap off with pliers after installation.

[jaywish]

Yes new studs & nuts are advisable. Instead of removing the old ones, coming out from under the car, figuring out how to get the nuts off the studs, repairing the damaged threads etc. I could have just stayed under the car and finished the job without interruption.

making slow progress on other things. The small leak in the cat to H-pipe had been bothering me for a year or more.

Also the bolt heads were 9/16th. The flag nuts were a complicating factor as I could only attack from the bolt side after heating the flag nuts and both bolts broke near the head. Eventually got the flange hot enough to pound out the bolts.
Mahle Made in USA.