The Resurrection of Foam Car - 63 T6B

[roy mawbey]

Jack,

Great info on that ZF box. Mine seems to work very well but I do lose a few drops of SAE90 from the bottom seal I guess. I just replenish every 6 months or so. But I have a question:

You know a lot about these boxes some have said fill it from the bottom with grease. I think it seems a bit worrying if the gear contact pushes the grease away. Do you use SAE90 always?

Also, filling the box with oil is not so easy when there is no level. I usually fill just above the flat sort of washer you can see under the allen screw filler plug. some have said the oil should not be overfilled past the gears possibly because of pressure build up on the seals?

But, to keep draining and refilling is a pain, if you use oil where do you fill it to?
Sorry for taking over the foam car thread!

Roy

[Phil Planck]

Got that tutorial printed out and inserted in the factory manual. Thanks Jack. Pulled 2 studs from the box and can get my bearing puller clamped around the arm. Have company this week, so sneaking out to the shop in spurts to work on the box. Will see if I can get this setup in my press.

[Phil Planck]

Using pullers I had on hand I tried this with no success so far. Used heat, bees wax melted into joint, hammers, impact wrench. No go. Will see what FLAPS has available next.

[Jack Staggs]

Oh, please don't use a hammer directly against the shaft ever! For pitman arm removal, we use a puller very similar to a Wilmar W142, and pull the arm off with the steering box still in the car, tie rods attached. Lower bracket removed, steering box shifted to allow puller installation (tight working area though, and keep the puller fingers centered. Go slow at first.) and 1/2" impact on the puller. Leave the nut on loosely so the explosion is controlled when everything lets loose, and the threaded puller shaft doesn't jamb in to the tool yoke before you can let off the impact gun. Worked 100+ times without fail, ever.
If this sounds a little sketchy, it is, and it's tough on the tools, but time is money for our clients. I suppose that this is one of those "don't try this at home, folks" moments.
But I digress...
Get the right puller. Your set up is far to wimpy. Back the nut off a FEW threads. Remove the top cover to allow free movement of the output shaft. Install correct puller. Tighten the screw shaft of the puller very tight with an impact driver. Hand tools will not be enough here. Now tighten a little more until you think "whoa, this is getting intense!". If no release, whack the top of the tool screw shaft really hard with a large copper hammer (3lb?) If you don't have one, use a 6" long huge copper/brass/bronze punch 3/4" diameter or larger, and a single jack hand hammer. Check tightness again, and try again. No luck? Try heat, with the puller fully loaded. Oxy acetylene will be needed. Propane is a non starter here, like a Bic lighter. Heat the pitman arm until it is cherry red in one spot. Don't get too greedy and anneal the other parts. Still no go? Whack the tool screw while heated. BTW be sure to wear protection during all these processes. Goggles and full face shield, leather gloves, long sleeve welding jacket, and lower body protection. Still no go? You're gonna have to cut it off. Scary, huh? Maybe another " don't try this at home" moment?

PS: Thank you Phil for letting me know that you appreciate my posts enough to place some of them inside of the factory manuals. I'm quite humbled to be put in with that fine body of work.

[JTR70]

I just googled the Wilmar W142 puller to see what it looked like.

Available at Walmart for 12 Bucks!

[roy mawbey]

Jack,

With my question yesterday about oil or grease take my word for it after reading your excellent instruction my ZF box will remain original and leaking a bit till my car passes on to its next custodian.

Providing it still works correctly like it does at the moment then it should still be left alone. That job requires dedication!
But of course if you advise grease?? then my leaking problem will be a thing of the past.

Roy

[Ashley James]

This is very effective at stopping or reducing leaks. Hopefully it is a more reasonable price the other side of the Atlantic.

Look at this on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181166424851

Millers Oils Classic Worm Steering Box Oil Fluid 1 Litre 1L

It's like a very thick chain saw oil and it's very effective with sticky steering boxes as on Derby Bentleys.

[Phil Planck]

I had the bearing puller wedged in pretty tight, so hopefully no damage from whacking. Stay tuned.

[Ashley James]

Wind the puller up really tight and then lots of heat quickly and it should fly off. I find you always need a very very manly pulley.

[bbspdstr]

The theory is that less flex equals more applied energy, so the one on the left works best and why seemingly gesundt pullers with adjustable arms don't work as well. "Manly" pullers for Pitman arms have fewer moving parts and more contact area...plus whatever Jack said.

Phil, you have yet to connect...

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

Bruce

That is a nice set of pullers. I opted for the one on the right as that was what my local FLAPS had, and it was $20. 2 year warranty. told the guy I only needed it to last 2 days. Anyway - it worked. Looks like it has a feature to directly apply a 3/8 impact wrench:



My first attempt did not work, as the puller moved slightly from pry bar force against it. So I got out my biggest adjustable wrench which kept the puller nice and square:


I was concerned about the "bite", as you can see above, but it worked. The above pics are on Foam Cars box, which is next in line. Figure I might as well do both while I have this great help on the forum.

Here's the package/part.no.

[Phil Planck]

The 2nd pitman arm came off very easily. Not even sure I needed a puller it was so easy. Nut also came off very easy. Hardest part was getting the m4 x 40 cotter pin out.

Back to the back. It has been hot and humid for a while, but today was more typical of our northern MI weather with low humidity and about 74 degrees. So I dollied under Foam Car to install the tar paper over the Dynamat. Looks a lot cleaner now:



Took Jacks suggestion to heart and bought some rod to clean out the heater cable conduits. This fit perfect but about 1" too short to go all the way through:


I bought 2 in case I have to weld them together, but was able to clean out the remaining 3/4" at the front with some mineral spirit soaked q-tips. The old cable was homemade using cotter pins to attach to the flapper box levers:


Consulted the parts diagram just to make sure I had the slider on correctly before installing the cable. Pretty intuitive, but just to be sure:

[Jack Staggs]

Nice work with the puller. Be sure that the pitman arm nut is tight enough on the tapered shaft when tightening to prevent unwanted movement. Had a few of those.
RE heater control: There seems to be a few types of attachments on the end of the left hand thread screw to keep the slider/arbor from falling off. I have seen cotter pins, C clips, and E clips there. If you have a C or E clip, take time to turn the knob to the full "off" heater position, using unnecessary force. That is what will happen when you are driving the car and turning the knob endlessly until it stops. No time for finesse there. If the clip pops off, the arbor will drop too far, and disengage from the receiver flats. The next time you want heat, the arbor will spin around, making a tangled mess of the heater cables there. An added benefit of this scenario, is that when the arbor flips over, your shifter may not fully engage 2nd or 4th gear, allowing them to jump out. Fun, huh?
Look closely at the end of the sliding arbor where the clip fits in full off. See the small recess? This is designed to allow the clip to fit in, making the clip tighter in the small groove in the shaft when the knob is turned tighter to off. It's amazing to me how many of these special sized clips are missing. In these cases, I use an undersized E clip, grinding the fingers away with a Dremel until I achieve proper fit, test fitting it over and over again.

[Phil Planck]

Thanks Jack. I think there is a torque spec of 110 ft.lbs. for that nut. Guess you treat it like a rear axle nut and go to the next castle notch if not at 110. Ref. the clip, I gotta look in all my baggies for it. Will check the trans lock baggie first, as knowing me, I probably did not use a baggie for 1 small clip. Great tips on getting it right.
Phil

[Phil Planck]

I tried several different clips I had on hand:



Was not happy as this clip would catch on the cable wire. However, further review of the geometry of the shift rod, cable tubes showed that the cable probably would not catch on the clip. But, taking Jack's experience to heart I found a spring in my spring box that looks like it may work:



I cut a coil off and had to file the thickness down to close to 1mm to fit the groove. Bent it open to a little under 8mm i.d. and popped it on:



Fits into the recess in the arbor and so far has held tight.

While fitting the shift rod mechanism testing for clearance I see two clips that I forget what they are for. One on each side of the shift rod guide/tensioner. Anyone know?



Ignore above question. The pages explaining this are missing from my repro factory manual. Looked at the real manual and figured it out. Also found this on the R forum which may help others in the future:
http://forum.porsche356registry.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30854&hilit=shifter+base
Phil