"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth" - Marcus Aurelius
A worthy stoic quote for these times of rampant gaslighting and propaganda.
The Ford Explorer is up on the jack again. I'm not sure how to interpret what I found, or what went wrong.
Below: Looks pretty normal, except for the splatters of oil. Not sure how much of that was penetrating oil that I blasted on to get the joints free last time I worked on it. The brake rotor looks the same - no signs of heating.
Lots of goop on the half-axle CV boot, and on everything else in a plane around that. But I think it came out of the bearing, not the boot.
So what baked the entire hub assembly? Was it the main disk brake? No. Was it the emergency (parking) brake shoes rubbing on the inside of the drum? No. The shoes have a little bit of rub, but they have not been smoked. Below is the rear shoe. The issue is not heating due to an issue with the emergency brake shoes causing friction within the drum.
Below: The front shoe of the emergency brake. Plenty of material left, not scorched or smoothed by rubs.
Below: Inside the brake drum of the emergency brake. When I had this apart before, I sanded out a lot of surface rust. It still looks identical to when I re-installed it. The E-brake shoes have not been in contact with this, so this is not the source of the heating.
Below: Plenty of burnt grease has been flung onto the control arms and linkages. I think it came from the wheel bearing.
Right now I'm going with "defective bearing" or "improper installation". I have a new bearing and hub kit on order - they are quite inexpensive, at $35. Hopefully the replacement bearing works better than this one. The hub doesn't turn easily, and it feels a bit crunchy, so hopefully a new bearing, hub and retaining ring will fix it.
I didn't yet bother to press out the bearing. I was up early for night shift, and got hot, dirty and sweaty just doing this little bit. Afterwards I just wanted a cold iced tea and some relax time.
Before shutting down the operation for the day, I wiped down the rotating parts and everything else inside the wheel well with Simple Green, so hopefully that will be the end of the oily splatters once this thing is re-assembled.
UPDATE:
The replacement wheel bearing and hub arrived. However, I was discussing this with a co-worker, and he said that he had experienced a similar issue that turned out to be a brake caliper hanging up. On further inspection, I noticed that the rubber boot around the piston has deteriorated, and road salt (de-icer) has likely corroded the piston and caliper to the point where it might fail to release properly. I've ordered new rotors, pads and calipers.
UPDATE 21 Sept, 2022
The last items finally arrived to make repairs - the box containing rotors and pads.
The old hub got pressed out, the bearing got pressed out. The new bearing was pressed in, and the new hub pressed into the bearing. Mounted the knuckle, and forgot to tighten the lowest bolt, so I had to take it apart all over again. Grrrr.
Installed the new right side brake caliper and rotor. Looking good!
Then of course the other side caliper and rotor needed replaced, and I messed that up as well re-assembling it. Didn't get the brake line attached to the caliper in the right direction. When I swapped it around, it didn't seal, so I kept having to tighten it until at one point I was afraid the bolt head was going to twist off (the brake line bolts are banjo bolts, and they are hollow). I misaligned one of the brake pads where the tulip slides into the piston, so that had to come apart again as well.
Eventually I got the brakes installed correctly and bled down. They seem to be working fine now - no pulling to either side, and no more funny noises from the back of the car. I am pleased, and hopefully this beast sells quickly so that I can move on to other chores of my own choosing.
No comments:
Post a Comment