GMCforum
For enthusiast of the Classic GMC Motorhome built from 1973 to 1978. A web-based mirror of the GMCnet mailing list.
Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » Removed My First Wheel, Part Deux, or Why does Murphy hate me so?
Removed My First Wheel, Part Deux, or Why does Murphy hate me so? [message #123314] Tue, 26 April 2011 17:11 Go to previous message
thorndike is currently offline  thorndike   United States
Messages: 406
Registered: January 2011
Location: Conifer, Colorado
Karma:
Senior Member
Well,

I got home from work early to jump on my brakes. After reading everyone's comments about the high level of torque I applied to my lugs, I thought I had better fix it quick.

So I did.

I grabbed my bottle jack, jack hook and all my tools and marched right to the curb where I proceeded to jack up the rear. Just before the wheels left the ground, I grabbed my socket bar and a 4 foot length of black pipe. Archimedes was right, with a long enough lever, anything is possible! I got those lugs loosened in minutes. I jacked the wheel a little higher to make sure the wheel was centered on the hub and began to put things back together. This time I remembered the center ALCOA hub cover.

I lowered the wheel a little to create some friction between the wheel and the ground and tightened everything up. I used my new torque wrench (you remember, the one I had to buy yesterday) and planned to torque them to 140 ft-lbs and written on the nut. Things were going great until the torque wrench head came apart. Argh, so back to the garage and grab my original wrench with DID go to 140, so I was still in business. So on everything went.

When finished, I lowered the coach and took it for a spin. I was very pleased to hear that most of the noise I had heard was gone. I did blow a LOT of brake dust out of the drum, so I am hoping that is what it was. Great, I was on my way to finishing.

I pulled the coach in to the curb so I could work on the left side. As I am getting everything in place to do the left front/rear wheel, I noticed some wet spots on the curb that weren't there before. I smelled it and knew it wasn't water as it smelled like hydraulic fluid. I looked around and couldn't figure where the fluid could have come from. I was hoping it wasn't brake fluid, but as it was so clear I didn't think that was a worry.

Since I couldn't find it, I continued to set up expecting to look for it later. When I grabbed my bottle jack I found it was wet. I looked down and realized that the plug covering the hydraulic reservoir was gone. Apparently, as the coach lowered on the other side, the jack hook slid down the back of the jack and ripped the plug right out and when I put the jack in the grass it fell over and all the fluid poured out.

So, not only was I down a torque wrench, I was down a jack too. As I had to use both jacks on the other side. (At one point I had to use the second one to free up the first one.) As I didn't want to get caught in a position of having the coach on a jack that I couldn't remove, I decided to leave the brake as it was. I figured that since the first brake was in good condition and most of the noise seemed to go away, I was going to take my chances the way it was to get to Bean Station. I am REALLY hoping that the left brakes are in the same condition as the right brake.

So, that is why jobs that take others a couple hours, usually take me 2 days!

Robert Peesel 1976 Royale 26' Side Dry Bath Conifer, Colorado

Report message to a moderator

[Message index]
 
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Previous Topic: [GMCnet] electrical
Next Topic: Noisy tappet
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Fri Nov 15 18:04:24 CST 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.01952 seconds
.:: Contact :: Home ::.

Powered by: FUDforum 3.1.1.
Copyright ©2001-2021 FUDforum Bulletin Board Software