Question for Grady Clay

[Squidprorow]

Grady,

Thanks for the help with the front spindle o-ring! I ordered the puller and was able to remove inner race and replace o-ring. What the heck does this o-ring do? When I look at the whole thing I can't figure out why it's there.

If you have time and choose to explain.

Thanks dude

Squid

[Peter Zimmermann]

It appears that Mr. Clay must not be available, please permit me to answer. The o-ring is P-car overkill, and insures that no leakage will occur; water one direction, grease the other. Imagine if the seal race was machined as part of the spindle (one piece), then imagine an old bearing grease seal wearing a groove into it. This would present an incredibly expensive problem requiring strut/spindle replacement, vehicle alignment, etc. If the seal race on a P-car strut becomes worn, all that needs to be done is race replacement, along with a new o-ring of course. Nice solution, and evidence as to why "early" P-cars live so long without senseless failure; dedication to sweating the details.

[Squidprorow]

Thanks Peter,

Squid

[NOLAsc]

Good to have Peter here. And Grady. And Formerly Steve Wilkinson. And the Spirit of Warren. And....

[996 esquire]

Originally Posted by NOLAsc

... and Formerly Steve Wilkinson....

Formerly gone, and presumed operating under another handle.
Bob S.

[KTL]

A tip for reinstalling the spindle collar is to heat it up a bit with a heat gun. It's a fairly light press fit, so not a whole lot of heat is needed to make it slip on smoothly. W/out heat you are driving it on cold, with a good bit of force/pounding and that's just not a good idea because you could gouge the spindle surface or slightly cock the collar while driving it on.

Heat also helps with removal, which reduces the amount of cranking you need to do on the two-jaw puller. Pullers concern me when you don't have a good bite on the pulling surface. In this case, your puller jaws are making minimal contact with the edges of the collar. So you want to be cautious and make sure the puller is well aligned to pull straight.

Simply put the puller on there, snug it down fairly tight to "preload" the collar. Evenly heat the collar and you'll hear a pop when the collar begins to move. From there you can keep applying mild heat while you crank on the puller to draw off the collar.

[Squidprorow]

Thanks Kevin,

I ended up taking a punch from behind to get the race moving a little. Once it moved 1/8 inch or so it was easy to get the jaws of the puller attached,

Happy to say I put the whole thing together today, just need to bleed and hope I did everything right.

Squid