caled Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 (edited) So, thought Id help a mate out by helping to change over the front discs on his focus. Jacked up car, took wheels off, all good. Undo 7mm allen bolts that hold the calipers on, came off easy. Pull caliper off. Pull disc off. Clean up hub of rust and new disc of grease, copper grease where the disc sits and pop that on. Put caliper back on. Clean up rather dirty slide pins and grease them up. Try to screw them back in to position. Not having any of it. Hmm.Checked are they aligned right, yup. Odd. Disassemble caliper again, check over slide pins, threads a bit knackered on one but nothing too serious. Try assembling again. Still no joy. Take caliper back off, try just screwing in slide pins in to the hub. The thread that the pins screw in to on the hub are completely gone. Rusted through. The pin just slides in... and then right back out again. The only thing thats holding the caliper on to the car, was not secured at all. Check out the other side, and the slide pins are held solid (albeit covered in crap). My mate then divulges that he had the pads changed only in november - surely theres no way the hub threads have completely disappeared in 4 months?! And how did they manage to torque the slide pins in to that hub with no thread? He's been complaining that the brakes have been crap since the pads were changed, hence why we were changing the discs over (vibrating on braking, and checked it wasnt the abs). Turns out that its probably because they were being held on by rust. Anyone else heard of this? At least we know why the slide pins practically fell out when we removed the dust covers. And the work of the geniuses at Ford mean we may end up replacing the whole bleeding hub, and doing so second hand means its a game of chance as to whether a. those threads will hold with time and b. whether the wheel bearing is any good. Stolen this from another site, the two holes on the right of the diagram are what the slide pins screw in to, the two 'arms' next to them are what the pad 'lugs' rest on. Great bit of kit, eh? http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/VirtualWrench/2011-06-12_224121_brng.jpg Crap day. Edited March 18, 2012 by caled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scort_CVH Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 hmm my mate said he changed a calliper on a focus and the thread was pumped, i assumed he was being a t*at and screwed the sliders in squint or something as ive done them before with no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahmotorsport Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Jesus lol! Never had this. I remember once, with the Focus we run, it came in from a race, jacked it up to check the wheel bearings and the wheel fell off. The sheer torque of it and ripped the splines out the hub and knocked the whole nut/thread off the end of the driveshaft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caled Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 Bloody hell, the wheel fell off?! lol. Not a chance in hell that we foobared the thread, the slide pins nigh on fell out and the threads in the hub were rusted to buggery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahmotorsport Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Bloody hell, the wheel fell off?! lol. Not a chance in hell that we foobared the thread, the slide pins nigh on fell out and the threads in the hub were rusted to buggery.Yeah lol. One more harsh corner that Focus would have been binned! Crikey, can't believe that, you'd think Ford would spot it when they changed the pads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JC Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Could you not use a thread repair kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig855S Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 I also recomend seeing if you can helicoil the threads in the hub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caled Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 Aye, thats the option we're currently looking at. Garage nearby reckon they can do it for £25 a side, and finish off the disc change whilst they're at it. Plus that way its out of our hands, or as a certain Douglas Adams would put it, "SEP". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hicksy Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 It would be cheaper to just get new hubs from another focus from a breakers, if you were closer i probably have some you could have had. Any focus other than an ST will have the same hubs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScORTED Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 modern design and manufacturing :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidrick Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Sure whoever did the brakes in November hasn't used an air gun putting those bolts back on and stripped the thread? I've never seen this part rot through on any car. I'd get replacements rather than re-tapping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caled Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 To end this story, my mate got the car collected from his this morning. The garage have helicoiled the hubs, swapped the remaining disc over in the meantime and replaced all of the slide pins. Jobs a good'un, apparently. Either way, the brakes should be more secure than they were. As a matter of interest, how much would a wheel bearing replacement likely cost if the hub was already off the car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahmotorsport Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 To end this story, my mate got the car collected from his this morning. The garage have helicoiled the hubs, swapped the remaining disc over in the meantime and replaced all of the slide pins. Jobs a good'un, apparently. Either way, the brakes should be more secure than they were. As a matter of interest, how much would a wheel bearing replacement likely cost if the hub was already off the car?Pense i'd have thought. Half hour job maximum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caled Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Then Id probably have bought a second hand hub and refurbed it, if the threads rusting is an uncommon problem. Either way, done now. At least the brakes are attached to the car now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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