I've always liked the Merak's wheels better than the Bora's. I've never liked the hub caps, mine doesn't have them.
Yes wiring harness, gauges and lord knows what else. Probably cheaper to just buy the Bora! No back seats though ...
Two hours of work.... Love how easy it is to wrench on.. The less easy part will be to get that rusty-looking inner threaded hub sleeve off... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Perhaps you take to your service shop and they can use an impact wrench on it. I didn't have that option when I did mine during my restoration. I got an 8ft section 1.5" steel pipe, slipped over my breaker bar and while I secured the wrench my wife stood on the end of the pipe. But the right ring nut socket for it. Of course I had the engine and subframe out of the car. You just need to come up with a good way to secure the assembly for that 200+ ft lbs required. There's felt and brass cover seal in there. One of mine had a bad dent presumably done during a poor assembly/manufacturing process. My car had very low miles but I want the engine and all the mechanicals to look nice and be protected form the elements. Maybe taking it to your Citroen mechanic is the best idea ... My uprights were a very rough casting and they anodized them in a gold color. They always looked like crap because the rough casting held all the dirt so well ... So I had them powder coated in a very similar looking gold and that worked terrifically. Have fun!
Your wife is a keeper: brave and tolerant! My gf would do that...never..omg ...she might break a nail;-)
Thanks, I fabricated the extraction tool (see below) from a 1-5/8" socket and used a heavy 3/4 drive impact wrench to convince the keeper to spin off.. It was stuck but good, plus it has a slotted "locking" feature. Removed the washer. Then tapped the center hub up and off the splined drive shaft. The dust rings unbolted easily w 10mm wrench, revealing the inner sealed bearing. The fun part starts now: I'll find out of I can tap the splined center shaft out of the inner bearing races, or if I have to use a press. After that's out, I should have full access to the press out the bearings themselves. I think my casting was refinished in silver paint, or left raw aluminum.. The 'gold' anodizing you mention, it appears I have some left behind the dust plate in the second photo below. What's your opinion? Cheers, - Art Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well ... it's been a lot of years but You're lucky the modify a socket worked. I tried that on my Espada and the prongs just bent but good for you! Perhaps yours just wasn't all that tight? I don't recall ever finding a spec of wife must stand on 8 ft of pipe spec anywhere. Is there felt in there anywhere? If not then they changed how they did this from yours to mine or it's missing. Sorry but I can't remember enough detail to know for certain except that mine had felt and a brass cover. I totally disassembled it so that I could powder coat it.
Italian wife or American wife spec? LOL - oh, it was on tight - have you ever seen a 3/4" drive impact wrench? It's the size of a small child. I'll be reconditioning the lug studs for my trouble, they bore the brunt of the impacts, I didn't protect them well enough clamped in the vice. No, I didn't find any felt, or remnants thereof. The assembly did have two cadmium-plated dust rings layered under the inner hub. They match up with the components listed in the exploded view of Table 18, but I'll check the Italian descriptions and see if anything translates to 'felt'. Cheers, - Art
She'd have to be to stay married to me for this long ... and vice versa! She's helped me pull engines, bleed brakes ... and she was my pit crew when I ran my race car. I have friend whose wife does the exact same thing. She helped him restore his Pantera. She really IS Italian. They're out there ... shop carefully and order up a PPI!
Lol good for you, very impressive well done My type is more the sixties wife gf time keeper on pitwall writing down laptimes and lost in her thoughts behind her big sunglasses...but then again I don't really like working on cars, to each his own oh and I don't do PPI, more LBIL (lightning bolt instant love)
Finished the Bora's rear wheel bearings in about 4 hours on Wednesday morning. Reference Table 18 for part numbers. All went smoothly. I could now do it in less time on the other side. DISASSEMBLY NOTES: - Unbolt and set aside brake and handbrake calipers. Do not disconnect! - Pull the hub assembly on Table 18 by removing emissions cartridge and installed spring compressor on main spring #6, then removing allen bolts #67 at drive shaft, bolt #4 at lower shock perch, and hub bolts #42. - Remove locking end nut #48 using a tool made from carefully chosen socket with 3/4" drive. - Fabricate a cradle to support the hub #56 on the through-bolts #42, dimensioned such that the surfaces being pressed are held plumb level and shafts kept vertical. - Index and remove the brake rotor. - Put the hub & cradle in the 20ton press and press out the center shaft #60 with easy effort. - Inspect inner surfaces of bearing #54, spacer #55 and bearing #57, check for evidence of bargain wear or damage. - Notice the bearings #54 and #57 sandwich the spacer #55 tightly. (*see NOTES below). - Flip the hub, and tap off the friction-fit dust cover #58. - Insert an appropriately sized socket to reach the tapered portion of spacer #55. - Press out the inner bearing #54 with tapered spacer #55. - Flip the hub again and insert an appropriately sized pipe or socket to press out outer bearing #57. - Reverse the procedure. REASSEMBLY NOTES: - Press bearing #54 into hub #56. - Place the spacer #55 in the hub. It floats freely. - I reinstalled bearing #57 with 'parts-lock' adhesive on the hub seat. There was evidence of original adhesive, so I did the same in the reassembly. There was no evidence of this on bearing #54. - Verify the bearings #54 and #57 are seated firmly. *- Upon reassembly, there was about 1mm freeplay* at the spacer sandwiched between begins #54 and #57. - Reinstall dust cover #58 on hub #56. - Insert and press center spline shaft #60 in through both bearings. - Measure amount of shaft #60 that extends past the face of bearing #54. *- I had 2.081" originally. With new bearings I measured only 2.061". This seems to be where the 1mm freeplay is occurring. - Install keeper and dust plates #53 and #52 and 10mm lock nuts #65. - I had not indexed inner flange hub #50 to the center spline shaft #60. - Therefore - place the inner hub flange #50 carefully on spline shaft #60 and rotate while you find the best "seat" for it. - Do not press #50 onto #60. If you must use a press, something is wrong. Pull #50 and #60 apart and try again until you find the best "seat" such that #50 can be tapped in place on #60 with a mallet. - Insert cuff #49 on spline shaft #60. - Thread the locking end nut #48 onto the spline shaft #60 and use special tool to tighten down until it stops hard. - Use a strong "breaker bar" to tighten the end nut #48 onto spline shaft #60. You may feel some movement of the assembly. * - I believe this is the tightening of the bearings to the spacer #55 and is closing the 1mm freeplay. - As you tighten #48 check that bearings remain rotating smoothly and freely. Overtightening #48 will be felt by the bearings starting to bind. - The reassembly of hub is now complete. Reinstall the hub assembly. - Inspect and seat the upper and lower A-arm guides (#32 - #38) properly. - Bolt the hub to the lower shock spring perch. - Bolt the drive shaft CV joint to the inner hub flange #50. - Bolt the hub to the upper A-arm perch. - Bolt the hub to the lower A-arm perch. - Bolt brake and handbrakes calipers back on. - Release spring compressor installed on main spring #6. - Reinstall emissions cartridge near the upper shock and spring perch in the engine bay. Viola! Photos: 1. Cradle for hub assembly, dimensioned such that the shafts are held vertically and bearings plumb level. 2. Inner bearing #54, spacer #55 and sockets used top press them out. 3. Inside hub #56 with all bearings and spacer removed. 4. Close up of hub #56 and the seat for outer bearing #57 and evidence of 'parts lock' adhesive. 5. Hub assembly in its cradle ready to be put back on the A-arms. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Art, Very good step by step write up. What symptoms did your Bora have that prompted you to replace the rear wheel bearings ? Now that the old bearings are out and you have examined them ... did they really need to be replaced? Ivan
Thanks for asking Ivan, excellent question. The bearings were OK, except the outer #57 had lost grease and the rollers were rattling in their cage. But - the symptom is still present. I'm going to look at the the rear subframe isolators next - Table 16, parts 27. Do you know their failure mode? ...they collapse, letting the steel frame touch the chassis? Does your archive contain replacement procedure? Read on. The symptom is an intermittent and growing slight grinding/vibrating sensation and noise that transmits through the chassis, when driving straight and becomes stronger turning left. The sensation comes primarily to my foot on the throttle pedal. Nothing is felt through the steering. The sensation/sound disappears on right turns, which I interpreted as off-loading a wheel bearing. Suspected the rears since there is no change in sensation coming through the steering. - Visual inspection of the rear showed cracked and disintegrating bushings at the rear suspension. So I thought that was steel coming in contact with steel and making the vibration. So I replaced all rear suspension bushings, last summer. No change. The symptoms slowly got worse. - I lifted the rear off the ground in Neutral and rolled the wheels, then felt slight bumps when rotating the rear passenger-side wheel. Decided it was bad bearings. The bearings themselves didn't look or feel bad in my hand, but grease was coming out of the outer wheel bearing #57 and it rattled when spun quickly, so becoming empty of grease, it was time to replace that one. The inner bearing #54 looked and felt fine. The symptom is still present. Next up are the rear subframe mounts - Table 16, part 27. What do you think? Cheers, - Art
What about a chassis crack? I would investigate that possibility. It should be visible i.e. a point of rubbing should show...but just barely. Could also be a suspension anchoring point beginning to come loose. I hasten to say I have not heard of such a thing happen on a Bora but it is possible and the symptoms you mention are possibly consistent with that.
Yes my one regret for the Classiche Masters book is that in the twelve workshops there was not an ongoing Bora restoration when we visited however Marcus Limacher (of the eponymous garage near Luzern, Switzerland) told us about the challenge of that one he had done some time before. In 2006 when I was in Modena I supervised the restoration of another Bora for a client at Candini, a car that had sat unused for years in Canada, that was interesting. Of course they did a masterful job
Beautiful work. It appears the engine was installed before the car is painted. I would have thought the body would be painted first before installing that nice looking engine and rear suspension. Ivan
Hi Ivan, I think he might just have been positioning it to make sure everything would be in place, just like doing a body work dry fitting to check all fits just so. I don't see him cutting corners In any case the engine bay is already prepped/painted black in the photo. As mentioned that was before our visits, I did not see the car.
When you look at the tops of the rear A-arms with the car on the ground are they horizontal or do they tilt upwards? The rear springs on Boras sagged over time so perhaps that's what has happend? Some people installed spacers to compensate mine never have. I've never had those sort of issues but my car is lower mileage. It's an incredibly robust body and chassis, tank like. The exact opposite of a Miura or my Biturbo Maseratis. My Ghibli Open Cup cracked a "frame rail" near the firewall right next to the turbo wastegate. That's a race car with under 2,500 miles on it! A well known problem for Ghibli IIs. But the Bora ... I was in Nevada driving very fast on Highway 50 just after dusk once and I think we were doing 135? Having a glorious run when I saw this little sign along the side of the road about half the size of stop sign. I slowed a bit but ... TOO LATE it said "caution new paving" ! The new layer of asphalt was about 3-4 inches thick with almost no transition approach. I think I had knocked about 15 mph off but at 120 mph the cacophony of sound from all four suspension corners getting slammed was amazing. I stopped and check as best I could at the time, all four tires, rims and found nothing. No pressure lost in the tires. Another distinct advantage of using 60 series tires. The next morning we got it into a garage on a lift and I could find no damage at all. Nothing back at home either. Bora ... a true and exceptional road warrior. Except when it's hot out. Or when it's very cold like 20F. The tires on that suspension make the car suddenly mysteriously twitchy. Very atypical for that car. I though something had gone wrong but no.
