Clay’s Wedgewood Blue FB Ute

[In the Shed]

Good job Clay. See you snuck the heater water valve neatly under the dash.

Stephen

[Errol62]

During the'24 nats aftercruise, the car started making an awful metal to metal squeaking noise, apparently rom the front right quarter somewhere. I suspected the rim to hub contact. I couldn't see any defect in the rim without pulling it off, which I was reluctant to attempt, due to a loose stud. One of the studs had got a bit sloppy in its knurled hole in the hub. Re-torquing the nuts during the trip, it jumped the splines and couldn't be properly torqued. I had been noticing that after fitting the HT rims on the hubs, with 3mm alloy spacers, the nuts seemed not o be maintaining the specified torque of 55ftlb.

I removed literally everything from the car after it came home from CEVA to dry and clean. The squeak was still evident taking the car out for a run with nothing on board.

The spinning nut came off easily with the rattle gun. You can see the marks where the spacer and hub were most likely causing the sound in the photo below.
The spacer to wheel contact seems to be good.
I think the underlying problem is running the 14" steel rims on the HR hub. I have had some issues with this on a previous car, which I put down to incorrect wheel nut taper, using the FE HK nuts on HT rims. That was many years ago, but at the time, I considered that this hub to rim compatibility issue had contributed. I didn't wise up to the wheelnuts until much later.

I had all good intentions of removing the hub and doing a proper repair, but in the end I turned up the mig to all but, and placed a few judicious tack welds. Then I slapped the chromies back on.
I will put the steelys to rest or now. I will try them without the spacers next time. The only issue is that I won't enable to run the XU-1 caps, but that is ok.

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[Errol62]

Thanks Stephen, yes, it works really well. Good old B.L. Shipway. I did it when I put the SUs on.

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[EK283]

Hi Clay,

Your steel on steel HR control arm bushes got plenty of grease ? I had a squeak like that once then it mysteriously went away, and then i noticed the bush broken clean through. It had welded itself together.

Greg

[Errol62]

Thanks for the suggestion Greg. I gave the car a full lube 5000km ago before I set out to Bunbury, but it is a possibility. I will check it out if a test drive doesn’t solve the issue.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Errol62]

Well, that wasn't it....

Greg is on to something. This bugger won't take any grease. Nipple checked.
I will do some research.....

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[Brett027]

Greg is a cluey dude.

[Errol62]

There are a few of them on here, yourself included Brett. Long live the forum!

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[Errol62]

I wound the offending bush out as far as I could without disengaging the taper, and pumped a lot of grease in. Torqued back up to 50 ftlb. Try agin.

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[Errol62]

Noise didn’t change. It sounds like panel to panel.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Brett027]

What is your torsion bar doing?

[EK283]

Process of elimination clay.

The only other thing i can think of is the subframe to firewall moving as the square edge can sometimes rub. If you look into the engine bay where the sealer normally goes, the subframe may just touch on the edge and squeak.
Other than the panels themselves you will need to look at everything.
Bretts question relating to the swaybar could also be the culprit, especially the bushes to subframe.

No more ideas here.

Greg

[Errol62]

Thanks fellas. Good ideas.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[ehsv6]

In the worst case the pivot pin could be moving.

[Errol62]

I don’t think it is in the suspension. I managed to get grease in all the driver side suspension points. I will tighten every fastener I can get to. I also need to look at the rear bushes, though I only replaced them about 12000 miles ago. We went for a run through the hills today and the car is otherwise running very well. I still need to fit the tramp rods also.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie