1969 Torino

[badmatt]

The jackstand army....

[Rick D]

Nice write up there Rob, with Bret not posting as much we need some more detailed post like yours! Oh I don't remember you posting about all this powder coating.

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by badmatt

The jackstand army....

I'm with you on that brother.

Originally Posted by Rick D

Nice write up there Rob, with Bret not posting as much we need some more detailed post like yours! Oh I don't remember you posting about all this powder coating.

I appreciate the compliment but although I am taller, more charming and better looking than Brett he is far more talented in the build thread department.

How about a post on getting to this point and what a floater really is.

Just remember with a Floater like my Speedway or a Howe you need to make sure your wheel centers are bored enough to clear the large hub. I've heard of people having issues with wheel builders over this. Not in my case my wheels are coming from one of the best in the race wheel bussiness but I have heard about it happening to others.



First. a lot of people talk about floaters and why one floater is better than another but you never really see a good technical write up. No chance of that happening from me either but I will give a little info on the Speedway Mod Lite floater I have and what I think something like a GMR is.

A floater has a dedicated hub outboard supported by bearings on the housing that is independent of the axle itself. The advantage to this is you can easily service the bearings and add some tension to them as they break in. If you have ever worked on the front of a solid axle 4x4 you have messed with something similar.

The housing end doesn't have a flanged bearing end like a normal rear housing. Instead of the smaller taper bearing inside the housing end the Floater has a smooth bearing surface and a threaded end. You can see in this picture the end and the inner TImken roller bearing. If I was final assembling this I would have some good quality grease on this bearing. For now I am just dry fitting everything to check my caliper to rotor clearances and shimming.

Yes you with a sharp eye will notice 3 allen headed cap screws and one grade 8 bolt holding the backing plate on. Remember this is test fit run.



Instead of the one small bearing there is a larger inner and outer bearing that sit in the opposing tapers of the hub and a large nut preloads the bearings.


Here you can see the hub. You see the tapered races on the inside of the hub.



With the inner bearing on you will seat the hub over the inner and then comes the outer bearing. again if I were actually building this there would be grease everywhere. The big difference (as far as I know because I don't have one) with a GMR or other floater is they use a Corvette hub that has a sealed bearing similar to the one on the front (or at least that is what I believe). Somebody who has one of those floaters jump in and tell their story.



With the outer bearing in (with grease) then comes a small thrust plate the nut and then a neat little locking device that keeps the nut from backing off. The retaining plate has a tab that fits in the keyway slot in the end of the housing and two small allen bolts are screwed into the nut positively retaining it.

[Matt@BOS]

Originally Posted by FETorino

How about a post on getting to this point and what a floater really is.

How about some decent quality pictures.

[Ron in SoCal]

Originally Posted by Matt.A

How about some decent quality pictures.

Yeah! And some safety wire on those rotors...

[67zo6Camaro]

Originally Posted by FETorino

I appreciate the compliment but although I am taller, more charming and better looking than Brett he is far more talented in the build thread department.

I appreciate that Rob and Rick. And you are correct Charming beats out talent, but you are doing a pretty good job here and I would also like to see more (maybe with a little clearer pictures). You know Iam a big fan of this build and one of your silent cheer leaders. Lol

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by Matt.A

How about some decent quality pictures.

You of all people

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Yeah! And some safety wire on those rotors...

Slow down there tiger. You know full well I'm not done with my rotors yet. Rotor assembly and Safety wire will be the next episode.

Originally Posted by 67zo6Camaro

I appreciate that Rob and Rick. And you are correct Charming beats out talent, but you are doing a pretty good job here and I would also like to see more (maybe with a little clearer pictures). You know Iam a big fan of this build and one of your silent cheer leaders. Lol

The nice thing is I can always stop by on the way home from the office and get some build advice from the talented guy. Thanks BC. Now get back to the Skunkworks project.

[67zo6Camaro]

Originally Posted by FETorino

I'm with you on that brother.



I appreciate the compliment but although I am taller, more charming and better looking than Brett he is far more talented in the build thread department.

How about a post on getting to this point and what a floater really is.



First. a lot of people talk about floaters and why one floater is better than another but you never really see a good technical write up. No chance of that happening from me either but I will give a little info on the Speedway Mod Lite floater I have and what I think something like a GMR is.

A floater has a dedicated hub outboard supported by bearings on the housing that is independent of the axle itself. The advantage to this is you can easily service the bearings and add some tension to them as they break in. If you have ever worked on the front of a solid axle 4x4 you have messed with something similar.

The housing end doesn't have a flanged bearing end like a normal rear housing. Instead of the smaller taper bearing inside the housing end the Floater has a smooth bearing surface and a threaded end. You can see in this picture the end and the inner TImken roller bearing. If I was final assembling this I would have some good quality grease on this bearing. For now I am just dry fitting everything to check my caliper to rotor clearances and shimming.

Yes you with a sharp eye will notice 3 allen headed cap screws and one grade 8 bolt holding the backing plate on. Remember this is test fit run.



Instead of the one small bearing there is a larger inner and outer bearing that sit in the opposing tapers of the hub and a large nut preloads the bearings.


Here you can see the hub. You see the tapered races on the inside of the hub.



With the inner bearing on you will seat the hub over the inner and then comes the outer bearing. again if I were actually building this there would be grease everywhere. The big difference (as far as I know because I don't have one) with a GMR or other floater is they use a Corvette hub that has a sealed bearing similar to the one on the front (or at least that is what I believe). Somebody who has one of those floaters jump in and tell their story.



With the outer bearing in (with grease) then comes a small thrust plate the nut and then a neat little locking device that keeps the nut from backing off. The retaining plate has a tab that fits in the keyway slot in the end of the housing and two small allen bolts are screwed into the nut positively retaining it.

holly cow. were did all these extra pictures come from. I take back my prior comment. Nice. Keep going.

[Sieg]

Originally Posted by 67zo6Camaro

holly cow. were did all these extra pictures come from. I take back my prior comment. Nice. Keep going.

No need to take them back, we have photographic evidence to support them.

Looking real good Rob!

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by 67zo6Camaro

holly cow. were did all these extra pictures come from. I take back my prior comment. Nice. Keep going.

That's all for now.

I accomplished what I needed to do tonight and checked my caliper alignment. All the parts are back in the box and I'm the NET. I have 4 rotors to safety wire this week after work.

As a note on the caliper alignment. Wilwood has a good PDF set of instructions but I have heard of two instances where the stud in the radial bracket loosened up during use. I'm pretty sure I know why this would happen.

The Radial bracket is AL and the studs are threaded into it probably with locktite. Per the instructions Wilwood has you bolt the calipers on to check the pad depth measurement. The only nuts they give you are the self locking pinch style 12pts. Once you use these to torque down the caliper and then remove them to add or subtract shims the nut is working against the locktite on the stud.

How many times have you used a jamnut to remove a stud. Think about it it is the same thing just not as obvious. The pinch nut may not have enough grip to remove the stud like a jamnut but it is trying and in some cases probably loosens the locktites grip on the stud enough to start the probalem.

JMHO