How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Phil Waterman]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

Just re reading the manual section on the steering knuckles. Two questions come up for me.

#7 (yellow) mentions installing a new “retainer pin”. What is this pin retaining?

#2 (red) “pack the steering ball socket”. Just how much do I pack in there? Any pictures of how much?

Hi Jordan

#7 The pin locates the center ball, without the pin the whole thing sort of falls apart as you try to put into the housing. Sort of like one of those Chinese wooden puzzles where you pull out one piece and it falls apart.

#8 how much grease- As much as you can get to stick to it, memory says there is a service bulletin that lists a weight of grease which I'll look for. The manual says to add grease, at service intervals, through the plug, but that to me is putting the new grease on the out side of the moving parts so I have a tube can insert through that plug into the center of the ball so that new grease gets pumped in to the center of the works.

Really enjoy watching your progess.

Cheers Phil

[Jordan Baker]

Hi Phil

I did not mean the pin that the centre ball sits on as referenced to in step 1. There is another pin that is driven in. It dissects the shaft below where the centre pin sits.

[Jordan Baker]

So I reread the relevant sections and I think the retaining pin now makes sense me. Does it keep the centring pin from dropping down into the axle? Once that retaining pin is out the centring can drop down and the centre ball can now fall out. Initially I believed that the retaining pin actually held the centring pin in tight. This was my confusion.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Jordan


I believe you are correct the second or cross pin holds the center pin from backing out in the passage and letting the center ball loose.


Will have to look at my disassembly pictures to see if I can find something of uses.


Cheers Phil

[Jordan Baker]

Today I got a bit of time in the shop. Everything started off well as my bulk order of grease nipples arrived and a tap and die in 3/4-16 for cleaning the threads on the connecting rod pins. (thanks Amazon two day free shipping).

I made up one of the handy greasing bolts as described by Phil Waterman for adding new grease to the 928 bearings. I soaked them in some cleaner to get the old grease loosened up inside. A few squirts of the grease gun and they were freshly greased.

Then things turned frustrating. I went to install the bearings into the knuckles and one went in fine. The second one would not go in straight and kept binding. 1hr later and I’ve called it quits.

[rob love]

Put the bearing in the freezer, and warm up the knuckle with the propane torch. It really does make a difference.



There are induction heaters that we use for heating bearings before installation onto shafts. Same principles.

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll give that a try.