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My G55k Adventure

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shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#131 » Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:29 pm

Quickly just wanted to report what the swivel balls look like after 2 weeks and ~1000 miles of driving.

The bluish Marine EP Grease has started to seep out, but the Passenger side still doesn't look good. Overall though, it looks like water is getting in and contaminating the grease, and not a torn CV boot. Any thoughts?

Driver's Side
2021-07-26 16.56.43.jpg


Passenger's Side
2021-07-26 16.57.11.jpg

The spitting grease is thinner than what is around the ball, but it's not watery or runny.

I also saw this area under the truck, seal between the engine and transmission seems to have a slow leak. Rear Main Seal?
2021-07-26 16.59.47.jpg


Last thing I checked was I had the wife in the truck turning the steering wheel left to right to look at all the suspension components to check for any odd motion. The only thing I could find was the Drag Link Passenger side ball joint had some strange up/down motion when switching left to right. I wasn't able to measure the motion, but did go back later with a clamp and calipers to measure ball joint play and found it was ~1mm. Could this be the culprit to my weird cabin/steering vibration issues? (Arrow signifies the direction I saw the ball joint moving when switching left to right)
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Currently, I'm trying to get a set of radius arm caster correction poly bushings along with radius arm to frame bushings to replace before I set off for my 2500 mile roadtrip to FL and back.

Also, does anyone have any recommendation for shops that know the W463 well? I called up Wolfgang's and they are fully booked and can't see me until September.

Thanks for any tips and suggestions.
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

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speedkills
Posts: 1110
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Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#132 » Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:55 pm

Any chance instead of water it is diff fluid leaking out into the swivel ball and mixing with the grease?

shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#133 » Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:06 pm

speedkills wrote:Any chance instead of water it is diff fluid leaking out into the swivel ball and mixing with the grease?


I'm not sure how I would check that but I guess anything is possible? Could this mean an axle/differential seal then?

I smelled the black grease and it didn't smell like anything, considering Diff fluid usually has a pretty pungent smell.

I should check the diff fluid level anyway so I'll try to do that this weekend. The previous owner had all the differential fluids changed at around 80k miles but it won't hurt to get in there myself.

Thanks for the tip!
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

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jackxter
Posts: 909

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#134 » Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:48 am

"Also, does anyone have any recommendation for shops that know the W463 well? I called up Wolfgang's and they are fully booked and can't see me until September.

Thanks for any tips and suggestions."

-Kraft German Auto in Brooklyn might be an option. They have worked on my 461 & 463.
-Jack

shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#135 » Tue Jul 27, 2021 5:32 am

jackxter wrote:"Also, does anyone have any recommendation for shops that know the W463 well? I called up Wolfgang's and they are fully booked and can't see me until September.

Thanks for any tips and suggestions."

-Kraft German Auto in Brooklyn might be an option. They have worked on my 461 & 463.


Thanks for the recommendation Jack. Set up an appointment for next week to look things over.
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#136 » Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:13 pm

I got some nice weather today and got to inspect at the CV boots on both sides, as well as look for a few mystery rattles going on.

Truck up and the wheels off. Seems like this happens every weekend now.
Image

Grease inside is still blue which is a good sign. I dug in there with my finger and it did get more greyish but no sloppy mess. With the wheels off, access to the fill ports was significantly easier, as well as cleaning the swivel balls.
Image

I took the wheels off so that I could feel the boots and rotate the assembly so I could feel all around the boot. DIDN'T FEEL ANY RIPS OR TEARS. That's quite a relief.
Image

After inspecting the CV boots, I realized that the grease was pretty low, even though I pumped about half a tube in each a few weeks back and stopped when it reached the fill port. I filled the swivel ball up to the fill port again and cycled the steering full left to right lock and checked again. Turns out doing this levels out the grease in the ball and the grease level was still really low. I proceeded to pump a whole tube in each side. Whenever I reached the fill port, I turned the steering wheel to the opposite lock, then switched sides to fill again. Did this 3 times and think I filled them up pretty good.

I'll continue to monitor them over the next few weeks. Hoping the OE grease that was in there was just at the end of its life and breaking down/mixing with some water and turning to sludge.

What is the consensus on the complete ring swipe seals vs the split-type seals? I'm confident I can do the split-type without too much difficulty but am more hesitant to pull the whole axle out. I'm also working outside so that may not be the best idea. I realize the split-type will probably not be as good as the solid type and may only last a few years, but that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make if it seals up the swivel balls better than now.

Next up is the Radius Arms.

I ordered Caster Correction Radius Arm bushings from Jack @JackWagonOverlanding that should get here any day.
I need to place a small order from Vlad @fourbyfourclub now for the radius arm to chassis bushings and the whole front will be set.
I also ordered a new front drag link from FCPEuro since I have some weird vertical play in one of the tie rods. Hoping this is the actual source of my steering/cabin vibrations.

Cheers!
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#137 » Thu Aug 05, 2021 7:59 pm

Just a quick update.

I stopped by the Mercedes specialists recommended by Jack in Brooklyn, NY. Great little shop. They were super busy at 9AM and seemed very knowledgeable about exactly what needed to be done to replace the swipe seals. They recommended to replace all the other seals, as well as CV boots. The price was, ok course, high, but expected. I won't be having this service performed just to seal up the swivel balls a little bit more, but will just keep an eye on the swivel ball grease leakage, as well as changing the diff fluid to make sure the inner axle seals are not failing.

I've been gathering a bunch of goodies over the past month in anticipation of a front suspension teardown to finish replacing all the bushings.
2021-08-05 23.28.35.jpg


Caster Correction Eccentric Bushings from Jack @JackWagonOverlanding
Thrust/Radius Arm to Frame Bushings from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Interior Door Handle Bolt Rubber Covers from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Swaybar Endlink Bushings from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Swaybar Mounting Bushings (updated design with shoulder) from Vlad @Fourbyfourclub
Rear Panhard Bar Bushings from Vlad @ Fourbyfourclub
Front Drag Link from FCPEuro

All of these updates better fix all my front suspension/steering issues!

I won't be tackling these until a few weeks from now but will document the process.

Cheers!
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

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apple
Posts: 1768

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#138 » Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:08 pm

Turning into one epic thread, nice work as always!

shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#139 » Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:30 pm

A member reached out inquiring about the fan cooled resistor packs I designed a while back when installing my LED headlights. I had 3D printed all the parts and purchased all of the components, but had never gotten around to assembling them nor installing them.

He was running into the same issue with LED headlights as I was, the headlight computer turning off the headlights after not seeing the correct current draw. (Originally a halogen equipped vehicle).

This was the design I have had in my truck for the past year. They work fine but do still get hot.
Passive Headlight Heatsink.JPG
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This is the updated design, with 2x the load resistors, 2x the heatsinks, and 2x fans to actively push air across the heat sinks.
Active Headlight Heatsink.JPG
Active Headlight Heatsink.JPG (81.4 KiB) Viewed 75 times


So I finally was able to carve out some time to make him a set and documented it as a potential solution for others who decide to run LED headlights (switching from a halogen equipped truck) that are running into the same issue.

So this was the first time I was able to partially pull in the G to the new house garage (It was finally clean and organized enough), but still can't pull it all the way in as the garage door isn't tall enough.
Lowering the brush guard was quick with my bolt-lock washer combo.
2021-08-22 21.56.22.jpg

2021-08-22 21.43.14.jpg


The original resistor packs have held up fine overall and I have not had any issue with them over the past year. They did get surprisingly dirty though.
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Last edited by shiann on Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

shiann
Posts: 1092

Re: My G55k Adventure

Post#140 » Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:35 pm

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Cleaned up some wiring hacks from previous owners. I plan to swap the side marker connectors over to a waterproof 2-pin barrel style, but didn't have them at the moment, so temporarily decided to just direct solder them.
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I replaced the sidemarker bulbs and turn signal bulbs with LEDs I sourced from SuperBrightLEDs.com. They fit and worked, although I do sometimes get a bulb-out warning. I think adding in a load resistor to this circuit will solve the issue though.
2021-08-23 01.41.16.jpg
2021-08-23 01.41.16.jpg (89.51 KiB) Viewed 71 times
2005 G55k – Mildly Modded/Restored Family Hauler
2005 Volvo S60 T5 M66 – IPD DP, exhaust, sways, R-brembos, FC04A, KW V2
2007 FSAE Auto-X Racecar
IG: shiann_builds

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