MK5 LWB SPARE WHEEL CARRIER!!

[fordmaniac]

hiya lads, is there anyone out there who has had trouble with the spare wheel carrier under the back end of there van. mine is rusted solid and not sure how to free it without wrecking it altogether. has anyone got a diagram of the mechanism cos i would like to keep this working, its not shown anywhere in the haynes manual, or is there a thread on this so i can read it?
any help appreciated cheers

[BigNeil]

if you search this forum there are picture i think author gemini had some up a while ago

[mr T]

hi there ,i did mine with great difficulty ,i used a hack saw to cut the locking lever i didnt have the long handel so had to use a ratchet with a 15 mm socket and it took ages

[vellas]

I had the same problem with the one on my mk5 190 chassis cab. I unbolted the carrier from the chassis to find the winding nut completely seized and rounded over. I managed to get it unseized by first filing the nut down to accept a 12 point 14mm socket and breaking the plastic bit off that sits underneath it. Once the plastic surround is off you can access a hole in the unit that the winding mechanism lives behind. I sprayed shitloads of WD40 in there and cranked the nut to get it moving again. After winding and unwinding the unit a couple of times I managed to get it loosened up. I then sawed off the 'O' shaped bit of the lever that goes over the winding nut so that I could hammer a six-point 14mm socket onto the nut. I used epoxy resin to help keep the socket in place perminently. Removing the 'O' shaped part of the safety lever to allow the socket to be permently attached meant that I have to tie a wire to the other end of the lever that has the hook on it, so I can release the hook by pulling that instead. Gave the whole unit a rubdown with a wire brush to get off the rust, gave it a coat of primer and a topcoat of some red spraypaint I had laying around, taped over the hole next to the nut with duck tape and bolted the thing back onto the van. I can now use a rachet with a long extension bar to raise and lower the wheel. I never had the Ford winding tool to start with, but it would have been useless anyway with the rounded nut. I remember phoning my local Ford dealer for a replacement carrier and being quoted £117!!!

[floyd]

Hi everyone,

I just woke up to a punctured wheel and am trying to get the spare removed from underneath the van.

I have searched around quite a bit but cannot find what the correct procedure should be to remove the thoroughly rusted part. (circled red)

The wind-down mechanism worked fine, the spare wheel drops down and the nipple was easily twisted and removed due to a handy plastic cover keeping it all nice and clean for the last ten years.

But, the other part (a safety tether?) is rusted quite badly. The whole thing turns freely within the wheel itself (after a load of WD40) but the cable doesn't allow it to rotate past the nipple connection in the middle of the wheel. The photo below should show what I mean.

Am I supposed to be able to undo the top (circled red) or undo the cable connector itself. I don't want to force the wrong bit so any advice about how this *should* look/operate would be greatly appreciated?