First the easy one. About the Triumph master cylinder cap that said "Use
only DOT-3" or whatever, there is good chance that is not the original cap!
Now the hard one. My new differential came via UPS yesterday, and as luck
would have it, it was also the first day I've had to start pulling the old
one out. (British Auto Salvage in Macedon, N.Y. supplied it, inspected it
via the stub-axle holes, and re-assembled it. Nice job, good unit. It has
about 1/50 the free play as my current one and feels real smooth!) I tried
pulling the old one and no go. Everything came out fine except the long
lateral bolt that holds the back end. The nut came off okay but one end of
the bolt (closest to the bolt head on the right side of the car) seems to be
frozen into the metal sleeve in the inner diameter of the bushing. I can't
get any real force on it because when I crank the bolt head, it just torques
up the rubber bushing.
This, by the way, is exactly like the problem "we" had with the diff that is
in the car now, when it was taken out of a rusted heap. The guy who pulled
it ended up cutting the frame sections (the frame had cracked from rust), and
even when I had it on my workbench, I couldn't get the danged bolt out. I
ended up twisting the bolt so hard that it sheared the rubber bushing and I
had to cut the bolt *and* bushing sleeves out with a hand-held hacksaw blade.
(Then I had to put new bushings in, which was no picnic either.) When the
Tri-State Triumphs guy installed this diff, I asked him about how much trouble
it was, and he said "Oh, none, the bolt just came right out!" My car has
practically no rust and minimal corrosion underneath, and sees little or no
road water. That bolt was put in just about a year ago. So why am I having
such trouble now? The bushings were new, but I guess I don't know about the
state of the bolt when he put it in, nor whether he greased it with anything.
More importantly, what would you folks suggest I try to get it out? I have
tried squirting Liquid Wrench on it, but I don't know how well it can get in
to that joint. I have tried pounding on the other end of the bolt via a long
bar, to jolt the bushing sleeve against the frame section. I can see only one
solution that is certain to work but I don't want to try it. That is to cut
it out. There is enough space on either side of the mounting flange to get a
hacksaw blade up there, but no space to work a saws-all unless it is a small
one. (I have a little reciprocating Skil saw that might fit but it has a hard
enough time even cutting wood!) With enough swearing and eating metal flakes,
I can probably cut it out. I am going to try again tonight, but I'd like to
be armed with a few more idea than just the obvious ones that don't work. Have
any of you Spitfire or GT-6 hackers ever had to solve this one?
Thanks,
Jim Muller
muller@market.alliant.com
508-486-1290 work
617-891-0258
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