Hi Folks,
Well, as promised, I must report on the solution to my
vibrational problem that I had on my MGB. Yes, I know it's taken me a
while to get round to sorting it all out, but I think you might be
interested in the results. For those who cannot remember the thread,
my MGB was vibrating quite severely between 35-45mph (I think this
range was actually increasing all the time). Well, having checked most
of the "easier" possible causes - engine mounts, wheel balancing
weights, exhaust, lost bolts etc - I finally had to inspect the
U-joints. My preliminary inspection revealed some pretty sloppy joints
and I was sure that I had found the problem - relieving, but
frustrating.
Anyway, I had no problem getting new joints from a local
supplier, but had to wait more than a week before I managed to combine
some time and reasonable weather to crawl beneath and sort out the
problem. My first task was to get the driveshaft out - open ended
spanners being the only possible tool for the job and I soon began to
chew up the "buttery" nuts. So I decided to soak the nuts in
lubricating oil and wait for the next fine day. Well about 3 days
later, I managed to grab a gap in the drizzly "British" weather and
found myself on my back collecting chunks of dirt in my eyes again.
The lubrication worked well and I was able to get the driveshaft out
fairly easily. I inspected the amount of play in the joint again - and
it seemed worse than ever - about 4 mm!! I was glad I finally got
round to swapping them! Anyway, now all I had to do was knock out and
replace them U's - simple.
Well, by this time Scott (Paisley) had decided to look over
the proceedings (interested in the U-joint phenomena since he intends
to replace his multi-U-jointed TR6 in the near future). We used
sockets and a heavy hammer (really subtle) to bash the first old one
out - and it really wasn't too difficult (I do suggest having an extra
pair of hands to hold the driveshaft down though). The state of the
roller bearings could be catagorised into two: those that were severely
warn, and those that were completely missing (well that's not strictly
true since I'm sure the powder that fell out was the bearing remains).
Anyway, having easily extracted the first joint extremely
quickly, I made my first mistake; utterring the words, "hey, this is
really easy". Scott stared at me and replied "why did you have to go
and say that?". And sure enough, his experience proved to be correct
as we spent about the next 2 hours trying to force the other bearing
out - finally achieving success, only by brute force (we actually
crushed one of the bearings out).
Putting the new bearings in was a little tricky also - in fact
Scott and I were convinced that they were the wrong parts, when the
new ones appeared to be longer than the old ones - we found out that
one of the rollers had fallen over. Anyway, we soon mastered the knack
and putting the driveshaft back was a breeze.
Anyway, at the end of the day, I have lost my horrible
vibration, and the sloppy gear change and, WOW, the overdrive is
soooooo smooooth! So I'm happily motoring again and ready to tackle
the next problem - well ok, now the rear left wheel bearing seal is
leaking - doesn't it just make you smile??
Paul.
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