On Sun, 11 Oct 1998, Chris Kantarjiev wrote:
> OK, several recent messages are dangerously close to stirring me out
> of my indolence and into remanufacture of the Churchill puller for
> TRs. (It doesn't seem worth doing for the Spit/GT, since TSSC makes
> a perfectly adequate unit.)
>
> I'd really like to inspect an original (Hardy, maybe this will finally
> get me up to your place) but until I do, could someone who has one answer
> a couple of questions:
>
> Is this thing really cast iron, as I've been thinking?
It sure looks like it, although it could be steel... it's not forged, the
casting surface is sort of rough.
> Cast in a single piece?
Yes.
> How tall?
around 6 - 8 inches...
> How thick?
very thick. When you place the flange over the studs, only about 1/2 inch
of stud protrudes above the flange. I'd say it's close to an inch thick
at the flange base... and I presume that the casting is relatively
uniform in thickness.
> Or is it a casting welded to the plate that bolts to the studs?
Nope - at least not the Churchill tool. Note: at VTR '98, there was a
seminar on rebuilding your hubs... the guys doing the demo had a tool that
they had fabricated from by tig welding a piece of pipe to a couple of
flanges (one for the mating surface to the hub flange, the other forming
the "top of the hat". It seemed to work adequately, but truth be told -
the unit had developed some pretty nasty cracks along the welding seams.
I would probably not use the tool that they were showing unless I had a
couple of hours with the welder beforehand.
> I'm mostly trying to get an idea of what it will take to make the mold
> and how much the castings are likely to cost. My current thinking is
> to make up half a dozen and sell all but one ... how much would you pay?
They'd be worth every penny of $150 - $200 in my opinion.
One key element would be the bolt that is used to contact the axle end -
that baby's gotta be pretty hard to take all the force - think case
hardened and grade 8 or better.
One design improvement would be to make the piece either out of large hex
stock (if machined in a single piece) or to cast at least two parallel
surfaces so that you can put the whole thing in a vice while you are
crankin' at the big bolt... the original has an ear in the casting to
accomodate a pipe (like 3/4 inch or so) that you can use to press
against... we have also put the ear into a big vise to hold everything
steady whilst applying pressure on it.
> Thanks.
No prob. I do have pictures of the tool, if that would be of any help.
Note: Len Rekenberger has a suggestion about using a four-leg wheel
puller and a large flange about 1 inch thick to "backup" the wheel
flange. I have to re-read his article, but he implies a rather hefty
failure rate in taking the things apart...
I was thinking that if you made a large plate of thick steel (one-inch or
more) and then through-bolted the plate to the flange (using the stud
holes and grade 8 washers on the back side of the flange), you could use a
large press to take these things apart - I'm just not sure how much press
you'd need. I'll guess that 20 tons would be barely adequate.
In fact I might break down and buy a 20 ton press to play with this idea.
I'm starting to collect a few hubs that need rebuilding. Don't ask why.
While we're on the subject - are the sliding spline axles on the TR6 (and
presumably 2000, 2500 sedans and Stag the very same part??? I've got
several axles that are downright "nasty" and I'd like to get some other
ones for the project car - I'm looking for a cheap source. I think I
checked out the prices on these items recently (although I have no notes
- so I could have been dreaming (again ;-)), but I recall that something
like $300 for the inner and outer shaft was what the "big three" are
getting. I'd like something less expensive than that, if possible.
For a description of "nasty", it looks like one of the axles may have
been involved in a broken U-joint at some point, there are _many_ dings
on the shaft at the outer end and the stone guard and one of the honkin'
big nuts on the outer shaft had dings also... I guess this goes with the
territory of dealing with 30 year old cars...
Boy am I windy today. Maybe I'll skip reading the Triumphs list!
;-)
rml
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