I've done this from a steel wheel to a wire wheel. Very straight forward -
make sure the body is *securely* supported just in front of the rear spring
front mounts. Jack up under the springs to compress them and remove the
U-bolts, then pull the damper plates down and push them forward out of the
way. Lower the jack, which will leave the axle hanging on the rebound
straps, so you might like to support the axle on another jack or stands in
case they break, it is *very* heavy. You may need lots of penetrating
fluid, heat, careful wiggling back and fore to undo the nuts that hold the
rebound straps to the axle, it is not uncommon for the pins to shear. If
they do, and you have enough length left, then cross-drill the remains of
the pin and use a large washer and split-pin to hold the rebound strap,
otherwise drill and tap lengthwise and use a large washer and a bolt. Or if
it looks like it isn't going to come off without shearing the pin cut/grind
the nut and use a new one. With the springs fully lowered disconnect the
rear shackles and leave the springs hanging down on their front mounts. I
was swapping the back-plates as well and removed these first and fitted them
last, so I could slide the axle sideways over the exhaust to remove and
replace it. Be very careful not to bump the flange of the axle on hard
ground or you can destroy the pre-load of the pinion bearing, I used loads
of padding on the ground in case it slipped off the jack, but it didn't.
The steel wheel axle case is longer than the wire wheel so you will need to
replace the handbrake cable as well. GT backplates are different to
roadster backplates - the wheel cylinder locating peg is in a different
place as the wheel cylinders are different, the GT item has a larger bore as
it can exert more braking effort without locking up because of the greater
weight.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
From: <packrat3@visi.net>
To: <mgb-v8@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: rear end swap
> anyone on the list have first hand knowledge on switching rear axles.
>
> i want to switch the wire wheel axle from a 73 gt(eventually the v-8
> recipient) with the hard wheel axle from a 79 roadster(my current
> driver).. is this doable and whats involved?
///
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