This also sounds like it may be a U-joint problem to me. I encountered a
similar problem. Make sure that the circlips that hold the cups in place
are truly seated in the groove of the yoke. My clicking noise was the
result of the clip, while still inside the hole in the yoke, was not seated.
The cup was therefore not pushed in far enough, allowing the u-joint to
'flop' back and forth with every 180 degrees of rotation of the axle. I
didn't discover this until I took it to a shop to have them put a new
u-joint in and I saw the circlip was not in the groove.
Barry: I agree, the ramps don't work with a Spit.
Just a possibility...
Terrence Banbury
> ----------
> From: Barry Schwartz[SMTP:bschwart@pacbell.net]
> Reply To: Barry Schwartz
> Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 9:09 PM
> To: Jeff McNeal; spitfires@autox.team.net
> Cc: spitfires@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Clicking wheels / good news
>
>
> Jeff,
> While you may have replaced them, or they may have been replaced, if you
> didn't check the end float it may still be your u-joints. If you have
> disregard the latter.
>
> These joints, especially the axle ones take one hell of a load, and if not
> properly installed, will slide back and forth in their bores creating this
> characteristic clicking sound. It's most noticeable when braking or
> negotiating a bend at slow speed. Jack the rear up and place the wheels
> up
> on something to maintain the height when you lower it back down on the
> wheels so you can get under it. Driving up on those ramps will suffice,
> but I don't recommend those. I damaged the front of my Spitfire with
> those
> d**m things I have, and vowed never to use them on my Spits again. The
> idea is to have the wheels in their static (joints unloaded) position.
> Grab or lever the axle near the joint and if you see movement, that is the
> center of the joint is sliding inside the flange, then you'll need to shim
> the u-joints. I used soda cans (about .003 thk) cut to the diameter of
> the
> cups to do mine. The main objective it to remove almost all of the free
> play while still containing the cups. The original factory method (stated
> in the service manual) was to use different thickness circlips to take up
> this end play, but almost all u-joints nowadays only come with the
> narrowest one leaving plenty of room for the cups to slide under load.
> When I looked at Ken C's joints (complaining of the click, actually his
> was
> a tad louder because of the amount of slop) his were way out - probably
> will take .02-.04 thou of shims to alleviate his back and forth movement.
> Fairly common ailment with the Spitfire's rear suspension given the
> u-joint
> kits of today and while it won't really hurt anything, it can be quite
> annoying and most likely will increase wear in the yolks because of this
> sliding of the cups in their bores.
>
> Barry Schwartz (San Diego) bschwart@pacbell.net
>
> 72 PI, V6 Spitfire (daily driver)
> 70 GT6+ (when I don't drive the Spit)
> 70 Spitfire (long term project)
>
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