"Underneath", installment 17
Thanks to feedback from you Tiger Listers, I was ready to tackle
the problem of the rear axle not going all of the way in. Friday night,
I pulled the whole assembly out of the car. By myself. Don't try this at
home, I'm not a professional. :^) Actually, other back a backache and a
few small paint scratches on the axle housing, it wasn't that bad.
Saturday AM, I got to see the Tigers-in-progress of Larry
Paulick and Wayne Pierzga (am I spelling your name right?) at a local
body shop; I was impressed with what I saw. It was also the first time
I've seen a restored Sunbeam shell with nothing on it but paint.
Then, back home in time for my rear-axle helper to drop by. With
use of the spreading tool, we had the diff back out in minutes. Yeah,
you could see the problem right away. Inside, on the right side, there
are the female splines the axle fits into; two sets, and they were
misaligned. We must've messed them up during the 20 or so times we had
the diff out while setting the shims -- and never thought to check. We
loosened the 8 bolts that hold the whole assembly together, just a bit.
Then we could wiggle and bang on the shafts until it all fit back
together. Then we retightened the 8 bolts, with the axle shafts in
place.
Then we could re-install the diff in the housing, and the
housing in the car -- with time off to clean up after an incident
involving a neighbor, a door and a shelf holding up a pan full of old
oil. Ugh! Fortunately, a Tiger's rear suspension is pretty simple; we're
only talking about 4 U-bolts and their 8 nuts, and the two lower shock
volts. The Panhard rod was not yet installed. So, it really didn't take
all that long.
Next was the end bearings on the rear axles. By this time, I'm
finally, permanently on my own on this rear axle, so I'm feeling my way
through the process. Greasing up the bearings themselves is messy, but
not difficult. Just as well, as there's nothing in the service manual
about it. Then I tapped in the outer races with a punch, working in a
circle to keep them going straight. Well, that's not a process I can
control well, so when I was done the axles were too tight, no movement
at all. Well, remember the discussion last week about how, through those
"buttons" in the diff, that pushing in one axle pushes out the other?
Aha! So I installed the shims that were originally on the car, after
cleaning them up (A wee bit of rust, I was afraid it might affect the
settings); two thick and one thin on the left, one thick on the right.
Over that went the thick spacer disc originally outboard of the
drum-brake backing plate, and the 2nd one that came with the rear disc
kit. No seals, no caliper brackets, and no Nylock nuts -- just some old
nuts from the front sway bar I had laying around -- because I figured
I'd be installing and removing all this more than a few times. Then,
with everything tightened up, not too tight, I pounded inwards on the
ends of both axles with a mallet (yeah, a nut on each axle to protect
the threads). This forced, in each case, the opposite axle to press the
outer race _outwards_ against the thick discs. Voila! End play.
Too much, I fear. I do not have a dial indicator and base,
although I'm considering buying one. But it felt like too much (and
should I run less than the six to eight 1/K's that the book
recommends?). Well, on the left, I take out one thick shim and
reassemble. Too tight, won't move. So, I swap out the thin one, and try
2 thick. End play again, I guess less, but enough that you can actually
see it. I borrow a micrometer from my father-in-law and measure; the
thin shim is 10 thousandths and the thick ones are all 30 thousandths.
How the heck am I supposed to arrive at 6 to 8 of end play with those
materials? Why not demand clearances in microns? And, so far, I have not
heard of a source for the shims. Betcha making them would take forever.
Oh, yes, with the one-axle pushing against the other, doesn't end play
at one end affect the other?
BTW, this is with no gasket back there whatsoever. I'm planning
on using Permatex in a thin film. But, where? It seems like every two
pieces in the "stack" would need a gasket or Permatex, and that could
really add up. Am I wrong? They only used one gasket per side
originally, right? If so, where and why?
Also, I'm still thinking of adding a braided flex line to the
ends of the rear brake system running into the calipers; I'll try a few
more places locally where I can shove the appropriate parts under
someone's nose. Otherwise, I might fit up the rear lines _rigid_, and I
don't like that.
The handbrake lever worked out as I suggested in the last
installment; I put it in a vise and crushed the part where the cable
attaches then reworked it to still move freely where the part that bolts
to the car slide between the two outer halves. Those are now sort of Z
shaped, and the assembly now goes together. The cables, at the lever end
of things, terminate in two long threaded rods, and these will not slide
into the ferrules where the outer housing starts just as the cables exit
the interior of the car. Therefor, I took it all out _again_ (no way to
adjust this while bolted to the car), and ran down the nuts on those
threaded rods, to pull them further away from the ferrule. It just
clears in the handbrake-off position. I don't see how this could be used
as a cable adjustment, but there's another one at the caliper end; I
hope that's enough to cope with cable stretch. BTW, I didn't damage the
paint on the lever while reshaping it as much as I feared.
Lawrence R. Wright, Purchasing Analyst
U S Office Products, Mid-Atlantic Division
Formerly Andrews Office Products
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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