Hi Triumph list
About a month ago, my Spitfire developed one of those "clunk"
sounds from the rear axle area. This sound was first heard the very
same day that I had removed the drums to inspect the brake shoes.
Actually it sounded exactly like the plastic hub cap being struck
with a tool. Thinking that the sound must be related to my removing
the brake drums I did the following.
a) remove plastic wheels center to see if sound goes away. NO
b) replace suspect wheel (cracked rim?) NOT
c) remove brake drum again, visual inspection, try to rotate brake
backplate, No luck here.
d) ok maybe I didn't cause this, inspect UJ, lever with screwdriver
etc. Still no luck.
e) have an assistant listen while kneeling close to the wheel, while I
reproduce the sound many times. We both decided it was very "outboard",
that is the sound seems to come from the wheel itself.
Well I'll just continue to drive the car, it will only get worse or fix
itself. ;-)
The sound would only occur when letting the clutch out, while in reverse.
There was no reciprocal sound while pulling away in 1st gear.
Well it did get worse, and began to happen when downshifting thru the
gears. I decided to replace the whole axle assembly. I have a spare from
a recently "parted" car. This would definately fix it I thought.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday freeing a severely rusted/stuck
rear trunnion bolt on the spare axle. The (spare axle) UJ also needed
replacing. replacing this UJ was easy, -too easy. I was able to press
in the axle yoke bearing cups by hand. I suspect this yoke
may have been "reamed" by a PO to make UJ replacement easier.
The bearing cups turn in the yoke with the spider, until the retaining
clips are installed. Then the cups do not rotate. There is still noticeable
"play" in yoke however. This brings me to;
Question: Is this axle shot? Is there no way to repair/band-aid/bodge things
even further? I suspect the only use for it now is paper weight or bonking
stick :-) .
If you made it this far and wonder about the original problem;
well I decided to install this bodged axle (temporarily of course) today.
As I set about removal of the original axle, I noticed that the 4 bolts
holding said axle to diff flange were *quite* loose. I tightened them, end
of noise except the AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH!! type noise I made
when under car making this discovery.
Bob (I checked all 12 of 'em) Sykes
75, 78, 78 Spitfires
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