Hi, guys
I was delving through my earlier copies of your ramblings today when I
tumbled across some threads about what sort of lubricant to use in rear
hubs.
Whatever Mr Haynes or Mr. Bentley (whoever he may be) have to say on the
matter,
the lubricant for the rear wheel bearings on these cars is 90W axle oil. If
they were supposed to be greased, we'd have put a grease nipple on that
housing when it was being made. When your cars left Coventry, they all had
either a 3/8" or possibly a 5/16" bolt acting as a plug. Sorry I can't be
more precise but my parts manual is more than 500 miles away in another
country.
I agree the plug was put in a damned silly place in terms of access - and
countless thousands of moaning minnies in service shops all over everywhere
replaced these with nipples. Then they plugged in the grease gun, kept
the gun trigger wide open until they'd finished a sandwich and let nature
take
its course. More often than not, the wheel carrier and bearing assembly got
overpacked and soon afterwards blew out the oil seals and caused other
interesting diversions.
The correct procedure is remove the plug with the wheel hanging at between
ten and five minutes to five o'clock, and squirt in oil until it starts to
run out of the hole - just
like when you fill a diff. Put bacjk the plug and 'Bob's your uncle.' So
where do "the greasers" on the list go from here? Leave things as they are
until you hear rumbly-rumbly farty farty noises from the back end and down
below, throw a new set of bearings in on either side but clean out that
housing before you do it until there is no vestige of visible grease. Put
the whole lot back together and fill them with OIL.
On the driveshaft aspects, I'm confused. This is just because our beautiful
language is being spoken different ways and continues to diverge in many
variations!! Some of you have been talking about driveshaft vibration. In
English English that means the shafts outboard from the diff to the wheels
and yes, we do sometimes call it a half-shaft. Mainly we call it a
driveshaft.
If what you call a driveshaft is what we call a prop. (propellor) shaft
from the gearbox to the diff, vibration is an inherent fault. Truly it is -
and it afflicted all these cars from when the Herald came in until the
Spitfire/GT6 went out. If you've got it, you've got it - like AIDS, there
ain't no cure yet, and there wasn't then - for propshaft vibration, anyway.
The best you can do is to find another shaft and have it both statically
and dynamically balanced across the full shaft speed range but remember
that what happens on a level balance bed, may not be the same when fitted
to the car. Many people
overlook this point and they also often overlook the state of sliding
couplings and other important things. I think the people who supplied
Standard Triumph with
these shafts were Hardy Spicer and the balance weights were normally one
small square of mild steel held in place with two none too effective spot
welds. Mostly, these flew off over time as they were always affixed close
to the diff and could get tangled up with fallen objects in the road.
Fallen wood from trees were the most common causes. I had the same problem
with my Mk II
GT6. I fitted a new shaft but there was still unacceptable vibration from
around
2800-3300rpm. Normal for Joe Public - not for me, or those of us "on the
inside looking out." We did have a trick of our own internally which we
never used for warranty work (a) because of time it took and (b) because
Engineering never acknowledged vibration was a problem. It requires two
people, two worm drive hose clamps, a minimum of two axle stands and a lot
of patience. A review of your health and life insurance cover BEFORE you
start
might be a good idea too! I jest not - accidents can happen to the most
careful among us. Make sure that car can't possibly fall off the stands
with the wheels spinning and chock the front wheels front and back.
Export the kids to the other end of the world or pay them big bucks to
leave you alone. Get your assistant to put the two hose clamps on the shaft
as close as poss to the diff with the worm drives on opposing sides. Run
the car in top gear within the vibration rev parameters and note whether
its "better than before/worse than before." Only the driver will know this
thru his/her backside! The assistant under the car then carefully moves one
worm drive towards the other in no more than 1/8" increments at a time. Run
again. Adjust again until you reach a compromise that even you
can live with or you have no more vibration. If you've still got it, but
with reduced ferocity, keep the worm drives in their same position
relationships of acceptability, and move them carefully 1/4" by 1/4" up the
shaft towards the front. You've got to do it in that order. Only move them
forwards when you're satisfied that you've got the best compromise at the
diff.
Sorry to be so tediously long on these two points and maybe this subject
has
been covered at length before I came on-line. Those of you who have dipped
into my stories will know that verbosity is one of my strong points!
Incidentally, please enlighten me. What's "the rope trick" for extracting a
broken bolt-stud?
John Macartney
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