:: Diary - May 2018 ::

:: Sunday, May 6, 2018 ::

TVRCar Club day! Just another meeting for most of us, but Dave's excited because he's debuting his Griffith that he bought during the week.

It's a 430, and Jim and I make the right noises when prompted. It is nice though, and it sounds good (and it drowns out Dave, which is a bonus!).

Eventually, after Dave has finished his traditional Sunday morning domestic.

The drove to the meeting is just a straight run, so doesn't take long. Surprised we're still among the first there though!

Usual chat, usual laughs.

We set off for home, and Dave decides to lead us on a wee spirited run. Oh dear. I haven't got much spirit (petrol spirit, not the psychological kind). What I have got is a dodgy fuel sender that doesn't get anywhere near "empty" before it's empty. I'm trying to avoid the ignominy of running out of fuel as we pass each of the two points where I have run out of fuel before (both years ago, but elephants and Dave's never forget). Fortunately it gets me far enough that I can break off from the group near home and head to a petrol station. Safe!

:: Thursday, May 17, 2018 ::

MOT time! Usual place, with the man who has passed it 15 times before...

Which makes sod all difference, because he fails it - noisy wheel bearing. He did the same to the other side in 2008, so this is getting to be a habit. Again, I can't hear any noise, but he can, and he's not for moving.

I order new bearings and read my own web site from 2008 to see how you do it!

:: Thursday, May 24, 2018 ::

For one reason or another, I haven't been able to get on with the TVR bearing. I do need to correct myself though - the bearing that failed the MOT is the same one that I replaced 10 years ago - the other side is still the original (as far as I know). I changed the bearings but not the outer races last time, because they looked ok, and because I didn't have a suitable drift to get the new ones in. False economy!

Anyway, today I get a start made. For full details of how you do it, see the "how-to" menu on the left there. I've gone off doing the full "photo-as-you-go" lark, especially when I've done it before.

In brief, then, jack the car and prop it on axle stands, then wheech the nearside wheel off. Then I undo the calliper slide bolts and remove the calliper and hang it from the suspension on a bit wire for now. Then I undo the caliper bracket.

Then I undo the metal brake pipe from the end of the flexi-hose, at the bracket on the back of the hub. Then I remove the locknut and remove the flexi-hose end, and plug it with a brake nut with a blanked-off bit of brake pipe. That lets me unhook the calliper and set it aside.

Next step is to use a 17mm socket to remove the locknut from the steering arm balljoint, fit a separator and remove that.

Right, next is the bottom balljoint - it's a 22mm socket, and it takes a bit of shifting. I make the mistake of leaving the bolt on to protect the threads while I separate it, but then I can't get the bolt off because it's turning the whole joint in the socket. I have to split the nut off.

That only leaves the top balljoint. Or ball ache as I prefer to call it. I remove the 17mm nut, but then no amount of levering and battering will shift the thing, it's not separating at all. I check that new balljoint gaiters are available in this size, and then batter it with a forked separator. Still not for moving...

I need to regroup and think about this...

:: Monday, May 28, 2018 ::

After a busy weekend, I get back to the TVR today. I put the nut back on the top balljoint, for a couple of turns. Then I put a too-small socket up the taper onto the end of the nut, and g-clamp that against the top of the hub carrier - to sort of "pre-tension" the balljoint taper.

Then I fire up the blowlamp and heat the taper on the hub carrier to within an inch of it melting - the joint boot already is!

Re-tension the g-clamp, then batter the joint again with my best two-handed hammer-wielding action. It splits! Success.

So it's off!

I clamp it in the vice, using two thin bits of wood to protect the wheel nut threads, and remove the dust cap from the back of the hub carrier.

Then I fit a 41mm socket to the hub nut (after checking that it's not a left-hand thread), and fit a 600mm breaker bar to that, then a large box spanner over the handle, then two 10-inch socket extension bars locked together, into the other end of that box spanner. I now have a socket handle 1 metre long! With the hub still in the vice, and my foot against the workbench, I get the hub nut off. Easy bit!

With the hub nut and splined washer out of the way, I can remove the inner bearing, then with the hub carrier in the vice, I can drive the hub out of the carrier.

I remember last time I had to sacrifice the old oil seal to get behind the bearing to get it off the shaft. I prise it over the bearing with a big screwdriver.

Then I use a puller to get the outer bearing off the shaft. The puller keeps slipping off the bearing, though, so I wrap it in 4 turns of webbing and tighten the clamp to hold the puller legs in. That works a treat!

This time I'm going to replace the bearing faces as well, but I have to give up for today to do other stuff.

:: Monday, May 28, 2018 ::

First job for today is to remove the old bearing faces from the hub carrier. I clamp it in a vice and knock them out with a drift, working my way around so that I don't wedge them at an angle. Easy (-ish).

With that done, I pour to a little of my spare 40 litres of diesel/petrol mix _from misfuelling the Chevrolet - might as well use it for something eh?) into a tray, and clean all the old grease off the hub shaft and from the inside of the carrier. I also clean off the old ball race faces - you'll see why in a minute.

Right... I clamp the hub carrier in the vice and prepare to insert the new bearing faces. The manual says "use a suitable diameter of tube as a drift". I haven't got a garage full of different sizes of tube, there's only me. So the plan is to use the old race as a drift to knock the new one in. After a couple of false starts where it goes in "cockled", I decide to use the old race as a drift, as before, but then use the 41mm socket as a drift on the outer face of that - that works!

Turn the hub carrier over, knock the outer race in using the same method - old race as a drift, big socket to hit it in.

Then with the outside of the carrier facing up, I grease up the race and the outer bearing, and drop that into the hub. Then I pack up the oil seal, and fit that, drifting that into place in the carrier.

Then I fit the hub and tap that into place through the bearing, making sure that the oil seal sits correctly as it goes together.

Turn the whole thing over and grease up the inner race and bearing, and knock the bearing into place with a large socket as a drift. Pack in more grease and then fit the serrated washer and a new hub nut.

I use my 4-piece extended socket handle to wind the nut down and tighten it up. I don't have a torque wrench but the correct torque when loosening seemed to be "just before the vice detaches itself from the workbench, or the workbench detaches itself from the wall".

All seems in order, bearing still turns (although it's a tiny bit stiff, same as last time, but it does ease up in use).

I refit the dustcap, and that's it ready to go back on the car.

Unfortunately, the car isn't ready to take it - I need to fit a new balljoint boot to the upper suspension arm, and also fit new locking nuts to all the balljoints. I have ordered them all, but they are not here yet - the boot is the "critical path"!

I'm happy! Mucky and greasy (but you knew that) but happy!

:: Thursday, May 30, 2018 ::

Another couple of days of being too busy, but I get back to the TVR today, to re-fit the hub to the car. I've ordered new nyloc nuts, that arrived yesterday, so I'm ready to go.

First, though, I have to fit a new boot to the top balljoint. I've ordered two, and it's pretty simple to stretch it on, and then fix it with a tie-wrap that came in the kit.

I fit the other one to the bottom balljoint. It doesn't fit so well, but it's on!

I fit the top and bottom ball joint through the hub carrier, but then can't get the nut onto the top one. It doesn't take me long to realise that the balljoint doesn't have a metric thread, it's UNF. Fuck it, I put the old locknut on and tighten it up.

The bottom balljoint also has a UNF thread, and the old nut is a mangled split chunk of metal that I'll never be able to use again. I figure out the nut size and order a new one. That's me stuffed till it arrives!

I also order a whole new balljoint, just in case. TVR specialist price: £37. Ebay price for the same part: £8.45.

That's me screwed again though, till the bits come!