315 replies to this topic

[molemot]

It's been a beaut sunny day here in the middle of France...the old currant has been beaming down and giving us a perfect late summer/early Autumn day...just the sort I really love. SO..what better to do with it than to grovel in/on/under/around a magnificent (if horribly noisy) motor car? I mean, who wants to be outdoors when the workshop beckons.....!!!

Work commenced at about 1100 local...first thing, I tidied up the workshop on the basis that if I started in good order, I had more of a chance of ending in good order....so benches were cleared, things put away, a bit of mild hoovering was undertaken...benches were scrubbed where necessary and loins were girt for the fray. I now have a Workshop Notebook, as I was fed up with trying to find sufficient backs of envelopes for necessary notes...one side is squared graph type paper and the other plain white...reminds me of "A" Level Physics Practical!!!

Once the surroundings passed muster, I had no further excuse for delay..so started by draining the coolant..then the gearbox oil. I can report that the gearbox had a full complement of the required lubricant and that there were no nasties in it...good in some ways, but had it been full of swarf I would know I had found the Source of the Racket (hereinafter referred to as SotR). The magnetic drain plug held only the faintest suspicion of ferrous detritus, rub it off with your fingertip and it was just enough to discourage you from picking your nose. Unless desperate..... After the Great Draining, I started on the top of the lump, undoing all the stuff I had carefully done a week or so ago....hoses, wiring, oil filter, oil cooler, all the various connections....of course, all did not go smoothly and various subterfuges had to be resorted to....for example: the oil cooler is connected by two ginormous hoses to a plate between the oil filter and the oil pump. These are impossible to undo, and have been since I first tried back in 1990ish. So, to get the engine out of the car, I remove the oil filter and take off this plate...which disconnects the oil cooler. Firstly..the cursed oil filter would NOT budge...I have three or four "patent removal tools" for this task, and none of them work worth a damn. It's a case of struggling with slipping strapping slimily sliding surreally sideways...or attacking the thing with something that resembles the sort of tool one might select to emasculate a rhinocerous....or resorting to a length of bicycle chain which twists merrily sideways. In the end, of course, I triumphed...and the filter was removed. And thrown in the bin as it's so battered that it's unusable despite being a Genuine Lotus Part and only a few hundred miles old....Next thing was to slide off the oil cooler junction plate. Of course, it wouldn't....there is a threaded extension bush which passes through the plate...and you slide the plate along it only to find that there is a casting on the engine block which prevents it coming off!! So this bush has to be unscrewed first...and it was too tight for fingers...and the only thing to grip is the threaded, undamageable bit.....so how do you grip something you can't damage??? Answer, using a Mole Wrench!! Plus two short pieces of rubber hose, one bit over each jaw.....grip the thing through the rubber and twist and off she comes!!!

Once the right hand side of the motor, where all the connections are, had been dealt with, it was time to grovel properly underneath. Detaching the exhaust and the driveshafts, the turbo and the oil supply to it as well.....by this time it was 1930 local and I'd had enough for one day. The rear brakes and engine mounts can wait until the morrow...sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So I've mixed a drink and am contemplating eating something..... Tomorrow's plan involves getting the lump OUT and removing the gearbox and opening up whatever can of worms it proves to be.......don't change channel folks!!! Stand by for the next enthralling episode of "Mechs!"...an everyday story of greasy fingernailed strugglers.....

[slewthy]

Wow - what a day!

How do you know its the gearbox again? It makes the noise in all gears, including neutral but makes no noise whilst running unloaded (suspended)
What was the give away that made you so sure you would find SotR in the gearbox?

BTW, bets are on as to whether I find my mouse (known from this point on as....MM) before you find your SotR...

Edited by slewthy, 19 September 2010 - 07:16 PM.

[molemot]

Simon, mate, I just can't think what else it could be...and it's always the worst thing, anyway!! Yes, it was quiet in suspended mode, but there isn't anything up front that could sound like THAT...except for completely duff wheel bearings, which I replaced not long ago and have had out and inspected...as Pontius, a far better pilot than me, once said..."I can find no wrong in him"...on reflection, there has been a noise from behind the cockpit for a fair while, and with the benefit of hindsight it has got steadily worse. I first admiited to myself that there was a noise when I fitted new tyres..and I fooled myself that that was what it was! However, driving with the spare fitted instead of the rear tyre didn't make the racket go away...and the fact that turning left makes it quiet and turning right makes it louder has suggested something to do with the differential/cwp/diff bearings. Hopefully, in a few hours, I shall have the gearbox innards over the bench and be in a position to KNOW!

Mice? Hmmm...years ago I was working in the Post Office Telephones laboratory in Gresham Street, London...they had a plague of mice who commuted along the cable trunking. Staff were divided into those who were trying to wipe them out, and those who thought they were cute and fed them!!! The old wire that used to be used on the distribution frames in telephone exchanges was impregnated with arsenic to prevent rodents interfering with communications....and a very good reason for washing your hands before lunch!!!

[Rich H]

If you need an oil cooler sandwitch plate or the extension piece I have just removed mine and replaced it with a mocal one.
Those big couplings were a nightmare for me to undo too...

[molemot]

And this is, I'm afraid, a bit of a cliff-hanger...It's been another great day for mooching about in boats or doing some gentle aerobatics, or hooning about the countryside at quasi legal velocities...but I, dear reader, have been subjected to a Higher Calling. Yes, it was the day for pulling the lump like a septic tooth from it's anchorage...so back to grovelling whilst I undid the brakes and the tube gear linkage and the speedo cable and the plate on the back of the gearbox where the exhaust fits and the reversing lamp switch and, finally! the engine mounts themselves. Had a good look round after that to see if I had forgotten anything, and the Alzheimer's still doesn't seem to have me in it's clutches...the lump sat naked in the frame. So I got out the load leveller and my Engine Lifting Rope, strung the rope around it and put the load leveller ready.

Then I got the new stepladder (the old one gave up under the strain when I was cutting the high hedge in the back garden, three steps up it folded underneath me and I collapsed with it, waving the hedge trimmer like Errol Flynn buckling his swash..) and set it up outside the workshop doors..then hung the chain hoist from the terrasse, reinforced with scaffold poles, using the Chain Hoist Rope...hung the load leveller from it....and it was time to wheel the beastie out into the sunshine. Trouble was, wasn't lined up with the garage doors....so I jacked up the rear under that point in the middle where the chassis tubes and suspension meet, and dragged it bodily sideways on the trolley jack until it did. Then I wheeled her out into the light of day....

The coachwork had been covered with old blankets, but I put the workshop mechanic's rubber laying down mat over the rear spoiler, belt and braces, as ever. Got the Engine Hoist Rope connected safely to the load leveller...and hauled away on the chain hoist. Way-hey and up she rises, as the shanty has it....and with nothing more than a few positional prods she rose from her lair!! I've done this so many times now, that I ought to be able to just give the Word of Command in a suitably parade ground voice and she should translate herself on to the engine trolley....but I had to haul away as usual and adjust the load leveller to full nose up followed by level once all was clear. At the level point there was just enough room to get over the spoiler, so I wheeled the carcase back into the workshop and dropped the innards on to the engine trolley.

A bit of pulley hauley and I had the power train suitably positioned in the workshop...next thing was to seperate engine and gearbox, so I undid all the fasteners and the oil return from the turbo and the turbo pressure line, with the rear of the gearbox supported on a jack...gave a bit of a tug and it came free. Crikey. Heavier than I remembered....I used to be able to lift the thing onto the bench..now I can barely lift it off the floor..oh well, am still extant to enjoy it all! Hate working on filthy bits of kit, so I got the cleaning equipment and started to clean it off. Of course, I ran out of paraffin for my solvent wash gun, so I turned off the compressor and looked at the clock....crikey, 1830...and I have to go out tomorrow morning to pay a tax bill...so I can buy some paraffin then...no dismantling today!!!

See what I mean by a cliff hanger??!

[lotus4s]

Hurry up, I can't stand the suspense....

[molemot]

It's been a busy day at Mole End...had to pay the Tax Fonciere (don't ask me WHAT that is, just another burden on the poor struggler) and go buy some paraffin for Gearbox Cleaning Purposes.....so after I'd done the office work and posted a sausage roll for sustenance, I trundled to the workshop intent on dismembering the object. First thing was to remove the drive shafts...lots of 11mm and 14mm bolts; there's hardly a sensible size on this thing....not forgetting the two which are lurking where you don't expect them. A gentle tap with the dead blow hammer...(great name, that; it's a rubber thingy full of lead shot, so when you hit something - it stays hit - with no rebounding)... and the drive shafts came off nicely. New gaskets needed here...and the outer bearings were smooth with no play...so far, so good. With both the drive shafts on the bench, it was time to get at the crown wheel and pinion. Four 17mm AF nuts and washers on the inside, and a plethora of assorted bolts around the outside and the bellhousing and differential/CWP assembly was ready to part company with the cogbox. Now, as I've said, this thing is heavy..and most of the weight is the cogbox itself...so A light blow from the old dead blow and, grasping the bearings and the CWP assembly into the bellhousing, I eased it away and stood it, CWP uppermost, on a handy Workmate. Now...can I see anything to be the SotR?

In a word...no. All the teeth were present and correct and the tooth markings seemed sensible...no wear ridges where the pinion has penetrated the crown wheel...all looks pretty much as it did when I bolted it up in 1990blob. A really close inspection showed some signs of wear, grooves running along the line of the teeth, up at the top of the CWP teeth...but I needed a strong pair of glasses to see them. Not much to hang your hat on....certainly difficult to justify spending the immense sums a new CWP set would cost; even second hand ones go for three times what the new set cost me last time. Hmmmm. I suppose it could be the differential assembly..but why would that be noisy when going in a straight line, when it ought not to be rotating at all, but just transmitting the power to the road?? Time to delve further. So it was top-off-the-gearbox time....more bolts and studs...and there were the innards, naked and unashamed. Inspection time.....no dental problems, and a prod about didn't reveal any slop, end float or other motion that shouldn't be there. I was beginning to be quite proud of my nearly 20 year old gearbox rebuild....but no sign of the SotR.

Let's see what it looks like inside the 5th gear annexe...the afterthought, like a Granny Annexe garage conversion (perish the thought)...although perhaps I should have said a garage conversion to a Granny Annexe...the idea of converting Granny's living quarters to a garage shows promise...whatever, off with the rear cover and yet more peerless gears and bearings are revealed. At this point, all of you who said it wasn't the gearbox are allowed to shout...but sotto voce, please..."WE TOLD YOU SO"!!! Although, in the words of the famous Scottish verdict, I would consider it "Not Proven" as opposed to "Not Guilty". I still have to get into the differential..although I don't think there can be much wrong with it...the box is totally devoid of swarf and other signs of wear and ruin.

Headscratching time...sat on stool peering at the dismembered transmission...remembering the racket and how it has been a crescendo over the past miles, until I couldn't stand it any more...and decided to inspect the CWP bearings. These are tapered roller bearings, and the outer race just lifts off when you get them out of their little nests. I wandered over to my Valve Gear drawer, where I keep the loupe, and - much against the run of play, as I've spent much time trying to find things today(!) - there it was. So I stuck it in the right eye and peered through it at the bearing outer tracks...getting the light and focus distance just right. Hmmmm...definite pitting and circumferential grooves....I could feel the grooves with the fingernail test...so they will be replaced in any event. Whether that's enough to classify as the SotR I'm not sure...there's lots of power going through these, and a bit of wear could give some noise, amplified by the chassis etc....but I fear it's a bit of wishful thinking.

Thus, here I am, three days or so into tearing my way into the transmission's offal, and no nearer the SotR than I was when I thought it was the rear wheel bearing. Which it wasn't, either.....can it be the needle bearings on which the gearbox innards rotate? I've known layshaft bearings fail and make just this sort of racket...but this box doesn't have a layshaft, per se, and surely I'd be able to feel some movement if the bearings were knackered.....and the oil ought to hold signs of bits of ground needle roller. Must I continue and get the whole thing laid bare, before I admit it isn't the gearbox and I were wrong to start with? Oh, the joys of Lotus ownership, tests you in every way possible...at least, with the lump out of the chassis, I can replace the hose that goes into the top of the remote thermostat without the normal contortions....

What to do tomorrow? Do I penetrate further into the rotating masses of the gear mechanism? Or would my time be better served going back to the front wheel bearings whilst waiting for the new CWP bearings to arrive? Don't miss the denouement of this classic battle of Man v Car....whenever that will be!!

[Choppa]

Car 1, Man 0 - still plenty to play for, we're only half way through the first half.

[matk]

Don't forget I'm with you Friday if you need a hand with anything!!

[comem47]

Hope it doesn't end up being something silly like the front disk rotors and pads not lining up in a previous wear groove. I'll give you an A for ambition, doing more work in a day than I've done in years on my car!!!
Staying tuned

[molemot]

Seems this was the last of the Good Weather Days...Frogmet has it that we're due for some claggy unpleasantness drifting down from the cursed North....next week is forecast as wall-to-wall wet. Ugh. But today? Today was splendid...breakfast on the terrasse? Great idea...but, as usual, I was distracted...my buddy Rex, living on a boat just along the canal in Briare, is the Kiss of Death to anything electrical; a few weeks ago, I bought him a replacement electric blanket..Jess-the-Wonder-Dog had unfortunately left the contents of her digestive system all over the last one,and he was understandably reluctant to turn it on again...both because of the safety issue, it having got wet, and also the lingering thought as to how one's olfactory sense's would react to gently heated bow-wow barf. A new one seemed indicated..so I bought one, very efficiently, from Argos in Staines and presented him with it about three weeks ago. Now Rex spent most of his working life (apart form a brief sojourn selling ice cream at a vast profit on MacBraynes Ferries, as a callow youth) blowing things up for his country..well, Britain, anyway....whilst he was in the Army. Dealing with explosives for so long, before anyone knew that they could damage your health without actually going BANG!, has left him with severe health issues, not much in the way of lungs and a propensity to blood clots. This has involved several significant surgical interludes..but he soldiers on, as one would expect of an ex- WO1. However, he HAS to keep warm...especially at night, so electric blankets are a bit of an essential. That and regular transfusions of Bowmore.....we once opened a fresh bottle and threw the cork into the canal, as "Not Wanted On Voyage"...

As a result, this morning in the glorious early sunshine of 1030 I fired up the Volvo and went to Chez Mackay to try to fix the defective blanket controller. Between being pestered by Jess-the-Wonder-Dog, who sees my entire life function to be a thrower of things for her to fetch, I managed to get into the controller thingy and found it to be full of open circuit diodes...no wonder the led ON light wasn't. Only thing to do, was to give up and see if the manufacturer might possibly help out...of course, all packaging and receipts had been thrown, I mean - what can go wrong with a leccyblanket?? Got back to Mole End and fired up the Komputermaschine...found the manufacturer's website and sent them an email. Got a reply in MINUTES!!! End result was a new controller is en route, sent out today, so well done them. Rex's tootsies will be warm this winter... it was this or get a longer dog....!

After the comic interlude, and a spot of lunch - another posted sausage roll, takes seconds but gives enough energy for the day! - I finally got to the workshop. At this point I had abandoned any hope of a "quick fix"...I hate the very idea of "deadlines", us retired old farts can delve away to our heart's content, the only thing breathing down our necks is the grim reaper and I'm used to the frisson of his breath on my neck! So I determined to strip the box as it deserves,slowly and methodically. Every step I take I seem to be in touch with myself, back when the Esprit was an unknown factor that had just ripped it's crown wheel and pinion apart...now we are old comrades, having been through most automotive things together, and emerged the stronger.

A bit of deck clearing was the first thing..get some clean empty bench to lay the parts out on, and some plastic ex-food containers for the twiddly bits like the ball and spring detents....I recall my first gearbox, a Ford Thames 15cwt van, when just out of the egg I dismantled a synchro unit by simply pushing the bits apart...and then spent far too long retrieving balls and springs from the lawn and assorted flower beds......older and wiser, now. SO..fifth gear was removed by undoing the Large Bolt, and bit by bit, following the instructions (for a change!) the rear housing and all the selectors were undone, removed and laid out in Review Order, neatly labelled, on the bench. Finally it got to be time to remove the Giant Nut combined with the speedo drive gear. I had found the special spanner for this, checked it fitted..but decided that 1930 was late enough for a poor struggler with a thirst, so I gave up until the morrow! Oh yes.... still haven't found anything that one could point a finger at as the SotR!!!

More tomorrow...after the joys of removing the Giant Nut..... It's holding the box STILL whilst applying the torque to it which is the most fun, when there's only one of you....See you Friday, Matt!! Beer's on the fridge...and yes, Bob it's bound to end up as something REALLY stupid...but at least I shall have a peerless gearbox!!

[TAR]

Thought I was in Tales of the Riverbank for a moment.....

A very compelling read none the less.

[Mesprit87]

Je me dois de te rendre l'encouragement!
Je n'ai malheureusement pas de conseils pour toi...

De mon côté, tout est remonté et j'ai finalement pu l'essayer (véritablement!)... époustoufflant!

Bon courage, j'aimerais avoir ta fluidité en anglais...

Luc

[molemot]

Bravo, Luc...formidable!! Ton voiture est pret...juste en temps pour l'hiver!! Merci pour ton bons voeux.... avec les Lotus, c'est toujours "Plus ca change....!!"

[molemot]

YOU would have thought that after 64 years I would be able to trust my own workmanship....especially as I had the inestimable advantage of being born a Douglas...and thus, as we all are, imbued with an unshakeable conviction of total superiority, which applies no matter how often it is proved to the contrary. Well, with a family motto of "Jamais Arriere!!" what do you expect? I have tried to temper this not phenomenally attractive trait with what my old chum Ex-Chief Inspector (or was that Superintendent..who knows?) Tony Giles of the much lamented Royal Hong Kong Police is pleased to call "assumed humility"...which I defined as part of the camoflage required for free spirits to walk the earth unmolested...as a result of this,. and with advancing years, I am prepared to admit that maybe my skills can fall a trifle short of the mark. I can't actually recall an occasion when they DID...but the possibility exists. I suppose. And in one way I was right, and the other I was wrong....

Yesterday we paused in our dismantling endeavours when confronted by the Giant Nut which incorporates the speedo drive gear and retains the 5th speed gear; the problem was in restraining the carcass of the cogbox whilst applying the necessary loosening torque with what can only be described as a Bl**dy Great Spanner. During the night hours one's id and ego seem to cease their normal conflict and combine forces to roam freely over the day's problems, using the instincts acquired over a lifetime to analyse and provide solutions..without any conscious effort on one's own part, which has got to be good, right? When I went into the workshop this morning the solution to restraining the lump had been provided....there are four large studs projecting from the pinion end where the bellhousing locates. So I took the lump to the Big Bench with the Woodworking Vice, stood it on the bellhousing mating face with these studs downwards, and with two of them overhanging the vice I tightened it up on the other two...that restrained it a treat and the Giant Nut came off easily....along with the 5th speed gear.

Getting the shafts OUT of the box was a bit of a palaver; reading the instructions was useful, but trying to follow them slavishly didn't work!! Perhaps I should have written some more accurate instructions as I went along..but I didn't think of it...so anyone following this route can have their own brand of hair-tearing fun...! Suffice it to say that the primary shaft WILL come out of the bellhousing end if you can't get the bearing at that end off the shaft.... oh yes, and removing the hidden circlip is easier if you file the circlip pliers to a nice flat section where they bear against the flat ends of the circlip! It took a bit of a while, but finally I had both shafts and their associated gears and bearings out and on the bench.

Now, you may recall that at the start of these meanderings, my prompt to action was the 'Orrible Racket mentioned in this thread title...and I have had several people doubting that the gearbox was involved. Well, folks, this relates to my opening paragraph...doubting my own workmanship; as there is no discernible sign of wear in any part of the shafts, gears, bearings, synchronisers, needle rollers...at least from the sort of cursory inspection one does during dismantling. My rebuild completed in the open air on the concrete slab behind the back door of my house in Kew, back in the mists of time, appears to be faultless. In one way, thus, I was right; the "jobsaguddun" as they say back in Devon....And in the other...that of diagnosis(!)...I have failed miserably. The SotR is looking very unlikely to be this gearbox! At least I can fit a new clutch shaft to take care of the badly worn surface where it goes into the roller bearing I have installed in the crankshaft...probably change that bearing, too as the wear can't be all one sided. I am also sorely tempted to fit a limited slip differential...whilst I have the thing dismembered...and new bearings to support the CWP are also on the list, as they do show signs of wear..but not the sort of thing that would constitute the SotR. I still have to penetrate the mysteries of the differential...but that's for another day.

In the next few days - apart from the Singapore Grand Prix, which I shall take time out to watch on the Big Screen - I shall be cleaning the parts and inspecting them closely, to see if I missed anything in my cursory assessment. The cleaning bath is being given a fresh charge of clean, new paraffin, so we should avoid contamination; in any event, I always do a final pre assembly clean with thinners in a squeezy bottle before lubricating with gear oil (must buy some decent stuff...) and getting all the bits back where they came from...this is always a seemingly impossible task which, after much manipulating and bad language, finally just slots together so simply one can't remember HOW!!

AS to what the SotR actually IS......I think I definitely have a Gremlin infestation.

Tomorrow Mole End Cottage is pleased to welcome a fellow grime encrusted struggler...MatK will be arriving complete with Eclat wheel bearing, which we shall force into submission with my 12 ton press....I have the workshop freezer running flat out, Mat, so we ought to be able to cool the bearing down pronto!!...and you can have a look at the cogbox innards, too....

[Mike6]

Could it be something as simple as a bearing going in the alternator or some other bearing associated with the belt ie vacuum pump. When I stripped out the aircon on my car I was surprised at the resistance on the wheel at the belt - it was almost ceased

[slewthy]

Shhhhh.

After all this effort, it cant just be something simple.
Remember, he hasnt got at the diff yet.

My money is on his hearing aid being faulty (but only at speed, clearly).
Once, upon a time..., I trailed around our house for 1, maybe 2 hours trying to work out where a strange noise was coming from. Wherever I went, it always seemed louder to the left.
Turned out my watch battery was almost flat. Doh!

[matk]

Well i wasn't sure where to post this, but seeing as I've been at John's today I thought I'd put it here.

Met up with John at 1.00 pm with the intention of borrowing his press to install a new rear wheel bearing in my hub carrier............

It being a Lotus I'm now recovering at Macdonalds but now needing a new driveshaft, hub carrier oil seal, and UJ!!

Long story but suffice to say don't press things unless you're sure what's happening. If the yoke of a drive shaft looks like it is bending, it prob is!

If a UJ cap won't press in then a roller bearing has prob fallen loose, trying harder just destroys the UJ, which it did!!

If the Lotus manual shows a flush fitting oil seal, try and measure the actual allowable depth, instead of trusting the manual. Failure to do this can result in you pressing oil seals to destruction, which we did!

As you can guess SJs will be making some more money out of me!

On a more positive note John managed to invent a bearing grease insertion tool out of an old bearing and some rubber pipe, and a new way to use circlip piers in conjunction with normal pliers, to remove stubborn circlips.

I'd like to publicly thank John for his efforts and hospitality. We've never met before. so to have a stranger (me) descend on your doorstep bearing arms of rusty/filthy Lotus parts and asking politely for help must have been quite taxing. John I really appreciate your help, and company this afternoon and I'm really sorry for disrupting your efforts on your Esprit (which by the way is very nice)

To everyone else apologies for the thread hijack, I sincerely hope John is currently killing a bottle of wine, he deserves it, and I'm sure his saga will resume shortly!

[molemot]

Thank you, Mat, for your kind words...you managed to get in before me, too! For what it's worth, here's a blow-by-blow account of our tribulations....



Well, that's the end of the good weathery stuff...It's currently falling from the sky like a thousand Niagaras...soggy, or what? I had hoped to end the day on the terrasse with Mat, a fellow greasy fingernailed struggler, who arrived this lunchtime with a few bits of Lotus Eclat which needed attention. In the event, the inclemency of the weather wasn't a factor..but the intransigence of Eclat Engineering certainly was!

You may recall that yesterday I was wittering on about doubting my own efforts, and some nonsense about "assumed humility"....well, the fates surely conspired to show me the true meaning of tempting providence today...in spades. Mat duly arrived at Mole End Cottage and announced his arrival by mobile phone...not being sure of the way in. I get a lot of this, lost couriers and friends missing the front door and materialising sur terrasse and tapping at the French widows...oops, wiNdows..!! After the usual whirlwind tour of the living quarters, I turned on the oven (to preheat a bearing housing Mat had brought with him) and we descended l'escalier to the workshop. Mat was satisfyingly enthusiastic about the Atelier and we got the bits out of his daily driver, put the shiny new wheel bearing into the workshop freezer, and went to the bench. The first thing was to clean off the mucky bits, so I got out the cleaning bath and the muck was scrubbed off the bearing housing. Once it was clean, we had a good look at it and removed the remaining oil seal, using the "Stick a big screwdriver under it and give it a twist" technique. Then cleaned up the bits again....time to get the old bearing out. Initially we had to remove a giant circlip, which was a bit much for the dinky circlip pliers which were all I could find..I have a more robust set, but it had fallen through the wormhole in time which infests my workshop...so we invented the "two -plier " technique. This uses a pair of long nosed pliers (which fit into the circlip holes, but aren't man enough to squeeze the ends together) and a pair of chunky "effoff" pliers, used to squeeze together the ends of the long nose ones. Worked a treat...and we used it several times with success. Bearing removal was done by taking the outer bearing and putting it into the inner bearing (as the inner part had fallen apart when Mat took it apart!) and then taking the thing to my 12 ton press and pushing the old bearing out. So far, so good; our collective tails were so far up they were stratospheric, all going to plan..... With the housing now cleaned and ready for the new bearing, I took it upstairs to the kitchen and stuck it in the oven, set to a calibrated 120 C. Then the old inner race had to be removed from the stub axle...I have a tool for this and it made light of the task, which would have been nigh on impossible without it.

The scene was set for the bearing assembly; we cleaned up the drive shaft which was to have new universal joints, and set the press up to take the housing , ready for use if we needed it for bearing fitting. In the event, I went to the oven and carried the housing to the workshop in an old towel, and Mat got the bearing from the freezer...slotted one into the other and, with a satisfying "CLICK!" the bearing slotted into place just as it was designed to do...no press necessary!! Total success, then. Another triumph of Douglas engineering....the bearing was in place. Then I noticed it had been supplied unlubricated....which presented us with the task of Getting It Full of Grease. Mat had brought a tub of grease with him, lithium based high melting point, just the job...and a shiny new grease gun, which we filled up, bled through and tried to force the grease into the bearing. With not much success...all the grease just spread out from the sides of the nozzle. We tried fitting the nozzle with various carefully trimmed bits of plastic tubing, to get the grease into the bearing..but it still farted out the sides, despite our best efforts. And at one point I was stupid enough to get my finger in between the lever and the body of the gun, just while Mat was squeezing it...I thought I was toleration personified, but Mat said he saw a glimpse of the stone killer lurking within before the conscious mind overruled the kill reflex.... What we really needed was a sort of annular grease gun, the size of the bearing...but where to find such a thing?? Then inspiration struck...and I assembled one using the old bearing outer, the old bearing inner, and bit of radiator hose from I-know-not-what out of the hose box...which, fortuitously, just fitted between inner and outer!! SO...adjust the hose to give a nice gap of about 3/8" to the end of the tool...level off the inner and outer...fill the gap between with grease.. fit the tool to the new, unlubricated bearing and give the piece of hose, which formed an annular piston, a good shove...and the bearing was packed full of grease....worked perfectly; a dodge to be remembered!! So far, so good...but it is here, dear reader, that the fates conspired to thwart us..just as you might have thought they would..so much for "assumed" humilty, this was going to be the real thing!!!

At this point, all we had to do was fit two oil seals and change a couple of universal joints..a mere bagatelle, I hear you say. What sort of problem can such simple tasks give to a pair of grown men? Who have already managed two miracles in the day? We were to find out. Oil seals first...a large one on the inside, and a smaller one on the outside of the wheel bearing. Started with the inner one...we consulted The Drawing and it had to go in until it was flush on it's outer face with the inside face of the housing. Simples. Got the oil seal in position..gave it a little tap with the deadblow hammer and a steel block to spread the load....and the thing went all sideways...as they do; usually a bit of strategic tapping suffices to straighten them up....but not this one!! Gentle tapping and adjusting and finally trying to use the press did NOT work.....of course, in the end, the rubber side of the seal was mullered beyond belief, it wedged itself solidly, immovably cock-eyed...and a little bit of extra pressure intended to finally straighten it just bent the thing; last time I'd seen anything so bent was when my Mum stood on my model railway track.... I was more than somewhat discomforted, having hoped to have a trouble free progress, especially as Mat had entrusted me with this task; with the idea that I could do it without hassles!! Anyway, a smidgin of REAL humility crept into the proceedings ..... but not enough; oh no, the fates weren't finished with us yet....

Decided to fit the other oil seal to the outer side of the bearing. This one went in perfectly, gentle taps with the deadblow and loadspreading with the steel block worked, and the seal was rapidly driven in to it's correct location. O-KAY..cookin' with gas once more !! We still had the old inner oil seal, and checking that after cleaning revealed that it was still serviceable. So we had a go at fitting that....should never reuse old seals, but it looked OK....Perhaps I could hear the legions of Douglas engineers who have joined the choir invisible in a mass sucking of teeth..."No good will come of it, lad!".... was it them, or some other impious manifestation..in any event, the old seal went in quite well...and we repaired to the press to seat it properly. Reference to The Drawing for reassurance confirmed that the thing should go down flush...so I got the tool I had made for my Esprit wheel bearings, a simple turned circle of 10mm plate, which fitted nicely just over the seal and used the press to push it in until it was flush Now...for any of you out there who find yourself faced with this task..this seal DOESN'T go flush; once the detritus stopped flying out of the fan and I had removed the ruined bent oil seal and MEASURED the depth...which I should have done in the first place...I found it only went in 3.2mm until it was solid up against the inner machining. It wouldn't go any deeper...couldn't go any deeper..so all the effort on the press simply bent the thing inwards!! So much for oil seals......

Should have stopped after that....but what can go wrong with a couple of U/J's???? They came apart in the usual way, take out the circlips..the "two plier" technique proving efficacious once more.... then the old cups were pressed and driven out, and the parts cleaned. The stub axle end went together nicely...then we started on the drive shaft end. Now, I still don't know what happened...but having got the U/J assembled, one end of a bearing cup had fractured. I think one of the roller bearings may have come adrift and got itself across the inside end of the bearing cup..and all our attempts to push the other side in far enough to fit the circlip just broke the thing!! By now, it was getting late, and I disobeyed "Baker's Law"...which states that you should listen to what life is trying to tell you, and stop just before the approaching disaster. In hindsight, you could hear the hoofbeats of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse distantly thundering ever closer.....but I was foolishly determined to see exactly what had caused the bearing cup to fracture. SO, with the U/J supported by a substantial steel plate, we made several attempts to press the thing apart....it was ridiculously stiff, lots of pressure needed, and although the U/J was moving it wasn't moving far enough...so we had another look. And the excess press pressure had had an effect.... it had bent the yoke on the U/J!!!! Still can't think HOW....a nice vertical in line push with the lower part of the yoke supported by steel plates...how else can you get the thing apart???? But there it was...bent.

MORE than enough for one day...!! Mat was very nice about it; bits of the day had gone well...but the end result was that he went away with a set of Eclat driveshaft parts rendered FUBARed in my workshop. Now he needs a new driveshaft to replace the bent yoked one...and a new oil seal to go into the inner side of the new bearing. Oh yes....the final irony...as with my gearbox, close examination shows that there wasn't anything wrong with the original parts, and the only problem and cause of his "clonking" seems to have been the failure by some previous struggler to torque up the drive shaft outer nut...which Mat had found wobbling about, retained only by the split pin!!! So Mat departed for his drum studio further south..squelching back to his car through the rain soaked forest tilth...and I went back upstairs..to find I'd left the oven on all day, having not turned it off after taking the housing out!! HUMILITY??? I think I get the idea..

A few replies to my loyal readership.....Mike6; I only wish it were so simple.but it doesn't vary with engine rpm, but with road speed...the racket is there in gear, in neutral, clutch in, clutch out, engine at idle or revved up..onyl the road speed of the car has any effect. My brother and I once spent a day or two dismembering the timing chain on his Mercedes...as the previous owner had said the garage had told him that was what the rattle was...only to find, in the end, that it was coming from a small "silentbloc" bush on the alternator strut......!!

And, "Slewthy", it's a foul calumny....I have about 20 pairs of glasses for different tasks although I don't need them for anything other than detail work... but the aural functions are reasonably unimpaired..apart from the usual high tone loss of acuity due to exposure to very loud noises throughout my mis-spent existence.....and yes, I do still have to get into the diff.....

And now.....it's time for a drink!!!

Edited by molemot, 24 September 2010 - 08:21 PM.

[Mesprit87]

I absolve you for all the part that ended in the bin... you deserve that drink!

It proves once again that whatever the experience, the number of time you did it in the past or the goodwill, in any project, if it has to go wrong...

As for your noise... I know cv joints (you do have cv joints? I'm not sure when they cut in) make more of clunking or knocking noise usually but I've heard some drone enough to drive me crazy. I've read your other thread and you mention them but not what you've done or not about them.

It's also pretty clear when the SotR occurs but can you describe the noise itself?

Hope you find it soon.
Luc