Canley Classics

So I ended up ordering a hub puller from Canley Classics. I was planning to order the swing spring conversion kit at some point and figured I might as well get the hub puller while I was at it.

When ordering online with Canley, it doesn't tell you how much shipping would be and the exchange rate is approximate so it is hard to tell the total cost. That information came later after someone at Canley put together the order and emailed an order confirmation with the final price. Shipping for these parts came to 100 pounds which is much more than I thought it would be, but it did however come one week after ordering which was nice. The box arrived a little banged up, but everything came in good condition.

The hub puller is one solid piece of metal. The threads on the puller bolt make the Harbor freight jaw puller threads look puny. Even with the hub puller though, we still had a hard time pulling off the hub. We ended up using a 6 foot long breaker bar to get enough leverage to pull off the hub.

From watching the youtube videos of pulling hubs, I knew to expect a pop when the hub puller came off, what I wasn't expecting was what sounded like a gunshot when it did and so I ducked for cover when I heard that.

Gaining access to the hub space, the wheel bearings appear to be in good shape. The only items needing replacement are the hub gasket and the wheel studs, which is now do-able with the drive flange removed.

Making slow and steady progress...

Researching for restoration

This weekend I didn't physically work on the car, but spent time researching next steps for the hub puller and then this lead to researching for a swing spring axle. I was considering to check with AutoZone if they had a universal hub puller in their loan-a-tool program, but after reading some online forums, I found that even this tool was not always successful when using to pull on a Triumph hub.

It seems that the best solution is to use a hub puller, similar to the one for sale by Canley Classics, a UK-based British car tools/parts supplier. Unfortunately the cost for this tool is $101 and to make matters worse, this tool is so specific, it does not even fit on all Triumph cars, like TR's. On a positive note, the tool is CNC from one piece of metal so it does appear to be good quality (no welds that could break).

http://www.canleyclassics.com/?xhtml=xhtml/product/hubpuller.html&xsl=product.xsl

While I was on this page, I remember that I had once considered using Canley Classics to buy a swing spring axle kit. This was something that I read on the forums to help with handling and keep the rear wheels from caving in when cornering. So if I buy the hub puller, I would get the swing spring axle kit at the same time.

I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't rig my way out of this one with a tool I made myself, but after seeing how tight the hub is on by how it damaged the jaw puller, I think I may call myself defeated.