University Motors

During my youtube searches for how to do various car repairs, I stumbled upon University Motors. This shop, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, mostly focuses on MG's, but their youtube postings offer a lot of information on British car repairs. They have tons of videos posted (193 as of 4/2/2012) and continue to add more.

You can check out their shop and latest projects/postings here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Universitymotorsltd

An Electric Triumph Spitfire

I found this post on CNN and thought I'd share...

Dan Busby converted a 1964 Triumph Spitfire into an electric car using a 40-horsepower electric motor and 45 Lithium battery cells that take up the entire space under the hood and where the gas tank would be.

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/08/an-electric-triumph/?hpt=hp_bn6

Too short, back to the store

I found this youtube video a while back while looking into how to remove the hub. It shows a quick and easy way to remove the rear axle bearing. The Haynes manual says to push the axle hub down the axle to get to the bearing, but with no further instructions than that. The video shows a cheap way to remove the bolts using threaded rods.

Using the same idea from the video above, I purchased some nuts and bolts to try and achieve similar results. Unfortunately, the bolts I purchased were too short. I was able to push the axle hub back, but the bolts were not long enough to fully expose the bearing. I ended making a second trip to the hardware store to get longer bolts to finish what I started. Re-watching the video again, I should have bought threaded rods.

My ineffective setup: (threaded rods that fit through the flange holes would have been better)

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.

When the manual doesn't cover it...

I'm trying to replace the rear wheel bearings while I have the access to them, but unfortunately, the Haynes manual only covers front wheel bearing replacement. Looking at the rear assembly unit, I was not sure what needed to be pulled/screwed off and where. Googling on this topic returned many results, below are the 2 resources I found most helpful.

1. http://www.mikeross-dds.com/rrbrng.html - only site I found with step-by-step pictures and instructions
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCd8kYI3HyY (video below) - good guide on how to remove and install the drive fland and stud assembly

Now that I understand what needs to be removed, I tried using the rear drum as a solid plate to pull the drive flange off - loosening the center nut and putting the wheel nuts back on. (The video warns against using a jaw puller directly on the flange since the plate could bend.) After many many attempts and methods, the flange still will not come off. I even built a wooden mount for the rear assembly unit so it does not roll around and I can apply full torque, but now the threads of the jaw puller have started breaking off.

Wooden mount for rear assembly

Damaged threads on the jaw puller

Not sure what I'll do next but I think it'll involve buying or making a hub puller.

A Few Good Whacks...

I stopped by Harbor Freight on my way home recently to see what kind of tools I could use to remove the brake drum. On Harbor Freight's website, I had seen a bolt puller on sale so I thought I'd check that out. The store had numerous tools on sale, so I picked up the bolt puller and also picked up a 4 piece, 3-jaw puller set for $24.99. The jaw puller set came with 4 sizes of pullers: 8", 6", 4", and 2" and cheaper than anything I had seen online.

After arriving home, I realized I had no idea how to use the bolt puller and the 8" 3-jaw puller looked like it could work so gave that a shot. The 8" puller fit right over the brake drum but after a few rotations on the center bolt to force the pulling action, I could not turn it anymore. Frustrated with being stuck on a task the Haynes manual passed over quickly as a trivial task, I whacked the outer edge of the drum with a hammer a few times. I went back to turning the center bolt and found it to be super easy to turn and had figured that the jaws had probably slipped out of place, but upon closer inspection, I saw that the drum had popped off!

Under the drum:

I'm still in the process of disassembling and cleaning, but as I'm doing so, I'm using soap stone to mark on the new parts where springs and screws go (not all holes are used) so that I can avoid some confusion during reassembly.

P.S. - The nitrile gloves were great for this task - brake drums are filthy.