04-08-2020, 05:41 PM
Not so much what have I done today but over the last two weeks.....
Some may recall my post on “Rear Hubs” where I was experiencing problems and noted that I had previously fitted replacement halfshafts sourced from Kirby in the late 80’s. Well in the end I decided to not run the risk of sticking with these halfshafts and so ordered some new un’s and have spent a couple of weeks in self isolation in the garage, stripping out the old and rebuilding with new.
Fortunately all new bearings were installed previously but with felt seals so these were changed as well.
One thing I had noted from driving Ruby was a serious clunk from the rear end whenever trying to reverse, the same clunk appeared when returning to forward gears and all was peaceful until the next reversing manoeuvre. What I found when stripping the axle was there was a "huge" amount of backlash on the pinion. This was very difficult to remedy and I found myself going round in circles. However after much soul searching and a flash of inspiration at 2:30 one morning, I tried blueing the adjuster ring faces to see where premature contact was being made. I found that outer ring of the bearing on the carrier side was coming into full contact with adjuster ring, preventing the CW fully engaging with the pinion, even though there seemed no way the adjuster ring could be moved further out. However after further examination and gentle persuasion the adjuster ring finally agreed to move further out and the backlash has now been reduced to acceptable levels.
The original Kirby halfshafts were not the cut and paste jobs that were highlighted in the previous posts but the dimensions of the tapers and screw thread lengths etc were somewhat different from the new ones.
An additional benefit in stripping the rear end down the rear end is that, related to another previous post I'd made questioning “Just How good should my Ruby brakes be..” I found that the rear brakes have only been working on the outer edges of the linings and so only about 20% max contact between drum and lining. The reason for this was simple, I did not appreciate the importance of the little metal tags on the Semi Girling brakes and so as a recent post noted that the springs are very tight and when fitted, the shoes sat over at an angle. Naively, I had assumed that once the drums were in place the shoes would self align themselves to the drums, not so! The brakes shoes stayed exactly as installed and so ran with only an outer edge contact. In addition the linings had begun to break up along the outer edge at the rivets, this may have been a touch of over enthusiastic wellie when fitting the linings or just the bad set up.
So with some serious lessons learned, new brake shoes, adjusted clips and brake shoes sitting square, all new seals and shafts, the rear end is now all back together and ready for a new fill of oil and hopefully a roll out of the garage in the morning.
Hopefully the efficiency of the brakes will improve, but I will be checking the fronts first .......
Cheers Denis S
Some may recall my post on “Rear Hubs” where I was experiencing problems and noted that I had previously fitted replacement halfshafts sourced from Kirby in the late 80’s. Well in the end I decided to not run the risk of sticking with these halfshafts and so ordered some new un’s and have spent a couple of weeks in self isolation in the garage, stripping out the old and rebuilding with new.
Fortunately all new bearings were installed previously but with felt seals so these were changed as well.
One thing I had noted from driving Ruby was a serious clunk from the rear end whenever trying to reverse, the same clunk appeared when returning to forward gears and all was peaceful until the next reversing manoeuvre. What I found when stripping the axle was there was a "huge" amount of backlash on the pinion. This was very difficult to remedy and I found myself going round in circles. However after much soul searching and a flash of inspiration at 2:30 one morning, I tried blueing the adjuster ring faces to see where premature contact was being made. I found that outer ring of the bearing on the carrier side was coming into full contact with adjuster ring, preventing the CW fully engaging with the pinion, even though there seemed no way the adjuster ring could be moved further out. However after further examination and gentle persuasion the adjuster ring finally agreed to move further out and the backlash has now been reduced to acceptable levels.
The original Kirby halfshafts were not the cut and paste jobs that were highlighted in the previous posts but the dimensions of the tapers and screw thread lengths etc were somewhat different from the new ones.
An additional benefit in stripping the rear end down the rear end is that, related to another previous post I'd made questioning “Just How good should my Ruby brakes be..” I found that the rear brakes have only been working on the outer edges of the linings and so only about 20% max contact between drum and lining. The reason for this was simple, I did not appreciate the importance of the little metal tags on the Semi Girling brakes and so as a recent post noted that the springs are very tight and when fitted, the shoes sat over at an angle. Naively, I had assumed that once the drums were in place the shoes would self align themselves to the drums, not so! The brakes shoes stayed exactly as installed and so ran with only an outer edge contact. In addition the linings had begun to break up along the outer edge at the rivets, this may have been a touch of over enthusiastic wellie when fitting the linings or just the bad set up.
So with some serious lessons learned, new brake shoes, adjusted clips and brake shoes sitting square, all new seals and shafts, the rear end is now all back together and ready for a new fill of oil and hopefully a roll out of the garage in the morning.
Hopefully the efficiency of the brakes will improve, but I will be checking the fronts first .......
Cheers Denis S