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s99sdp

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Posts posted by s99sdp

  1. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    1 hour ago, NonMember said:

    Don't Panic!

    Sorry, I wasn't intending to worry you. If your first one went together sufficiently for all four circlips to be properly seated then it's almost certainly fine! My advice is only intended to help you, based on a fair few years of experience (my first UJ change was in the 1980s).

    I'm sure putting the UJ in the freezer for a bit would help, not just because the grease will be harder but also, the cups will shrink ever so slightly and thus be easier to push into the yoke.

    It makes absolute sense and these are the things a complete pen pushing nice like me learn from you guys that have been there and done it.

    I'll follow your advice when I get to fit the second one and keep you guys updated.

     

    SP

  2. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, NonMember said:

    Can't say I've ever resorted to freezing the grease! The trick is to perform the reassembly smoothly and without shocks. Put one cup most of the way in, insert the spider through the other side of the yoke and line up to slot into it, then make sure everything is correctly aligned before pressing in the other cup. If you resort to a hammer, the rollers will fall out. Use a big vice (or a vertical press if you can find one!) and press everything in slowly and, most important, squarely.

    You're worrying me now.

    I'll put the second one in and get prepared to replace the first one that is clearly going to break and drop out.

     

    SP

  4. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    The final clip on the one we fitted today was a nightmare. Im not 100% confident that it's in perfectly but we did all we could short of dynamite to get it in.

    I'm just a heavy duty pen pusher but I'll take plenty of time on the second UJ tomorrow so hopefully that one will go back together easier and give me some confidence.

     

    SP

  6. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    Thanks Pete.

    The shock was basically performing no function and could be compressed to complete compression without any effort at all. 

    The plan now is that we'll exchange the shocks and re fit, replace the UJ and check the rest from there.

    Fingers crossed that will be the end of it but I fear it wont be.

  7. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    UPDATE:

    Sorry for the late reply....Over the past few weekends I've been doing other bits on the car and in real life. 

    Finally today we managed to convince my stubborn father to start working down your list of suggestions. My cousin came along to give me some moral support and after a very long inspection we found a broken universal joint and a brand new shock absorber that wasn't working. It was useless!

    Now the coincidence is that it was the same side that was dropped before the shocks were replaced but in the mean time we've changed the spring so.......... I intend to return the shocks for new ones and fingers crossed that will be the end of the lop sided car.

    We're going to change the universal joint and look at the driveshaft at the same time and just hope that isnt knackered too.

    Who amongst us thinks that will resolve it? Personally I'm about 60/40 against it working but at least I'll have two working shocks

  9. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    John & Trigolf.. Thanks for the additional suggestions.

    I'll work through all these points to see if we can rectify the issue. As the car is currently at my fathers we currently do most of the work on it at weekends so that may be the first time we get to start on the list.

    Thanks again and if any other ideas come up please post them, every suggestions is gratefully received.

    SP

  10. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    My Dad's 72 yo and he knows his way round these older cars so we can work our way through all these suggestions.

    Thanks everyone for chipping in, it's greatly appreciated. Once we've found the issue OR worked our way through them I'll come back and update you.

     

    Thanks again.
    SP

  11. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

    Most spitty leans iv e come across are front end , differing springs spring pads and bent anti rolls

    Agree with clive , jack front in the middle does the rear lean  ,, jack the rear in the middle does the front lean 

    Always good to have someone with good hearing on the outside to determine where the clunk is coming from 

    Dont run them over !!

    Thanks Pete, easy advice to follow there (especially the running over bit), I'll give that a go and come back here.

     

    SP

  12. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, clive said:

    Another thought.

    When you tightened the spring eye bushes up, you did have the car on the ground, or at least the spring in normal ride position (ie not hanging in the air)

    It was hanging in the air but to be fair it was up on axle stands so both wheels were hanging.

  14. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, clive said:

    Changing the spring (and shocks) made no difference to the lopsidedness? In that case it my be the front of the car causing the issues.

    Jack the car up with a jack under the diff to get the wheels off the ground. And then see how the front springs are.

    Another thought, this can be caused (but unusual) by bent or damaged diff front mounts. Obvious when you think that the spring is bolted to te diff. If that is notsitting correctly by a tiny amount, the rear spring will be a long way out.

    Clunk may be the tie rod from the heelboard to the bottom of the vertical link. Damaged bushes unusual, but damage to the heelboard, or loose bracket attached to heelboard, does happen.

    Hello Clive, thanks for responding. 

    There's absolutely no difference whatsoever after changing the shocks and spring, drivers R/H is still almost on the floor and the CLUNK on acceleration and deceleration is still there.

    The front end is perfectly level but I will go through all your suggestions, well, I'll get someone who knows what the'yre actually doing to go through them 😂.

     

    Thanks again Clive, I'll update you after we've checked all this out.

  15. Lop sided rear end

    in Drivetrain & Rear Axle

    Posted

    Hello All,

    Forgive my stupidness, I'm not a mechanic, just a heavy duty pen pusher.

    My Mk3 Spitfire sits very low on the rear drivers side. It also makes a huge clunk/grind from the rear drivers side when the car first moves off then again when the forward momentum stops. 

    I'm assuming its a bush that needs replacing somewhere? 

    I've replaced both rear shocks AND the spring and all the remaining bushes seem ok but can anyone give me some advice from my terrible explanation of the problem?

     

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    SP 

  17. Hello...*discreet wave*

    in I thought I'd introduce myself

    Posted

    Hi JohnD,

    Gibraltar.....

    I have a house on the south coast of Spain but we've been holidaying down there since 1986 so I came up with the dumb ass idea of driving down to the house. 

    My father refurbed a White Mk3 Spitfire for my brothers 50th birthday a few years ago, this blue one was a donor car for that project that was too mechanically sound to strip.

    My Dad then decided to refurb the blue one for my future 50th. I bought a red mk3 for £1,100 as a donor car for the blue project (are you keeping up???)  but again, when we got that back we found the bodywork was perfect (amazingly) and after a couple of hours my dad got the engine running and that sounds the best of all three of them.

    So we have 3 Mk3's, red, white and blue in colour. Personally I'd have preferred a TR7 convertible (don't shoot me, I had one when I was younger) but I've fell in love with my Mk3 now and I'm quite happy.

    I'd dearly love to try the trip to Gibraltar but its a huge thing to take on and I'm not sure if I need the stress as I'm not mechanically minded at all.

    I'll take a read of the Pyranees link although I'm quite confident it will make me realise I'm doing the right thing not planning a trip to a pointy bit of rock at the southern most tip of europe.

     

    Hopefully this link will show you some of the build pics to date... 

    https://www.flickr.com/gp/143574234@N04/5q9847

    SP

  18. Hello...*discreet wave*

    in I thought I'd introduce myself

    Posted

    Thanks for the welcome everyone. Yes Poppyman, I've come over from CT but I may keep an eye over there as they've been helpful.

    This car is an early 50th present from my father, he wanted to help me get it done while he was still capable of helping on it. The idea originally was to drive this one, and to others that are in the family down to Gibraltar but if I'm honest I don't think that will happen now.
     
    Basically my contribution to the project has been scouring the online auction sites, scrap yards and barns for cheap parts.
    I had a guy in Devon sell me a replacement steel bonnet for £100.00, a set of 5 wheel and hubcaps for another £100.00 and varying boxes of items like dash switches, dials etc for £20 each box. Plus he sold be a windscreen surround for £20 and there wasn't a spec of rust on it so it was worth the trip just to collect this alone
     
    We have had to replace the inner and outer sills, the inner/outer rear wings, as well as the full rear wings, and the rear valance.
    The car runs really really well, it's only done about 31k from new but its had many many owners and I'm guessing it was just left to decay at one point then passed from owner to owner as it was troublesome
    We've done some minor mechanical work mainly to test it but my 72 year old father is a dab hand at these engines. As soon as I get it back this weekend i'll take it out for a run if its not raining.
     
    It hasn't been a complete rebuild as there's no way I can afford that, lets just say its been a sympathetic refurb.
    I've learnt a lot from this and I'm sure there will be plenty of cuts, shocks and grazed knuckles before I'm happy with it.
    I'll post a link from my flickr account later s I'd hate to get told off for posting 25,000 pics on here in my first few days
    😀
     
     
    SP

  20. Hello...*discreet wave*

    in I thought I'd introduce myself

    Posted

    Hello, I just thought I'd drop a line to say hello as I've just joined.

    At various points I'm hoping I can turn to some of you or advice on my Spitfire refurb. 

    I'm a heavy duty pen pusher and in no way mechanical, hopefully this site is busier that the CT site that seems to be dying since they changed it.

     

    SP

     

    Before and after!

    IMG_5200 (1).JPG

    WAP711H.jpg

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