Roger K

Anybody tried the TR6 offerings? Easy to fit, front and rear, and with proper TR6 chrome nuts can I fit the GT6 centre trims?

That's the best close up I could get. The shiny areas are where the drift tapped the stud out of the hub. I suspect the slightly darker area around the upper perimeter may be a fault line. The car's a GT6 Mk3 and the stud diameter is 3/8 (UNF). Pete, I agree that these are pretty feeble. As I mentioned earlier, I had a job replacing the front wheels just after I bought the car because the studs were not parallel - some were bent quite noticeably. I don't think the stock ones are safe. I've ordered a single TR6 one to experiment with. I don't really want metric as it will just confuse me. Plus I want to use the original chrome wheel centres, so need the stepped style of nut. I've ordered a TR6 one of those as well to check properly. Do the TR6 studs press into the hubs OK? I presume the hole is the same, just the threaded portion is thicker? The splines would presumably also be the same. It's a bit odd that the TR6 uses different studs front and rear - anybody know why?

I'm not sure because the old ones don't seat in the hub the same way, see difference in shape above. Also I tapped all four out of the old hub, and when cleaning them up I realised they were all bent to some extent. I don't really want to fit bent ones! I've ordered some new studs, but will need to talk to Rimmer's on Monday about this. I'm getting 40mm studs, but the originals seem shorter than this.

Not alloy, Tony, steel. At least, I could retrieve the loose piece I tapped out with a magnet probe.... the torque wrench (Snapon Techwrench) would have tripped for whatever reason, and the wrench was not tight when it broke. Saved reading was 36ftlbs only after it broke.

Thanks Tony, Yes, there is room. I’ve checked the broken one against an old one I removed (which all seem to be bent!), and the new Bastuck ones are longer, with the head fitting flush in the rear face of the hub. The old ones won’t do that - the head sits proud and far less thread pokes through. I guess I’ll need four new studs to make sure they’re all the same. Not impressed by the Bastuck part at that price - this is a safety-critical part.

Just finishing off the rear axle job, car on the ground and final tightening of the wheel nuts to torque. Second nut on the driver's side - get to 36ftlbs at which point there's a loud bang and the stud shears off. The torque wrench is accurate, and it didn't feel very tight when it broke. Stared at it for a couple of minutes in disbelief... The hub as a brand new Bastuck one, as supplied by Rimmers. Looks very nicely made, but... not sure I trust either of them now! The broken stud face looks like a casting crack, not sure. I checked the torque figures before I started in the shop manual - can't find a reading for MkIII, but the MkII asks for 38-42ftlbs only, which seems very low to me. Makes no odds - this one broke before I got even that far. Before I jack the thing up to investigate, can anyone tell me if it's possible to change the stud without dismantling the entire back axle? Or is it hub puller time again - if so, I presume I can do it on the car? This thing's jinxed...

I've spent the day assembling the rear brakes, thinking 'these parts are in great condition, they should work fine'. I discovered that if I pulled on the handbrake levers on the backplates hard enough, at the right angle, and pushing back at the right angle, there was a definite 'click' indicating that the internal levers were advancing the adjusters and working properly. After 20 minutes of fiddling with the levers, trying to get them to click, and doing it too many times to count, I decided that this was ridiculous. Just pulling on the handbrake lever inside the car didn't work at all, the angles were all wrong. Forget it, I'll drill the holes. But not in my nice shiny new drums, I'll practice on the old, cracked ones. I dug them out, and...... somebody had drilled holes in them!! I hadn't noticed when I removed them. So I copied this - two 1/2" holes opposite each other, just in from the edge. Fitted the drums, small screwdriver through the hole, easiest job in the world to adjust. Perfect handbrake, and rear drums adjusted just right. So easy, and so effective. Thanks all!

Thanks Nigel, that is exactly my usual procedure so I will follow it again when I rebuild this motor.

Out of interest - is a cam break-in procedure recommended for new cams installed in the six-pot? It's very important at first fire-up in American V8s with flat-tappet cams, so I would presume it would be a good idea in a Triumph as these are also flat-tappet.

I'm retired, but volunteered to go back and do some sessions. Bit tricky to blag your way in, the paperwork is horrendous!

Thanks Graham, I think I need to wait until I can drive it before I start changing things. I’ve got the front end to do next, before the XK140 comes back from the paintshop.

It has one, it’s a 3.63. Don’t think that’s the issue though really.

Shouldn't be wrong, Pete - bought all the parts from one supplier (Rimmers), described as late GT6 swing spring and the shafts as long shafts. No, nothing moves changing from forwards to backwards - at least, not when I'm pushing it. The toe is not adjustable except by shims and has never been touched. The old tyres were worn perfectly evenly so I doubt there's a problem there. Better too high to start and settles correctly, than perfect at the start and settles too low, I suppose. Wonder if the diff has shrunk?

Thanks chaps, I forgot to say that it has been rolled backwards and forwards 3 or 4 feet a few times to allow the tyres to settle from the jacking. I've run all the nuts up to contact without tightening to torque. I was thinking of maybe doing a couple of very gentle circuits of the bypass before tightening, to allow some movement. Failing that, the obvious answer would be to place an order for a lowering block. In my experience, the moment I click on 'pay' the spring will move down to the correct position. You may have spotted the 5.5J wheels... these are the 16mm offset so will hopefully be OK on a swing-spring. It's a bit tricky to tell just at the moment, though.

One thing after another.... I need some advice from the sages with experience again. Would you expect marked positive camber on rear wheels when fitting a brand new rear spring? This is the continuing saga of my late non-roto GT6. I have replaced the rear spring with a Rimmers GT6 spring, as it had a longer Spitfire 1500 spring which had been on nearly ten years but still showed positive camber. I've reused the vertical links, but changed the diff for a 3.63. I have fitted new drive shafts, listed as 'long' for late non-roto GT6. The photos show how it's ended up. The suspension bolts are still all loose to allow things to settle. I've jumped up and down on the bumper a bit, which pulls it more level, but this is how it sits at rest - the tyres are taking the weight. My question is, is this normal with a brand new spring, and it will settle further, or do I have a problem with this new spring? Thanks all

Ha! Enjoy your jab - I spent most of yesterday giving those

As a personal choice, I always use an engine assembly lubricant such as Permatex; there are many options around. Apparently, if you look hard enough, it's possible to spot some being used in this video, but so far I haven't managed to spot it. Nigella, eat your heart out. Roger

OK, for the other side I took on board all the helpful comments on this thread, and reassembled the brake and driveshaft unit to the car in this order: 1 attached the radius arm to the vertical link loosely. 2 lifted the unit into position and attached the vertical link to the spring eye loosely. 3 attached the radius arm to the body loosely (hefty push forward on the axle unit required). 4 attached the diff output flange to the driveshaft flange loosely, all four bolts. 5 attach the top shock absorber eye to the chassis loosely. 6 jack up the vertical link and connect the lower eye of the shock absorber to the vertical link loosely. Now you can tighten the drive shaft flange bolts and assemble the brake parts until all is together again. Once done, either sit the car on its wheels or support via the vertical links on axle stands. Now tighten all the bolts - radius arm ends, shock absorbers, spring eye etc. to the specified torque settings. The most stubborn part of the above method was, surprisingly, getting the top shock absorber bolt (the shoulder bolt) in place. Despite using plenty of lubricant, this didn't want to go in at all - I ended up having to chamfer the rearmost rubber bush at the point where the bolt shaft enters it to allow entry. The bolt shoulder was hanging up on the leading edge of the hole in the bush - this may be a function of the rubber bushes supplied with the Konis, so may not be a general problem. All in all, it is much easier for a late non-roto GT6 with the body still on by doing it this way. Which is pretty much the exact opposite order to that in my factory workshop manual... Thanks all, second side on in around 30 mins, with no bloodshed.

That's useful, thanks Pete. I think I'll knock one up as I have another car with even stiffer transverse leafsprings front and rear, which this would be very useful for as well as the Triumph. Width dims might need slight adjustment, need to check.

Thanks again Clive.

The Freelander joints arrived yesterday, and were duly fitted with no problems. The cups have a small pointed piece loose in the ends, which locates in the grease reservoir in the spider. I've not seen this before in a UJ, and left them in place - just had a thought, should I have removed them? My guess is that they maintain a gap between the base of the cup and the spider to allow grease to move around a bit, so should be left in. I hope.

Thanks for the tip Clive, I'll give that a try on the other side today. I'm a bit concerned that with the shock absorber and the radius arm attached, the spring eye will be a lot lower than the top of the vertical link, but I'll know once I try it. Maybe that's where the spring lifter bar comes into play?

But I'm not replacing the spring, I'm trying to attach the other parts to it.... should I remove the spring and assemble the other parts first, then replace the spring?

I certainly found on the side that I've done that pushing up on the vertical link with a jack, as the book describes, doesn't allow any movement for alignment etc. because of the pressure on the link, meaning I had to do some hammering on bolts to get them through brackets and bushes which I don't like doing. The spring is a standard GT6 one so presumably a bit stronger than the Spit equivalents. Possibly a bit naïve but I'm hoping allowing the vertical link to dangle from the spring while I'm trying to attach things will make it easier.