Roger K

Thanks for the offers, but Pete reckons they're for Rotoflex only and mine's non-roto. Pete, what do you mean by 'on the deck'? Sitting with the weight on its wheels, then connect the radius arms?

I'm now onto replacing the rear axle. Car's a non-roto late MkIII GT6, swing-spring. I've fitted the diff, and bolted the spring down to the top of it. I've assembled the halfshafts and brakes etc. and spent this afternoon fitting one. I really don't remember it being as hard as this! 1 - radius arm fitted to body. 2 - position driveshaft/hub assembly, and hang off the spring eye bush with bolt and locknut. 3 - jack vertical link until shock absorber can be attached. Horrible as top end really doesn't want to go in chassis mount at the top. Lots of rubber & nylon lubricant and a lot of swearing. Shox are Konis. 4 - jack again to try to get radius arm somewhere near its mounting bracket on vertical link. This lifts car way off the axle stands on that side and gets a bit.... stressful. Eventually get bolt through radius arm to vertical link bracket. 5 - bolt driveshaft flange to diff output flanges. Everything left untorqued until it's sitting on its wheels, obviously. Is the above correct? A really tricky job with the vertical bending right over backwards at the base with just the shocker fitted. However did I do this at the side of the road in the rain in 1976?? Question - is the 'hex bar' spring lever tool sold by Rimmers etc. worth having? Does it make this any easier?

James, any luck? Roger

Thanks, good advice all!

Thanks Clive. A word to the unwary - the world of Land Rover parts is murky indeed! You will see countless suppliers offering 'OEM' or 'as OEM' - be very careful, as the dreaded Britpart repro stuff gets labelled as OEM, and it most definitely is not. If the price is cheap, you are not getting top quality parts, it's as simple as that. Before Clive's helpful post I googled 'Freelander UJ' and found several listed as OEM or OEM replacement for very low prices.

PeteH, that was my thinking also. I used a fine TC bur in a die-grinder to smooth the casting line back, blending in gently with the rest of the metal. It'll only fail there if there's a fault already present. Clive - is this a standard Freelander driveshaft joint - do you happen to have a part number? I know what you mean regarding propshaft alignment. When I restored by '68 Mustang fastback (you think Triumphs rust? Ha!) I changed the 289 motor for a 393, fitted a late-model Mustang 5-spd 'box and a Currie Engineering 9" rear axle. It took a lot of work with inclinometers, calculators, shims etc. to get the driveline angles correct and reweld mounting points etc. I've always worked to around 3°+ve and 3°-ve for driveline angles. I seem to remember that significantly less than 3° can allow the UJs to brinell, as they're not rotating enough, and anything much over will cause vibrations. Bailey Morris balanced it up for me and the car's as sweet as a nut now, right through to over the ton with no driveline vibrations. And that's with a 1270mm propshaft!

I only removed enough to allow fitment of an extended grease nipple with the flange disconnected and folded out of the way. I've taken barely 20thou off the meatiest area in one position, Colin - it's really just a mould line on the inner aspect that's been cleaned up. I don't think it'll be a problem.

Yes Pete, that's what I suspect. Shame - dark blue with black trim and a full-length Webasto, what a waste. Oh well, it cost me £12 and I got £525 for it two years later.

It's possible my issue has the added complexity of replacement driveshafts, brand new from Rimmers. With the grease nipple on the shaft side, i.e. pointing away from the flange, neither of the two options allows easy clearance for a long-reach nipple (the one supplied with the joint by GKN). I little gentle relieving of the casting of the drive shaft yoke allows this. I can then replace the grub screw, which I've cut and slotted from a 1/4UNF screw. I've also ordered some hex head grub screws for the reason Peter mentions above. I first installed the joint the other way around, with the nipple facing the flange, but the bulge in the joint X-casting for the nipple stops the shaft pivoting fully in one direction when assembled, so this is not safe.

This has prompted my memory. In 1976 I was driving my £12 MkI 2lt Vitesse home from university in London for the weekend. Once home, I drove some mates to the pub. At around 11.30pm I was pulling out of the pub car park at walking speed when there was a loud bang and the rear N/S corner of the car dropped onto the road. In the dark, I couldn't see what had happened but the rear wheel was up in the wheelarch. We went back into the pub and phoned the police, who turned up and stuck a single traffic cone next to it as it was sticking out into the main road and we couldn't move it. The next morning I went back with my brother, with a spare LH rear axle assembly I had kicking around. We managed to get a jack under and disconnected the old assembly, and got the 'new' knackered one in. All this with traffic taking avoiding action in the rain... I then drove it home carefully with only the handbrake. Those were the days... but what a way to spend your 21st birthday!! The photo shows what we found. It's the same style as the ones I have, although marked as 'Hardy Spicer' not GKN. I don't think the failure started at the grease nipple hole, but it's hard to say for sure. I reckon I was lucky - two hours before it failed, I was checking the old Vitesse could still do over a ton on the A1. RLP3E, where are you now?

I have done this in the past, Clive, with larger sizes. Do you know a source for different thickness clips for the small Triumph cups? These days selective assembly doesn't really work with modern production tolerances, I find! I'm going to give the Club joints a try. The GKN ones I've bought have such a large boss for the nipple that movement is restricted in one plane even without the grease nipple fitted.

Not a problem, I really appreciate the advice. I should have been a bit clearer. I have long conversations on the Vintage Mustang forum about bonnets, hoods, sills, wings, tyres..... and driveshafts!

I’ve had a look at the club ones and it looks to me as though the plug is a push-in plastic thing on the end of one cup - may be wrong, but that’s what I think I’m looking at. Therefore I think I’ll stick with my heavy-duty GKN ones, and fit threaded blanking plugs. I have long-reach grease nipples which should fit at service time. ¼ UNF blanking plugs are either easily made, or cheap to buy as hex-socket plugs.

Not on mine. There’s a definite relief for a grease nipple in one place only on my car’s prop, but none on either driveshaft.

Sorry Ed, that looks like a propshaft, not a driveshaft. It has a spline grease nipple on the shaft. That said, I know from my Mustang experiences that the American for propshaft is driveshaft...

Drive shaft UJs, non-roto. I bought the GKN OE spec UJ joints, as I like to be able to grease them. I've now fitted them, and there's no room for the grease nipple. What's the answer, please? Do I need to make up a blanking plug or something? I've assembled them both ways round, makes no difference.

Thanks Pete - not at all sure there's room to get a bolt head past the inboard leg of the radius arm bracket, but as I'm using an original vertical link and the original bolt, I guess it must fit somehow...

Thanks Colin. I have actually managed to get one side to fit - a lot of work. There seem to be two problems with the modern kits: 1 - the inner tin washer cup lip is too deep. I tried a mockup without the rubber ring, but the lip on the inner 'cup' was too deep and stopped the outer 'cup' from seating properly. I filed the lip so that it was approx the same depth as the nylon top-hat head, which brought it into tolerance. This produced problem 2! 2 - the square-section rubber ring is too wide to allow compression of the metal cups, producing the same problem as above. I fitted the rubber ring tightly over a metal cylinder (actually an oil seal drift) and cut it carefully with a no.12 scalpel blade along its length, reducing it in width to just enough oversize to need slight compression. The two above did the trick. What a faff. Next question: which way should I fit the bolt that goes through this lot and the vertical link? I thought about having the bolt head at the end with the radius arm bracket, but not sure the bolt head will go past the bracket. Anybody know? Roger ps - the old parts from the trunnions are completely u/s, although there's enough left to show that the new parts are stupidly oversized. Or the old ones are very badly worn......

These are not great - I don't remember this hassle when changing these 30 years ago! I've bought the Rimmers offering, 'made in the UK' by Powertune. First off, the rubber rings. Back in the day these pretty much fitted around the edge of the nylon top hat, like they're supposed to. These are about 3/4 size: the only way I stand a fighting chance of getting them on is to hold them, stretched, for as long as I can, preferably without breaking them. Having managed that, I now have to get the vertical link on. Currently - no chance. With the outer steel cup on and everything as compressed as I can get it, the overall width is 2.2". The gap between the vertical link uprights is pretty much 2". Even with a G clamp trying to compress things, it's nowhere near. I guess I could use a small screw jack arrangement to spread the vertical link, not sure that's a good idea? Any tips? Different manufacturer, perhaps?

The reason I asked in the first place was because my new spring doesn't have 'front' on it, or anything else for that matter.

Thanks again all - now you come to mention it Pete, I used to have a great mate who ran a company near me called East Anglian Sports Cars. He specialized in TRs, winning the old Benson & Hedges concours several times back in the eighties. I vaguely remember him saying he never understood how the small Triumph rear wheel bearings were supposed to work...

Sorting through my toolbox, I found that I actually possess an original Churchill tool S304, used for drifting the outer bearing onto the halfshaft. So, I duly used it, and the bearing/outer trunnion face ended up pretty much on 2.625" from the end of the shaft, as shown in the diagram in the workshop manual. However.... the trunnion is now a good half inch away from the dust shield, which I drifted on the required distance. If I trial-fit the rear hub on the tapered end of the shaft, it doesn't go on fully and is loose, so when it's tightened up with the nut it will press the trunnion further along the halfshaft. Is this intentional, or have I got something wrong? Thanks!

I guess that sort of makes sense.... what a strange design Thanks Johny.

Sorry, another axle question... I'm assembling the rear hubs onto the shaft. According to the shop manual, the rear hub inner oil seal should be drifted into the trunnion block with the seal lips trailing. Is that correct? Every other seal I've fitted in the past has the lip trailing ON THE SHAFT, not in the housing. The spring side is always on the 'oil' side, in my experience. Either my thinking's gone awry, or pressing the seal in the trunnion with the lip trailing will allow oil (well, grease) to pass through the seal easily. Does this seal defy every other seal I've fitted? I seem to remember my old GT6 always had a grease-encrusted shaft, so maybe... Am I going mad?

Thanks Clive, sounds good to me.