To clip or not to clip that is the question.

[Aristotle]

Felicitaciones, a first question after introducing meself previously, but first where I'm up to.

Purchased my Spitfire 1500 few weeks ago and following advice from Guru's on here to check/replace oil in diff, gearbox and engine can report I'm still enamoured with this little car.

Oil pressure good, diff seems fine and gear changes improved.

My 70 odd year old back though after being pinned under (to get it level) the car is feeling it's owner shouldn't still think he's 27.

However having done it once next time should "ahem" be easier.

Thoughts now move on apace to flushing the engine, rad and heater to ensure all is well in that quarter - it seems all ok - but knowing I've flushed everything out will just make me feel better.

So as one task appears and I look round the engine room to divine what to do next my eye's light on on the outboard ends of the bellows on the steering rack - you know the bit before the track rod ends.

Now in the dim and distant I thought both ends of bellows were secured with jub clips but on my Spitty only the inboard ends are - allowing the outboard end of the bellows to float along the shaft which protrudes. All seems OK, steering's fine.

So chaps question is - should there be a clip on the outboard end of the bellows or as long as the rack is well greased does it matter.

 

[trigolf]

Simple answer - Yes!

Either a jubilee clip or original wire type clip, or nowdays often a large plastic 'tyrap' cable tie. Otherwise all sorts of undesirable muck will get into the steering rack!

[Paul H]

10 hours ago, trigolf said:

Simple answer - Yes!

Either a jubilee clip or original wire type clip, or nowdays often a large plastic 'tyrap' cable tie. Otherwise all sorts of undesirable muck will get into the steering rack!

And an MOT failure 

Paul 

[Chris A]

28 minutes ago, Paul H said:

And an MOT failure 

Paul 

Probably also for the CT (controle technique) the French MOT which for my 13/60 runs out next weekend. I spotted a split in one yesterday while investigating another problem, the split must be very new as although greasey it isn't that dirty. The gaiters are both held in place with plastic cable ties - don't blame the French the car came like that from the UK.

I'm going to order the pair on the basis that if one has split the other won't be far off doing the same, and anyway my supplier sells them as a pair.

[Pete Lewis]

definitely  you need to secure   be that jub clip/cable tie/twisted wire 

change the engine oil a flush or flushing oil idea can loosen age old well stuck crud and give you more problems then you think it may solve  just change the 

oil and filter and drive it more 

you dont need any fuel addatives either  the heads have years of lead memory embeded so until there is a head off problem , just drive it just use E5 fuel  it will be fine 

Pete 

[Aristotle]

1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:

definitely  you need to secure   be that jub clip/cable tie/twisted wire 

change the engine oil a flush or flushing oil idea can loosen age old well stuck crud and give you more problems then you think it may solve  just change the 

oil and filter and drive it more 

you dont need any fuel addatives either  the heads have years of lead memory embeded so until there is a head off problem , just drive it just use E5 fuel  it will be fine 

Pete 

Thank you for response (responses) I assume one points wheels dead ahead so bellows/gaiters are equal and at rest so to speak - before one applies preferred securing method - and that the design allows sufficient expansion and contraction full lock to lock ?

On the oil front - many moons ago as a callow youth I thought it was a good idea to use flushing oil on the faster version of an HA Viva (was it an SL90) - or some such. Even these years later the rattling which followed my ministrations is remembered - never again.

 

[Pete Lewis]

i thouhgt all SL90 rattled a bit  Ha !!!

ans yes centralised is a fair way to set up , doesnt have to be to tight clipped so if exerted can move if forced 

Pete

[Aristotle]

20 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

i thouhgt all SL90 rattled a bit  Ha !!!

ans yes centralised is a fair way to set up , doesnt have to be to tight clipped so if exerted can move if forced 

Pete

Thank you - and well yes - it was a Vauxhall after all - ducks below parapet before incoming from Vauxhall front line.

[Pete Lewis]

many of us on here have a long coat or a tin hat   Ha !!

and Viva 's were the first experience i found the lack of dizzy oiling of the delco brand caused serious spindle wear/wobble back in the 70's

Pete

Edited August 21, 2023 by Pete Lewis

[Aristotle]

6 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

many of us on here have a long coat or a tin hat   Ha !!

and Viva 's were the first experience i found the lack of dizzy oiling of the delco brand caused serious spindle wear/wobble back in the 70's

Pete

Had a couple of them back in the day plus a van which did prodigious work.

Nice little car in it's way lovely light steering as I remember.

Most memorable was trolling along in built up area at regulation 30, honest officer, - along a road in Battlefield, Glasgow.

Don't know if that was apocryphal or not but approaching a gradual rh bend I noticed a nice little singing from the front nearside - I turned the wheel to facilitate taking the bend just as the wheel bearing seized I sailed straight on into a nice high granite curb, made especially to arrest errant motorists.

Not only a seized bearing, but Scottish civil engineering put paid to the end of the steering rack and bits of the suspension.

A chum (I was only visiting from Middle England at the time) had me towed into a lovely railway arch for the weekend which a friend of his used as a garage - he then as I couldn't afford all those new bits took me to a scrappy to source the bits required.

I then spent a delightful weekend dis and mantling and when finished the car took me all the way back down south.

Sold that one a couple of months later.

    

[Mjit]

Depending which supplier the gaiters came from you might not want to over-tighten the outer ends.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who's spent ages fighting to get a new gaiter over the end of the steering rack, secured both ends...only for them to pull of at the steering rack end at the first turn of the wheels!

[johny]

Yes probably best to clip gaiter with full lock the other way so it will extend the minimum amount when changing lock...

[Colin Lindsay]

Smear the steering rack arms with plenty of grease before fitting the gaiter. Once fitted, turn the steering through full lock a few times, the outer smaller end of the gaiter will slide on the grease to the fullest point of stretch that it will then rest at. You can tighten it there, or slightly inboard and you'll know it won't tear.