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MG MGB Technical - rear axle dilema

I'm in the middle of changing wires to alloys at the moment and have just attacked the spare Salisbury rear axle I have. I had intended to renovate it, change the shims, give it a paint before fitting to the car. I have removed the diff cover and can still see the resin spacers, so its not completely shot. I can't get the hub nuts off so that's problem number one. Is there a straightforward way of doing this. I have wedged the other hub and bolted a bar to the input flange. The axle is placed on a pair of ramps to get it off the ground. There is no way this will work on my own. I'm contemplating fitting it to the car and doing any diff work with the axle in situ, as I should be able to loosen the hub nuts then. I'd intended to renovate the rear end next winter (last winter I did the front). I was wondering how I can tell if there is too much play in the gearing by looking at any movement between the gears in the diff now I have the cover off.

Also when changing the axle what is the best end of the springs to undo and are they difficult to put back?
Steve Church

Steve,

I would definately fit the axle to the car before trying to undo the hub nuts. They are on pretty tight, so you won't be able to hold everything at the same time safely.

Clean everything, then remove the cover and paint the axle and then fit it to the car. Access to the shims is OK with the axle on the car since you probably can't pull one of the half shafts out a bit to do the shims before you have it in place.

Getting springs on and off depends entirely on how rusted the bolts are. Start with good penetrating oil several days before. Don't be surprised if you have to cut them if they are siezed, so plan to replace, and put it all back with copper grease for the next lucky person in 20 years time!

Since you are changing from wires to bolt on wheels, you could sell the wire axle and maybe the wheels and do a deal with whoever buys them to come and give you a hand. More fun when there are two of you with some of these heavy bits.

David

D Balkwill

As the axle is not on the car I would put a small cutting wheel in a die grinder or dremil and cut part way through the nut in 2 places stopping before you damage the thread and adjacent parts. Then take a cold chisel and club hammer to the slots you cut. These should break through.
David Witham

My workshop manual gives the wrong thread information, so check the threads carefully to make sure that you are undoing them!
Richard Tinkler

Steve,

I used big shop air to remove those nuts, and with all respect to David Balkwill, it may be much easier to finish the rest of the job on a cart or bench (my back not being much of what it used to be!). I do like the idea of David Witham to dremel the nuts, as you can leave the replacements loose until you do put the axle on and then tighten the nuts with the weight of the car providing the backing torque.

I'm going the opposite way, Diane would like wires... and then she mentioned that she always wanted to have a white car with red interior. You can go to my website www.dbraun99.com and find "The MGB wire wheel conversion that turned into a restoration". If you root around a bit you will see the website is broken into sections. it doesn't take too much detective work to find the photos that may be of assistance.

Unless you had significant whine or other problems with the rear end, replacing the bronze and phenolic washers should eliminate the play or 'thonk' that may be present. The backlash takes care of itself with proper fitting of the CWP. If the CWP is not properly fitted, you can either assure it is now, or just wait and see.

Hope this helps,
Dave

Dave Braun

Well I did get the nuts off eventually. One was no problem but the other had to be ground off. I have today replaced the shims in the diff only to find that the originals hardly looked worn. I measured the resin shims and they were 4 thou thinner than the replacements! Still, you don't know until it's all in bits. I did find getting the pinion pin out was a bit difficult until I used a 38mm spanner as a lever and various blocks of wood as fulcrums. Pulling the halfshaft took a bit of ingenuity but I used the hub and some nuts and bolts as spacers and drew the shaft out with the hub nut. I shall replace the seals when I reassemble it all. I've just got to wire brush it all down and paint it now.
Steve Church

This thread was discussed between 19/04/2011 and 22/04/2011

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