Benjamin Swatton

Decided to repeat the Flawek crack test on two of the VLs  below that look like they should show up either cracks on shank or threads or dye in corrosion pores. I will test twice.

first time I will pre clean in cellulose then follow Flawtek instructions using supplied iso propanol spray but then will increase time for dye to penetrate to 1 hour (instructions says 5mins and upto 20mins for fine cracks as I did last time) will also then put on less developer  as it was a little thick last time.

The second test will involve a 24hour pre soak in Cellulose thinner to draw out contaminants in any cracks I will then repeat Flawtek test process again. 

No Le man's triumph on ebay - formerly jigsaw racing, every where else was out of stock

Ps. Even trying to find a longer bolt with correct shank length and chopping it down won't work as nobody seems to be doing a 1/2 inch shank length at all  they only do something longer which is then too long for hub clearance bore 😂

The original spec bolts part 113150 are no longer available, even trying to find them using classic car bolt specialists and trawling ebay has drawn a blank -they are NOT available.

Consequently suppliers are substituting a different bolt 132023 this is actually the bolts for the halfshaft UJ flange - it is not the same bolt the shank is slightly shorter by 1/8th inch...

Photos show the difference between the two bolts..It needs to be a 1/2inch shank length no more no less..

The result is if you use the 132023 substitute bolt the braking force is acting in shear across the bolt thread rather than the bolt shank which is bad eng practice and not as triumph intended whereby the shank is long enough to pass all the way through the brake disk flange and on into the hub clearance bore.

Something to bear in mind before chucking out your rusty old OEM bolts and replacing with shiny new..

I carefilly cleaned my 50 year bolt and hub threads up with tap and die and they're good to go again

Having looked closer at the unbranded used trunnion removed from my car that I was going to reuse I have now changed my mind and will fit new...

The reason is shown in 1st photo -the unbranded item is fundamentally different in that it has a much larger bore diameter above top of thread - this is NOT as per triumph OEM/new parts

Having taken a load of measurements - I conclude this is not a good idea as explained below with ref. To attached drawing

The unbranded trunnion is shown in yellow and is missing the orange portion that the OEM/new part does have.

The red is area where the OEM/new trunniln reacts a side load at the end of the VL shank (eg. When driving  round a bend) ie. The shank takes the shear load = good

The unbranded trunnion is missing the orange area and hence does not touch any part of VL shank except the threaded portion in grey meaning the thread region reacts All the shear load = bad

The green area on the threaded portion of VL does not interface with trunnion at all irrespective of whatever trunnion is fitted -this was no doubt intentional as this area is already under high stress as this is where the max bending load is exerted on thread during side load  and thus is the area where the thread will break which is even more likely as the VL thread often corrodes here as well...

So in summary -I'm using a new trunnion, I will zinc primer the VL shank all the way down to the end of the green portion of the VL thread  to reduce risk of corrosion setting in and causing cracking.

Third photo shows point at which green ends ie. where trunnion threads finish acting on VL(not primed down to there yet)

Fourth photo is what i think is the approx 6-7.5mm correct height for trunnion on VL without binding steering, this does vary with VL side and trunnion due to manf. Tolerance variation. Although this does compress the seals more, an EP90 oiling test via nipple show that oil can still be blown past seals and without blowing the trunnion bottom cap out. Although you could put trunnion on one less turn, by calc the shoulder in bore trunnion would then be too far out to engage on VL shank so not transferring any load to shank. Last photo is how far trunnion is in to the seal

No swarf -I think these are factory made with taller dome to accommodate nut on other side of nipple.  I did notice 4 pumps of grease and some waggling and they free up somewhat so happy with these. I'm zinc priming and painting the housing before install as i find the raw steel rusts up super quick there.

I decided to have a look inside the overhauled caliper to see if had been passivated inside which it was. The pistons in photo I think are nickel plated as theh have that hue and you can see the tell tale electrolysing marks inside bore, the external finish is not highly polished more like a brushed finish - I almost thought is was stainless but the marks inside confirm not.

I had a visual look at the new caliper pistons I'm sure these are plain steel but the external finish is more highly polished than the nickel ones.

Applied grease gun and you could see it come past ball to seal side

New grease nipple balljoint's arrived - I removed seal to see how much grease was inside as you can see plenty, I can also see ball dia. is bigger than the other old types have. Still plenty stiff from new about same as those removed from car after 20k. Angular movement same at approx 20 deg either side of center

According to Rimmer catalogue there are 2 different bore dia of rear brake cylinders for heralds gwc1202 or gwc1208 - have you correct ones?

Looking at replacing at least one front hub felt seal as one has fallen apart. Diagrams for these parts are often unclear and mislabelled and replacement parts are different again..

Photo shows on left one removed from my car, another removed from a spare vertical link and the third is new (ghs146)

Next photo is each seal on VL - the new being a lot thicker...

Third photo is my mk2 hub which I now realise still has in situ the steel felt seal holder (which shows no sign of a seal ever been glued to it) which looks to be VERY substantial compared to flimsy new replacement that is stuck to new felt seal..

Having read up on the issue of new felt seals being thicker and with flimsy metal seal holder of wrong diameter, I am probably now going to re-use the two good used seals shown as they both sit at same height in hub - the only difference being one has squeezed out to a bigger diameter and is a softer felt but I don't think that is critical. I also don't see any need for these seals to be glued to the  seal holder either.

If I was forced to use new felt seals I would carefully cut them free of metal backing plate with new scalpel blade and once oiled I suspect they would squish enough to fit as they are a fairly soft felt.

I wondered whether the substantial steel seal retainer is original part but looking at the roller bearings have the word "power drive" etched on them so possibly not.

Comments anybody?

Got the stub axle's hydraulic pressed out at local garage , did spray some GT85 lubricant in first they came out easily except left most one that bent its thread on the way out.

As Hammerite ive found no good for yearround use and goes off in tin a's does POR15 which is too expensive, so I'm trying Bonda Rust zinc primer the tractor/truck/boat people like, Then halford sprit based gloss enamel.

I followed the instructions exactly that came with Flowtek 3 part crack test spray which included the cleaner which was used with cloth, trichloroethylene was not used as only using what kit had. If any thing is wrong the white is too thick but either way I'm not using either of the two VL that I was suspicious of .  I'm not getting trich or I may as well get it done professionally using other methods..which I may yet do..

The scrap dealer mentions they break at corrosion line at shank, others mention they break at the thread but is that because thread has corroded ? -we need to be clear on this as i would not use a corroded thread anyway - so show me the breakage photos...

New trunnions may however have slightly less end float in threads as I have noticed when pushing or pulling on new v old trunnion's however the difference is slight may 1 or 2 thou and i suspect more a manf. Tol variance.

Photo of various trunnion's Including 1 new - I will be going with the unbranded one that came off my car as still the best overall!

I have had a closer look at the new examples and I'm fairly certain the end caps won't blow off these as the swageing is well formed -see photos you need to look carefully as daylight between  ruler and swaged edge proves they are not parallel but bent inwards which is what you want - note how R trunnion has flat end cap and is very well swaged over but L one is domed  hence ruler at angle.

I had another look to be sure - nothing in the thread grooves.

I was told that these fail on the shank at the height where seal and trunnion mate as thats where corrosion line often is as per my car's VLs

Photo shows the very slight pigment in the corrosion spots.

Either way I will be able to select 2 good VLs

I've ended up ordering a pair of greaseable balljoints and done with

I took the rubber gaiter off one that is approx 10yrs 20k old and did same for one of indeterminate age that came with an OEM VL. You can see how little grease is in the modern ones for which the gaiter had just started split and it's stiff where as the other is smooth with a small amount of stiction. what you maybe able to see in second photo is ball diameter towards shank has reduction in diameter to allow grease to sit there and be drawn back into ball recess as ball moves, the drier joint ball seems to have less of a diameter reduction to allow this...

My concern is they are being modified in UK to offset the stiffness from new, with somebody drilling a hole and screwing in a nipple and the risk of swarf ingress during this process?. Rimmer don't seem to stock them

10 year old 20k front top VL balljoint's,  seem OK on car with weight of VL hanging off and  no slop, but once ball joint removed from VL they are unmovable by hand compared to some I removed from old VLS I bought. As the rubber boots on the VLs are starting to go I am toying with buying new but I see there's 2 types on sale - one with a grease nipple installed. So is the nipple to stop premature slop or is it to stop stiffening ball joints any idea? Which is best? 

Having just bought new trunnions,  I am going to return them as I have found some good used originals that gave the same amount or less play than the new ones!

Purchased a pair of new manf. Type 12s as well an overhauled OEM for comparison. I would go OEM but no RH available at moment

The overhauled is yellow passivated/cadmium plated and looks to have nickel plated pistons

The new caliper is zinc plated with pistons that also look zinc plated - so cheaper less corrosion resistant finish overall. Dimensions look OK. 

First time using dye penetrant Flawtek crack test. Now undertaken and after 1 hour appears to show all 6 VLs are surface crack free.  I will select those that have the least corrosion pitting

Meanwhile I have selected the best trunnion with least play for each side - mostly by sight but for curiosity I set up a dial gauge wobble test as per photo.

What is intersting is that both BRAND NEW trunnions from a popular supplier had the same amount of wobble as used originals of indeterminate origin! There are several conclusions you can draw from this but I'm glad I gathered a selection of used part's.  

Below are two pics of the VLs one for each side of car for comparison of conditions. The ones painted black  are the ones removed from my car. So visually you can see the purchased one are an improvement generally... However two the six VLs I have in total have a suspected crack across corrosion pits running circumferentially partly around shank area - difficult to see but 3rd photo shows , unlikely i will use these but for curiosity and to be sure I will be using a cracking detection kit. Now I'm glad I bought 2 pairs..

 After a bit of delay to proceeding's,  recently I spent most of a tedious tiring grubby day at a used parts supplier to find some good used OEM Stanpart VL's. .

Having gone through approx two dozen VL pairs it was interesting to note approx  2/3rds were actually found to be relatively modern pattern parts with the cut threads, also all VLS  were full of  grease and not oil! I came away with 2 pairs of the best condition OEM rolled thread VL's that I could find and an assortment of used trunnion's that weren't too wobbly..

Having grit blasted them and purchased 2 brand new trunnion's for comparisons, it's now time for closer inspection, cracked testing and selection of the least worst!