Banksy82

Thank you Clive - email sent!

I'm hoping it will be as simple as that! Do you remember where you got the puller from?

Yes building a puller means failure is always an option! Thank you for the offer but I don't think travelling to a puller is an option with the car as it is! Thanks Karl

Yes that would have been a better solution - however it isn't what they did! The drum was installed onto the bent hub and has/had a decent wobble to it. The wheel was then bolted on to the now wobbling drum and spacers used to correct the wheel wobble. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly the drum run out has caused the wheel cylinder clips to vibrate out due to the shoes trying to conform to the now untrue drum lining and release the handbrake pivot all causing the braking issue. Just to top it off the drum itself has been cracked - I can only assume from being tightened down onto a bent hub! All in all a pretty poor effort at a repair! 🙂

Sadly they seem to no longer list them in the shop... Maybe it is a member only item?

This would be ideal but I'm in mid-North Wales and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of activity up this way! If anybody knows any different there are definitely beers waiting!

Thanks, I’ll have a look, I have just seen that Canley carry them also. I’ll have to weigh up the cost of a puller against the cost of the steel to make my own!

I’ll remount both wheels with the shims back in place tomorrow and measure runout on both sides and do some swopping around to try and learn more about the wheels. Also in the paperwork are a couple of invoices from garages to fit supplied parts so although the PO bought some replacement bearings I would imagine it was taken to a garage for installation… I can almost visualise a 2 arm puller and a rattle gun!

Thank you for being the voice of reason - I can very easily get carried away! I'll try and track down a couple of good original hubs and just get on with it! I was really only thinking about avoiding getting hold of or making the correct puller. I'll add one of those to my list too! Thanks

Hi All. Does anyone have a straight (not warped or bent) drive flange to fit a spitfire, either on its own or still attached to a driveshaft? I have two bent ones courtesy of previous owner or their mechanic of choice! Ideally looking for two but one would be a start! Also could do with the correct puller if anyone has one for sale. Many Thanks Karl

The flange is only 6mm thick - I'm inclined to think machining 1.6mm ~25% of that thickness might be too much? If I'm pulling the hub I'd be sorely tempted to change the bearing while I was at it and then just turn a blind eye to the state of the shaft? Alternatively I'm thinking of trying to obtain a pair of used long drive shafts with hubs and back plates still installed?

I did take a video with drum off (attached) it is really hard to see even with the video slowed down as the flange is square(ish) so getting a visual reference is hard! IMG_9176.MOV

It could well be but the video may be a little deceiving as there is a lump of underseal / grease / general detritus stuck to the shaft and the flange catches the dislodged slave cylinder wobbling it and the attached handbrake lever.. I'll clean up and try an indicator on the shaft tomorrow.

Video appears to be download only - if there is a way to embed I'll try again!

I have been driving my spitfire around a little the last few days and noticed it was a little squirrely under braking so thought I would would spend a relaxing afternoon checking and adjusting all of the brakes. Imagine my surprise to find the O/S rear wheel shimmed and a pronounced wobble on the drum. (Picture and video attached) Runout measured on the drum face is 1.6mm ~.063” and max difference on the four corners of the hub is 1.3mm. Runout on the drum on the near side was also evident at around 1mm but no washers present. Notably the car didn’t shake or vibrate excessively and the rear is not terribly noisy - a steady thrum at 60mph. The paperwork that came with the car suspiciously shows an order for two rear wheel bearing kits so I surmise that someone has attempted / succeeded in removing the rear hubs with an inappropriate tool bending the drive flange. Any tips on the best course of action here. Can I remove the flanges and just replace with new / not bent used or does this kind of damage usually lead to bent shafts as well? I understand that when the needle bearing goes it invariably takes out the shaft with it. Is there any way of checking this on the car? As an aside the slave cylinder on the off side has come adrift of its mounting which is probably a consequence of the runout and a probable culprit for my braking issue! This is a ‘73 spitfire comm no 52600 so I believe is the long driveshaft. Any advice / experience gladly accepted! Thanks Karl IMG_9174.MOV

I used Loctite 603 (because that is what I had!) I went for the smallest gap recommended by the datasheet - approx .001" undersize as I recall.

Hi all. All back together and started first turn of the key. I just wanted to thank everyone for all of their input / help and to add some findings to help any future readers. Engine tapping audible at revs - This is now gone, could have been any number of things but my camshaft had some pitting on the lobes and most of the followers. I have replaced this with a better condition used herald unit and matched followers. (This had a slightly lower lift than the spitfire camshaft so I now have a quieter but slightly more sluggish car!) I didn't replace any of the timing chain components, big end or main bearings so these were not the source in my case. (although there were some sooty stains on the exhaust gasket that could well have been 'tapping' away due to exhaust leak??) Missing pin from throwout bearing carrier - pin replaced with bolt and new, (very old stock) bearing fitted along with new clutch. Whine when stationary, clutch out and in neutral. - Gearbox mainshaft tip ruined - I turned down the tip and fitted a metric needle bearing sleeve and metric bearing (slightly smaller on the OD than the original imperial so a looser fit in the input shaft.) Whining noise now gone although there was a small high pitched rattle initially (could easily have been the old stock throwout bearing). No noise at all now although tunnel and carpet are back in so probably wouldn't hear anything this soon anyway. I don't think I would recommend this as a solution for others but it seems to have done the job for now. Next time the gearbox is out I will inspect and report back! Oil pump - replacement 'county' rotor was only just in tolerance but a combination of my outer rotor and new inner rotor closed this gap nicely. (I wouldn't reccomend mixing components but as I am planning on having the engine out again in the not too distant future I thought I would risk it. Oil pressure now 50 - 75psi when driving. 30ish at idle when warm. Overdrive cone clutch - Overdrive spares in Rugby relined this for me in around a 1 week turnaround door to door and were very helpful indeed regarding the OD rebuild in general. Car now drives really rather well but I now have what I believe to be big trouble with rear bearings / driveshafts... I'll do some investigating and start a new thread if necessary. Thanks Again Karl

Thanks, I'll give them a ring!

Good News! While waiting for some parts I decided to clean out the filter on the Overdrive and lo and behold it is full of clutch material! Sure enough the outer friction material is looking decidedly worse for wear and is loose on a couple of the rivets. I have contacted a couple of clutch re-liners who are going to give me a quote for relining but neither seemed particularly knowledgeable. Are there any known companies that can reline these or are we looking at a triumph / laycock specialist (Canley reckon they can have one done in around 5 days which seems pretty good and Overdrive repair services can do one for ~ £132) Thanks Karl

Not for the first time I am an idiot! Yes of course this makes perfect sense. Repair kit it is then.

I think I would definitely like the larger pump on the 'proper' rebuild. I'll mull it over while I get on with the cam timing and valve clearances and then either risk the old one given the bearing clearances are pretty good or take a punt on the repair kit.

I'm hearing this everywhere and it is borne out in the quality of some of the new parts I have bought in the past. As long as I can get this one together well enough to last a few thousand miles I should have all the time in the world to try and source original parts for my 'proper' rebuild. This is very reassuring - I think an oil pressure gauge is something I need to add in the near future just for my piece of mind (the standard switch for the idiot light is set at approx 5psi as I recall)

I think I'm going to try the repair kit from Paddocks for £25. They are reasonably local to me so if it turns out they are out of tolerance off the shelf I can probably return them - I'll pack a set of feeler gauges in the car and see how we get on! With the smaller one fully in spec I was honestly hoping for a slew of people saying that it was perfectly adequate and to just bolt it on and stop worrying about it!

Nothing good and ever is! Good to know for the future but probably not for this one!

@JumpingFrogThanks for this, what you say regarding the straight pickup makes sense!