GuyWithAviator's 1974 Austin 1300

[GuyWithAviators]

Padding out the posts again, too many photos. 

[GuyWithAviators]

Right, page 6! 

Ever since I got the car (and it's been getting progressively worse over the years) there has been a knock under the passengers floor when going over bumps. 
Did some reading and found out there's a bush in the steering rack that wears and lets the rack move in it's housing. Luckily Nolathane make a replacement. 

Picked up one of those and set about the arduous task of removing the rack - involving dropping the subframe for clearance. 

Untitled by GuyWithAviators, on Flickr

This is the old bush (got damaged while removing but half of the material was gone anyway) compared to the new one.

Untitled by GuyWithAviators, on Flickr

And in...

Untitled by GuyWithAviators, on Flickr

And now the fun part, put it all back together and in the car. The knocking noise is gone, great success! Wheel alignment is out, no biggie.

...But there's now a little too much (i.e more than none at all) play in the steering wheel when starting to turn it, along with a nasty grinding noise at the start of the movement. So this morning I took the rack back out - and found this broken rack spacer, must have chooched the U bolts up too tight. But I don't think that would have caused it, I couldn't see the rack moving underneath the car - seemed more internal.

Untitled by GuyWithAviators, on Flickr

Also found one of the bearings within the pinion assembly had a little play so will track down a better one of them and muck around with the shims also. Was a little low on oil also after it all fell out while trying to manoeuvre it back into place. 

If anyone else has experience with these BMC racks and excessive play please give me your wisdom! 

Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/35012-guywithaviators-1974-austin-1300/&page=11

 

[GuyWithAviators]

Yearly update. Didn't drive this as much as I'd have liked but got it a wof. 

Then one day when pulling out of a driveway the steering locked breifly and I lost all oil pressure. Odd.. Quickly pulled into the cloest carpark and could smell hot oil. Uh oh. 
Leant under the car and yup. When have we seen this before  

On 31/08/2014 at 14:07, GuyWithAviators said:

If you're driving down Bealey Ave / Papanui Road in Christchurch today my apologies for the huge trail of oil...

 

 

 

The diff decided some parts were better off outside of it's casing. Not really sure what/why happened yet. It's strange though because it made a loud clunk (I assumed it was just Chch's roads) and continued driving fine but then I noticed the oil pressure light come on so stopped. 

 

Will have to take the motor out and split the block and gearbox. Luckily I have a spare gearbox but it's a pain

Note the bowl I went and begged the takeaway shop I pulled up outside for . This time it was just a hole in the diff casing, not the gearbox side also. Now I guess time to pull the engine out and see what's up. 

 

[GuyWithAviators]

Let the car sit and think about what it'd done then got into pulling the engine out with help from @Shakotom & @Raizer. Getting way too quick at doing this.. 

Split the block from the gearbag and found the broken bit. But what happened next will shock you! 

Zoom, enhance. 

So, broken spider gear and a crank thrust washer (?!). 

Checked the crank in my engine and it has all of it's washers... So this one must have always been floating around in the bottom of the sump underneath the gearset from a previous rebuild I suppose? 

Anyway, checked for other damage and everything else seemed fine. I had an entire spare diff head assembly in stock and a casing so swapped all of that over. Counted the teeth of the final drive and it matched also - as I'm not sure what parts I have from Mini, A+ gearboxes or 1100. 

Put engine back into car, end of job right? Not quite! Stay tuned for part 2. 

[GuyWithAviators]

Part 2. 

Started car up and put into gear. Drove up the driveway and I can hear / feel a binding from the diff. Uh oh mk2. Deicded the diff head I put in must have a different tooth pitch. 

At this point I'd given the engine crane back that I was borrowing so thought I'd try take the diff out in place. Easier said than done. Ended up dropping the motor off it's mounts and sitting it down/back in the hole. Photo below shows how far I could get the casing off before hitting the subrame with engine on it's mounts. 

 

Anyway, got it out with some skimmed knuckles. Bought a bearing puller so I could take the final drive bearings off the diff carrier and swap the heads. Thought I'd be able to use the parts from both diffs to make a good, correct one but the spider gear shafts in both were very worn (Remember what broke in 2014^^) So not a bad thing I found this. 

Shot up the road to Minibitz in Henderson and grabbed a rebuild kit with new shaft, gears and bushings. Also got new CV shaft seals too. 

Reassembled all of this and put it back in the car. New engine mount (again) this time also. 

Goes well now and drives fine. #justbritishcarthings

 

 

[GuyWithAviators]

Moved to Tauranga. Drove this down from Auckland one evening. Got pulled over in Paeroa and told off for rego on hold, cop was a Barry though so loved it. 

Havent used it much here though, just been chilling in the garage.

Carb needs a decent tune so started on that today. Parked up in town for some lunch and came back to this... 

#JustADO16things 

LF displacer let it’s juice out. It was a NOS one i picked up a couple years back so I guess the rubber just perished over the time when it was dry and let go now. Believe it’s around the hose crimp. 

 

looked cool on the drive home though. Left outer CV feels like it’s binding up at this height though. So juddery under power and engine braking. Can hear something going on down there. Boot is split so will replace that too. 

 

So, things to do for next wof; 

Replace displacer - I have a good spare here. 

Change CV joint / boot. 

Replace L handbrake cable - again have spare. 

Remake exhaust mounts - wire isn’t cutting it now. 

Tune crab. 

Ignore rust.