Spent a few hours straightening the cooling fins on the gearbox oil cooler.... :floor:
Continued working on the torque tube rebuild - I ordered the following bits -
1. 16mm Threaded Bar
2. 10 x M16 full nuts
3. 5 x M16 Form G washers (17mm x 50mm x 3mm)
4. 125mm x 125mm sheet of mild steel (3mm thick)
5. 16mm blacksmiths drill bit (stepped)
Traced the bolt holes at the engine end of the torque tube carrier onto the metal sheet and drilled out one at each corner.
Then drilled a central 16mm hole in the sheet to pass the threaded bar through.
Followed the instructions on Clarks Garage, I used an old hand sanitiser bottle to apply a line of engine oil to the threaded shaft for lubrication.
After this I squirted neat fairy liquid at each end and a good amount through the shifter bracket mounting holes, then also sprayed a soap / water solution into the tube using a small spray bottle.
Then used my electric impact wrench and it pulled the bearings out in a few minutes! :bounce:
Used some blocks of wood to step the metal sheet away from the torque tube flange when the bearings got to the end.
As you can see most of the grease has come out of the bearings, 2 were quite dry and noisy, 1 not so bad and 1 still felt OK.
Now I have to decide how much money I want to spend replacing them, I definitely don't want to have to do this job again though!
I've seen some suppliers listing C4 bearings by SKF in the right size, so just need to decide if the bearing carriers and inner sleeves are worth it or if I need to get the whole lot...
Looking at the inner sleeves for the drive shaft I think two of them have cracks in but are still solid.
I have the earlier type bearing carriers that are stamped together, the outer rubber doesn't look too bad (the pictures look bad as they were covered in fairy liquid and grease).
Can anyone recommend a good paint to use for the torque tube once I've had it blasted? I don't fancy powder coat due to it being close to the exhaust. I guess a good chassis paint would be good? Will probably use a brush paint (Eastwood or Frost?).
Also wondering if painting it silver would help with the heat (instead of black)...