Brakes, Wheels and Diffs

Spring is in the air and, since the garage is now somewhat clearer after I winched the tub up on beams, I feel more inclined to get on with the car, so, a quick round up of the the last couple of weeks tinkering.

I managed to finally get the drivers side rear upright and brakes sorted out:

and so then I was able to pull the handbrake on, fit the wire wheel adaptors:

(yes, I know the spacers on back to front!)

Then, I could offer up the (rather tatty) wire wheels that came with the car. ...............

Yes, well....the splines on every single one of them were shagged, which was a bit of a blow, and means I have to re think the wheel strategy. I was going to get the original wheels refurbed, but since the splines have had it, it isn't worth it, its cheaper to buy a new set of painted wires. But its cheaper still, to switch to period Minilites or Compomotive MLs, but that would mean changing all the wheel bolts.....can't decide.

In the mean time I am going to investigate the diff. Here it is:

The front end is MGB

The back is a TVR special casting. Note the 3 mounting bushes. The drain plug refused to come out, so I draied it via the fill plug. The output shafts, complete with flange, oil seal, bearing and oil seal carrier comes off first, after undoing the 4 nuts on the oil seal carrier and then gently tapping the shaft free. Before you do this you must mark up the left and right parts. The shafts are slightly different lengths and they have to go back the right way around:

This is the output shaft with the bearing, seal and carrier and flange attached. Finally the nuts surrounding the rim are undone and off it comes. All but two of the studs came out with the nuts seized on, so will proably have to be replaced.  

The diff appeared to only have a small amount of play and when stripped, it looked like the innards had been rebuilt before; some parts of the casting had gouge marks in, but the gears and bearings looked fine. No bits missing, so I think these marks may have come from previous damage and rebuild. Also some of the flanges were sealed with red sealing compound and some with gasket paper. I will have to get it inspected to make sure nothing needs doing.