Bond Equipe GT4S, axle woes

have you thought about these back lights( Opel Manta) ?

That's quite neat. It really matches the style of the rest of it. Could do with some grille bars to finish it off a bit maybe.

Another small step forward today.
Anyone who works on small chassis Triumphs should know getting the rear hubs off is a pain in the backside, normal pullers just bend the flanges, a special puller is required, I've never seen one for sale second hand for sensible money. They retail for £100-200, (if anyone has one they don't need, please feel free to PM me)





Luckily I'm in Club Triumph and just happen to know a man who has one, and even better he was happy to lend it to me.
I rembered to ask him for any tips, to which he said tighten it up and hit it, hard.

Well I tried that and failed, twice.

So I called on reinforcements, and visited Mr Makita's 3/4" 110V Impact gun, whom just so happened to be visiting my mates house



Which totally failed to shift it.

Then we invite Mr Scafpole to join in the fun.



He was a little more persuasive.

Along to the press so these



could be replaced by these







It beggars belief, that these Land Rover Freelander mk1 studs, fit so perfectly the splines align and the drums fit back on with no modification



Next step, removing the original axels and fitting these, so I can finally fit the MGF wheels.

Dan

Wait, no longer horrido.

This is a 155/80/13 spitfire rim



The wheels I have are 185/55/15 and 205/50/15, which are very close to the same rolling radius as standard tyers, the 185s are MOTable but the 205s are toast, which is fine as this car is a long way off an MOT (not that it needs one).

The passenger side was easier to get to, everything was going fine till I tried to undo the half shaft to diff bolts, they were sized, but they proved no match for the angle grinder.
Refitting for once was easier than the strip down, the replacement hub, upright, half shaft and radius arm all bolted in with little fuss or bother, I fitted the 205, but will it foul the body work



Surprisingly enough no.



I like that, can't wait to do the fronts, (and put a bonnet on)

So I cracked on with the other side, which was pretty much the same as the other side except the one of the bolts had sized in the diff flange and really didn't want to come out, but when I fitted the wheel the tyre fouled on the radius arm, so I rotated the radius arm, still fouls, change the wheel for one of the 185s not fouling the tyre now is just scraping the rim and stops dead on the balancing weight.

Bottom biscuits.

As a temp measure, I pulled the weight off and rolled it back in to the garage.

The po had even coated the shocks with a layer of fibre glass



I also unearthed this hidden under a bulge in the filler



Dan

The more I look at this pic, the more I think it needs a bigger tyre



195/65/15s seem to be a really popular size, that would give me a 25mm ride height increase, then I could use a 1" lowering block along with the swing spring and long drive shafts to correct the camber.

I think a 'slight' increase in rubber height would look better, but not lowering the car after.
As above, radiusing the arch to match the rim/tyre radius 'probably' would look good.

Maybe one of the clever photoshop guys can do a quick mock up to see?

By lowering the rear I was wanting to avoid putting rake in to the body.
Dan

Nowt wrong with a bit of rake. As long as it's not falling on its nose.

Today I visited, waterside tiers on bankside in Hull, top chap got talking about his grass tracking career and the 2 HUGE shelves of trophies, half of which were his brothers for stock car racing.

I picked up a pair of part worn, Good Year Efficient grip 195/60/15 for £20 each fitted and balanced, not that they look part worn the centre ridge is still present. 195/60/15s are a 15mm ride hight gain and 5% speedo error.

Saturday I hope to rebuild the rear drive shafts, and then we will get to see how they fit.