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Well, here we go again! Driving home tonight from work, it seemed that the vibration in the rear was getting just a bit more pronounced and consistent, compared to when it started a week or three ago. Since it was daylight, and since I also needed to do an oil change and adjust the rear brakes and add some GL-4 to the weepy differential, I decided to check it all out.
I've been around swing-axle Heralds and Spitfires long enough to know that it's always worth checking on all the u-joints, but especially the ones on the axle shafts. So after adjusting the LR brakes, I moved "inboard" and started turning and wiggling the LR axle. Sure enough...the flange was just a wee bit loose. Geesh, it couldn't have been more than 5-6 years and 25-30k miles ago that I replaced that u-joint. However, at the time I did not replace the four nyloc nuts on the flange bolts. Sure enough, three of the four required a good half-turn each to snug them back up again. I think I'll hunt down some good new nylocs this weekend.
Again with the lousy 50-year-old original parts. I dunno about these cars.... :laugh:
(And yes, I'm pretty sure they're original nylocs, as they're just a wee bit taller -- maybe 1-2 threads' worth taller -- than anything I've been able to find in recent years.)
I've been around swing-axle Heralds and Spitfires long enough to know that it's always worth checking on all the u-joints, but especially the ones on the axle shafts. So after adjusting the LR brakes, I moved "inboard" and started turning and wiggling the LR axle. Sure enough...the flange was just a wee bit loose. Geesh, it couldn't have been more than 5-6 years and 25-30k miles ago that I replaced that u-joint. However, at the time I did not replace the four nyloc nuts on the flange bolts. Sure enough, three of the four required a good half-turn each to snug them back up again. I think I'll hunt down some good new nylocs this weekend.
Again with the lousy 50-year-old original parts. I dunno about these cars.... :laugh:
(And yes, I'm pretty sure they're original nylocs, as they're just a wee bit taller -- maybe 1-2 threads' worth taller -- than anything I've been able to find in recent years.)