Axle eye repairs

[Frank O_ The Mountain]

Gang, now that we are done with tapered roller bearings, I'd like to revisit and old thread: Best way to repair front axle eyes that have become oval. As I remember the last time we discussed this, someone in Oz was going to do some calculations re boring and sleeving and Mike Card was talking about "smithing" the eye back into shape. This is a project I need to do this winter, so I would appreciate the groups advice. I've seen a picture of a MMM car with a sheared off king pin that resulted from hammering the keeper pin in to eliminate wobble....this is something I'd like to avoid but confess, I've been doing it too!!! Terry

[m_e_jablonski]

--- In mg-tabc@y..., taterry@a... wrote: Best way to repair front axle eyes that have become oval. > As I remember the last time we discussed this, someone in Oz was going to do Terry I'm probably the "someone in Oz" - I had my axle eyes shrunk by a company specialising in truck suspension repairs. I summarised my researches and wrote them up for this list, probably at the start of last year. I also sent a copy to the Octagon Car Club and this was published in the technical pages (I think it was this year). I don't have a copy of my summary with me but the options were to shrink the eyes, bore and sleeve them or use oversize pins. I opted for shrinking after looking at the geometry which would result in a 33% increase in stress if 1/16" was removed from the wall of the eye (as suggested by my repairer). What also swayed me was advice from Mike Sherrell who said he'd had his eyes shrunk a long time ago without problems. The eyes are shrunk by heating to something like cherry red and forging them back. Mine had some tight spots after shrinking which required the pins to be hammered in really hard. The pins need to be a push fit into the eyes, not a press fit but more than just a close sliding fit. I ground off the high spots with a brake cylinder hone to find that the bulk of the bore was still oversize so I had them done again, this time the fit was good. Oversize pins are another acceptable way out but you are forever stuck with having to have special pins made, hardened and ground. Hope this helps. Mark Jablonski Melbourne Australia

[Emgeeguy@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/20/01 4:49:43 PM Central Standard Time, m.jablonski@mei.unimelb.edu.au writes:

Mine had some tight spots after shrinking which required the pins to be hammered in really hard

Mark--why were the eyes not reamed for a nice fit with the pins instead of hammerring them in? Larry Long

[m_e_jablonski]

--- In mg-tabc@y..., Emgeeguy@a... wrote:

> In a message dated 12/20/01 4:49:43 PM Central Standard Time, > m.jablonski@m... writes: > > > > Mine had some tight spots after shrinking which > > > > Mark--why were the eyes not reamed for a nice fit with the pins

instead of

> hammerring them in? > Larry Long

Larry This was because after shrinking, the repairer claimed that the eyes were harder than they were originally and didn't want to run reamers through them. I cleaned them up with a two legged brake cylinder hone. As I said in my earlier posting I had to go back to them for a bit of touching up when I cleaned off the high spots. The final fit didn't require hammering in, this would make it difficult, if not impossible, to assemble the pins and knuckles on the car. They need to be a firm push fit or light tap fit. Mark Jablonski

[Michael D Card]

Terry Mark has described his solution, shrinking the eye. I took the other approach for TC9477 and had a very fine cut made with a mill, and then a thin sleeve fitted. I took this route because I had advice that it has been done to a number of MG beam axles here in the UK, over some years, long enough to prove it is safe. Philosophically, I marginally prefer the shrinking solution, but sometimes one's choice is limited by what service is available. I had this axle decambered a few degrees at the same time as the eyes were sleeved, as TC9477 will be a road-going special with Eaton blower, 16" wheels, twin-leading shoe front brakes, etc. [For the purists who are perhaps now choking, I state in my defence that I have already restored TC8233 to factory-original state - not even a badge on the badge bar.] TC9477 came to me as a bare chassis with engine-block and gearbox. I have gradually gathered all the other parts for it over the past two years, [including the back axle case from you, Terry, thanks] so it will be one more TC brought back from death. Mike Card

----- Original Message ----- [b]From:[/b] taterry@aol.com [b]To:[/b] mg-tabc@yahoogroups.com [b]Sent:[/b] Thursday, December 20, 2001 3:26 PM [b]Subject:[/b] [mg-tabc] Axle eye repairs Gang, now that we are done with tapered roller bearings, I'd like to revisit and old thread: Best way to repair front axle eyes that have become oval. As I remember the last time we discussed this, someone in Oz was going to do some calculations re boring and sleeving and Mike Card was talking about "smithing" the eye back into shape. This is a project I need to do this winter, so I would appreciate the groups advice. I've seen a picture of a MMM car with a sheared off king pin that resulted from hammering the keeper pin in to eliminate wobble....this is something I'd like to avoid but confess, I've been doing it too!!! Terry Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/