Dan Mutchler asks about the wrong lubricant in the trunnion
of his Spitfire:
>Do I have a problem to solve now? Should I pull this back apart right
>now, clean it, and use the other lubricant or is this simply a
>recommendation to keep the steering from being stiff on cold mornings?
>It is much easier to do now since the car is still on jacks.
Well, let me tell you a little story. I was jacking up my
MG Midget several years ago when, to my surprise, the car
slipped off the jack. It didn't appear to do any damage,
but the jack hung up on the chassis flange where the clutch
tube was bolted to the right-hand chassis leg. (Following this?
There'll be a quiz on Monday.) The impact bent the chassis
flange and caused what I thought was a minor rubbing problem
where the rubber flex hose met the steel clutch tube. It didn't
seem to be a problem at the time -- after all, the rubber hose
is supposed to flex, right? -- and I was in a hurry...
A week or so later I went to the parking lot at lunch and found
that the clutch pedal flapped like a piece of laundry on a line.
I had a friend drive me to the auto parts store, where I
bought a new hose; I changed it that night in the parking lot
at work. I managed to get installed and bled before dark, but
I was lucky to be in Southern California and not in Boston
in the snow.
Moral: Fix it *NOW* so that it doesn't hang up on you at
an inconvenient moment.
--Scott
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