Clankster Update
Well, it's been a great 5 days. Got back into work today with 115 unread
messages in the mailbox. Guess the list's been pretty quiet.... :-)
The Clankster is running great, coming up on 800 miles since the rebuild.
This coming weekend, I'll change the oil, retorque the head, and readjust the
valves, and then watch my dust!
Didn't have much time to play with the TR, or even ride it, this weekend.
Was too busy sworking on my back room. Don't worry, I'm not planning to
reactivate the Home Improvement Net :-).
But I did one little chore on the TR last weekend. Regarding which, I'd like
to vent a pet peeve about British cars: The rubber in their front ends. Which
lasts maybe six months after you change it. In the Clankster's case, the
culprits were the rubber-band trunnion seals. These gave up the ghost a
half-year or so after I rebuilt the front end. The grease eats the rubber a
bit, which then snaps in two, because it's stretched so tight around the
trunion. The outer ones aren't so bad, because you can just slip new ones on
over the washers at the end.
But to change the inner ones, you have to tear the whole !@#$% front end
apart. I don't like to do this every six months. Once every two years would
be more like it. But you can't drive around without trunnion seals, can you?
After all, grit will get into the trunnions and wreck'em.
I hereby announce that I have come up with a solution to this quandary.
You put the broken seals back on. Then you put an tie wrap around each seal,
and zip it up, holding the seal in place. Before putting on the tie wrap, you
cut a piece out of another seal, to make up the now-unstreched seal to a full
360 degrees. This changes the seal renewal from a 1/2 day job to a 1/2 hour
job. We'll see how well it holds up...
While I'm on the subject, have other people had as bad luck with these
front end rubbers as me? What kind of grease do you use? I have standardized
on Moly grease, and I am beginning to suspect that this may be harder on the
seals than good old fashioned lithium grease. But as far as I know, these
parts won't even stand up to lithium grease....
- Jerry
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