Greetings Triumphal Types,
Chris Boston writes:
>Hmmm. on the subject of topping up the gearbox oil, I know this has been
>bounced around before, but there must be an easier way of doing it. I ended
up
>taking out the entire transmittion tunnel, not a big job, but tedious. I
have
>heard a lot of you folk suggest cutting a hole in the transmittion tunnel,
but
>that would have to be exactly where the foot rest is. Don't you guys have
foot
>rests?
Foot rests? Wot's that? Could we be missing these things because
our steering wheel is on the "other" side?
>I toyed with the idea of building a ramp like thing that would lift the car
by
>pulling on a large leaver, but I'm no mechanical engineer, and the chances
of
>me being able to do it are zero. Anybody else got some better ideas.
A friend of mine has used this method, and claims it works well:
Get 4 cinder-blocks about 4 inches thick. (I seem to remember
these being called "breeze blocks" in the UK) Place one in front
of each front wheel. Drive up on them. Jack the rear of the car up
enough to place the remaining 2 blocks under the rear wheels.
Let the car down. Supposedly there is now enough room for a person
to maneuver under the car. (4" doesn't sound like much to me, but
I haven't personally tried this) He then was able to remove the
gear box plug and top up the oil using a hand pump designed to
put oil in an out-board boat motor. There are probably some other
similar pumps available that will do the job. I'd like to know if anyone
else has tried this and how it turns out.
My questions:
My simple trunnion replacement that turned into a full blown front-end
re-build is nearing completion. I couldn't put nice new tie-rod ends
on such a nasty looking steering rack so I removed said rack, painted it,
and got all new rubber bits. I'm (especially) embarrased to tell this group
that I've never lubricated the steering rack before. Fortunately the
gaiters were still sealed and there appears to be lots of good grease
in there. I'm going to clean it all out and replace with new grease.
This causes me to ask the following. (finally, the questions part ;-))
(1) I removed the plug from the steering rack and test fitted a grease (zerk)
fitting per the manual, problem is: Although the zerk fitting is the correct
size and appears to have the right thread pitch, it's a tapered thread.
The plug is not tapered. I can only get about 3/4 of a turn and then it
"stops" Are there "non-tapered" grease fittings? I don't want to force
it and damage the rack.
(2) How do you know how much grease to put in a "dry" rack?
Should the gaiters be "stuffed" pretty much? Again, I don't want
to "force" it.
Any advice would be appreciated.
"Racking my brains"
Bob Sykes (s1500@aol.com) - - - __,@_\____
'78 Spitfires - -- }-0-----0->
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