[Healeys] Misaligned Rear axle - Follow-up

Bob Brown blkbt7 at yahoo.com
Sat Sep 5 06:12:37 MDT 2009


Thank you to all that reaponded to our plea Friday.  The situation is now
under control. 


We discovered the panhard rod bracket welds had broken on
the Drivers side, this had apparently happened soe time ago by the appearance
of the parts. Thus the Passenger side spring eventually suffered the toe bolt
problem. when we had the car on a lift to change oill the taking of weight off
the wheels must have allowed additionak shifting of broken parts. One of our
concerns was what would removing the U-bolts do to the situation, couldl we
get them back into place.

We removed the U-bolts by the broken toe bolt. The
axle was then easily moved to the correct position, a temporary bolt was used
as a toe bolt. Today we will get a grade 8 tbolt to put in . A club member
will be here shortly with a welder and hopefully a saisfactory weld for the
panhard rod can be done with out removing too many additional parts. 

Again
thanks to all that responded, nmost with basically the same thoughts. 
Carlos
& Bob


 Disconnect the 'U' bolts on both sides so you can manoeuvre the axle
around, bearing in mind the driveshaft, brake lines etc.  Stuff something
round and long up through the locating holes and align spring leaves.  In the
absence of a 'TOE' bolt use an ordinary one but grind the corners off to make
it round at the bolt head.  Make sure that fits in the round hole in the
axle/spring plate, that locates the axle.  Use that instead of the correct
bolt as a temporary measure.  Re-assemble, making sure the axle is located
correctly on the 'good' side.  When the car is lowered, jack it up again as
close to the bolt as you can so the weight of the car is in that area, tighten
the 'through the spring' bolt.
Drive it for a few hundred yards then check 'U'
bolts on both sides and spring bolt.  Then drive it 'nasty' - have a hard
acceleration, a lock wheels brake and check again.  All should be OK.  I've
done several 'bush repairs' of Land Rovers this way with the 'boys' filing the
bolt head round. It is a temporary repair as the bolt head is shallower than
the correct bolt with its locating head and will not seat as far into the axle
location hole as it should.  Note that the bolt on the 'good' side will have
suffered by being twisted round, the splines on the driveshaft and the diff
end universal joint may have suffered excess wear.  Even though the repair
will last a long time get three new spring bolts, use 2 on the car when you
get them and keep the 3rd as a spare you will never use!  (This is based on
the law that says if you have it you'll never need it but if you haven't you
will.)


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