Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Don't worry -won't be shiny by the time we've finished with it. 

[Manky Monkey]

Nothing very exciting to see at the moment, so no photos. Spent the afternoon at Loonyville, removing the back axle then attacking the hubs. The posh new socket I bought specially to undo the hub nuts didn't work -the nuts are very shallow & the socket's got a slight chamfer on the inside, just enough to nicely round off the corners. So we ended up beating them off with a hammer & chisel. We'll have to replace them the same way. They have tab washers which will stop them coming loose again. So now I need to find someone to press the old bearings out for me, then find a bearing supplier to replace them, then have them pressed back in, plus press in the new wheel studs. In the meantime the rear shock & 4 bar mounts can be fully welded as they're only tacked in place at the moment.
PD & Loony are also arranging the loan of a TIG welder to have a go at welding the headers up. 

[Manky Monkey]

Hmm. One small step forward, one giant leap back again.
Had the bearings pressed out by a local car repair shop. Drove across town to the bearing shop & ordered new ones. They're not a standard engineering size, which would be relatively cheap, they're a specialist auto size, which ain't. Over 40 quid each. We drilled the Imperial stud holes out to take the new Metric studs, (M12 x 1.5, same as the front wheels), then it was back to the car place to have the new bearings fitted.
I nipped back after work today to collect them. Slight problem. First one fitted fine. Second one started fine but as they pushed the bearing into the hub with their hydraulic press, the back face of the hub buckled. Obviously not designed to be under pressure. Bugger. So the hub's knackered. We're not actually sure if the back face runs against anything on the axle stub. If there's no direct contact it might be possible to machine off the damaged rim & make up a large spacer washer. First though I'm going to check the interfernet for Sherpa van spares people -no point spending lots on specialist machining if it's only a fiver for another hub.
Bugger, bugger, bugger.

[Manky Monkey]

.

[cunningplan]

Mankey, we have had the same problem with these sockets, with a angle grinder (flap wheel is best) we carefully grind the front face of the socket so it is flush (or even very slightly the other way) , it makes it fit the nut better.

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah, thought of doing that, but the outside diameter is also too big to fit inside the hub recess, so I'd have to grind down the diameter too.

[terry t]

hi manky shame about the hub.i think you will find the back part dose not touch the axle casing.its just acts as a deflecter to stop the dirt and dust getting in the bearing.when the hubs on the back plate should sit over it.but not touch.it may nead cleaning up a bit for the tapper part to clear axle casing.when they press the new bearing in it nead surporting on the solid part of hub (as you no now) check the ather on to see clearance

[Manky Monkey]

That's what I wondered Terry. I need to loosely re-assemble it all & have a look. There's a groove around the back face that looks like it should have a seal in it, but I don't remember there being one. It's an odd system, not like the Reliant axle at all. The end of the axle casing has a stub machined on it that the hub sits over & runs on, on the bearing. Then the drive shaft passes through the hub & is held to it with the wheel studs & a front covering plate. The bearing surface of the stub has a lip on the back edge so the hub can't slide further back, so I think the damaged back edge must just run against the brake back plate. I'll have another look when I'm back at the workshop in a couple of days, but will still check the 'net for cheap hubs just in case.

[Manky Monkey]

Well, I've spent the last week ringing round loads of breakers yards, looking for replacement hubs, with no success, so we took another look at the old ones.
The damaged rim on the back of the hub doesn't actually contact anything. As Terry said, it just helps deflect muck from the back of the bearing & the oil seal. There's a pressed tin splash guard behind it, bolted to the brake back plate, which extends over the end of the hub & presumably catches any oil drips that might get past the oil seal, before they contaminate the brake shoes. With the rim cut off, the hub meets the splash guard but doesn't actually run inside it. After a bit of looking at it & measuring it, we decided it'd be fine.
Parted off & faced off on a lathe? Nope, hacksawn & hand filed. Job done.
The new wheel bearings are now fitted. Oil seals looked fine so I left them well alone. New M12 metric wheel studs knocked in & a good dollop of black Hammerite on them. Ready to fit.   

[panthershaun]

cool  back on mine this week I'm getting a bit behind now

[Manky Monkey]

C'mon -we've got a date on the dirt oval at the Hayride next year mate.
Bumped into Kev Rooney, the SVA guru, at the Surrey Street Rodders' do the other week. He showed me his SVA compliant truck & we went through a few details. Sounds pretty straight forward.
I'm on holiday for 2 weeks now & desperately want to get some major work done on mine. Bet I don't though.

[ByzMax]

I'm on holiday for 2 weeks now & desperately want to get some major work done on mine. Bet I don't though.

You should have the pop finished in two weeks 

Come on Glass half full 

[Manky Monkey]

  Seem to have got bogged down in small detail stuff lately & not achieved much. Think we need to get a few big bits done to fire up our enthusiasm again.
*Paint brake back plates, then re-fit to axle & build up brake assemblies.
*Seam-weld all the suspension brackets that are just tack-welded at the moment, adding gussets & braces where necessary.
*Look at rear mudguard mounts, probably a variation of the bolt-on jobbies on my trike.
*Re-fit axle & adjust 4 bar linkages until it all sits square & true. Hook up the prop-shaft.
*Fettle brake pedal assembly to give more pedal travel, then look at hooking up the brake lines.
*Move to the front end & re-work steering stops to suit our steering lay-out.
*Add front mudguard mounts.
*Re-do the steering column mount. It's too big & industrial. needs something tidier. Also need to move it half an inch to the right to give more clearance between the linking rods & the side of the engine.
*Lay out & tack together the exhaust header components.
*Build a throttle pedal assembly.

With brakes, steering & suspension sorted, fire the sucker up again! 

[poprodder]

thats something i should do, make a list.

[Blackpig]

That's your 1st week taken care of, where's the list for the 2nd week