Restoring a Top Hat

[Ruairidh Dunford]

If it were mine (and off the car) I would remove the side tube, clean everything without disturbing the shims, replace the felt seals with modern ones and reassemble.

[Parazine]

What about using oil in early (pre 1929) back axles though? Anyone have a comment??

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I would.

[Hedd_Jones]

And me, I think even my wife would go bazerk if I were to use her food processor to mix grease and engine oil to put in an axle.

[JonE]

Hedd - but she wouldn't know, as you have the dishwasher to clean it afterwards... :-)

[Chris KC]

I share Parazine's doubt that anything was changed by Austin to retain the oil in later axles. That's fundamentally why they leak, because the sealing structure is appropriate for retention of grease, not oil.

I also share Simon's experience, stripped a '31 axle last autumn which was grease filled, and it would take more than a slosh of diesel to remove the vast quantities of the stuff packed into every nook and cranny. It's arguably not doing any harm, depends on your plans I guess. If the axle is running quietly it may be better left alone. If rebuilding with an expensive new CWP then you know the answer...

["Slack Alice" Simon]

My axle was getting noisier and noisier.

I swapped it for another, which runs quietly.

I couldn't believe the difference!

With my quiet engine and no axle noise, I could kid myself I was driving a newish car.

Which shows that all my Austin life, I have had rough back axles, and not known what a good one sounds ( or doesn't sound ) like.   



Simon

[Hedd_Jones]

well, it seems ive 3 noisy ones. And not enough spares to swap them all!.

[Parazine]

If it were mine (and off the car) I would remove the side tube, clean everything without disturbing the shims, replace the felt seals with modern ones and reassemble.

   

<Sigh> Nothing ever simple is it? Tried to do that but...…..

This horrible semi-congealed goop is everywhere and it doesn't flow, just sticks. It's going to all have to come apart so that I can wash it out. And it stinks of 92 year old grease......Not pleasant. Look at the mess it's made on the living room carpet.

Next problem, the drivers side bearings have stuck in the side tube having come off the diff case. A few exploratory taps with my long breaker bar have refused to shift them. I could be more violent but would probably lose the oil felt case. Perhaps I may be able to use something to wedge into the bore of the bearing to move it like a large Rawlbolt for example...

   

Time for a cup of tea and some head scratching I think.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I have cleaned these out with a blow torch on the back of the casings Tim, do it outside (fumes) and put a tin tray (I use a very old biscuit tin) underneath to collect all the grease as it melts, once it starts to flow it comes out surprisingly easily.