RN Saloon info (if any)

[circeonya@hotmail.com]

More of a follow on about the identity and what is original and what is not on this car. Late Ocober 1932 RN, this vehicle has a four speed box, rag uni at front and Carden rear. There is severe slop sideways in the Carden. The clearances beween the rear of the gearbox and body are minimal and the nuts on the rag clear the handbrake assembly bits by about 3mm. All this leads me to believe the original box was three speed. With the rags nuts removed in is only possible to move the tailshaft less than 10mm into the Carden meaning the shaft cannot be moved far enough back to remove the tailshaft. the only way to remove it is to move the engine forward, not such a big deal, remove the radiator and undo the exhaust from the chassis, then the engine pipe will not clear so the engine will have to lifted as well unless I unbolt the engine pipe from the manifold with the risk of breaking the studs. Now I have a spare carden and the tailshaft really should allow more fore and aft movement than it currently has, so I am tempted to move the carden as far forward as I can, get the angle grinder ito the gap and cut the studs flush. After this bit of butchery I will have the existing shaft shortend to enable reassembly and the correct amount of fore and aft movement.
Any comments will be appreciated.

[Howard Wright]

Hi

Any chance of unbolting the carden from the torque tube?  The tube and socket should lift out of the way to allow the shaft and flexi coupling and carden back enough to remove.

Cheers

Howard

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Just to back up Howard:

The movement in the Carden sounds correct.

It is a simple matter to undo the 4 bolts that hold the Carden pot to the torque tube flange, and then slide it up the propshaft.

One way of taking up the play in a sloppy carden is to fit an "O" ring under each block.

Gets rid of the vibration whilst you drive about looking for a less worn housing.

[squeak]

Have you jacked up the body to let the rear axle 'hang' with the wheels off the ground. The torque tube will move away from the tail shaft and perhaps give you the clearance to remove without cutting the carden bolts.  
I have had success using shim washers beneath the carden blocks to remove play and center this joint. Others have extolled the virtues of David's replacement hardy spicer shafts and I shall do that eventually.

[AustinWood]

I have always found that the spherical end of the shaft wears. It should be a good fit inside the housing and that is what locates it laterally. The pin and blocks are there to transmit the drive and don't locate the shaft centrally.