B----y Bushes

Spent a few frustrating hours this week removing the bearings and the bushes from the axle halfshafts, for those who dont know the seal and bearings are held on to the halfshaft by an interference fit bush which is pressed on (3 ton force the manual says) and then a circular clip installed. BL workshop manual says to drill the bush to weaken it, and then use a cold chisel to break it. Drilling was not that easy, result a few burnt out drill bits, then breaking the bush with a cold chisel was hard work, the bushes where stronger than the chisel blunting it in seconds, even after sharpening and quenching. I persevered, and managed to eventually break them. Once the bush is of the bearings still stick fast to half shafts and also had to be smashed off.

Not much to show for a few hours work!

Next step was to remove the pinion oil seal, repack the bearings and replace with a new seal and gasket.

After painting the pinion cover plate, brake back plates, driveshaft flanges, hub retaining plates, and rear cover it was time to re-assemble the halfshafts, here is where I thought I had a good memory, I placed the hub retaining plates, oil seal, and bearing correctly on the first halfshaft, but put the bush on the wrong way round, totally forgetting it has a recessed area for the circular clip which should face up.

I only realised this after I had drifted it part way on! I then had to devise a way to drift off the bush without damaging it, I could not clamp in a vice for fear of damaging the surface too much, so inserted a couple of 6mm metal strips in the gap between the bush and bearing, clamped them tightly between two sturdy benches, then gave the halfshaft a good wack with a copper mallet, luckily the bush was not on too far and came out easily.

This is the correct way, recess facing upwards.

Circular clip in place

From here re-assembly was easy, I used new Stainless steel bolts for cover plate, driveshaft cover, and hub retainers. I then de-greased axle surfaces then sprayed remainder of axle over a couple of days.