Trust no one!!!

To say I am p---d off is an understatement. My tales of woe go on! As has been recorded here on my blog I had my axle reconditioned before Christmas by a transmission expert, highly recommended by a few Norfolk people with classics, the re-conditioning included crown wheel and pinion, diff bearings, pinion bearing, and wheel bearings on the halfshafts.

When I re-fitted the complete axle to the car, it seemed OK, and although not totally quiet, the horrible whine had gone.

It has got noticeably noisier as the weeks have gone by, last Friday I noticed that on the straight, reasonably quiet, but on a long sweeping bend there tends to be a noise from either side, suggesting wheel bearing problem.

So further investigation was needed.

I jacked up the rear wheels, and noticed a good 1/4" play on the rear wheels, both sides, I could physically pull the wheel in and out by this much which explains the noise.

I took the wheel off, and pulled out the halfshafts to find the bearing retainer collars ULC2350 are fitted the wrong way round, they have a groove round them for the circlip ULC2362 which is not fitted to either halfshaft, the circlip should lock onto a groove on halfshaft to keep collar and bearing in place. This means that eventually the collar and bearing could work loose and move down the shaft, they have!! Either that or the collar was not pressed on far enough in the first place.

Picture showing bearing retainer collar wrong way round, no lip showing on collar, the groove on halfshaft for circlip obscured by retaining collar which has moved.

Diagram clearly showing Circlip ULC2362 and Retaining Collar ULC2350, along with Bearing and Oil Seal. Not totally clear, as I did it wrong in the past, but soon realized, however the experts had the parts as I supplied them wheel bearings, which where a complete kit and they should have seen the circlip when they took off old bearings.

This is how it should be, with lip in retaining collar and circlip ready to be driven down and to lock in position with groove on halfshaft.

Needless to say I have had a few arguments with a less than apologetic supplier. They had the cheek to say take the axle off and bring it in. Now I have them coming to house to remove the half shafts, take away and replace bearings, then return to re-fit! They wont be getting a coffee!

On top of this problem the Kenlowe Fan Thermostatic control unit has now gone bonkers, fan comes on at low temperature and stays on, or works intermittently, even with manual override switch. Fan is Ok when wired to battery. It is the type with the capillary tube into rad hose which I have never liked, I have never got a good seal with this on both my sevens so was going to change anyway. I may try the thermostatic controller with the sensor tube that straps to rad.