Prop Prep

The weather has been okay, so I've spent a short little while working on some projects to get me to the next phase, which is hopefully completing the rear axle assembly. 

I needed to order some products to deal with the restored pieces I'm working on: the axle case, the diff carrier, etc. I also need some parts to complete the build. More on paint and parts later, though.

While waiting for those, I decided to tackle some 'small' jobs like refurbishing a rear propshaft I acquired from @mepham55 in Victoria. My prop was knackered -- lots of play at the expansion joint. This replacement, though old, seems to be in pretty good nick. It's rusty (and greasy) but no play in the splines, thankfully. So I figured I'd strip it to clean and paint it, and replace the u-joints while I was at it. To do this, you need to get the needle roller bearings out of the yokes and the flanges so each part can be stripped and painted. 

In the book and on youtube (of course) this looks pretty trivial. OK, well, if not trivial, then certainly not really difficult. There are two ways to do it. 

Honestly, I think the LR service manuals were written by people who hadn't any notion that their products might often be a) old, b) horribly abused, and / or c) maintained by people who have little (no) skill, time, or care. The first thing the new reader of the green bible needs to understand is that the one line they put in the instructions i.e. "tap the yokes to remove bearing cups" will actually necessitate hours of labour and several attempts at doing it the 'cheap' way (i.e. with the stuff you have on hand) only to have it fail. You then have to go out and buy a proper, workshop tool you'll not likely need again, JUST so you can complete the refurbishment of a part you could probably replace for less. 

Forget Internet trolls, just read the land rover service manual for endless laughs.

In the end though, if you persevere long enough and purchase the made-in-shenzhen benchtop 6t shop press you need to move a bearing cup far enough out that you can get some monster pliers on it for removal, you end up with this:

... aka a greasy, slightly-damaged lump of metal bereft of its universal joint, ready for cleaning and paint. Huzzah!

After all of this process, you have to take a close look at the remains of your part. In my case, there is some rolled-over metal that will need to be trimmed and cleaned up to get new cups into the yokes. Pushing them in and out with a shop press (and beating on 'em with a hammer) can roll the metal over where it shouldn't be. 

It's hard to tell from the photos, but you can see the interior edge of the flange is rolled over as a result of the removal efforts. Not sure how I'm gonna fix those. Maybe go buy a fine round file? 

These definitely look like old parts, but they should be recoverable and reusable. I think they can be saved and reused. Step 1 complete: remove universal joints from propshaft yokes and flanges. 

Next, I turned my attention to separating the two ends of the propshaft. There's a threaded ring on the small, sliding end, right in the middle of this photo:

It wasn't too difficult to remove, having been mostly covered in grease for its life. I was able to turn it without scoring anything, after marking the two ends with a punch so I could realign them after painting. You can then gently tug the two pieces apart. 

Inside the ring is -- I think -- some kind of fibre or other type of washer, held in place with a metal spring clip. You can remove the metal clip fairly easily with some pliers, but doing so will mar it. I have no idea if it's a replaceable part, but I hope so, since you do need some pressure on there to get it out and over the diameter of the propshaft. So mine is obviously marred by my needle nose pliers.

The fibre washer I mentioned previously had totally disintegrated and I was picking it out amidst bundles of old grease. I think it's some kind of buffer washer so that the prop doesn't have metal-on-metal contact at its greatest extension. Whatever it was though, it's clearly not going back in. 

At the end, I'm left with parts that are close-enough-to-clean that I can put 'em in my ultrasonic for a quick buzz before I do my final degrease and paint. 

Job complete.

The whole process of restoration of Land Rover parts is interesting. I can never tell if a part was machined "just enough" to take out the material needed for manufacture, or if the rusted splotch on the machined part (as shown above) is damage caused by the elements *after* it left Solihull. This is one of those moments where one wonders if one's just wasted a bunch of time and money attempting to save a part that shouldn't be saved. 

This calculus is everywhere in an old car restoration and, for novices like me, is a big challenge. Replacement parts are generally not *too* hard to find for old Rovers. When is a part too far gone to fix? It looks OK enough to me, but is it really?

Whatever, at least I have a new bench-top shop press I'll probably use six or so more times in its life.