STEERING AND FRONT AXLE REFURBISHMENT

The first job is to put the car safely up onto axle stands before making a start on the front axle, first onto the spring shackles, which separated easily, but not so the bolt that holds the radius arms onto the ball joint. I finally managed to free it and, after dismantling a very rusty shock absorber unit, the front suspension was off and could be taken into the workshop for closer examination.  I removed the king pins and checked their fit in the axle. They both had a fair amount of movement so that meant sending the axle off to Ruairidh Dunford for heat shrinking. I was then able to strip both stub axles of bearings etc. and pay attention to the backplates which had seen better days. But with a made-up dolly the right size, I was able to carefully tap away and restore the 90 degree edge all round both backplates. I then worked on overall flatness and after some time on the fly-press things were looking much better. Definitely the brake drums won’t be rubbing and binding anymore! The next job was to remove the old king pin bushes from the stub axles, a process made easier by removing the brake cams and their bushes, all of which have seen better days and will need replacing.

I then modified the drag link end caps by braising a nut on each end cap, which can then take a grease nipple. I had done this mod to both my Ruby and Special and it guarantees that lubrication reaches the ball pin and mating surfaces.

The next job was to check the axle to see that all surfaces were at right angle to the king pins. I had a piece of bar the right diameter to cover the end of the axle so in the lathe I faced one end and then drilled and reamed it to give a good fit on the king pin. With the pin in the axle and the bar slid onto it I was able to check each seating and carefully filed where necessary. This was repeated top and bottom both sides a slow job but necessary.
The stub axles were then offered up with the hardened washers in place on the lower bush, this was to check to see if any packing washers were re-quired at the top. One side was a good fit and did not require anything, but the other side was very tight, so the washer had to be worked on using the diamond lap, quite a lengthy process as the washer is hardened, but a good fit was finally achieved. With cotter pin and stub axle in place the king pin was inserted. One side worked fine but with the other the king pin refused to enter all the way and on checking I could see that it had started to raise a ridge in the axle, it must be going out of line because of a fat cotter! So, with the stub axle out of the way I very lightly reamed the hole so the king pin would fit again and then filed the cut out of the cotter. It worked and the king pin went right down, thank heavens! Whilst on the subject of these cotters, I have always given them a healthy tap with a suitable punch before tightening the nuts up on the other side. I feel that it is asking too much of the threads on their own to pull the cotter in tight with the king pin. With my two Austins I always did this every time I carried out a greasing service to the front suspension and never had any problems with the kingpins.

Next assembly was the track rod where the levers required the pins being inserted and locked in place with cotter pins. This was followed by the shock absorber which required the aluminium links to have their rubber bushes fitted and everything bolted together. The final job to be done before fitting the axle was to fit the bushes into the spring ready for the spring shackles so a very light ream and the puller did the required job.
I jacked up the axle so I was able to fit the spring shackles and with them done up tight the shock absorber was fitted and everything bolted in, a good job done!

The next part was not so easy as the ball joint on the steering box arm needed replacing as it was seriously worn. The ball joint is tapered and a tight fit but of course one is not able to use any force to drive it out for fear of damaging the steering box arm, what to do? I used a piece of tube close to the diameter of the ball joint and turned up on the lathe a ring bored out to fit the tube which I then welded together. This enabled me to put a small three legged extractor in place to force out the ball joint, it worked! Having successfully extracted the old ball joint and the new one now in position it was time to fit the drag link complete with new cups and springs. This can be a bit of a fiddle as the end cap has to squeeze the spring enough for the bolt to be fitted in place, I resorted to vice grips positioned on the tube and a clamp to do the necessary squeezing! Everything went to together well and I was then able to use the new grease nipples to apply grease straight to the ball joints.

The fitting of the track rod was easy and I did use Loctite on the large nuts attaching the rods to the stub axles. Nearly there! Finally, the radius arms to be fitted complete with new brass cups and bolt with it’s spring. This proved to be quite a struggle as the bolt just did not want to go all the way through and I had to rig up G-clamps onto the arms giving a base for a clamp to pull everything together. I still had to use a nut to pull the cups in really tight and then I was able to move to the front and Loctite the large nuts in place, back to the rear and fit the spring and lock with double nuts, everything successfully completed.

A really interesting project made all that more possible by having the kit that made things just that bit easier and of course enjoyable. The lathe was probably used the most, followed closely by the fly press then the arc welder. Surprisingly, with hand tools I used my set of parallel punches an incredible number of times, also the copper faced hammer, and then just the general run of tools. I hope my report has been of interest and perhaps is useful to members who may be faced with the same project.

Richard Bishop DA7C