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On my 75/90 a couple of years ago, a half shaft snapped when it was in for electrical repairs and tuning at Jeremy Brewster's. It turned out my axle had been built up with the early 14/45 type half shafts which I learnt are prone to snapping. Well, I was able to remove the broken piece left in the diff and replace it with a second hand half shaft. However it made me feel uneasy and so I vowed to upgrade to the later half shafts which I did in the autumn of this year.
To do this you need a new diff casing, crown wheel carrier, axle tubes, the collars that hold the crown wheel in the right position and of course, the bigger half shafts which apparently never snap!
James Wheildon very kindly offered to let me take the car to him to his home near Salisbury so we could do it together. So I piled all the bits into the 90 and set off for James's. Strip down was achieved in a few hours and then the problems started! Old wheel bearings proved difficult to remove from the crown wheel carrier, one of the collars that screw into the diff housing was very very tight and then, when offering up the torque tube with pinion into the diff casing, it went straight through - the thread had been bastardised!!. A phone call to Foppe resulted in an offwer to find another casing and if I brought the assembly to him, he would set it up.
So I borrowed James' modern car , loaded it up and drove home. However about 20 minutes from home I had the awful realisation that I'd left the crown wheel at James's!! Discussions about James meeting me at Oxford to hand it over on my way to Foppes were soon followed by Sue's practical suggestion that it could be parcelled to me by the following lunchtime (which it did). So then it was off to Foppes in my modern car and he set it all up. Back home and then transfer it all into James's car and back to his. It all went back together remarkably well with new wheel bearings and seals having degreased the brake linings (one of the old half shafts was not the correct one and had been scrolling oil out rather than in! A very major job with massive thanks to James and Sue for putting me up, lending me their car and facilitating the whole job - true friends indeed!!
To do this you need a new diff casing, crown wheel carrier, axle tubes, the collars that hold the crown wheel in the right position and of course, the bigger half shafts which apparently never snap!
James Wheildon very kindly offered to let me take the car to him to his home near Salisbury so we could do it together. So I piled all the bits into the 90 and set off for James's. Strip down was achieved in a few hours and then the problems started! Old wheel bearings proved difficult to remove from the crown wheel carrier, one of the collars that screw into the diff housing was very very tight and then, when offering up the torque tube with pinion into the diff casing, it went straight through - the thread had been bastardised!!. A phone call to Foppe resulted in an offwer to find another casing and if I brought the assembly to him, he would set it up.
So I borrowed James' modern car , loaded it up and drove home. However about 20 minutes from home I had the awful realisation that I'd left the crown wheel at James's!! Discussions about James meeting me at Oxford to hand it over on my way to Foppes were soon followed by Sue's practical suggestion that it could be parcelled to me by the following lunchtime (which it did). So then it was off to Foppes in my modern car and he set it all up. Back home and then transfer it all into James's car and back to his. It all went back together remarkably well with new wheel bearings and seals having degreased the brake linings (one of the old half shafts was not the correct one and had been scrolling oil out rather than in! A very major job with massive thanks to James and Sue for putting me up, lending me their car and facilitating the whole job - true friends indeed!!
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