Project Front Wheel Drive

[purplebargeken]

A few piccies in a minute.

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Just delivered

 

 

Drivers side turret base (side)

 

 

(middle section)

 

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I will clean it all up, trim back to sound metal and paint with weld thru primer for now. I will take the drivers side wing off to be able to get a proper idea of how things are from that side. Annoyingly, as mentioned earlier, both wings are goosed anyway. Hopefully this will be done on Monday.

[Split_Pin]

I love the proportions of these and they have the prettiest tail design I have ever seen on a car of that era. Well played

[Yoss]

Blimey I've scrapped better ones than that, not for a few years mind.

 

Removing the input shaft is fairly easy even for someone with fairly limited mechanical know how or tools. First remove the carpets and parcel shelf, which will probably be on the verge of falling out on its own. Then there's a big black rectangular plate with a gear stick sticking through it. Take this off and you have access to the back of the gearbox which should look a bit like this.

But not as clean. Mine's not that clean any more either. In this picture the input shaft cover plate is missing but it looks like this.

Take it off and you'll see the end of the shaft (towards the top in the first picture). The shaft will have a small nylon bolt in the end. Take this out and screw one of the bolts that you removed from the cover plate into the end of the shaft. A decent set of mole grips on the end of the bolt should get the shaft out.

 

BUT FIRST put the other four bolts back in the holes they came from and do them up (as in the picture). This is to hold the top of the gearbox back plate in place as it's quite thin round there and can snap off if the shaft doesn't want to come out and you start giving it some stick.

 

I know this from experience. I was taking the shaft out of a car I was breaking. Didn't bother putting the bolts back as it didn't matter. I used the slide hammer as it was sticking a bit and the whole bearing came out with the shaft and the top of the aluminium back plate still hanging off the slide hammer.

 

The shafts usually just pop out, especially if the splines have stripped but they can stick, it's usually just dried grease. The only thing physically holding it in is a small circlip.

 

Shaft and bearing.

 

That's actually a 1500 shaft in a 1300 bearing as that's all I could find in the garage this afternoon. So they do sort of fit but the circlip won't lock in because the groove in the bearing is in a different place though the shaft can't move that far either way as the nylon bolt in one end butts up against the inside of the cover plate and the other end goes through the clutch and sits in a hole in the end of the crankshaft.

 

Having said all that I think you need to worry about your wings first!

[purplebargeken]

That's ace, thanks so much for that. The wings are the easy bit for me lol. 

 

I will crack on with this on Monday.

[Junkman]

I purchased something front wheel drive just after the Galaxy.

 

Just so that I'm on the same page - are we talking Galaxy, or Galaxie here?

 

On a different note, worry not, your Trummy won#t need an MoT once this bloody Winter is over.

[purplebargeken]

Hiya JM. Galaxy as in large blobby thing with a number of rear seats. 

 

This is true re: no need for an MOT, however, I'd like to not die in it when driven on the road (at some point).

[purplebargeken]

Canley Classics do an uprated shaft and gear, bearing is not included though. Mick Dolphin should be able to that easily enough.

 

Thanks again for the info and piccies, really appreciated. Funny but it's never been an issue in any of the 1300's I've had before. Guess I was just lucky.

[Yoss]

Yes Canley still have them listed. I think the bearing is held on by that big circlip you can see in the picture, I don't think you'd need to replace it.

 

Mick is a good guy. If I need anything I always try him first. Be prepared to put a good half hour aside if you're going to ring him, he does like a chat! Proper old school, you have to send him a cheque through the post after discussing your requirements. None of that add to cart nonsense here.

[purplebargeken]

Oh bless him, still just accepting cheques. I'll have to dig out mine from the drawer then lol. It's been a while.

[purplebargeken]

Well the O/S front wing is 97% removed, just some finessed trimming to do. 

 

All looks good, the strengthener section has been redone at some point in the past but it is lovely and solid and done in good gauge steel. 

 

Old under seal has failed in a couple of places but the corrosion is surface only. There are a couple of old but solid patches here and there but nothing to be upset about in any way. Nothing horrible in hidden recesses either,phew! Just a patch on the turret itself and the job should be a good one.

 

Glad I took the wing off really. Despite it looking fairly sound there were patches of filler here and there. The new wings will be utterly solid for a very long time to come. 

 

I was planning on taking the inner arch down to bare metal but I now don't think it necessary.Just a clean up and refresh will suffice.

 

Happy!!!