invacar LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...

[Andyrew]

The gearbox mounts while hadn't failed they were tired and showing a wee bit of delamination, with some NOS in the parts stash It makes sense to fit them.  Interestingly both gearbox mount brackets were a little distorted. The nearside mount bracket has been rubbing against the bolt for the suspension with had worn a groove in the mount bracket. I cleaned the burring back and ground a little clearance in. Straightened the distortion out and gave them a quick splash or black just to make me feel better. 

Driveshafts were heavily corroded so a knock back with some 40 grit and a spray of some hammerite makes them marginally nicer.  

[Zelandeth]

I barely recognise that gearbox!  They do seem to like to attract an impressive case of greasy crap.  Attacking TPAs one with detergent and the pressure washer has been on my to do list for ages - especially as every one I've seen weeps to at least some extent from around the driveshafts.  50+ year old congealed EP90 is such fun to deal with isn't it!

I wouldn't worry too much about the scoring on the flywheel - TPA's looked way worse than that as I recall (not surprising given the drivetrain had apparently been getting used as a caravan park tug) but aside from a bit of judder when taking up drive which I reckon is actually on the belt side of things it's been absolutely fine.  Afraid I don't have a good photo of that it seems.

While you're in there check the driveshaft to hub bolts are tight!  All of TPAs had worked loose during the first 2000 or so miles - if you've got good access adding some locking washers would be a good shout.  There's nothing aside from the bolts holding the shaft to the hub, so if they come loose it's going to be Bad News.  There aren't many things on these cars which I would say is an outright bad design - but those rear hubs are one of them.  Between there being no proper coupling to the driveshafts and the utterly unobtanium wheel studs made of cheese they are just an utter pain.  Oh, and the wheel bearings which according to the manual that you need a dynamometer to set up properly, because yes everyone has one of those in the garage.  I sure don't - and so far "that feels about right" seems to have been okay at least!

I guess there *could* originally have been locking tabs/washers/thread lock on the driveshaft bolts - I was transferring secondhand parts over from one car to another so they could just have already been missing.  That's always the slight lottery when using secondhand parts.

[richardmorris]

Congrats. I actively avoid the m1.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Andyrew said:

I didn't take any before photo but the gearbox was absolutely covered in shite, the engine bay itself was pretty grubby so let's start with making it a bit nicer to work in. Some engine degreaser,, some tar  Remover and a bit of scrubbing later and we are looking better.

 

2 hours ago, Andyrew said:

The gearbox mounts while hadn't failed they were tired and showing a wee bit of delamination, with some NOS in the parts stash It makes sense to fit them.  Interestingly both gearbox mount brackets were a little distorted. The nearside mount bracket has been rubbing against the bolt for the suspension with had worn a groove in the mount bracket. I cleaned the burring back and ground a little clearance in. Straightened the distortion out and gave them a quick splash or black just to make me feel better. 

Driveshafts were heavily corroded so a knock back with some 40 grit and a spray of some hammerite makes them marginally nicer.  

Awesome stuff! as Zel says its strange seeing the gearbox so clean! I can actually see the drive-belt-adjuster mechanism clearly now, when I popped the drive the belt on the M25, and then replaced it and the pulley, I was most thankful I did not have to touch the adjuster in the end, because of how much sludge everything was covered in otherwise LOL