Thread: The Ultimate FC

The vehicle has been turned around in my small yard at work so I can tackle that oil leak which has been giving me the ****s.
I had these wedges made which are suppose to go in between the suspension arms as to hold the arm with the torsion bar up out of the way.

The problem is the stalwarts lower wish bone doesn't have a strengthen area on it to take any great weight( unlike the Saracen and Saladin)so I am worried if I place enough load on the wishbone and jack to move the wish bone arms enough to fit the suspension/torsion bar lock wedges I may break some thing.
Design of a carrier for the disc and hub to fit on the trolley jack is in MK 1 version and doesn't fit , so MK2 will have to made or the problem sorted in another way.

I have all the workshop manuals, but so far they have been confusing and the specs supplied for the hub carrier etc are complicated/hard to make.
I think ,yes I flick though the book, but I will use my normal mechanic instincts, as its going to be easier.
caliper and bits now removed.


doesn't look much in the pics, but the parts are big....ie the bolts that hold on the caliper have 1 1/8th heads on them.( and the reason why I need some sort of carrier to hold the wheel station)

I do know some of the pins in the wish bones knock out only in one direction.
I know there is a large number of O ring seals.( the shocker shaft in the pic is oil lubricated and has 2 o ring seals per shock)

The plan is to sort out the oil leak at the inner tracta joint housing and while everything is apart to chip back paint and rust treat the area and just generally find out how hard it is going to be and if it is worth while pulling the other wheel stations apart or just leave them alone.
I have to do some measuring and check why my steering alignment is out after removing the tie rod ends from a year ago.
I also know there is a pin which has to be knocked out of the drive so the inner to outer tractor joint can be separated from each other and it has to lined up with access plug/holes...........meaning I will have to move the whole vehicle backwards or forward a little bit to line things up on 5 wheels ???????

A little bit more done today.
I pulled back the rubber boot over the inner tracta joint hub.
It looks perfect and I cannot understand why it is leaking.

I decided to drain the inner tracta joint housing and got very worried when a bit of water drained out around the plug.


But it is not a problem because the tracta joint housing is double plugged.

One plug keeps water out and the other smaller plug inside keeps the oil in.

This pic is the brass plugs that go over the ends of the wish bone pivot shafts.
Strangely a normal 3/4 drive from a 3/4 drive socket set was slightly too large.
I had to grind down one of my short extension shafts to size to undo them.


I manage to jack up the suspension enough to incert the steel wedges...........they work a treat.
I now realise they are needed to take the strain and load off the wishbone pins so they can be removed.
I now have to look at how those pins come out exactly and how to hold the wheel station while doing that.

Hi Ron

The oil seems to be coming from higher up than the plug.

Could it be like what sometimes happens on Series LR swivels, where the oil bypasses around the back of the seal?

In the Series LR it is solved by thorougly cleaning the dismantled assembly and using sealant between the retaining ring and the seal as its reassembled.

Diana

The set up is abit like the a landy C/V joint housing with a big rubber boot around it to protect it.
The rubber boot was completely filled with dark black oil.(all the way to the top)
I had to quickly wipe away the oil for the picture and that the shiney inner housing could be seen.
There could be play in the housing some where, or the seal has just gone hard or something though old age.
The colour of the oil is because of the oil dag additive I added to the central lube tank.
The whole job would be a lot easier if it was a split seal or something .
I hope Tim Vibert has Saracen ones and that Saracen seals fit.( or I will be looking to O/S for parts.)
I am learning with the Saracen/Saladin/Stalwart thing is the parts look the same but are different in detail and do not interchange.