945 Niggles

[bluebrickrick]

The Sergent Bilko I used to deal with shipped back home, along with goodness how many Range Rovers bought cheap, I think driving them on the plane and loading his other posessions may have been the hardest he worked during his tour here !

There is a steel to steel taper angle (which I can't remember and Mr Newnes is up the workshop) beyond which a taper becomes self holding, IIRC its around 6 or 7 degrees but can't recall if this is half or included angle - Morse is marginal and there is often a tang to prevent rotation but of course you don't whack those in with a fine threaded nut and a yard of pipe on the socket bar !

The eye clearly stretches and the coefficient of friction does the rest.

Safe knuckle flesh when you attack it

We didn't get the nice day either, had a quiet day transfering files onto a backup hard drive just in case Windows has a hissy fit during 'insertion'

My Adobe Acrobat installation CD seems to have died beyond reading (in 4 separate drives), I use that quite a lot as am gradually downloading weekly copies of The Engineer and re saving them by the month, I've quite a lot yet to download as well - only got from 1865 up to 1929 so far

Rick

[Michaeleff]

Taper (Interference Fit) ball joints etc.

If you already have a compressor, then treat yourself to an air hammer.

Source a spare straight rod end bit such as a rivet-setter: or grind and file flat. Drill out a concave "Dimple" to locate the hammer bit when in use.

Use a long lever to place separation force on the joint and tuck it under one arm to maintain the force.

Place a counterweight (Ball Pein or similar hammer or if sufficient space a small club hammer) on the opposite side of the housing; place the air chisel bit opposite the counterweight and press the tit.

The joint will quickly separate. Over many years on many different marques and models of cars, I never ever found one on which I couldn't quickly break the taper fit-up!

You might try an SDS hammer: heavy to hold though and clumsy in limited access space.

For a cheapo hammer (£20 upwards) and small portable compressors with induction motors now selling for £100 to 150, it pays to save knuckles, temper, time, angst and blue language!

The only thing that almost defeated me was a Jag MK II 3.8 saloon (My own - insult to injury!) rear hub. I was using one of the big old Sykes-Pikavant multi-legged pullers, but with a very fine screw thread, rather than the later hydro-bollox.

Here:

Now one was supposed to hit the end of the winder with a lead lump hammer; and you could give the end of the threaded bit a bit of a thud too once pressure was on to break the fit.

Nope.

In the end I resorted to bashing the wind-up bits with a large club hammer and the end with a 15 lb sledge!

Now when any tool (Cold Chisel, bolster etc; is subject to constant percussion, one is supposed to occasionally grind of the sunflower effect at the end and heat and temper the thing; or it becomes excessively work-hardened and bloody brittle! It was.

Fortunately, as it was the weekend, my then foreman was also working on his own car and took me to A&E.

The shrapnel in my left hand they removed; but the two bits in my leg are still there; too deep to get at. Fun when one is having an MRI Scan...

I did manage to shift the hub eventually, with a few more sledge thuds! When I had recovered...

Fitted the damned puller with the hydraulic centre bit shortly after!

No more shrapnel.

[Laird Scooby]

I did hear a tale about one USAF guy who bought himself a brand new Triumph Stag shortly before going back to the States. He arranged (unofficially) for it to be taken back on a Hercules C130 that was flying back to the USA.
Mid-Atlantic it got into trouble because of the extra weight which the crew then dropped off the back of the plane so they didn't also end up with the longest swimming lesson of their lives!

Somewhere in the mid-Atlantic there rests a brand new Triumph Stag on the bottom of the sea bed. Because matey had done it unofficially, he couldn't make a claim either!

There is the possibility that some heat on the BJ taper might help, last time i tried the wind kept blowing my blowlamp out!

I think you can download the Adobe installation and either burn it to CD-ROM or put it on a flash/USB/thumb drive or memory stick whatever you feel like calling it. The other thing is a lot of browsers now have their own pdf readers built-in to avoid having to use add-ons as they can compromise security. Try updating your browser and if you haven't already got Firefox try that. I believe Google Chrome also has built-in pdf readers so that's another option.

Each to their own with various methods Michael - i'll see how i get on with the toys i've got to shift these ball joints, once i've got the wheel bearings sorted i might slacken the taper nuts a turn or two then wind a lock nut on back to back to prevent total loss and let the potholes do the rest. Meanwhile a dousing in ATF/acetone should help to break any rust bond between the two and maybe even help shift the taper itself.

[bluebrickrick]

You are preaching to the converted with the air hammer Dave, had a MM chisel and needle gun for years and worn out builders SDS chisels are something I always lighten skips from

Compressor is a bit of a grand name, take the cheapest MM pump and fit it to a motor (that didn't fall off the back of a bandsaw despite raining sledgehammer blows and heat) take an old style push chair and weld horizontally a propane cylinder (if you shear the valve off with a carefully placed blow the bit left threaded in can be tapped 1/4 BSP) into it, fit a platform and mount motor pump and belt tensioner, filter reg, pressure switch etc this results in a nice mobile compressor of relatively low capacity.

Fit it under the bench then surround with so much c%@p that it is unlikely to wheel anywhere ever again ! Find it is not up to long needling, spraying or sandblasting spells so progressively pressure test and add more inverted gas bottles, pump up then use, have a break while refilling etc etc. This is one of the reasons I'm about to grab a road drill compressor, the other reason is it has a similar D series engine as my tractor.

Always taught never to strike two hammers together due to the splinter risk, likewise, keep the a%$e end of cold chisels etc ground down so the banananana peel doesn't do similar. The heat treating chisel sharp ends tends to be to re-harden as you grind into the softer backing - not ever thought of letting down the striking end but it makes sense.

Fortunate here in having accumulated a pretty comprehensive SP puller set and as colleagues claimed their hydraulic rams had failed (which the company replaced fortunately) saved the corpses for spares, often only a reoiling or resealing needed so have got a good one, a not so good one and one I have no problem welting on the end or forcing, if only you could soften, straighten and reharden the tongs as easily Always used tallow on the screws, best high torque lube there is.

I had a scoot round after my last posting and found the Adobe site is offering free downloads of many of its products and Acrobat 8 being fairly ancient was offered at a 'reasonable' cost acording to the site I found this from, fortunately I didn't need to find how reasonable as downloading the installer and putting my original key / serial no in (the magic marker on the CD is unlikely to have ruined the disk) was recognised so I'm back up and running.

Having done a bit of digital publishing myself there is nothing like the real thing for getting the best out of PDF format and the folks who have scanned, OCR'd and and a lot of clean up editing have put so much effort into it part of the attraction of having them in my 'eLibrary' is searchability & comparison - something I couldn't do when they had the complete run in dead tree format in the library in Norwich and much more convenient on the laptop.

Delighted to hear about the Stag Submarine - well it'd certainly cure their famed overheating problems ! hope the same happened to the chap I knew.

I've got some furnace blanket (like rockwool but pure white and finer) and have a bit I wrap round the brake pipe / ABS sensor lead etc so the torch doesn't heat anything vital, a byproduct is it also acts as a windshield, remind me if you ever get over this way and I'll excavate a bit for you, gas axe one side, hand the other, no toasted digits.

Another afternoon in the woodlands has got me within 100 yards of target, despite the chainsaw playing up, I did a carb rebuild last year (ethanoled diaphragm) and its been a lousy starter and idler since, despite every care being taken, bags of torque when you can get it started - both Fordson and the Swedish Tractor behaving well so 2 out of 3 can't be bad but I'm now getting into a denser & more mature area where cutting rather than pulling down is needed, then the main meal, which are 18-30" dia.

Have a good Sunday

[Laird Scooby]

I cheated with my small compressor Rick - bought it off fleabay! It's an old Clarke (Machine Mart) thing mounted on a pair of wheels with a small tank which the motor and compressor sit atop of.

It was being sold cheap for spares or repairs as it wasn't holding (or even building) pressure. The fault was simple, the aluminium pipe between the compressor head and tank had fractured where it enters the tank.
A few minutes work with a pipe flaring tool and good as new. I still have to do the other half of the repair, fixing what caused the excessive movement that caused the fracture in the first place. This is the 4 screws that hold the compressor to the brackets. All 4 threads are duff and the bolts/set-screws are missing. I'll re-tap them to M6 and fit some M6 bolts - when i manage to exhume said compressor from the corner of the shed where it's currently buried!
The whole raison d'etre of getting the small portable one is that my shed is about 25m away from where the cars are so i need a long hose just to put wind in the tyres, never mind use any air tools!
The idea is to run the pair in tandem with the small one doubling up as a secondary air receiver to boost reserve capacity. Also if i ever get my donkey up and running, an air supply in the garage.

Glad you got your computer/Windoze/Adobe sorted.

Thanks for the offer of the furnace blanket, i'll bear it in mind if i ever get to go north from home again! All my journeys in recent times have either been south or west for some reason.

[Joe of Loath]

Originally Posted by bluebrickrick

Strange set up Joe but hire always was cut throat I suppose - might be worth trying firing a small claims court warning across their bows (although by now the cost of starting one may match or exceed your cost) compared to their cost to defend it, a small claim payout is often a no brainer.

Not worth it. Dashcam card was full (not making that mistake again!) so very hard to show proof. Considering the Italians are probably long gone, I'll just eat the £120 I paid in repairs and the very, very wet evening I spent in the rain changing the front wing (an otherwise easy job in the dry). I strung up a tarp to keep the rain off, but the water pooled and rained through the tarp on my head.

[Dirty Rooster]

Originally Posted by Michaeleff

Now when any tool (Cold Chisel, bolster etc; is subject to constant percussion, one is supposed to occasionally grind of the sunflower effect at the end and heat and temper the thing; or it becomes excessively work-hardened and bloody brittle! It was.

Fortunately, as it was the weekend, my then foreman was also working on his own car and took me to A&E.

The shrapnel in my left hand they removed; but the two bits in my leg are still there; too deep to get at. Fun when one is having an MRI Scan...
.

Cool injury.

A mate of mine was hammering a cold-chisel into a nut to remove it, all held in a vise with a hessian sack over the top ...
The nut sheared, the sack had a hole, the nut went up and hit him in the roof of his mouth!!
What are the odds?

[Laird Scooby]

The odds are probably about the same as when i was grinding some metal tubing many moons ago. Naturally i had eye protection on but i ended up with a bit of hot swarf in my eye!

How come?

Easy!

The hot swarf in question bounced up from the work, hit my cheekbone, ricocheted into the inside of the safety glasses and straight into my eye!

Since then i've only ever worn goggles or sometimes nothing at all - have to be more careful that way!

[Joe of Loath]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

The odds are probably about the same as when i was grinding some metal tubing many moons ago. Naturally i had eye protection on but i ended up with a bit of hot swarf in my eye!

How come?

Easy!

The hot swarf in question bounced up from the work, hit my cheekbone, ricocheted into the inside of the safety glasses and straight into my eye!

Since then i've only ever worn goggles or sometimes nothing at all - have to be more careful that way!

I've had that almost happen with welding sparks. When you're welding and feel them pattering around inside your mask and bouncing off your nose, cheeks and forehead you realise it's probably time to change position.

[Laird Scooby]

Going off at a slight tangent but still relevant to previous discussions on this thread - ATF/acetone mix as a penetrating fluid.

Today i tried it on the ball joint :



As you can see, it worked! That was a couple of squirts, leave it 5 minutes while doing something else then use that heavy duty splitter you can see in the photo. The BJ is resting on the wump hammer ( a bit like a lump hammer but you can give things a good wump with it! ) and the ironic bit is, where i'd previously tried hitting the end of the taper, the end had belled somewhat so the nut wouldn't go over it! Soon amputated the pin with the disc cutter though!

Fitted the new BJ, did a couple of other things including refitting the old ARB drop link (seeing as the rubbers on the new one have perished miserably - they're miserable perishers!) but the main thing was getting that ball joint out - the ATF/acetone wins again!