Sorry I didn’t explain that I gave it a tap on the SIDE or EDGE of the flange where the drum fits, and you can certainly also do what while applying pressure with your hydraulic.
That is the accepted method of doing it. The 1 1/2 litre has smaller hubs so the puller for all the other wire wheeled Jags won’t fit. The pullers have threads each end, one RH and one LH thread to fit LH and RH hubs respectively.
Yes, there is quite a difference in the size of everything on the rear axle of the 1.5 compared to the bigger cars. It could be the reason the 1.5s had a history of breaking half shafts here in Aus, helped greatly by our appalling roads in the times when these cars were daily runners.
I have just helped a colleague sort out similar problems and bad work done by a p.o. His hub flange was bent by over-stressing with a jaw puller. The studs had to be cut out and the flange face skimmed. It was also fitted with an incorrect bearing - and this is a trap for the unwary. The rear bearing is a tapered bearing with a tapered inner race design, i.e. the inner bore of the inner race is tapered to match the shaft taper. Make sure you have the right bearing - the Timken one has a suffix ‘T’ after the number. An equivalent race with the same number without the ‘T’ is available in the standard parallel design and will fit but it is dangerous. It has an edge contact only connecting the race and the axle, increasing the bending and fatigue breaking potential.
A break here allows the wheel, drum and stub axle to go their own way. The car drops to the road, the back plate wears away in a shower of sparks and you have no brakes to stop it. I hope his half shaft doesn’t suffer from this incorrect fitment.
The other alert with these rear axles is getting the correct setting for the bearings. The principle is that they must run with a fine clearance, but not zero clearance. The manual gives the details and a range of a few thou’ which can only be set with metal shims. The reason for not having zero clearance, is that there is no way of determining whether it is just in contact, or is under preload. If preload, it will lead to premature failure. Also, the bearing takes thrust only in the outward direction. This is enabled by the wheel on the opposite side. Under side thrust mode in cornering, the outboard wheel pushes the axle inward, which in turn pushes the differential cage spacer onto the end of the other shaft and loading its bearing.
I would ooint out that he tapered fit o fthe bearing on the half shaft was on the ENV axles on SSs. The Salisbury had a ridge on the half shaf as a stop. It’s getting hard to find the taper bearings now… an d harder to pay for them .
The Salisbury had a floating spacer in the centre of the diff to transit load across from one shaft to the other. This spacer sits in a slot and there is limitd float so that’s why it is important to keep roughly the same amount of shims on each side
Indeed there should be just a few thou of end float. But this canbe measured . Set up the bearings and shafts and use a dial gauge to measure the end float.One can hit the end of the half shaft with say , a knock off hammer and this will push the bearing in and transfer the end float to the other side
The 6 cylinder cars also had a reputation for breaking half shafts. Some say because too few splines on the inner end, The factory later went to more smaller splines. But also due to poor quality steel, possible because of rationing . I know that I have always replace mine with new shafts made of modern high quality steel and never had one of the new ones break.
Swapping shafts from side to side will also encourage early failure.