G’day all,
I haven’t corresponded for a short while…not that much to report til
recently…just been driving and enjoying…however last week I decided
the time had come to fit the new Dayton Wires that had been waiting to go
on since before Christmas. I did some talking around with other local Mark
2 drivers on the pitfalls of doing the changeover of the hubs myself.
Advice ranged from one who said “not a worry…you can do it with an
ordinary hub puller” to several “oh dear…I wish you luck…it took 40 tons
in a press to get my old hubs of the rear axles…”.
I decided to tackle the fronts myself…replaced the bearings with new (for
those in Oz the standard Holden bearing kit for about $AUD20 is the
go…you just need to buy the rear seal which is different to the GM part).
The task took about 7 hours total, with the hardest bit being the fitting of
the rear seal…boy does that little sucker x 2 take some work to keep it
square and moving without a press and a dedicated piece of hollow
tubing. After fitting the new spline hubs and setting the end float it was
on with the new wheels and 185x15 Kumho tyres…not expensive, very
quiet and stick like the proverbial to the road…$AUD95 at Kmart in Oz.
However, don’t get them to balance them unless they have a 2 cone
locking system for their machine…the centre spline and the outside rim of
the wire wheels are the only 2 points that are ‘true’ and related…the back
of the centre spoke assembly can be all over the place.
Now for the rears…Given the horror stories I elected to get a local
Jaguar Service mob to tackle the rears, given that when I talked to them
they understood the problem, and had manufactured a special bolt-on jig
that attached to a “Portapower” hydraulic ram for those occasions when
30 plus years of attachment had made the rear hubs somewhat reluctant
to part company from the axles. The car looked a little strange with wires
up front and discs on the rear but what the heck, it was only 35
kilometres to the workshop.
As it turned out, neither hub would move using a mechanical puller, even
with a substantial piece of pipe on the handle for increased leverage. On
with the hydraulics. The RHS hub came off with moderate pressure. The
LHS needed 5,500 PSI (almost the limit of the hydraulic system) before it
let go with a huge bang. I cannot tell you how thankful I was that I did not
tackle the rears at home…it would have been interesting had I got one off
but not the other etc.
Needless to say the car now looks a treat…I have to say 3.8 Litre Mark
2’s are made for wires…they even look faster just standing still!
Only one small problem…with the correct tyres on the wires the wheels
ride a little wider in the mudguards…on the RHS front its enough to just
foul on the lower lip of the mudguard when passing over any ‘bumps’ in
the road. On checking clearances on several other ‘wired’ Mark 2’s, it
would appear my car has been repaired at some earlier time with the
result that the front guards have been shaped closer to the body based
on the clearance available with disc wheels. I’m going to have to “ease”
the guards a little and restore them to the correct clearance for the longer
term. Other than that, a successful job.
I’ve also managed to aquire a tool box for the car. It supposedly came
from an S type, but my understanding was they and the Mark 2 where
essentially the same. I’m missing the ratchet, the grease gun and the
‘tommy bar’, and the three smallest spanners are marked “Daimler” instead
of “Jaguar”. Can anybody help please?
Regards
Steve Corbally
Adelaide Australia
For all who are interested, the real secret to removing the rear hubs/splines
is heat, pressure and patience. I had to replace one of my splines on my MK2.
I used a bearing separator/puller (Whitneys part Number 81vc2372t). Which is
cheap enough ($40) or usually available from a tool rental shop and a torch.
You have to heat the area directly in touch with the axle ( important) for a
good long while. I used a small propane torch like you would use for plumbing
and it took almost an hour to get it hot enough. When it was hot enough it
just popped off. Another word of warning, put the castle nut on backwards and
keep the end flush with the end of the axle. I didn’t and the pressure
expanded the end enough that the nut wouldn’t go on. I had to file the threads
to get it back to size. The bottom line is that this is something you can do
at home with the right tools and information.
Good luck.
Don
67 OTS
64 MK2