The picture I posted last week (the story just below this one) is a small taste of what we found when Geoff & I removed the left rear hub of the Jaguar. It has always made an occasional “clunk” sound, usually when shifting from forward to reverse. I have been real good about keeping it lubricated (along with the wheel spline) and it usually went away for a while after I lubed it up good. It would eventually return and last winter, in the course of lubricating the car while the wheels were off, I found the left rear hub to have some free play in a fore/aft motion. You can read about that here.
We removed the hub and once the fulcrum shaft came out, the set of bronze bushings literally fell out onto the floor. Not an auspicious start to a hub repair! We disassembled the hub and other than an oil retainer seal and the two bushings, there was nothing else installed along the fulcrum shaft. My “old-school” Yorkshireman mechanic expressed outrage at this particular setup. I’ve never dealt with brass bushings, and have only seen the exploded diagrams of the stock hub setup. It looks like this:
That is a diagram from the SNG Barratt catalog. What we are talking about here are labelled numbers 1 through 11. Parts 1 & 11 are given… the nuts on the end, and the fulcrum shaft itself. Mine had those, plus #3, but nothing else… besides two really worn “TeamCJ” bronze bushings. And a huge wad of grease from the last time I lubricated of course. But, no spacers, shims, or sleeves. The retainer seals were chewed up, and went straight into the trash. In hindsight I should have taken more photos. Here is basically what was found:
The bushing and fulcrum shaft are fresh out of the parts washer, the hub carrier is about to go in. THANKFULLY the hub carrier itself was fine. We caught it just in time, as the shaft was just getting discolored, instead of actually worn. The bushings however, were chewed up and completely shot.
Looking at them closely I can make an educated guess as to why. I strongly suspect that in the post-flood restoration the fine mechanics at Classic Jaguar just plain forgot/neglected to disassemble the lower fulcrum. As a result it was lubricated with a fine paste of rainwater and bayou silt. Ugh.
Here are some photos of the two bushings, up close and personal.
I plan on having a look at the right rear hub soon. It has been noiseless and steady so far, but it won’t hurt to have a look.
Next up: Fixing the hub and followup.
So, did you put the stock setup back in, or are you sticking with the “billet bronze” stuff? Like I said, my machinist was pretty appalled at the bronze stuff when he saw it…I think the “recommended” setup is pretty much what you see. That put him in the same catergory as your outraged mechanic.
Patience! The story hasn’t been fully told yet Roger.
–chuck
heh… I just noticed your “Billet Bronze” comment…
Chuck, you have to understand I live my E-Type existence vicariously through you these days, so when your car is off the road, it hits home.
I’m more curious than anything else.
The bronze bushings, properly made and maintained, are NOT a bad idea at all. All it takes is a regular greasing (just as the needle bearings require) and proper sourcing of the bronze material..there are MANY alloys of it! So, even though I’m witchya on the CJ rant, in and of themselves, nothing is wrong with the bronze bushings.