The Portuguese Aurelia B12 .....and so the journey begins..........

[Parisien]

The inner bearing retaining nut is off, I wasn't there to witness the engineering genius that was required....but the story about getting it off was good. Red wrench applied, bracing between both hubs, tool applied with 10 foot lever, three segemental "cracks" and off she came.....sweet as a nut!

The outer retaining nut has defeated our home made C spanner due to the softness of the metal, even though re-inforced. So hoping to get a commercial one in the next few days.


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[the.cern]

Well done Frank, even though it was not you personally that was victorious !!!!  Good luck with an up-rated C spanner and then please let us know the state of the bearing !!!!

Look out for the O ring type seal on the outer retaining nut, I have yet to remake these although the bearing assemblies have been rebuilt and simply need torquing up.

                                 Andy

[Parisien]

We were seriously doubting the left handed thread on the left hub and vice versa on the right one, such was the exasperation!

Will do re the seals, will be going down tomorrow evening if he can get one


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[DavidLaver]

Epic!!  How many would be thinking "perhaps the nut doesn't need to come off after all..."

[the.cern]

David,

         Jim and I  never got to the 'perhaps the nut doesn't need to come off after all ....' stage. We both, independently, took it as a challenge to our effort and ingenuity to 'defeat the bloody thing and show it who is the boss !!!!. Our next move, had we not succeeded, would have been to get it hot, very hot, cherry red hot and then beat the crap out of it. By the way, the latter phrase is an old English engineering term !!  After that, if still defeated, would have come the 'perhaps the nut doesn't need to come off after all ....' phase. 

However, by then that would not have been an option as all the beating and heating will have meant that, no matter what the state of the bearing, seals etc was before we started, they now most definitely must be removed !!!  Don't you just hate it when that happens !!

                    Andy

[DavidLaver]

Oh for the days of thicker grease, turning the radio up and thinking 'this car will be dead soon anyway'.

David

[the.cern]

Been there, done that !!!!  and in your neck of the woods David, when at college I lived in Lee High Road !!!!!

                      Andy

[Parisien]

We didn't do a lot of beating Andy....just a lot of swearing.......nor was it glowing like a furnace......just enough to ease things....


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[ncundy]

Was discussing this with my dad this morning, and he says the reason you are probably having so much trouble with the ring nuts is that you are using bars which are too long and not stiff enough.

The best length is about 8" with a cross section of about 2.5" x 3/8" welded securely on the back of the tool all located by a through bolt (as you have done). You then have a very stiff and strong lever which you can tickle with a lump hammer. Only for really recalcitrant cases you may need to play a flame on it.

Putting them back is the reverse, tickle it with the hammer until it goes solid, then tap it round to get the next locating ring hole aligned. Torque values are rather meaningless in this type of assembly (fine thread - wide diameter).

[Parisien]

Neil, thanks for that gem of information, will pass it onto my guy tomorrow


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[Parisien]

Next is the outer retaining nut.....again, spent some time to no avail, the C spanner made in, as it turns out, not the hardest of metal, bent twice despite re-inforcing. With Neils ideas plus my guys ingenuity, we with move it all on tomorrow


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[Parisien]

Modified and greatly strengthened C spanner worked a treat......about 10 seconds of effort, complete bearing assembly removed, cleaned then re-assembled. A local motor factors boasts he can provide any bearing under the sun.........sounds like hes going to eat some humble pie shortly.....

Will post up some pics too

Tomorrow, swing car around to loosened other assembly up, continue to strip doors


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[Parisien]

Best laid plans and all that, - no problems getting the 2nd inner retaining nut off on the other side, used a thick beam with small bottle jack to maintain constant pressure on bearing tool, a bit of heat and 10mins later off.

As for the outer retaining nut, broke the tooth off the C spanner 3 times, plus the C shape of the tool got deformed, tool then substantially re-inforced, a bit of heat and all done, we didn't take bearing out as we need to stick wheels back on to move to body man in a few weeks time, but delighted with ourselves tonight!

No more this week, glass out next week, more tidying......


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[simonandjuliet]

Bravo ! - like the bottle jack solution

[Parisien]

That little thing was a god send, he'd cobbled it together with another part for a specific purpose....the bearing tool moved too much, so lost quite a bit of the torque action...it worked well!


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