Clunk goes the axle. Live axle noise

[Michael Peterson]

Hello Mates!

 

I had noticed a metalic clunk whent driving my 97 live ax Sprint over bumps, and assumed it was the often mentioned A-frame bush. Up we go onto the lift, and as so often happens when we assume.... the bush was fine. What I did find was that when pulled outward the left side wheel moves in and out about 5-7 mm producing the noted clunk. The right side wheel has no such movement. What has gone, and how is it fixed???? This is an ital live axle with only 13k miles on it.

 

All help appreciated.

 

Cheers from the Colonies!

 

Michael

 

X-flow equipt Yankee

[Robster]

Best advice is to phone SPC, UK code 01527 894232. Steve who works there is the expert on these things. If you have lateral movement, I think that the outer bearing is moving, whether is is the whole bearing moving in and out of its pressed in position, or the inner race is moving relative to the outer race. Either way, you need to remove the half shaft, which will require pulling out (can be coaxed with a mallet), the bearing comes out with it. The half shaft comes out atatched to the back plate of the drum and the bearing as well.

 

Hope this makes some sense...phone SPC for details!

 

Robster

[Nigel Riches]

So, after all the hassle from you about your president, the most pow wowful man on the planet you come grovelling for info on some crappy old limey back axle fault, well it goes like this, the half shaft (drive shaft) is supposed to be an interference fit in the bearing at the hub end, cheapskate B.L. way of doing things, so what needs to be done? Well, first remove the wheel and all the brake assembly, remove the brake back plate, then remove the recalcitrant halfshaft with the rogue bearing from the axle tube,

next, remove the bearing, probably need some sort of press (10 ton comes to mind)to remove the old bearing, procure a new bearing, and have this pressed on to the half shaft to the correct dimension, suggest the Haynes Morris Ital book for this, unless you,ve got a Leyland dealer or agent nearby (Rover B.L. or who ever they are today), some folks recommend a couple of small tack welds on the inside, to hold everything together for longer, others argue against this, like most things on this site, so the choice is yours, personally I've had mine welded and had no further problems, finally, as they say in the tech manuals at work, reassembly is the reverse of disassembly, how helpful, yes, put it all back together, bleed the brakes and adjust the hand brake,is it any wonder the British main stream car maufacturers went down the gurgler with stuff like this on the road.

Changed the rear wheel bearing on my Toyota, remove wheel, remove brake drum, remove 4 nuts and bolts, slide hammer half shaft out, remove junk bearing, press on new bearing, put it all back together, 2hours, less if you know what our at, no mucking with the brakes, but no character, there you go, hope this tripe was of some help.

Regards Nigel in New Zealand.

[Michael Peterson]

Thanks Nigel. I tried W, but he doesn't know squat abou Se7ens. An obvious shortcoming, but we all can learn.

 

Cheers!

[Dobbo]

Is the hub nut tight? they can come loose and the hub move on the halfshaft,If you want the hub off however it will need a press!!!

Rae

[I.Mupferit]

Michael, sorry to hear about your axle problems. I have a copy of the relevant Ital workshop manual, axle section, and will mail you a copy tomorrow for future reference.

 

Brent thumbsup.gif

[R2D2]

The Ital axle is a standard 3/4 floating Salisbury design that was used on Land Rovers up to a few years ago and it if is assembled properly it shouldn't really cause trouble. I am quite sure that the recent spate of problems is a result of some change in either assembly routine or bearing quality.

 

The Toyota design that Nigel describes is, of course a direct copy of an English Ford Axle, which in turn is a Salisbury semi-floating design and not really much different in concept, just a little later in the evolutionary cycle. The half shafts can still come loose on the Ford/Toyota design but in the semi-floater they can come completely out of the axle tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hubcap]

Hi there

 

I had exactly the same problem on my live axle recently, afer only 10k miles. The cause of the clonk is the half shaft moving in the bearing. There is a small ridge behind the bearing (splined end) about 3/8" away, this is probably the amount of float that you have. Can you move the half shaft in and out quite easily?

 

The answer is to either tack weld a new bearing in the right position as previously suggested, or as I did, to make a pair of collars which are pressed up behind the bearing to stop it moving away from the hub/backplate assembly. The cause of all this is the fact that BL bearings are a press fit onto the half shaft, with no provision for any kind of register to stop further movement. Bearings can be obtained from any bearing dealer or even Caterham, but you will need to put different id seals (not 1") in if you use the collar method of bearing retention as the seals will run on the collar. I made up 30mm od collars (about 15mm width) therefore 30mm id seals.

 

After several hard trackdays I can report no further problems - thats done it!

 

Hubcap