[ROVERNET - UK] P6B rear brakes - Oh no not again !

[phing]

Vern
 Thanks for your advice on spreading the De D tube and jacking under the differential . I tend to worry about large lumps of motor 
car balanced over my head ; I like as much rooom as possible and hefty jack stands under solid metal before I start work under a car 
.
 As for the Rover manual , I agree its a good one, especially compared with the later Haynes manuals  . I would have been even more 
impressed if it said that I needed to spread the de D tube to drop the drive shafts , [ and told me how to do it !!]instead of 
stating  that removing the drive shaft bolts would allow the axle to drop neatly down .
Happy New Year
 Patrick
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vern Klukas" <vern at inkspotco.com>
To: <rovernet at lyris.ccdata.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 5:16 PM
Subject: Re: [ROVERNET - UK] P6B rear brakes - Oh no not again !


> >Hi
>>We  started to recommission Rip van winkle over the holidays . It's apparent the brakes need a complete overhaul . Access to the 
>>rear brakes is as bad as on  the late lammented E type ; so I decided to do the sensible thing , drop the back axle and do it all 
>>in comfort on the bench . The Rover workshop manual makes it look easy . disconnect the hand brake , brake line and pad wear 
>>indicators drive shafts etc , remove 4 bolts and you have around 150 lbs of iron sitting on your chest !
>>BUT
>>The drive shafts are solid , with no splines allowing the shaft to be with drawn from the disc ; instead we have a sliding De Dion 
>>tube .How do we pull the drive shafts which sit in a depression in the rear discs ?? The Rover shop manual[ which must have been 
>>written by a refugee from the " tell them every thing but the one thing they need to know ' Haynes publishing world ] is silent on 
>>this point , elswhere when it covers replacing the rear discs it talks of " extending the De Dion tube " but is silent on how this 
>>is done , and how to re compress it when you have finished .
>>RVW is at present sitting on jack stands under the rear spring pans , marinading in penetrating oil .This arrangement is very 
>>stable , lifts the De dion tube to a sensible height and allows reasonably easy access to the rear axle . It obviously will not 
>>allow the De D tube" to extend .At present  I can see no way to drop the drive shafts
>>I don't think I want to follow the manual's advice and  hang RVW from jack stands suporting  2 pieces of steel poked into the rear 
>>jacking points. Any similar support from the under body will allow the rear suspension and the De D tube to flop down to the end 
>>of the spring travel ,limiting access .. Under body support will require heroic efforts with the trolley jack and packing to get 
>>the back end high enough to allow me to get under the low flying De D tube.
>>Does any one have any advice , please
>>Cheers
>>patrick
>
> Heres my advice: You could do yourself a favour in your future work if you believed the manual a bit more :-) (but see below). As 
> manuals go, it is a good one, trust me.
>
> Speaking about the rear jacking point, anybody without a long jack should jack the car from the bottom of the diff, not the rear 
> point, if you want to get under the car. I think the idea of the rear point was just to get the wheels clear, not allow access. I 
> get the feeling this is part of you confusion, and of course is the rebuttal to blind faith in the manual referred to above.
>
> Supporting the car from the jacking points (or from the floor pan just below, but make sure you use wooden spacers to spread the 
> load a bit) is the best way to go. Then, you extend the tube by pushing on the tire with your feet while freeing the halfshaft. It 
> doesn't take much force. If you are worried about access, chock the front wheels fore AND aft and just jack the car higher. I 
> think you'll find the de-dion tube is not nearly as low as you think it will be. Re-attaching the halfshafts is easiest if you 
> have somebody else push the tire inwards while you get a bolt or two started on each halfshaft.
>
> This is something I've done at least a hundred times.
>
> When I did it for money, we used a very long truck jack with a socket we had welded up on the rear jacking point and raised the 
> car to about a 35 degree angle, which made it really easy but caution was needed as the arrangement is not as stable as a four 
> point support.
>
> Yours
> Vern
>
>
>
> -- 
> Vern Klukas                             I'm a little . . .
> Inkspot Type & Design
> vern at inkspotco.com
>
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