As mentioned - axle beam is now in red oxide primer - chassis black to follow.





Mac.

bb - will PM you!

This has been a very good and informative read so far.
At some point I'll probably need to tackle this so it's good to have some pictures of what's involved.

As a side note, I've found a great way of removing rounded cap screws on CV joints is to use an irwin bolt grip.



Like these, smacked em over and undo as normal.

I found the same and indeed it could be said that Irwin'doors don't half grip them bolts, too.

Beam now in chassis black,

The "time of the putting back together" is approaching!



Mac.

Let the fun continue.

Today was scheduled as a "let's put it all together" day - the "customer Siôn came to help (well to watch) and we began by deciding to do a proper job and fit new wheel cylinders, followed by mounting the bearing carriers into the brake backplates (a light press fit).



The backplate/bearing assemblies were then fitted to the axle beam (new bolts of course) and the bolts torqued to 52Nm.



My apprentice looks on!



Whilst the axle and bearings housing had been in a nice warm workshop the hub shafts had been sitting in the freezer overnight - shrinking quietly (WHAT ARE THESE DOING IN MY KITCHEN? Quote Mrs.Mac). The shafts fitted easily into the bearings with no more than a light tapping with a hide mallet. Note below the "frost" build up on the outer hub flange!



The inner flanges were dry fitted and tightened to settle the bearings, then removed to apply "Loctite 270" to the splines and threads - the 36mm securing nuts were then final tightened to 245Nm (very B tight).

As an added gloss the cross axle brake pipe was replaced with "Kunifer 10"





Final frettling to follow.

Mac - with thanks to Siôn for the help.

Nice job, I often use the oven and fridge for fitting too.

Excellent work! But I notice your apprentice is not making a cup of tea!

Great work, mac!

WHAT ARE THESE DOING IN MY KITCHEN?

That sounds very familiar ...

Cheers

Tom

Today brought this thread to a happy conclusion.

Mac came round with the fully assembled axle, but before we could start on fitting it to BHX, I'd had a bit of a disaster when renewing the water pump seals on my '82 245: two of the bolts had sheared off in the block whilst torqueing. It was supposed to be all finished before Mac arrived! Anyway, Mac very calmly averted crisis and managed to get both snapped bolts safely out of the block - phew, and thanks! I've now bought brand new bolts, and it's all back together again.


Anyway, back to 340s, the axle was lifted into its correct position



Mac provided new bolts for the axle and the driveshafts


The most difficult beast was refitting the handbrake, as there was very little adjustment in the cable, but we cracked it in the end with some teamwork.




Everything now back in place, ready for brake bleeding




And with the brakes bled, the drums and wheels followed, and for the first time in many months, BHX stood on the ground on its full four wheels!


Happily, the engine turned over and fired first time in over 6 months of being laid up! Sadly, the MOT has expired in the meantime so I couldn't do a proper test drive to hear (or not!) the new bearings, but I'm looking forward to doing so. I'm also finally going to replace the clutch cable which hopefully with the new bearings will make it a much more pleasant car to drive.

And above all, thanks Mac

Good to see it back together

Fantastic work both! Looks great. Hope the MOT goes without issue

Very awesome work. An epic example of yogic restoration {^¿^}.

Yoga indeed is the way - adopting the posture of the Depressed Wildebeast solves all.

S10NPH wrote:

Best safety boots ever

That looks like a superb piece of work! Well done all ...

Tom