My Firefly rebuild of the 14th car ever made 9914 continues apace. When the chassis was finished I set about going around all four wheels and inspecting brakes and bearings. Three were OK, just needing a clean and some copperslip on the moving parts of the brakes but the nearside rear hub bearings felt loose and graunchy. I started to dismantle it and was immediately suspicious when the 2BA retaining screw on the centre nut of the axle was positioned at the twenty two segment of the clock. I t should be situated at the top of the nut in the 12 o’clock position. The screw came out OK but it took 3 foot Stilson wrench and all my (not inconsiderable) weight to move the nut. I patiently turned it until it was off, only to reveal that the 2BA locking screw had sheared some time previously which had allowed the hub to move. The nut had been fretted away and was scrap. Fortunately Red Triangle have new ones so I ordered the bearings the nut and new tab washers for the five hub hold down screws……. it cost as much as the GDP of a small country, but hopefully the repair will last another 84 years! The new axle end nut is huge and beautifully CNC machined however I did not have a spanner that was 2 1/4 across the flats or a socket, neither did any one I knew. I drew a blank on eBay too so there was nothing for it but to make one, see the pictures of the process. Cleaning up and rebuilding is always fun and the only tricky bit is re drilling the retaining screw in the new nut and tapping it 2BA but that went like clockwork. So next job is to dismantle and examine the clutch…… watch this space. JCW Posted by FLYJCW 24/08/2016 21:53:05
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