Pressing tapered halfshaft into hub?

[Kameron M]

Hello all. Another halfshaft question, and hopefully the last one I have to ask. I need to press my now taper fit halfshafts into the hubs.

Some background:

My friend at work helped me get set up on an old Nardini engine lathe. We took an american made #4 hand reamer, machined it down so we could chuck it into the lathe tailstock, and then took the hubs and roughed them out to 1 and a half degrees, then cleaned up with the reamer at a nice low speed and finished with a very good fit.

Nonetheless, the MG hubs I have appear to be made out of cast iron of good quality, but cast iron all the same. My friend recommended against pressing on them with 12 tons of force, as they might just shatter. He suggested instead, to hit the halfshaft into the hub as hard as possible with a large deadblow hammer with the hub on a block of wood to seat the taper, then to finish it by clamping it up and using an impact to tighten the nut on the end of the halfshaft.

Since i'm sure other folks have done this job to a cast iron hub, how did you do it. Did you have success?

[Steve Simmons]

As far as I know they were always steel. Iron seems a bit brittle for this application, but I'm no metallurgist.

[Kameron M]

My hubs are machined cast iron. When machining them, they did not produce chips but produced fine grinding instead. They appeared to be very high quality castings but we're almost certainly not steel. Unless someone else knows about the metallurgy of these more than me. Is the carbon content insane or something?

[Duncan M]

Kam-
Oh, you mean hot rod shafts?

[Kameron M]

These hubs came with the car, and were put on some long long time ago. They machined easily with a regular H.S.S. cutting bit like regular cast iron would. Like I said, these are difinitively NOT steel. Steel doesn't make the fine, powdery, almost cube shaped chips when it gets cut on the lathe, it simply doesn't. They are a not-so lusterous gray in color, and have a few very small patches of surface corrosion, that does not penetrate too far into the hub body. In all senses of the word, these hubs are made of regular-ish plain cast iron.

I'm not proposing MG did this or did not do this as original. Some one, or some company a long, or a long-long time ago made at least one set of hubs for the TC by sand casting them and then machining them out to spec.

Have foundry, will travel?

Speaking of which, I tried to put them in today and found out that something is binding up. I'm not sure what is binding up but about 3mm from fully seating the hub and halfshaft into the bearing carrier I am encountering rotating resistance, and when the hub and halfshaft are fully inserted the rolling resistance is extreme!

Seems like I might be buying a new set of hubs after all.

[Gene Gillam]

Kam, to answer your question...slide the axle into the hub (I assume you are using the key) and then tighten the nut to draw them tight. They're not going to go anywhere...I'm not even using the key (machinist told me it wasn't needed with the 1/4 Morse taper) and still tight as a drum years later.

Gene

[Kameron M]

Gene, thanks for the advice but that wasn't my problem. I have the halfshaft installed into the hub. The problem is when I slide it into the axle it doesn't go all the way. As I push the hub into the differential, at about 1/4th of an inch from being seated fully on the bearing carrier, I start to feel resistance. It turns freely at this point. If I push it any further into the differential it starts getting harder and harder to turn! I cannot seat the hub and halfshaft fully into the proper place and at the point that it is about 1/8th of an inch from being where it should be, it is impossible to turn the halfshaft by hand. So, I ceased what I was doing, and I need to know what to do, what is wrong, etc.

Information: this worked fine before I started to fiddle with it, but the bearings were worn out and the halfshafts were loose. I installed R Furneaux's 50mm nut kit with the built in lip seals, Steyer 6208 bearings. The bearing carrier spins freely and smoothly without issue. To my knowledge, the 50 mm furneaux nut is in the right place and is attached at the right torque.

I will remove one of the halfshafts tomorrow and check that the hub clears the 50mm nut, which I hope it should because then all that needs done is a bit deeper reaming, I think, but i'd like some opinions on the matter if anyone has some...

[Duncan M]

Kam-
Are they "in" the hub far enough?

[Kameron M]

I'm not sure. To be honest. In this road of discovery, I have determined that my hubs may not be exactly standard.

Given this, the only dimension on my hub which I trust 100% would the the mating flange to the bearing carrier, where the bolt circle is.

If someone knows the length from this inside flange to the end of the halfshaft on the other side, that would help.

I'm going to pop my diff cover today and have a look-see in attempt to determine if I'm really crashing into something or if the problem is somewhere else entirely. Hard to see through metal.

[Kameron M]

correction. Silly me. Of course the brittons would have made the pumpkin backwards the way everyone else does it. Haha.

[Kameron M]

Removed dizzy. Was strangely easy considering backwards design. Good cotter pin work. All looked very clean and in good nick.relieving to see considering long term barn storage. Determined also where the problem is.

Taper half shaft is wider at far end and is colliding with oil scrolls. Not sure if I am supposed to remove them, grind them down (metal shavings?) Or hammer them deeper in. Awaiting advice.

[Gene Gillam]

There was no need for me to remove/enlarge/push-in the oil scrolls. My tapered shafts (Bob Grunau) were the same diameter from the pumpkin end to the start of the taper...where did yours come from?

[Kameron M]

Direct from Roger Furneaux

[Gene Gillam]

Kam, I'd email Roger and ask what the diameter of the axle shaft should be just to make sure there wasn't a machining error. They should be the same diameter as the original axles in that area.

[Gene Gillam]

Any update?

[Kameron M]

Got called out of town for a bit.

I did get in contact with Roger, and he advised me that if the halfshafts were fitting the differential they are correctly sized and fitted. There is about 1/4th of an inch of tolerance on this of course.

To solve my issue, he suggested that I simply place a steel bar inside my diff casing, and pound the oil seals inwards until they fall into the differential housing, then remove them from same. Since I am doing his lip seal mod, the oil should stay in, and according to him, the oil scrolls never really did much good for a car that is chipper and cheerful around the corners anyways. evidently, this is a system that only works well when the car is puttered about only, not gleefuly chucked around bends.

So, that is what I will do when I am back in town, and assuredly the halfshafts will fit at that point, and all will be well and good with the world again.

[Gene Gillam]

Good to know it's "solved"....