The 'E' Type Forum

Usual dead-simple job that explodes to become a saga ......... might be worth warning fellow mechanics.

(Same for picture-orientation via Photobucket, another joke.)

The (probably original ? but maybe replated ?) water shields on my 3.8 RHS hub had suffered some workshop mis-hap in the past and didn't look that nice, so I ordered a pair from the Usual Suspect.

Seen here still blackened from 26 years of brake and road dust.



They're over £18 a pair, plus VAT ; now, having worked in low-volume OEM vehicle context, and seen what parts cost to get made, I would reckon that there is a multiple of 5 lurking in the mark-up on these bits - which I applaud, wholeheartedly, and am happy to cough up for.

If they fitted.

The supplied parts are powder-coated blackened, with a couple of chips and the beginnings of rust, which I was disappointed by - but maybe they're black originally ? To all intents and purposes, zinc or bichromate flashing of these would not change the manufacturing cost .............. and you can't see them. The inner cup had shards of razor-sharp parting-off swarf hanging off one edge, and had to be fettled, but ........... we're used to buying junk aren't we ?

This inner cup that goes on the axle root is probably always a bitch to fit - I didn't have quite the right piece of tube to put the effort right at the root of the inner sleeve, and making a tool (a big tool, on the lathe) just for this seemed an overkill, so the traces on the inner face - left by an alloy drift - aren't the best examples of my workshop practice, but this didn't change any critical dimensions beyond 5 or 10 thou, since I measured it and the part is still round to within 0.1mm.

The outer cup that goes around the bearing itself was a tad slack - so fitting it was easier, albeit plus bearing-fit Loctite to add a bit more grip.



So far so good, the fitting tolerances were about what I expected.

But once assembled, with the hub/disc and bearings in place, something felt odd ............... and when I removed the hub I found the two new parts had wedged together, and the outer cup was now stuck inside the inner cup on the axle.

Quick check with the vernier-caliper, and this is why :



So instead of there being about a 1.5mm radial clearance between the water-flinger on the hub and the cup on the axle, they've got the tolerances so screwed up that the parts actually BIND.



Fortunately, the Draper bearing/seal driver discs could have been made to seat the water-flinger in the 3-jaw, using one as a mandrel and the other as a pressure plate with the live-centre, enabling 3mm to be taken off the diameter.





But WHY is any of this necessary ?! Are we all expected to have our own machine-shop before we can work on these cars ?

I'll go and get my coat now.

Hi Rory
No consellation but having bought the "genuine Jaguar" version of the small roll bar bushes I had to then buy an 11.1mm drill by to ream each one out as they were all tight on the original 7/16 bolts...the "usual" supplier went to test both this version and the "cheap" aftermarket version and concluded the same...except the "cheap" aftermarket version was a better fit

Go figure that....

Jonathan

You can't ream anything out with a drill. Twist drills produce spherically triangular holes

Especially when you can only hold them through their outer sheath, whose rubber sleeve renders them mobile during machining ?!

"Spherically triangular holes" make bloody good oil passages and grease retainers!

rfs1957 wrote:Especially when you can only hold them through their outer sheath, whose rubber sleeve renders them mobile during machining ?!

Trial and error to be honesty Rory, plenty of WD-40 to attempt lubrication and wrapped them in a hand towel within the vice to aid grip...gently pressure when holding the drill to try and avoid binding ......out of 9 (roll bar mounts plus the rear engine drop link) just one ripped the rubber sheath off, smoothed it all off internally with a couple of grades of wet and dry paper....a bit of a faff....but now they fit perfectly..

Later stub axles went up in size. Not sure when. I wonder if they are XJ6 or S3 E parts?

Edit and update February 2017.

To be fair to SNGB, they recently sent me a pair of new replacements and apologized. I accept that I must have been unlucky, or that they were unlucky, in that one rogue part slipped past.

The chap who oversees this stuff is called Neil Hussey and he claims it's the first issue they have ever had despite selling these in considerable quantities, as they apparently fit other models and SNGB even supply them to Unipart.

SNGB's initial responses can be a bit clunky but complaints to Julian Barratt ou Neil Hussey seem to be followed up with some alacrity.

Quick Bump following above Update.

Having checked the new parts, it's apparent that the fixed "cup" component was always correct, it was the rotating "thrower" on the axle that had been spun to 3mm oversize on the lip OD.