Trunnions

Let’s not argue about the spelling…….. They are the swivelly [sic] bits at the top and bottom of the front legs of your moggie. There’s a top trunnion and a bottom trunnion and they are very different but do the same job. One thing they need is grease. The owner’s manual probably says something like 10,000 mile intervals but believe me, I do this three or four times a year on my 5000 allotted miles. It’s not a hard job to replace them but it’s a real pain of odd sized sockets, ring keys and open ended, 15mm and 16mm split pins to drill out and replace and a steering arm to heat up, cool down, heat up, cool down, bash out and hope you haven’t wrecked the threads, grease nipples to clean out, packing pieces to make if they’re lost, rubbers to grease and split pins to find. It’s much simpler and easier to look after your Trunnions!!

Jack up the car a side at a time and remove the front road wheels. Support the car with stands under the chassis and let the bare hubs just hang. There is a grease nipple at the very top of the leg, probably covered in grunge and another at the bottom, just behind. Various sizes have been fitted and retro fitted clean the surrounding area and use a pair of pliers to unscrew them. Clean the nipple. You don’t want any road grit to find its way in with the grease. Test the little ball in the end of the nipple isn’t rusted solid by holding the nipple against the delivery nozzle of the grease gun and squeezing the gun just a little until you get a half inch of nice clean grease through it. Screw them back in and now they are nice and clean, nip them up with whichever spanner. [Wipe any grease on to a convenient brake pipe, not your overalls!] Any that won’t let the grease come easily through should go in the bin.

Order new nipples and they should be with you the next day in the post. www.tomroy.com or similar. It’s not a second mortgage. Hold the delivery pipe against the top one and squeeze the handle until clean new grease appears in a wave at the rubber three or four inches down the leg. Do the same at the bottom and the wave of grease should appear at the rubber sleeve at the top of the trunnion of the swivel pin, much the same as the top one. Sometimes the grease will also appear at one side of the trunnion cross piece where it meets the bars from the torsion bar. This is normal and at least you now know the pin isn’t seized solid. If it’s been some years since the last greasing you might have some difficulty. At the top, recon Trunnions tend to allow grease out in a circle around the nipple. This is bad machining of the trunnion and there isn’t a lot you can do except strip off the trunnion and apply grease manually on to the swivel pin threads.

If the grease simply won’t go in but squirts out of the side of the nipple then try warming the trunnion with a blow lamp, gently at first and then more positively but not so low down that
you singe the rubber bush where it meets the leg. Let this cool a little and then try again. Several attempts should get it. Same at the bottom. If your wave of grease comes out only at the bottom warm it a little above and try again. But while you’re there………. The track rod end has a grease nipple on the top………….

Brake failure

Tech tip for this month – The Mystical Case of Brake Failure.

Most of us run a VW, an Audi, a Vauxhall or BMW as well as a moggie. Some of the more unfortunate among us run Fords! Service interval 60,000 miles, courtesy car and check the tyre pressures one Sunday morning just before you belt down the motorway on holiday. The dealer gets the car once a year, plugs it into the computer, changes the plugs and the air filter and charges you £300.00. Know the story? Way back in the 1950`s and 60`s when our moggies were built, life was a little different. Everyone washed his car on a Sunday morning and while it was drying, he opened the bonnet and went through the weekly checks. Oil, Water, Tyre Pressures, Brake Fluid, Lamps. Along with re-gapping the points and greasing the nipples once a month, the owner driver more-or-less did his own servicing and it had to be regular and often. The first service interval would be 100 miles, oil change and filter. The next service was 1000 miles, the next 3000 miles. In between you did your weekly checks.

How we forget! In those days it was common and a must. Now, it’s unknown. But the car hasn’t changed. It still needs its weekly checks to make sure everything is A-OK. And the case of the girl with the 1963 convertible……lost her brakes going down a long slow hill…..Managed to stop on the handbrake and called the AA who towed her home. Hubby hadn’t checked a thing in five years. FIVE YEARS!! Passed its MOT every year, where was the problem? The problem was that the master cylinder was dry. Bone dry. Nearside rear brake cylinder was leaking very gently. Had someone checked the fluid regularly it would have been spotted before it became something of an emergency. Okay, so now he checks everything weekly. It cost him a set of brake shoes on top of the new cylinder and a new pipe because the old one wouldn’t come out. The pipe should have failed an MOT anyway but it was well gunged up so the tester probably didn’t spot the rust. When we got to the other end of the pipe we found a split in the flexi too. But that’s another story………

1. For a car in regular use at least a couple of journeys a week, regular Sunday morning checks should include: – Tyres. It’s easier to spot wear on a particular place early if you do this
every week. A bent steering component would alter the tracking and wear would be on the outside edge or inside edge of one or both tyres. Evidence is “feathering”. The edge of the patterns rises to a “feather”. 2. Brake Fluid. The master is under the driver’s toes. Unscrew the cap and just have a look. It should be just half an inch or so below the filler neck if the
brakes are adjusted properly. If it goes down, adjust the brakes up and check again. Still down? Suspect a leak at a wheel cylinder.

3. Water. Or should that be water and antifreeze? Check the level. Water normally finds its own happy level and this varies from car to car. If it’s above the internal fins in the radiator
leave it alone. If you really need to top it up, use a mixture of antifreeze and water made up in an old pop bottle.

4. Oil. The A-series engine unlike modern lumps was designed to use oil. The amount varies from engine to engine but half a pint over 500 miles is not undue cause for concern. Top it up. When the colour becomes anything darker than caramel, consider changing it and the filter.

5. Dashpot oil. The black plastic or brass knurled nut on the top of the carburettor unscrews to reveal a plunger. If you remove it and then pop it back there should be some resistance
and you need to force it back. If not, top up with 3in1 oil or similar, about a teaspoonful or two.

6. Battery. Check the electrolyte levels. The liquid should be above the plates. Remove the battery and wipe with an old cloth, smear the terminals with Vaseline, very lightly, The negative end of the battery will most likely need topping up regularly. Here you can use water defrosted from the freezer or a bottle of de-ionised from the corner carparts shop or, if it isn’t a new battery, from the tap. Wipe the tray and remove leaves and debris.

7. Washer bottle. Enough said. It’s not in the Haynes manual but then washer bottles hadn’t been invented in the fifties. Unblock that nozzle on the bonnet that you’ve been meaning to see to for three weeks too!!

8. Lights. Just make sure they all work and replace the bulb, scrape the rust, as necessary. Reminds me, my interior light………

Next checks at 1000 miles…………