Not a job for the faint hearted

[mike4gtl]

So I have finally finished rebuilding the drive shafts on the Traction and am almost satisfied with them. Its not a job I would wish on anyone and would even think twice about doing a pair again myself. (Although I probably would do it differently :eek If I ever write a biography I would be sure to mention them.

Its taken me just over 100 hours and I have found that there is no point even attempting to try and attack them without a large press, an oxy-acetylene kit, a set of large Inch drive sockets, a 4 foot lever bar (inch drive) and (if you haven't the correct outer wheel bearing spanner) a 4 foot long monkey wrench, Reason being is the outer nut is done up do an insane of pounds feet.

However before you can even begin to dismantle the shafts you have to get the brake drums off. This is where all the trouble began and there were three of us scratching our heads.
The drum is not like a ‘normal’ drum for starters its in two pieces and instead of it attaching to a hub like a Renault 4, it attaches to the end of the three foot long drive shaft, then the wheel bolts to the drum. It is held in place by a locating keyway and a big taper. (Drums tapered too). Getting the nut off is not to hard with big tools, however separating the drum from the taper is immensely hard and I mean temper fraying hard.
This is where the gas axe comes in handy and I know you’re not supposed to head cast iron until its cherry red but I did – it had to come off in my eyes. Citroen said all those years ago that your supposed to use a puller – ok fair enough – then when you look at the size of it (and you can still buy these pullers) well they wouldn’t pull your cap off.

So rummaging around at work I found a mini flywheel puller and a Jaguar rear hub puller. I cobbled the two together and made myself a proper tool for the job, I then clamped this around the lip on the drum Citroen kindly provide you with, gave it a bit more heat and with a couple of taps with a mallet off it popped finally.

I had the same battle with the other side. In the meantime I am worrying about melting the wheel cylinder rubbers so just incase I have bought two rebuild kits and new hoses. This means the drums will be coming off again at some point in the near future.

You can now wiggle and swear a lot and withdraw the shaft ready to replace all the six UJ’s. The larger two with the hole through the middle are a pain, as you have to try and hold the whole assembly whilst tilting the yoke just enough in order for it to simply just slip in. Then you can tap/press in the caps and rollers.

The manual was very helpful providing you carry out the modifications it recommends and re-solder the inner cardan balls ‘gimbals’ correctly (I had a lot of trouble here).

I will post some pictures of this trauma shortly. In the meantime this will make you all laugh.

As I want to preserve it in its original condition and not weld it, last night before I bought it home I decided to fill the sills and body with waste engine oil. I removed the inspection plate on the ‘Jamboneaux’ to find a nice big section I could pour oil straight into, so I start tipping oil in, lovely and I am over the moon because I know I am doing it the world off good (maybe not the actual world though I realize).

I empty just over a litre in each side and it disappears. No oil comes out of the body, so I pour in another. Again it drains away. My friend suggests I stick the airline in there to blow it down the sills to the rear, Good Idea. That done still no leaks so I figure it’s all now nicely swimming in oil. I reverse it off the ramp and park it up (its now 11.30pm) wash my hands and drive home feeling pleased.

I awoke this morning to a BIG trail of black oil up my road and into my drive and a huge puddle where I parked over night. :shock: Hmmm I’m thinking, how do I clean this up…… photos to follow

 

[bison]

Ah yes, tapers!. Try getting the rear hubs off an SP250 that have been on since 1961!.
Huge puller, yep, cherry red umpteen times yep, smash the rear disc with a hammer, undo the bolts and remove the halfshaft (more oxy), yep, halfshaft on an 80 ton press we use in a rock hydraulics lab.....nope, just deformed the thread in a second. Put it in the lathe and turn the hub off, get to about 60 thou and an almighty bang which was heard in the adjacent building, and the hub is off, hhhmmmm, and that's happened on my first and second SP. Lots of copper slip on the taper when you rebuild, or candle wax if you have an old candle.......erm, I'll sign off now.
Alan.

 

[angel]

I admit the 250SP beats the old Volvos (122, PV544) that have a similar system (taper and key) of retaining the rear drums. I once had to remove a drum from a spare axle (the drum had to be reused), and as no of the aformentioned methods would pop it out, I took the whole axle to a friend's truck repair shop, we cut the brake backplate in pieces with an oxyacetylene cutter, so we could finally remove the drum/driveshaft to mount it in a press. We only needed about 30 tons of force, and my friend told me it was about the first time he saw the oil pressure gauge of the press move...

We would like to see some pictures Mike, old Citroen stuff was famous for fighting even competent mechanics. As for that "insane of pound feets" on your driveshaft nut...there is a ring nut holding the front wheel bearing in the stub axle carrier on the Citroen DS that it is torqued to 140 kg*m, that's 1013 lbft...and if you still don't feel better, here is what I needed at a time to undo the hub nut on a VW Beetle:

 

[kevinandkate]

I recently did some work on a V8 Morgan including replacing the rear hub grease seals which meant removing the rear hub. No problem with the hub nut as it is not tight and is held in position by a lock tab. Removing the hub though was a different matter. I stripped the threads on the first hub puller I used despite doing the tightening/hitting/tightening routine. I then spoke to Brands Hatch Morgan who said just hit it harder under tension from a new puller then leave it under as much tension as you can manage. One hour later there was an almighty crack and the hub shot off flying across the grass where we were working completely destroying a full packet of chocolate buscuits and my cup of tea. The salisbury axle has the hubs on a taper with woodruff key, we found the key embedded in the buscuits.