Mechanical mishaps
We all make mistakes, but the secret is to learn from them. Here’s some valuable lessons that CM readers have learned over the years.
A spanner in the... steering column
One mishap – and which still leaves my blood running cold – was when I had finished working on my MG Midget many years ago. On the test drive later, I approached a road junction and to my horror found I couldn’t turn the steering wheel to the right. It was locked solid due to a stray spanner jamming itself between the pinch bolt at the bottom of the steering column. Luckily I was more or less stationary, but to this day I shudder to think if it had happened at speed on a tight right-hander.
A lesson to be learned – count your tools back into the box!
Lose one’s thread...
Many-many years ago, when I was an impecunious student, I ran an Austin A35 and because of lack of funds I taught myself how to do maintenance and repairs on it – something that has stood me in good stead over the years since.
This car developed oil leaks from the solid rear axle into the brake drums, which I later found out was due to a blocked breather – but that’s another story. I resolved to replace the hub oil seals myself, researched the job and hired the requisite hub puller and axle nut spanner.
On the A35 the rear hubs ride on bearings that are located on the outside of the rear axle tube and are secured by nuts large enough to allow the half shafts to pass through them. I set to work on the driver’s side, removed the brake drum, oil-soaked brake shoes, half shaft, hub nut and then used the puller to remove the hub. I then replaced the oil seal and put it all back together. Success! Now all I had to do was the passenger side.
This also went smoothly until I got to undoing the axle nut. This just would not shift, even with a long length of pipe applied over the spanner. Having fought with it for a couple of hours I eventually drilled down each side of the nut and split it with a chisel. This off course necessitated a trip to the spares department for a replacement nut. As soon as I asked for it, the partsman said “yes squire, right-hand or left-hand thread?” Duh... of course what I had overlooked was that, on the passenger side, hub nuts were left-hand threaded, so that normal forward rotation of the whee
