The Official 356Talk Forum

Thanks Dave,

I lost a small amount of oil from the axle tube during the tear down, then it stopped.

I have tightened the axle nut, would I need to put the car on the ground on wheels to see if it still leaks?

Hi Eric,

I think we may have discussed the car over email before. I believe I did the trans on this car. If this was Jack's car 6 years ago, this applies. When Jack retrieved the car, we had only tightened the axle nuts with an impact gun. He only wanted it to roll onto the trailer. There were a lot of parts that still needed to be installed......He had two sets of hubs with different length studs and wasn't sure which he was going to use. The car had more than one owner before it headed overseas, I'm guessing the labels including NO OIL were missing when you got it.

BTW, the car looks amazing since the last time I saw it! Very nice work, sir.

You are welcome to contact me directly if I can help in any way.

Good memory Eric Wills. You did do the transmission per my discussions with Eric McKinley while assisting him on a few things C.

Eric,

Many thanks you for posting, yes the transmission was rebuilt by yourself, very happy to know in the back of my mind that this is something I won't have to worry about for a long time.

The car as you know was a rolling shell, i have been steadily working on it for the last 3 years, a house restoration and a young family took priority so its grabbing a few hours here and there whilst spending half the year abroad.

The labels were missing of the cars transmission, i filled the transmission with the oil we discussed a while back, valvoline HP GL-5 80w90

I will give you a call next week.

EricMcKinley wrote:Thanks Dave,

I lost a small amount of oil from the axle tube during the tear down, then it stopped.

I have tightened the axle nut, would I need to put the car on the ground on wheels to see if it still leaks?

Assuming all the parts are in their proper configuration and that the O-rings didn’t slip during assembly, you should see no leaks with the wheels on the ground. On my 64C coupe, I did a bearing replacement on the right rear axle, but the larger O-ring had slipped out of its groove, and I got a leak after driving only a few miles. On a trip from Houston to Arizona, it took about 300 miles for the parts to shift (I probably used a shim with the wrong hardness), and I heard the bearing whirring, plus I had a minor oil leak. I drove slowly to Tucson, AZ (another 700 miles), with the leak getting worse, and had the bearing, etc., replaced professionally. This job lasted about 5,000 miles before the new bearing gave out. I bought the bearing puller, proper shim, new bearing and seals from Stoddard’s, followed Vic Skirmants’ procedure to the letter for installing O-rings, etc., and I have now gone over 6,000 miles with no issues. Time will tell.

I was away for the weekend and left a pice of card under the axle, when I got home there was an oil drip on the card and fluid still coming out of the slinger tube.

This was the decision made, I was going to strip it down today and change the seals.

After removing all the outer parts and the backing plate I was able to remove the front plate, I could see the large O ring which was still firmly in its groove, appeared to have no wear at all, the small O ring however was a different story, grooves cut into it by the axle, the large washer appeared to be in good shape, a slight groove at the backside I am guessing from tightening.

The large seal which is on the front plate I removed and replaced, this takes a bit of force to push out and replace the new one without damaging it. The new one is a different colour, blue, and slightly different indentations, I got all the parts from stoddard.
This seal I placed in line with the outer edge of the front plate, is this correct?

The large O ring I used a little superglue to hold in place, no issues worked well, replaced the small O ring and the large washer, oiled them up and replaced the front plate and the rear plate.

All seemed to go well, I didn't feel the large O ring slip during tightening.

I will attempt to get the e brake assembly back together tomorrow.

If anyone sees anything I have missed please let me know, interested also to hear about the placement of the large seal on the front plate.

Many Thanks,

Pictures

I had an hour this afternoon, so I went out to put the e brake together.

Could someone advise am I missing a washer at the ebrake cable, the cable goes through the fibre washer and then from the schematics goes through a washer then the spring is attached before it goes through the small bow, it appears the washer is missing, does this washer stop the spring moving up the ebrake outer tube?

I didn't see this fall off, I have been looking around the floor, no sign.

Number 15 in the drawing.

Take a look at the other side Eric. Maybe the other side is correct. I cannot remember as it has been a few years since I had the rear brakes apart on a "C" so cannot help other than to suggest the comparison.

David,

I was hoping you wouldn't say that, I was trying to get away with not removing the other caliper, they as you know are tight to get back on, that banjo bolt is a nightmare!

Yes you are missing a washer. There should be 2. Din 9021 and Din125 per C supplement parts book. Part numbers 900.151.006.02 and 900.025.004.02

Managed to figure it out, took the other side apart as suggested by David.

The small bow actually pushes up against the outer tube of the ebrake and then the spring is slipped in from the front, the bow at the front is then locked into place, top and bottom, this is what gives the compression.

The hard part is getting the threaded part of the ebrake cable to come through the front bow, it tends to want to push back into the tube.

I found the easiest way was to not connect the front bow on the top or borttom and push the tube at the back and push the front bow down onto the thread, sore on the fingers, you will need someone to put the small washer and the castellated nut onto the threaded rod while you are doing this.

My 14 year old son was great at this and we are learning together.

Once the nut is on then simply connect the bow at the top and bottom ensuring the rear bow does not pop out. Then place on the split pin.

Doug, that number 15 I believe I didn't use at all before, the ebrake tube sort of locks into the rear of the bow.
Maybe I have this wrong, but it worked before, with a washer there then the tube wouldn't lock into this little metal bow.

Your son is going to think you are restoring the car for him you know:>)

Doug,

I hate to disappoint him as I have another 16 year old who also has his own take on who is getting the car when their old man is too old to drive it!

Any thoughts on the new seal I placed on the front cover, I have it level with the outside edge of the cover, would this be correct?

As I had the other side open I decided now was a good time to change the seals on the passenger side rear. If the drivers side was leaking it was only a matter of time before the other followed.

Once completed I refitted the EBrake parts, which is always fun and replaced the hub and the axle nut.

I managed to borrow a large torque bar from a local engineering company for the afternoon, this was set at 400 ft lbs to place the axle nuts. Luck was definitely on my side as on both nuts when the audible click was heard to indicate the correct torque was reached the hole for the pin was in exactly the right place.
I used David Jones idea of R clips in these rather than split pins.