Here is my new ball joint splitting tool, in the act of splitting a ball joint on the steering arm
...and this is the Armstrong damper, which links to the top of the kingpin. The bottom leg on the kingpin is held down by a torsion bar, which is spring loaded. The top end links to this damper. The damper arm is linked to a little piston which slides up and down a chamber full of oil, whose top and bottom ends are connected via a small orifice which regulates the movement of the oilk through it. This means that the damper arm moves slowly and smoothly up....and down.... and that's what evens out the bounciness of the wheel.
Unless the oil level drops way down, and it starts getting clunky.
Which doesn't happen in my case, of course. O dear no.
(Goes a bit red)
it's a bit like trying to close a suitcase, isn't it? You get one corner sorted and something else sticks out.
ReplyDeleteWhen my dad used his big lathe I used to be allowed to squirt lubricant at the bit being 'lathed'. That's about as technical as I got. Though I did help him adjust the breaks on a Lotus Elan he was building for someone. I was the first person to sit in the driving seat!
I hope thatyou've got a good supply of Swafega.
I remember being taken into work (dad taught in a teacher training college)and seeing the bright shiny swarf from the lathe, and getting horribly cut when I played with it...
ReplyDeleteHe had you pumping the brake pedal while he bled the cylinders, didn't he? -not had to do that yet, but when we do, I shall have to get Katie in there doing the pedalling.
These days I use disposable latex gloves, and clean up the bits that got through with washing up liquid. When I worked at sea, the grime took several weeks to come out of my hands, by which time I was just about to go back to work...
Ha, pumping the brake pedal... that was my job too.
ReplyDeleteAnd sitting inside with an old washing up liquid bottle full of water, damping down the carpets to stop them catching fire whilst he welded underneath. See the kids of today miss the total boredom... er... I mean the joys of childhood we had.
Yes, very interested! Same parts, different names I think...tie rod end, idler arm...
ReplyDeleteI had an instructor once in some classes I took ask us:
"I'm from some lost tribe somewhere and I've never seen a car. Tell me the difference between a Ford and a Chevrolet!"
The gentleman I bought my Triumphs from in San Diego drove a Hillman; he'd had it for years, but then he was also still riding his 1937 Triumph Speed Twin and this was the mid 70's.
He told me that in Britain a man bought a car and drove it his whole life. I'm sure that's changed for most, but it's nice to see someone not just trading one "when the ashtrays are full" as my Dad used to say!
My first visit to your blog you had a photo of valve lapping compound as I recall and like so many other things, I thought I was the only one who remembered things like that!
Your special tool looks a lot like a heavier duty version of the flathead valve spring compressor that was my Dad's I have put away. Had always thought I might build one before I was done, but the years grow short...
Thank you for thinking of me!
alan
Oh yes, Andy; the mixture of tedium and incomprehension and the fear that you might goof and get shouted at. Not that I got shouted at much.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure Alan. I do have a valve spring compressor too, of course. The nicest tool I owned was a clutch puller for my MZ motorbike; it needs a special tool as the clutch sits on an unkeyed tapered shaft, and is pressed on very hard. The big end went while I was on a ship in refit in a Southampton shipyard, and the engineeering foreman, who rode a Panther combination, took a drawing away to the workshop and returned with a beautifully engineered tool. The freemasonry of bikers...