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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 293
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Sunday, 04 July, 2021 - 19:55:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The right-hand height control ram has just started to leak. Not a big problem, I replaced the seals on the left side a few years ago.

BUT this side is different. I found a comment by Bill C. in T-One topics that some early cars had nuts with a fine thread, which was changed on production to the "normal" coarse thread. He says these nuts are EXTREMELY difficult to unscrew compared to the VERY difficult later ones. This is SBH10630 which is not "early".

Instead of the 8(12??) lugs on a C-spanner sort of ring there are 4 cast humps on the flat base of the nut. So a C-spanner doesn't fit and the flat disc which forms the base of the nut makes a large surface to help the fine corroded screw thread to weld the whole lot into a super-assembly.

It is flooded with jollop and heated and clouted with a club hammer via a stout punch till I risked bending the car - it won't budge. I will try more heat, and may drill into the thread (I hope there is a void into which I can inject penetrating fluid, under pressure if necessary) to get lubricant into the thread and sealing face.

Any ideas?

Please?

Alan D.
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Jeff Young
Frequent User
Username: jeyjey

Post Number: 440
Registered: 10-2010
Posted on Sunday, 04 July, 2021 - 20:10:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

More heat. And it's the temp cycling that breaks it free, so heat/cool/heat/cool/heat/cool...
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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 294
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Sunday, 04 July, 2021 - 20:58:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Please ignore my post. It was a function of rapidly advancing senility. Normal service has now been restored and I will go for a short lie-down.

In face Mr. Moderator would delete it I would be grateful.

Alan D.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3948
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Tuesday, 06 July, 2021 - 12:35:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Alan,

No need to delete this thread, it may help someone facing this problem avoid making a mistake and/or wasting time in the future.

It would be a great help if you would document what you actually did to fix the original problem. We always learn more from our mistakes than our successes; been there, done that many times.
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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 295
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Tuesday, 06 July, 2021 - 17:56:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

This is embarrassing.

It's a long time since I repaired the other ram and I've got a bit stiff in the joints, so I didn't do the old-style "lying-on my-back-in-the-boot-upside-down-waving-spanners-in-the-air", but put a big blanket over the rear wing and approached from the top. I could see an unfamiliar bit that looked like a different kind of castellated nut. I remembered the T-One article about fine-thread nuts and jumped to the wrong conclusion. After I had made this original post, I moved the lead-light and forced myself into the boot and discovered I had been beating the h**l out of the top of the spring cup.

Ha, ha, ha.

There, I feel better now.

Alan D. (OBEF)
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Jeff Young
Frequent User
Username: jeyjey

Post Number: 442
Registered: 10-2010
Posted on Tuesday, 06 July, 2021 - 19:55:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

He he... my lying-on-my-back-with-spanners-in-the-air days are long gone too. ;)
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3949
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Tuesday, 06 July, 2021 - 20:55:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

And myself makes three sharing this common trait.
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Larry Kavanagh
Frequent User
Username: shadow_11

Post Number: 773
Registered: 05-2016
Posted on Wednesday, 07 July, 2021 - 08:55:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I would suggest that perhaps the Moderator might create a new geriatric section for topics of this nature.
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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 296
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Wednesday, 07 July, 2021 - 17:51:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Quote "I would suggest that perhaps the Moderator might create a new geriatric section for topics of this nature."

I don't know if someone is taking the p**s or not?

Alan D.
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Larry Kavanagh
Frequent User
Username: shadow_11

Post Number: 774
Registered: 05-2016
Posted on Wednesday, 07 July, 2021 - 20:01:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Tongue in cheek of course Alan. I've just recently qualified for the old age pension and a free travel pass myself.
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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 297
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Wednesday, 07 July, 2021 - 22:40:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

These youngsters - I don't know what the world is coming to.

Welcome to the club, Larry. I get the impression that there are more of us than there is of them.

Alan D.
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Mark Aldridge
Frequent User
Username: mark_aldridge

Post Number: 737
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Thursday, 08 July, 2021 - 01:33:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

1 Year to go, then a UK OAP !!
Mark
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Larry Kavanagh
Frequent User
Username: shadow_11

Post Number: 775
Registered: 05-2016
Posted on Thursday, 08 July, 2021 - 04:53:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I heard on the grapevine that the UK OAP age is about to be raised to 70 in the next budget.
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Omar M. Shams
Grand Master
Username: omar

Post Number: 2145
Registered: 04-2009
Posted on Thursday, 08 July, 2021 - 17:41:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

10 years to go for me.....
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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 298
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Thursday, 08 July, 2021 - 19:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Oh well, now it's in the open.....

While I was bashing the "4-eared-castellated-nut" I moved it from the central position, which meant that the ram and the three mounting bolts wouldn't.

So on to the ramp, apply big spring-compressors, remove the wheel, jack the car as far as possible, remove the travel-limiting strap, repeat till the top spring-seat is loose, reverse the procedure by very slowly lowering the car with the hub supported and holding the spring-seat in the middle, repeat till it finally works, undo everything which took half the day to do, fit the ram and the pipes, lower it to the ground, drive off the ramp, notice that it leans to the right, remember that the spring compressors are still on the spring......

Sigh.

Alan D. (I'e just noticed that I have 298 posts to my credit - if that is the right word. I hope most of them were more useful than this lot.)
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Mark Aldridge
Frequent User
Username: mark_aldridge

Post Number: 738
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Thursday, 08 July, 2021 - 19:35:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Larry, are you trying to ruin my day !!! Still I don't intend retiring, health permitting.
Mark
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Larry Kavanagh
Frequent User
Username: shadow_11

Post Number: 776
Registered: 05-2016
Posted on Thursday, 08 July, 2021 - 19:50:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

A few days ago I nearly drove away with a vicegrips still attached to an inner track rod on a Fiat Ducato motorhome, fortunately I noticed it in time.
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Avery Wise
New User
Username: hans3

Post Number: 25
Registered: 08-2017
Posted on Wednesday, 14 July, 2021 - 02:36:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Did this last fall on an original slotted nut but the technique should work for your nut as well. Apply air chisel (or electric chisel) directly on nut for ~ 35 seconds. Apply penetrant oil several times to threads during preceding days; it really does seep down and help.

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