In a slightly unrelated thread about steering worm removal, I advocated the use of a Sealey 10 ton Hydraulic Press and commented how I had used one to great effect when overhauling a semi-Girling brake cross shaft. That then prompted Steve Martin to ask a question about the bushes I had used...

I had been up in Nottingham and took the chance to visit John Barlow. Asked if he had any suitable bushes for such a job, he replied yes and produced bushes of three different sizes. Each one is a piece of plain brass tube with a 'lip' turned at one end. Not knowing excactly what I wanted, I took a selection. The bottom line was that none of them fitted the housings or the shaft perfectly (but they may fit other shafts of course), so I cut through each one, sprang in open a little to get it to fit in the housing, cut the 'tube' to an appropriate length and then spent a while dressing the protruding part of the tube out round the other side of the housing to hold it in place. I finished the job off with a small rat tailed file until the shaft turned nicely. The felts each side of the bush were fabricated from various felt oil seals from other uses on an A7 - in some cases (wheel bearing) I had to cut them down to half their thickness to be right. Overall, I was very pleased with the result, the shaft turning nicely in its bushes and the outer shaft turning freely on the inner. I noticed that if you tightened up the grub screw that holds the return spring in place on the shaft, it fouled the inner shaft, effectively locking the two together - not what you want... Of course, the thing that made this easy was I had the mounting brackets removed from the chassis - I can't imagine what it would have been like doing this job on the car. Hope that helps.

Thanks Hugh

Sounds like you did much the same as I did. I too had some purchased bushes that did not seem to fit .

Like yourself I modified them a bit and also made one (or two, cant remember?) out of brass with the aid of a jubilee clip and some steel formers. I also hand scraped them to fit and the results seem OK?

I will have the lathe working soon I hope , so will be able to make some next time!!!
Like the press you refer to I think the lathe will be an invaluable tool for future projects .

Hi,
I've had a couple of these cross shafts in bits. As you've experienced the bearings are usually shot. A variation you haven't mentioned is on the centre bearing. Unlike the earlier cross shafts the Girling one is a simple 1/4" plate with a brass liner. You can braze directly into this and either file it back (a bit rough but better than a worn out one) or machine it out if you've the facilities.

It must be a nightmare trying to do one of these on the car or chassis. Getting the rivets out and doing it all on the bench is a lot easier and you acn clean up the bits and get a good coat of paint over it all.

Dave

I restored one of the earlier type cross shafts. The zinc bearing liners were not too worn, but I replaced a couple of them. Brass liners from a major supplier didn't fit directly, so I assumed that like many parts that they needed "fettling" first. I split the liners with a hacksaw and filed them to fit. This was done off the car, having chiselled off the rivets. The fun started after refitting, as bolting the assembly back tightened up the bearings too much. It took 3 sessions of fitting and filing to get the whole lot free enough but without play !

I restored the cross shaft for my ulster rep off the car, i replaced the centre bush with a brass one i turned up to suit.

Dad made a press tool a while back to compress the spherical seats round the balls so they are tight. When they are loose it is very difficult to adjust the brakes. He made the tool with a fine threaded bolt through the centre so it could be used in situ with a pair of very large spanners. Really worth the effort as it improved the brakes on his box saloon a lot.

Regards

Rob