[jeyjey]

After doing a cooling system flush and water pump rebuild, I decided I'd give the chassis a lube and see if that does anything for my rear-end chirp. I topped up the diff (I guess RR calls it a "final drive"), drained and re-filled the trunnions (one was completely dry) and greased the u-joints on the drive shafts and prop shaft.

At which point Murphy intervened. On my last grease nipple, the nipple broke off in the gun. Of course it's the one on the front of the propshaft which is almost completely obscured by the chassis crossmember, so I'm going to have to remove that to get an easy-out to the part still in the hole.

As if that wasn't enough, removing the chassis crossmember means removing half of the A-bank exhaust and parts of the parking brake mechanism. Arrrgh.

-- Jeff.

 

[Leloarer]

Thanks for your wittiness Jeff
and take heart :wink:

 

[jeyjey]

The exhaust was a real pain to get off: threaded fasteners don't seem to survive that type of environment. Of the 2 u-bolt-brackets one came off nicely and the other sheared, and of the 2 split-clamp bolts both were partly de-threaded by undoing them.

Then there was the parking brake spring. The manual says "remove it". Ha! Their mechanics obviously have a bit more bicep than I do. But I rigged up a short piece of chain and a cinch strap so I could get out from under the car and apply some back & leg muscle to it and that worked.

From there it actually went quite well. There are a total of 20(!) bolts holding the crossmember in, but they all came out easily enough. I had some concerns about dimensional stability and whether I was going to have to muscle it out and back in, but it slid right out (and back in at the end).

I also had nightmares about the broken off grease nipple end not coming out with an easy-out and having to drill it and then figure out how to get all the metal bits out of the hole with the prop shaft still in the car, but Murphy must have been at lunch because the broken stub came right out.

Here's a picture with the new nipple in place (centre of picture):

-- Jeff.

 

[rollmech]

broken grease nipple

if you slaken hand brake adjusters at calipers right off will make centre cable easier to remove/refit