When swapping Tube-type or Salisbury axles also be aware of the year. From the 77 year on the casing had extra mounts for the rear anti-roll bar drop-links, and a further bracket for a different system of handbrake compensation. Probably not an issue if fitting a late axle to an earlier car, but it would be the other way round.

I bought a used wire-wheel axle for rebuilding to replace the Rostyle axle with conversion hubs that I had been using for some years. The rebuilder insisted on having a stripped axle - no hubs, backplates, or even half-shafts - so I was faced with stripping the axle on the ground, i.e. I was not going to be able to use the weight of the car to lever against if I came up against any stubborn nuts and bolts. This concerned me a bit as when removing the hubs from the Rostyle axle some years ago I had to take it to a garage for them to use a five-foot breaker bar before they could undo the left-hand nut. Mind you, it didn't help that the mechanic thought it was a left-hand thread (all the hub nuts are right-hand threads as they are secured with split-pins, and in any case a left-hand thread would have been on the right-hand side) and managed to tighten it a bit first! In the event everything came off remarkably easily - except the bearings from the hubs.

Updated April 2007. To remove the hub nuts: The socket for the rear (Salisbury/tube axle) hub nut is 1 5/16" AF (same as for the crankshaft/pulley nut). That converts to 33.34mm, but it has been reported that 33mm is snug but fits. Some people seem to have a problem in obtaining a socket for the rears that will fit inside the wire-wheel hub. Mine came off-the-shelf from Halfords, is a 1/2" drive non-impact type, and fits without difficulty. North Americans often talk in terms of having to obtain a 'thin walled' socket or grinding a standard one down, but then they also talk in terms of 3/4" drive and impact wrenches, maybe that makes the difference. My socket is 1.73" outside diameter, the ID of my hub is 1.863" and David Darby reports that his hub is 1.867" so there should be plenty of room. I wedged a 4-foot bar between two hub studs and rested the other end on the ground, in such a manner that when applying 'undo' force the bar wedged against the studs to stop the hub from turning. I put the 1 5/16" socket on the nut with its 'outer end' resting on a block of wood standing on the ground. Simply standing on a tommy-bar in the socket was enough to undo the nut, as the weight of the axle, my weight on the tommy-bar, the socket on the block of wood, and the 4' bar, were all applying their forces down through the hard-standing, which wasn't going anywhere!

With the hub nut undone the next thing is to break the taper between the hub and half-shaft. I have some steel wedges so tapped two in between the back of the hub and the heads of two diagonally opposed back-plate bolts, and off the hubs popped. This has left two tiny little marks on the back of the hubs that I am not really concerned about, but others have written that by tapping on the back of the hub with a soft-metal mallet they achieved the same effect, and I can imagine without damage.

With the hub off I could remove the four bolts and nuts that held the backplates and bearing retaining caps to the axle casing. Amazingly, even though the axle had been on a car for many years, and had been stored outside for a considerable length of time since it had been removed from the car, all came off as if they had only just been put on.

The bearing inner is a tight press-fit on the half-shaft, and the outer is a slightly looser press-fit into the axle casing and the retainer cap, so the half-shaft complete with bearing has to drifted out of the axle in some way. I loosely refitted the hub and this time I did tap round the back of the hub (the back-plate no longer being in the way) and the retainer and half-shaft came free.

Although the rebuilder was going to deal with the diff and its bearings I also wanted new outer bearings and oil seals of course. As I have said the bearings are a tight press-fit on the half-shaft, and although I have read of people putting the half-shaft in the freezer and the bearing in the oven, I didn't think my long-suffering other-half would stand for it, so I had arranged for someone else to press the new bearings on. The big mistake was to think that, everything else having gone so well, I could get the old bearings off myself. After beating on one for what seemed like hours I did manage to get it off, but that was more than enough for me so left the other one on for the press-operator to remove.

Two important things to be aware of:

Update October 2007 Whilst reiterating this process to someone the question of wire wheel hubs and split-pins raised a question in my mind. On wire wheel hubs the split-pins and nuts are deep inside the hub tube. The hub tube has holes in the side to enable insertion/removal of these split pins, so logically the holes must line up with the holes in the end of the half-shaft. So this must be borne in mind when refitting the hub to the half-shaft, and a wire-wheel hub must be correctly orientated, whereas a disc-wheel hub can be fitted any-old how.

As shown above steel wheel axles are wider than wire wheel axles. This is because the wheels differ in the distance between the hub face and the outer face - steel wheels have the hub face nearer to the outside face of the wheel than wire wheels. The result is that, on a given axle, a pair of steel wheels will be closer together than a pair of wire wheels. In order for the wheels of both types to run central in the arches the wire-wheel axle is narrower than the steel wheel axle by an inch or so.

Consequently putting wire-wheel hubs on a steel wheel axle, which is the usual way of converting, ends up with the tyres much closer to the outer wing/fender arches and they can rub badly when cornering, especially when laden. There are special conversion hubs available which are machined differently so that the wheels sit closer to each other than if standard wire-wheel hubs were used, but they still stick further out than the steel wheels did. I used conversion hubs but still experienced bad rubbing when fully laden, more so on the left than the right. (This offset to the left seems to be very common, and in my experience must be due to the way the body panels were assembled on the original jigs, since the axles have the same spring-mount to back-plate measurement at both ends. I have also seen the same offset when a non-MG axle was used in a V8 conversion.)

Grinding down the turned-under lip of the wing on the left-hand side didn't help much, neither did fitting new rear springs. I had to do something with a major trip to France coming up, so invested in rubber-bumper roadster springs all round. These lifted and stiffened the rear enough to stop the rubbing under all but the most extreme cornering manoeuvre when fully laden, and together with the front they also eliminated most of the roll and dive, which initially was a bonus. However the down-side was a very harsh and unpleasant ride over some surfaces, and a much increased tendency for the rear to break away in the wet, neither of which I was happy with.

After a few years, as the original rear axle had been whining for some time and had the not uncommon diff-clonk, I decided to invest in a proper wire-wheel axle. Found a used (very used) one, had it reconditioned (which was a bit of an exercise in itself), fitted it without any problems, and refitted my 'new' chrome bumper rear springs. At last a decent ride without any rubbing under any conditions. Still find the rear tends to break away in the wet, but only when braking in a curve. I still have the RB front springs fitted, whether this is something to do with it I don't know.

At the front, completely standard hubs are used. The bearings and seals are the same but it isn't worth drifting out the ones from your old stud hub, fit new. Remember to move the bearing spacer across if the splined hub doesn't come with one, you will need to reset the end-float, and will need the correct grease cap with the threaded stud.

It's been claimed that the change in handbrake cable was something to do with the provision of the anti-roll bar which arrived at the same time, but this is not the case. The changes for the cable and the anti-roll bar have no interdependence, it just made more sense (and was almost certainly cheaper as anyone with experience of getting sub-contractors to change things can testify) to make both changes at the same time. The handbrake cable was almost certainly common to other BL vehicles of the day, in design if not dimension.

And a removal tool is the object of this section. For 17 years with Bee, and 14 years with Vee, at least once a year I have been able to remove the level plugs using nothing more than the 1/2" drive of a socket wrench, which admittedly only just fits in to the top of the drive hole, but pressing it in with one hand while I turn it with the other has always done the job. However this year I could not shift Vee's to check the level, I must have had two Weetabix or an extra portion of spinach the last time I tightened it.

I could have bought one of those multi-headed wrenches, but eight of the nine heads would have been no use to me, and it is a large lump of metal to add to the already crowded tool-box, so I reckoned I could come up with a socket-set attachment which would be much smaller.

It occurred to me that a bolt with its threaded portion as large as the widest part of the tapered drive hole could be ground down to fit the taper, and with a socket to fit the head of the bolt away you go. The drive hole (in one of my plugs at any rate) is 0.37" deep, 0.55" wide at the top of the hole, and 0.45" wide at the bottom. The largest bolt I could find in my box of bits was slightly smaller than ideal, as the peaks of the thread were only slightly larger than the widest part of the taper, whereas ideally you would use a bolt where the troughs of the threads would be slightly larger. But it was worth a go. I cut down the bolt so that the threaded portion was just longer than the depth of the drive hole, then just ground the taper bit by bit by eye. As I went I tapped a spare plug (make sure you clean out all the gunge from the hole first) onto the bolt which showed the high spots by leaving rusty marks on the shiny bolt. When the same marks started appearing on the cut end of the bolt it showed it was bottoming in the hole.

At that point I decided to try removing Vee's level plug, but immediately noticed that the head of the bolt went all the way into the socket of course, which meant the socket was hard up against the diff cover and my modified bolt wasn't being pressed into the level plug drive hole. This was easily resolved by dropping a suitably sized nut into the socket first, so the head of the bolt sat neatly at the end of the socket, and I could press the bolt into the plug as I turned it. The drain plug came undone without further ado - a result.

The nut doesn't have to be the same as the bolt of course, anything larger than the 1/2" drive hole in the socket and smaller than the bolt head will do, as it is only a spacer. In hindsight I could have dropped the bolt into the socket then cut it down to leave the required amount sticking out, then tapered that part. But rather than cut up another bolt I decided to weld the nut I had used as a spacer (which was pretty chewed-up anyway) onto the back of the bolt head. This was fine depth-wise, but it wobbled about a bit in the socket. I found a bit of thread which I had cut off another bolt for another project goodness knows when (yes, I even keep bits like this rather than throwing them away, remember "If you haven't found a use for something yet, you haven't kept it long enough") which just fitted nicely into the square drive hole in the socket and the nut I had chosen to use as a spacer, so welded that in as well, then cut it down to a stub that still allowed the 1/2" drive of the wrench to fit all the way into the socket. Again in hindsight, I could probably just have welded this length of thread onto the head of the bolt and it would have acted as a spacer (instead of the nut) as well as a stabiliser, but there you go. The only socket I had that would fit the bolt was 24mm Metric, whereas the bolt is probably Imperial at exactly 15/16" AF. Subsequently I discovered the bolt was only slightly larger than my largest Imperial socket - 1/2" Whitworth - so I ground the head down slightly to fit that, as I don't usually carry Metric sockets with me.

The thing to remember is that it is only a relatively soft bolt, not a hardened tool, so I won't use it to tighten the plug, or I could be back to square-one again and not be able to remove it. So I used the 1/2" drive of the socket wrench on its own (as I have always done) to tighten the plug, knowing that the adapter I have made should always be able to remove it, being able to apply more leverage than the 1/2" drive on its own.

Other possible starting-points for making a tool such as this are:

• An parallel-sided drain plug key like one of these that you grind a taper onto. However the only square-drive ones I have seen are 11mm, which is way too short. There are 17mm hex-drive items which are big enough, but would require more work grinding a square taper on to them, and both use 3/8" drive anyway. Fine if you have one, but I don't. A 1/2" to 3/8" drive expanding adapter (although I have only found reducers) might help, but then you might be exceeding the space available between the back of the diff cover and the tank.
• A short 1/2" drive extension (like these) with the appropriate taper ground into the male end. However the shortest single I have seen are 3" which probably exceeds the space available, although there are 2" available as part of a set. Whilst you are wrecking the item (as far as its original purpose goes) you could cut it down to the minimum length i.e. leaving just 1/2" of male stub on the end of the female part and grinding the taper into that, but the section between the female and male ends is only 1/2" diameter round bar, and you need at least 0.7" of round bar to grind down to a square taper to fit the plugs.
• I then found this 50mm 1/2" drive wobble extension which is just 2" long overall and because it is a wobble extension already has a taper, and so may well do a good job without any modification, and be available for its original function as well. Update February 2008 I purchased one of these at Stoneleigh this year but unfortunately the way the 'wobble' feature differs to the plug taper it just turns out of the hole, so that is a dead-end.

Immediately before changing the oil take the car for a run of 10 miles or so to warm things up and make it run out better. Before you drain the oil make sure you can undo the level filler plug. You can live without changing the oil for a bit while you ponder how to shift it, but not if you have drained it and then find you can't refill it! Hopefully the drain plug will come undone (see above for suitable tools), but if not it isn't the end of the world as you could take the rear cover off instead, albeit at the expense buying/time making a new gasket. Leave the oil to drain while doing something else, like draining the gearbox.

When the dripping has slowed down refit the drain plug and remove the filler plug. On a rubber bumper car if you support the rear of the car by the rear spring front hangers, and let the axle hang down on the rebound straps, the axle should come low enough for you to be able to use squeezy bottles with nozzles the oil comes in - that was certainly the case on the V8. If you have the rear of the car supported with axle stands under the axle the filler will be up behind the tank and much more of a fiddle to fill. However the chrome bumper is just that bit higher relative to the tank and in order to get the last bits out of the bottle I had to fold over the nozzle while I positioned the bottle upside-down above the handbrake cables, then unfold the nozzle as I fed it into the filler hole. If you have both front and rear of the car raised, so it is pretty level, you can get the more or less the correct amount in going by the level at the filler hole. It can take cold oil some time to flow into all the crevices and find its correct level, so I then replaced the filler plug loosely, and ran the engine in gear for a moment or two to distribute the oil, then checked the level and topped up again. MAKE SURE the car is supported safely at all times, don't be underneath it with the engine running, and make sure there is some run-off room in front of the car. After that I took it for a run for a few miles and checked again, and it needed a bit more. After standing overnight I checked the level again cold just to be sure but it was fine. Finally check both drain and level plugs are tight, but not overtightened. After the next decent run check the level and plugs again to give you confidence there are no leaks, then you should be fine to leave it the normal service intervals.

The usual problem is that the nuts (9/16") have rusted to the pin welded to the axle, and the end of the pin is sheared off. Whilst replacement pins are available and can be replaced it is probably an axle-off job to grind the old one oul and weld the new in. If there is a stub of thread left then you could drill through it and fit a split-pin, it's not taking any force, just stops the strap working its way off the pin. The same problem is likely at the top but that is a through bolt and nut (1/2") so is easier to deal with if it shears.

With the car supported on axle stands at the front spring hangers and a jack lifting the axle just enough to take the tension off the old rubbers, I gave the upper and lower nuts a couple of applications of Plus-Gas, and for the bottom nut used a ring-spanner so I could see if the pin was turning as well as the nut. When this happens it has a quite distinctive 'springy' feel to it, so you need to sit back and apply a bit more PlusGas, or a little heat, rather than snap it off. Working the nut back and fore a fraction rather than just turning it may also help to free it. This 'springy' feel of a stud or bolt in the process of shearing is very different to the 'crack' that often accompanies the first time a nut has moved in years. Both sides came undone relatively easily, as did the top bolts and nuts.

With the rubbers off you will see a spacer tube pressed in to the upper hole of the old strap, this can be pressed out in a large bench vice with a suitable socket larger than the tube one side and a bolt or small socket just slightly smaller than the tube on the other. Both mine had corroded, so I filed the corrosion off the outside with a rasp to make refitting to the new rubber easier. I used Waxoyl inside the hole and the new strap and on the outside of the tube and the vice to press them in.

Similarly the axle pins showed some corrosion, again scraped off to make fitting of the straps to them easier, as did a daub of Waxoyl inside the strap holes and on the outside of the pins as before. Slid them on to the axle pins, and fed them up into the bracket under tha chassis rail. One side went up easily and the holes aligned so I could reinsert the bolt, but the other didn't. A quick scrape up there with a screwdriver soon sorted that. Refit large washer, spring washer and nut at the bottom, and spring washer and nut at the top and job done.

There have been some complaints aboiut the quality of these straps in the past, in some cases they are little more than rubber bands that simply stretch to the limit of damper movement if not snap and so are useless. I measured about 1/2" of stretch in mine from as near as I could judge that tyey were straight i.e. just about to start taking axle eight, and taking the full axle weight. I didn't measure the old ones, but I don't know how relevant that would have been as they were pretty cracked up anyway. But whereas the old ones have strands of the cord reinforcement visible on the outside, the new ones are simply smooth rubber. So time will tell.