Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[TonyBrooks]

The nice weather yesterday persuaded me to take the Tornado out for a run. A recent visit to a rolling road had made the engine far more flexible so I suppose I should have expected something bad to happen! In the lanes above Henley a sharp bang was heard from the rear axle and the wheels locked up. A lift home to collect a trailer followed and this morning I stripped the rear axle to find the Diff Pinion Gear Shaft in two and several teeth chipped on the half shaft. The carrier is also quite badly damaged. Whilst I am aware that Small Fords stock some of the parts needed can anyone recommend a firm that can strip and rebuild the unit - ideally somewhere in the South of England.

[TonyBrooks]

After spending some time this morning trying to find some parts I have been offered a complete rear axle and torque tube set up from a 103E. So are there any differences between the E93A and 103E axle set up. I have looked at the Small Fords diagrams and it appears that that the 103E is potentially a stronger unit which is good but are the sizes i.e. distance from gearbox to rear and the width all the same. Any other considerations to bear in mind?

[Rick]

One thing to check out, I think the upright Prefect (E493A) has a slightly longer wheelbase than the 103E Pop, so the torque tube could be a different length, worth bearing in mind if you find some s/h parts.

R
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[TonyBrooks]

Just to give you an update. I was offered a rear axle & torque tube from a 1958 Ford Pop with just over 28k miles on it - picked it up today - it almost fell out of the chassis but fortunately when it was parked up 30+ years ago all the nuts were coated in diesel. Stripped the axle this evening and found it is a 5.5 diff whereas 'my' diff is a 4.7. Now this may be a naive question as I know that you should always keep the cwp as a set but as the crown wheel on both the 4.7 and the 5.5 both have 33 teeth what is there to stop me using the crown wheel from the 5.5 but mated to the 4.7. As you can see from the photos below where the broken unit is on the bottom with the 'new' unit at the top, the newer unit is marginally thicker but the length of the drive shafts are identical. Views very welcome! NB the gentlemen in the picture is the owner of the car (plus many others in various stages of disrepair – he is a real character)

[JR FLYWHEEL]

Hello Tony,

As a 103E owner myself, i'm interested to know more about your progess with your motor. Time and everything else permitting could you post some more photos on here, showing your axle job. What snags have you had, and how did you get over them. Its interesting stuff thanks for posting.

What other motors did the 'old gent ' have?

Regards JRF

[TonyBrooks]

After a few problems I have finally got the car running again. I did try my original Crown wheel but with the drive shafts from the 'new' car - terrible noise so I have to assume that somehow it is damaged. So in the end I used the axle from the 'new' car mated to my original torque tube. However to get it into the chassis I had to split everything which involved filing out the drive shaft pin, splitting the axle casing and then rebuilding the whole thing in situ. I made up a new gasket which is the only thing that adjusts the back lash and fingers crossed it seems ok. A bonus is that the speedo is now much more accurate. A local engineering shop made up a new drive shaft pin for free as he enjoyed our discussion on how we would put the world right! The fact that he owned an ex Rothmans Racing Porsche 959 and recently sold a genuine Ford GT40 also added to the interest of the conversation!!