Replacing the De-Dion

Well, the old girl's back in the garage on Monday (7th July 08). It's like painting the Forth Bridge! This time, it's the rear suspension.
Earlier this year, I was crawling around on a cold garage floor painting underseal (that made me suffer!). By the time I got to the rear wheel arches and took the wheels off - for once actually taking in the condition of the De-Dion elbows on the hubs (you can see the elbow on the photo - It's covered in fresh black underseal!), I noticed that where the suspension trailing arm meets the de-Dion elbow, part of the elbow was broken on the off side. Not much, but there's plenty of force applied to this joint that it could break at any minute. Well, fortunately for me, I'd spotted it. Also, it could only be seen with the wheel removed - that meant that the MOT would pass with flying colours - which it did! The MOT tester is not allowed to remove any component to check the condition of the car.
Well, I've found a great friendly garage nearby - Motorvation in Northampton. I cannot recommend them highly enough as they have shown me to be decent, honest people. Anyway, I'll be taking her in on Monday and leaving her there for as long as it takes. Because she's a classic, and not required urgently, they fit her in around their normal work and take a couple of weeks or so over the job. The job gets done properly, I get a better hourly rate as she's used in 'filler' time, and the garage enjoy working on her - a proper car!
As it turns out, I always get my MOT done one month before expiry, so as it happens, she'll have her suspension fixed before the original MOT would have expired, so I don't really mind keeping that information a secret! She's still fixed as early as could be.

Here's a picture of the DeDion.
There are two elbows, one on each side. These attach to the hub and also are the points where the suspension trailling arms meet hub. In between these two elbows is the DeDion tube itself, The De-Dion tube is actually one tube inside the other, allowing the two rear wheels to move apart from each other, whilst still maintaining a parallel relationship to each other - as is required over bumpy roads! It also ensures that the road wheels are (nearly) always perpendicular to the road, thereby ensuring maximum traction to the driven rear wheels. Googling 'dedion' will give a much better explanation!
Unfortunately, as more time goes by, these components become obsolete. It is still possible to buy the De-Dion tube as a "new old stock" item, but the elbows are now restricted to good second hand items. Fortunately for us, Ian Wilson of "Rover Classics" strives to keep our vehicles on the road and has imported second hand elbows from ........ California! They are amazing, 30 - 40 years old and almost look like new (just a little surface rust). Soon, the old girl will be wearing these second hand californian elbows that have been shipped both ways across the pond! I've already covered the inside of them with Waxoyl, and the outside will be undersealed when they've been fitted.

I got a phone call from the garage this morning. They've stripped her down but I need to order some locking plates for the bolts that fix the drive half-shaft onto the differential. I picked up the trailing arms to bring home to wire brush and underseal, but while I was there, I thought I'd take a few photos of the underneath of the car - you can see clearly here how the inboard discs on this car are a pain to deal with. They are bolted to the sides of the differential with the brake pads at the top. You can see the holes in the centre of the disks for the bolts to connect the half shaft between the disks and the wheel hubs.

And from either side.

Well, She's back from the garage now, and they've done a superb job - and it only cost me 4 hours labour, told you they were good! Here's a close up of the offside dedion elbow. You've got to admit, it looks very good for a 30+ year old second hand part shipped in from California!