Back Axle Removal

[Andrew Morris]

Ok Guys,here goes,im about to take the back axle of my 78 HC saloon and much to my surprise the bolts that hold it to the trailing arems have all started to loosen.My dilema is i have a rubber hose thingy going into the axle above the casing for the lhs half shaft and im buggered if i know what it does.The Haynes manual tells me its a hydraulic hose but whats it supposed to do?oh and its not the brake hose.

Im going to undo it any way but unsure what will happen?
Can you help.

Also Trailing arms,can you still get new ones,theres a pair on E Bay at present but the price is nasty?Mine are ok just got this brown flaky stuff over them but the bushes are ok.

Andrew

[fastredcoupe]

if you are going to get rear suspension trailing arms , try getting ones that have been boxed in, they don't twist as much as standard ones, Les.

[lambaj]

Sounds like an axle tube breather. Where does it go to? Its probably just there to let the axle breathe as it warms up. The hose might go to somewhere out of the rain
Tony (HA21)

[droopsnoot]

As I recall, it is some kind of breather pipe and it goes up to a fitting on the inside of the chassis rail just above the axle. I don't think it's a problem to just disconnect - in fact as I recall it there are no major clips holding it on so no seal to break. I don't think the HPF has one (I don't recall it when I was doing the brakes for the MOT) but the Sportshatch has.

As for trailing arms, those on eBay do seem very expensive, I suspect they're the same ones that were at Billing last year as the price is familiar. If the ones you have are solid, and you can afford to have the car off the road a few days, I'd just get someone to gently blast them and give them a good coat of chassis black or smooth hammerite. Remove the bushes before doing this, though - with a decent vise and a couple of bits of pipe and bar they should be easy to remove and replace.

Seems that gone are the days when you could get a decent pair of trailing arms for a tenner, I'd have thought 40-50 for the pair is more like it, but good luck to the seller if he thinks he can get more. I remember a few years ago the DSG spares man of the time (Nigel) got a shed-load of new ones and was selling them at 20 quid a pair.