I have been working on my Sunbeam Alpine with the intent of getting it
running in time for the british car meet here in the bay area. I got it
going good enough to make it there and back yesterday, which is probably
about an 80 mile round trip from my house (dont know exactly - no speedo
in the car / aka license to go as fast as I want :-)
A while back my car started making a very bad noise (like the drive
shaft was coming loose). When I started working on it a couple of weeks
ago, I found that the driveshaft was indeed coming loose at the rearend.
I decided that the trans and rearend should be rebuilt anyway. The trans
had never stayed in 3rd or 4th gear without holding the the shift lever
in place (I used a bungee cord to hold it in 4th). Also, the rearend has
also had a NOISY axle bearing for some time. I had 2 spare trannys and
1 spare rearend (which I knew to be bad). I took the rearend "over the
hill" to Santa Clara for rebuilding. I wanted to have the tranny done
too, but everyone was quoting prices too expensive for me to pay. I
decided to rebuild it myself.
I always figured taking apart a tranny would be like taking apart a
clock (i.e. you open it up and parts come springing out, never to be
replaced). It wasnt too bad, though none of my trannys had a decent
mainshaft (case hardening bad on the small bearing surface at the front
of the shaft). I was able to get a new one from Rick at Sunbeam
Specialties, although he doesnt list that part in his catalog (I had to
go back a second time because the first mainshaft didnt quite match-he
has more than one variety). While I was gathering parts, the rearend
rebuilders were presumably working on my (cars) rearend. I called them
before last weekend to find that the ring and pinion were shot. So no
rearend would be ready to install. I did put together the tranny that
weekend and installed it into the car. I found out that the bad noise was
definitely coming from the rearend still in the car.
This past week I had a new ring and pinion sent over to the rebuilders
from Rick ($$$!). I went over to pick it up midweek and appeared to have
everything I needed to get the car running again. Since ALL I had to do
is swap the rearends, I wait until Saturday to get started. Everything is
going well until I realize that the axle nuts I sent in to the rebuilder
DID NOT RETURN WITH THE AXLE!!! Although the nuts on the original appeared
to be the same size, they would NOT fit due to some bizzaro thread sizing.
I quickly determined that nuts of this threading did not exist anywhere in
Santa Cruz county (probably unique to this car with my luck). So I call
the rebuilder guy, hoping he would be at work:
Me: This is the guy with the Sunbeam rearend. Where are my nuts?
RG: Huh?
He then tells me "oh yeah, I forgot to give them to you, and now I have
cleaned off my workbench and I can only find one". Gritting my teeth, I
drive all the way back to his shop (30+ miles away). He says "I looked all
over and can only find one, but I have another one that'l work" upon which
he procedes to use an air wrench to "fit" it to the axle shaft I have
brought. I am walking away when I see a nut lying on the floor - he follows
my gaze, picks it up "oh yeah, here it is" (!)
Anyway I finally got it all together and although I had to pump up the
clutch pedal every time I shifted gears, my wife and I made it to the car
meet yesterday. I met several SOL'ers there, and saw some REALLY nice cars.
My Alpine was the oldest of its type there as far as I could tell. My wife
fell in love with a '55 Alpine roadster, and is now agitating for one. And
we made it back over the hill without problem. A very good day ;-)
.............................................................
Kevin Meek 1960 Sunbeam Alpine Series I
kevnmeek@netcom.com 1976 Jaguar XJ12L
Santa Cruz, California 1975 Suburban & 1986 Volvo 740GLE
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