We got the boat to head for the National on Thursday from Belfast to Birkenhead and stayed in Liverpool on Thursday night. We set off on Friday morning heading to Charlbury. There were 3 vehicles in convoy, Berts van had been running badly but seemed to recover itself. We pulled in for fuel at Hopwood services on the M42. As I went to pull away from the pumps in my traveller there was a little 'click' just like it had jumped out of gear. So I checked the clutch mechanism first, nothing out of place, thought I would try 3rd gear and it started to read 40mph on the speedo while going nowhere. So I knew it was the halfshaft.
We sent the other 2 cars on, phoned the AA which I have been a member of for years and waited on them coming. I told the call taker there was no point sending me someone to see if they could get me back on the road and they took me at my word and sent a proper recovery truck. Anyway about 5 o'clock we arrived at Cornbury, at least it improved my fuel economy.........
After putting tents up and eating we got stuck in and found it as the drivers side was gone. We begged and borrowed trolley jacks and bits of wood, spare wheels and some tools and got it jacked up. With a bit of an audience of other campers, we tried to push the bit out from the other side but there was absolutely no way it would budge.
So next morning about 8.30 I set off to the autojumble and got a picked a good pair of halfshafts from a selection on minor developments stall, got gaskets from a couple of sources, axle stands from the car booters and even a new container of EP90 from another car booter! Oh and a great big heavy hammer, all these bits came to just over £30
The most difficult bit to find was someone with a square key to open the axle drain, from now on I will carry one in my tool kit![frame]
The car was jacked up on spare wheels to make it safe, this took the longest as the feild was sloping and uneven. Oil drained, drive shaft off, diff out and without too much bother. The bit was well and truley jammed in and I took a lot of hitting with the heavy hammer to shift it.[frame]
I was very chuffed as you can see to get it moved! Anyway, we fitted both second hand half shafts with the new gaskets and oil, refitted the brakes shoes and was driving down to the rally field by 3pm!
There is a slight vibration about 45mph so I didnt go over this speed on the way back home, we stuck to mainly A roads. i have another diff from a 30k mile car I broke so will have a look and hope to fit and test this before heading back to England i n just over a fortnight for MOT UK.
