The Long Route Down

As it decided to rain this morning I changed my plans and thought I'd look for the Talbot rear differential oil filler and what oil was needed. That was quite quick - the filler is at the back of the differential and it says D140 in the club documents (or Castrol R in the original guide from the 1930's). Easy I thought.

So I thought I'd just pop under the car to check how easy it was to get at. Er... not at all it turned out. It is actually sandwiched between the petrol tank and the dif itself. Not something you can reach with the car on it's wheels. So I had a think.

Looking again from the rear I thought possibly you take the boot floor up - so that's what I did. I found wood screws at the back and self tappers into metal at the front - none of which appeared to be particularly tight. I removed them all and then the large wood screws on the rear of the boot but that did not seem to release anything. However that did not gain me access to the fill plug as it was still hidden under a rail.

So next was to try through the rear seat. The bottom came out easily to reveal a shaped cover that I assumed once removed would allow access to the top of the differential. Easy just a few screws - however I noticed several (it turned out 8) of the screws seemed to be under the back rest - so that had to come out too - back into the boot I went as I assumed those two large screws had to come off to release it - which they did. Here is is out revealing the cover.

Ten minutes later I had the cover off and was able to see the filler nut at last.

I assumed it was Whitworth so I tried to get a socket on it - that was impossible as the large sockets hit the housing. I had a few spanners so tried those but they seemed too small or too big and it was very hard to get my arm in the hole. Nothing else for it - the floor will have to come out. Along with some other fittings that appear to be on top of some of the screws. But here we are.

It is still tucked away at the back but at least I could get my arm in to reach it. Here it is.

I also noticed a growing pile of parts I'd removed from the car to get to that stage.

I found an adjustable wrench was too thick for the space but remembered I had some more odd Whitworth tools in a metal box. I tried several but luckily found one that would fit. A BS 11/16th or 5/8th WW. Lucky I had one of those in my stock of tools - I think they came from Charlie Boughton ?

Anyway it came off quite easily after that and even though it looked full I put the oil I had for the Imp (EP140) in. I'd checked that the spec was almost identical anyway. It only took about half a liter. So by 12:00 it was topped up and the (cleaned) nut was back on. That took three hours. Now for the refit.

An hour later the car was back together and most of the tools had been packed away too. I also cleaned the drip tray and measured what was in it. In fact only about 50 ml had come out so perhaps I was worrying about nothing. Hopefully use has now expanded the oil seals and like the Imp did once I started to use it, it won't drip so much. We'll see.

Now I know what to do it will be quicker - in fact it would have been much quicker the have the car on a ramp and do it from below. But where is the fun in that ?

Later when looking to buy some D140 I found that the Castrol Classic Oils site actually recommended EP140 anyway - so that made me happy too.

Finally in the evening I started the car and went for a run around the block. 

All fine. We'll look for drips in the morning.