Web Forum for Singer Cars

Below is an extract from Rebirthing stream, I thought it deserved some better focus:

"I have reached the stage of connecting the back to the front. I have two tail shafts to select from. In each case the universals are stuffed with dirt and old grease. The photo I took from an earlier thread shows the universal broken down.

One set of joints seem slightly loose in the hand,but no grease. The other seems tight - this set have the bearings welded or braised in position and would, therefore, be hard to repair.

Has anyone seen instructions on restoration of these units or replaced with modern equivalent?

In the picture you will see a black seal, it is cork and was intended to hold the grease inside the cover. These have now deteriorated. I was considering replacing them with "O" ring material of a matching size. Has anyone had to replace theirs?

The small steel washer has three prongs stamped into it, but I am not sure which way these are meant to point, or even what purpose they are there for? You can see them if you enlarge the picture."

Since this was posted I have been to the local Hardy Spicer agent, no help. They did mention someone had recently been in with a similar unit and sourced his spares from the US.

I have now dismantled one unit, the one with the welded bearings - the appear to be some form of a bronze bearing. See photos below. The second unit, I have managed to remove the two bearings that are not held inplace by a wire, the other set of bearings are held in place by what appears to be a wire ring that goes around the inside of the casing and the bearing. So far I have been unable to work out how to A. remove the wire, and or B. remove the bearing.

The bearings have:
. an internal hole size of approx .571-.573 inches
. an external size of approx .781 - .783 inches
. a shaft six on the universal of apprize .527inches

There are no numbers with the exception of a Patent number 359191 or 359/9L - not clear

All help appreciated.

Partly solved. The two bearings held in place by wire are removed with a chisel! You need to hold the Uni in a vice and then slowly chisel each wire around the bearing about 3/8ths of an inch. They then pop up one end and with a twist come out. You can then easily knock out the old bearings.

Now to try and track down new bearings or an alternative short of a new shaft -AUD 500- 600.

I will go to my bearing shop tomorrow (tuesday) at lunch time and see if I can find anything in their books.

I'm attaching some pages from a pre-war publication which may help.

Wheatley and Morgan in their 'The Restoration of Vintage and Thoroughbred Cars' suggested way back in 1969 that the plain bearing type 'seem to last forever....if lubricated with steam cylinder oil', but 'if they have been neglected cannot be overhauled by the makers'.

David Bayliss

Don't know why the attachments in my last post didn't attach but if anyone is interested contact me at casadecabra@aol.com and I'll email them.

David Bayliss

**** The attachments were rather large so I had to resize them, here are the attachments, remember you can click on them to see them full size, mike ***

Thank you for the book details, they were a great help.

I am half way there. Using a Datsum Uni, details of which I will publish when I am 100% there, I have replaced the bearings in the sliding end of the tail shaft, preserving all original casings. It looks like new from the outside.

My challenge now is the other end. Here the original casing Etc is held on the Tailshaft by a 1/2" rivet, see attached photo. This casing needs to be dismantled to allow fitting of the new universal clips to be fitted. One set can be done the bench but the final set will not fit with the casing in place.

I have removed the 1/2" rivet but cannot seperate the Tailshaft from the end. I have tried mild heat ( I don't want to put too much heat into the area), soaked in penetrating oil, but no movement.

Has anyone else been down this path before? If you were only replacing the original bearings, removal of this unit woul not be necessary.

Problem solved, while there is no need to remove the rivet, it does help get the spring and cover down further. Taking the end unit off would make the job easier, but it can be done without removing everything.

I will post total solution soon. Meanwhile I need to make up a new 1/2" rivet.