Radius/ trailing arms.

[moking joe]

I have a 1981 Aus. moke and when greasing the rear trailing arms I discovered a grease leak, it seems
that there is an opening, although plugged up on the casting mid way along the spindle line, thus allowing any grease to escape. I cannot find any ref. to this on minis, nor any thing I have on mokes.

Perhaps I missed it before but I cannot find the 'plug' that must have come out, are they readily available and can it be installed/ repaired without removing the trailing arm.

Help much appreciated.


Moking Joe

[Nigel(no top)Sykes]

I dunno, I can't remember from when I had mine off. Surely any short (or shortened) bolt would plug the hole if it's threaded ?

One other thing, welcome to the forum

[Daniel]

Hi Moking Joe,

my radius arms had also holes. On one radius arm it was closed with a cap, the other one was open and grease came out (see attached picture). Seems to be normal for the Aussie Mokes with longer radius arms.


But I do not know where to get the cap as I have sold the longer arms.

Regards,
Daniel

[Dean]

http://www.mokesinc.org/index.php/topic,8517.0.html

[moking joe]

Thanks everyone, at least I am not alone on this one.
Bit concerned about how long its been like it and, any possible
loss of lubrication to the bearings.

Anyway, I am thinking of using one of those shallow plastic plugs with the
numerous ribs around to fill the hole if I can access it properly, then remmember to
try and hold it in position when I apply the grease gun, each time. Does anyone know
the dia. by any chance ?

I realise I will probably need to remove the RA in time , just do not want
to have to do it before the summer.

Cheers. MJ

PS. I am not new to the forum, just had issue with logging in, previous username DKW ! Hope to see you all at the national this year, with it being in my neck of the woods now, just missed the cornish one few years back.

[Daniel]

http://www.mokesinc.org/index.php/topic,8517.0.html

Thanks Dean,

was also interesting for me.

Daniel

[Nigel(no top)Sykes]

Must admit I wasted a good few minutes on there myself

[moking joe]

What a wally, I had it in my head that the RA casting was only hollow for the
length of the spindle. But of course its a lot more, thus my foolish notion
that I could plug the casting hole and grease up ! Stephen at Runamoke was kind enough to point this out and, was very helpful, thanks Stephen.

So the cap/plug whatever, is only a dust/dirt cap, with the internal tube to the spindle
having failed, I will now need to remove it all. Must say not looking forward to that, with fear of breaking bolts !! Any words of wisdom !

Cheers MJ

[Tim]

It should all come apart OK. You need to remove the bracket on the outer end, and the two big nuts on either end of the pivot pin, but none of them are especially prone to rusting. You also need to release the hand brake cable, brake line and the shock absorber.

Once you get it off you will probably find that the inner tube is either corroded (if its the old metal type) or split (if the later plastic type). When this happens the grease leaks out and fills up the entire arm. Its very difficult to clean it all out (and arguable as to whether you need to).

The trailing arm bearings are a weak point on Mokes. Aussie Mokes have two needle roller bearings whereas Minis usually have a plain bush and a roller bearing, or two plain bushes. When the grease dries out the roller bearings collapse and can often bite deeply into the casting of the arm itself, flogging out the hole that the bearing goes into. Reclaiming an arm that is badly damaged like that is very difficult. The usual symptom is that you can wobble the wheel around when it is jacked up. When they get really bad you can feel it while you're driving.

Its often hard to get a trailing arm pin kit for Mokes. In the past I've resorted to buying Mini ones, then taking the needle roller to a bearing supplier and buying two more the same. The kits don't always come with the tube, and I think there might be a difference in the length of the tube between the Mini and the Moke, due to the bush vs.bearing thing.

Other than that its pretty easy to replace them on a Moke. The plain bushes on a Mini are meant to be reamed after fitting, but the needle bearings don't have to be.

Tim

[Nigel(no top)Sykes]

There are plenty of firms offering rebuilt arms on an exchange basis over here......Needless to say they are the Mini type

[grantourer]

Hi Moking Jo. Just for info. I have an Oz Moke, and Somerford Minis rebuilt one of my trailing arms for me, with no problems.

[moking joe]

Thanks GT, I think I will be attending to this before it becomes a problem.
One tries to look after the old girl !

MJ

[moking joe]

I have never worked on the radius arms of a moke (13" Wheel) or mini before and, understand that with
a mini one side the non bearing side bush needs reaming, am I correct in assuming that
to install new spindle, grease tube and bearings on a moke is simpler than a mini ?

Hope you can help.

MJ

[Tim]

Yes that's right. There's no bush to ream on a 13" wheel Moke, just a pair of needle roller bearings, which slide in without needing to be pressed in.

Tim

[moking joe]

Tim, Thanks thats great news, within my basic skill's.

MJ