Austin A60 Cambridge
John was pleased to find the right people to sort his propshaft problem before the lockdown kicked in
1966 AUSTIN A60 CAMBRIDGE
With the engine and gearbox from my A60 recently test-mounted, the next job to look at was how to connect the MGB engine and overdrive gearbox to the A60 back axle into which I had put an early ‘Banjo’ MGB 3.7 crownwheel more than two years ago.
Luckily Steve Turner’s workshop is fairly close to propshaft experts, Dunning and Fairbank, based near Leeds. So I arranged for the everhelpful Dave Spaull of JSD Classic Transport to meet me there with the car on the way back from Newcastle.
Dunning and Fairbank has more than 30 years’ worth of experience in all kinds of propshafts, from earth movers to Subaru Impreza rally cars, so I was convinced that it was the place to help sort me out. However, I wasn’t quite prepred for the amazing scale of its operation; it had propshafts in build that were more than 18 inches wide – apparently it was destined for a train! Proprietor Jon Dunning is also a great classic car enthusiast who regularly competes in classic historic rallying using an Alfa Romeo GTV.
Unlike the A60 gearbox, the MGB overdrive gearbox uses a sliding spline joint on the propshaft and careful measuring of the already mounted gearbox and back axle showed a gap of 1170mm. I was then able to watch engineer and Classic Car Weekly reader, Peter Leister, combine the back of the A60 propshaft with the front of the MGB one, using new joints that they had in stock.
Once the joints were made up, the unit was push-fitted together then trued up on a lathe using a dial gauge and soft adjustments with a mallet before being welded very neatly on a rotary welder. It was then balanced up – although it turned out that it actually needed very little balancing.
It was a fascinating piece of work and a real pleasure to watch someone who is so skilled in their field that they make what is obviously precision engineering look easy – all while we were busy chatting about our mutual love of MGBs!
The propshaft, as expected, fitted perfectly, so we are now ready for the next stage of the build, namely refitting the engine gearbox, brakes, and fuel injection and seeing if all the hard work has paid off.
But that’s another story…
❚ Thanks to: Dunning and Fairbank, dandfltd.co.uk