Antique & Classic Cars Blog

I know a lot about wine. For example, in addition to red (which is for meat), there is also white (for fish), a fact connoisseurs should note. Since we have all seen grapes, which are green, we can deduce that vintners adjust the colors so you’ll know what to drink with what. (Some diners aren’t too sophisticated.)

But more exciting than the liquid or its color is the cork–a useful tangible object that comes free with a good bottle. Our friends Keith and Michele came for dinner last Sunday and brought a bottle of red that was especially nice, because its cork was identical in circumference to the o-rings on a certain new-old-stock U-joint I picked up on eBay and one of whose original o-rings I broke by looking with my fingers, not my eyes as I was taught.

This excellent free cork held the promise of righting a careless wrong…through these steps.

First, we needed to mark the wine cork at the same height as the original grease seal. By sheer luck, its height was identical to the height of my pen’s point laid down on the workbench. Marking the appropriate line all around was as simple as rotating the cork across the stationary penpoint.

Line marked, it was not too hard to cut off the future gasket with a fresh straight razorblade. Rather than cut in one push, I carefully rotated the cork to cut along the line all the way around, going gradually deeper with each revolution until it was cut through.

Next order of business was to make a center hole. As commenter Gary suggested below, I thought about ways to make a punch–e.g., a hollow tube with a sharp edge that could drive the middle portion out with a hammer rap. Couldn’t find anything suitable…but I did have a washer of proven circumference (see previous post). Hold washer, centered, trace carefully with scalpel making several passes and our hole is cut.

The hole was a little snug, but some fine sandpaper rolled grit-side-out provided a good means of smoothing and enlarging it. Rotating the new seal on the gritty paper cylinder got us exactly on. Final step was to hold the sandpaper flat and run the original cut edge over it to smooth that out too, then blow all the cork dust off the new piece.

Our new part was a vindication for the wine industry. The U-joint cap fit on it perfectly and rotated smoothly. I took it and the others off, rubbed some grease into the roller bearings in each one, refitted and then pumped grease into the U-joint till it was all lubed up. Now it’s re-boxed and ready for the Borg-Warner T10 as soon as it’s rebuilt.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Car parts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.