[blackpopracing]

Tonight was a bit frustrating.

Crossmember was fitted back up - I had to run the drill through the holes again as they had tightened up a bit with the heat from welding, but then it was put back on the car. I just need to get new washers & nyloc nuts and it can be torqued up properly.

Then it was time to strip the front hubs and split them so new studs could be pressed in. Drivers side went ok though it was a little disconcerting as to how loose all of the bolts were on the calipers and brake fittings - barely any effort on the spanner to undo any of them.........

Passenger side.....not so good. Wheel bearing was seized onto the stub axle - some gentle persuasion with a lot of gentle tapping with a hammer on the disc as the disc was spun saw it slowly come off.

Inspection shows it had spun on the stub axle picking up metal and scoring it. The outer race also spins freely by finger in the hub - though this can be fixed with some bearing fit loctite.

I carefully dressed the end of the stub axle and the bearing is a reasonable sliding fit now, but we will look at the spare one off the crossmember donor to see if it's the same and a good replacement.

So not a lot of progress for an evenings work

898 hours.

 

[Paul L]

Mark - It is easy to see where all the hours are going, as your attention to detail clearly extends beyond the bodywork to the electrics and mechanicals as well.

I hope that as more jobs get ticked off, it is starting to feel like the finish line is within reach.

Good luck, Paul.

 

[mygasser]

when i've had bearing races turn in the hub, as well as loctite i've also centre punched the hub face where the bearing fits to 'knurl' it smaller. nothing like belt and braces, lol.
neil.

 

[blackpopracing]

I'll see how loose it is Neil once it's cleaned - might do that then.

 

[blackpopracing]

Hmmmmmm.....yesterdays progress was........ARRRGHHH!!!!!!

Trying to get it all square was not going well. Hours of plumb lines and measuring and we were still appearing to be 15mm out on diagonals.

903.5 hours.

 

[blackpopracing]

Ahh, today ended up as a very good day.

Armed with a full CAD drawing showing all the dimensions the car SHOULD be we started over re-checking the centreline and that the front suspension was indeed square. With this confirmed we re-did the diagonals to the rear suspension outer hub centres as per the CAD drawings.

They were nearly correct - which was very reassuring! Drivers side needed to come forward 2mm and passenger side rearward 4mm.

We think were got a bit snow blind on the measurements yesterday, with a good nights sleep and some thinking time this morning combined with the CAD drawings it all became a lot simpler & clearer.

Much fighting with the rear axle parts ensued as we did not want to jack the car up as we did not want it to move, so space was limited. All my lovely wiring of bolts had to be cut off but eventually we had the fulcrum arm mounts loosened off.

With those loosened the outer hubs were gently knocked to get the centrelines in line with the measurements on the CAD drawings. Once they were in line we checked the gaps where the fulcrums fitted to the diff, passenger side needed a 40 thou shim at the front and drivers side a 15 thou shim at the rear.

With all of that shimmed up and tightened up again the measurements were rechecked and were accurate to the mm to the drawings. We checked the hubs with some steel bars clamped to the wheel hub face and we also have .5mm toe in per side over approx 500mm distance - which is what is needed for the axle so that was finally classed as a win!

We then had to reassemble the radius rods and adjust their length as these had altered with the axle adjustments. Last job was altering the diff strap plates that bolt across the fulcrum arm mounts - again the front one needed the holes widening by 40 thou and the rear by 15 thou.

Finally the suspension is 100% square - I'll reserve judgement on complete success until we drive it and it runs straight - but it should do.

It's not much to look at in the photo as it's up on stands so I can touch in all of the chips on the bolt heads and parts that got marked for the work, but its a huge step forward in the build - it 'ought' to be fairly easy from now on as all the work left is pretty straightforward.

Tomorrow we hope to reassemble the front suspension.

909 hours.

 

[geof]

Good job, not the easiest of jobs but a job well done, an other big tick.

 

[blackpopracing]

Yes Geoff, can't say I'm a fan of ther Jag rear end.

 

[mattblack]

All this makes me wonder how well aligned some of the stuff built 'back in the day' was...?

 

[blackpopracing]

It probably wasn't?

 

[mygasser]

It probably wasn't?

but probably still 'crabbed' less than a new mini of the time (not a bmw) lol.

 

[blackpopracing]

Well it's still fighting us, lol.

Tonight was refitting the front suspension time. It mostly went well until we found the top passenger side wishbone was a bit bent

This was obviously from the twisted tower on that side. Nothing else for it but to remove it - which could b a blessing in disguise as the upper ball joint nut was barely tight - after removing the split pin it came undone with no effort at all.

With it dismantled on the bench is was pretty easy to straighten it out again as they are fairly flimsy things, checked with a square to make sure everything was in line again and flat it was loosely reassembled and this time all bushings and shafts slid in perfectly.

The steering rack went on next, together with the steering shaft to the column - we had new rack bellows to fit - but unfortunately even though they were listed as HA Viva ones only one side fitted, the other was way too big to fit on the rack

so we need to source another one. That means the rack cannot be fitted up that side.

We also need a new wheel bearing on that side, the outer bearing to me looks like the surface is just beginning to go, so there is no point in not fitting a new one.

All in all a good nights progress, just held up a bit for lack of parts. Had we had all the bits we needed it could have been back on it's wheels.

911.5 hours.