Sunday, January 30, 2011

Suspension All Around and Front Uprights

On the 17th October 2010 I stated that two smaller bolts that were aside on my bolt/nut/washer bag were clearly aside to go on the rear lower wishbones, I was wrong. Those two bolts should hold the upper front shocks. So, I started the day by swapping the bolts on the rear for regular ones. Since I was fiddling with the rear, I slided a washer between the shock and the bracket both on top and bellow because there was some space between it.

With those recovered bolts in hand, I bolted the front shocks to the car. When I was doing the first one, I noticed that the bag contained a nut smaller than the others. Hunted around all wishbones and found a second one. Swapped it for a regular and used the short nuts with the short bolts. It was a quick job to get the shocks in, also with a washer inside the bracket to make a tighter fit. When fitting the shocks, I always took care to put the damp adjusting button to the inside of the car, as suggested by Steve.
Next I went for the rear left side I had left undone past Tuesday. It was also reasonably fast. I think I got the hang of putting the uprights in. I smeared the long bar with lithium grease before sliding it on the lower part and started with the side that has the rose joint.
Went back to the front side of the car and grabbed the track rod ends and the uprights. Steve had labeled the uprights with "L/H" and "R/H", which made my job a lot easier. It was a simple assembly and got done quickly.
I then unpacked the break calipers and pads to look at them. One of my next possible tasks is to assemble front breaks and wheel flanges so I need to see how the parts look like and then go read the Sierra Haynes book or the web (since I have front Cortina uprights and brakes might be different).
Since I was unpacking, I looked around to see how the switches, ignition and start button looked like.
All in all, a great morning on the car!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Rear Right Suspension

Went before bed for some car time. Started by applying the 2nd coat on the ally panel for the passenger footwell. That one is done and ready to go on the car.

Then I removed all the bolts from the rear wishbones, applied some lithium grease and fitted them again.

Next, grabbed the rear shocks and the hub/flange/joint assembly and started to put it all together. Managed to do the rear right wheel, but then it was way over bed time. Both pictures are from the right rear done (minus tightening nylocs) taken from different angles.
Next is the left rear side and then the front ones! Maybe Thursday night...

(2017-04-14 - Me from the future comes here and says that I've made a big mistake... The direction the bolts go in makes a huge difference. On the right side, the lower bolt that holds the suspension on the lower arm has the head pointing to the wheel centre/hub. This means it is blocked. I would have to take the wheel out and disassemble the hub to be able to replace the suspension. Or angle-grind the bolt's head, take it out towards the rear and putting in a new bolt...
Noticed this because I suspect the rear left shock has failed and replaced it. Was going to replace the right one too, to have them with the same age/effort, but this error made it be such a pain I'll just skip it until I have no other chance.)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Many Small Tasks

Had more car time this weekend than usual, although I didn't spend it all on the car. And not all went well, but it was a great weekend anyway!

Saturday drove around with tires and wheels on the car to get the tires fitted. Took the kid with me as he is growing a love for repair shops, tools and the likes. We got too much traffic going to the shop I wanted, tried another that refused to fit tires not bought there and the 3rd we went to was already closed for lunch. So, tires still to be fitted, I hope I have more luck next weekend. Was going to take care of it on Sunday but the shop I wanted to go to closed at 13h00, although the website says 20h00...

Sunday had some time in the early morning. Assembled the coils on the shocks and got them ready to go on the car!
Then hammered the wheel studs on the rear flanges. It took so much effort to pull them in that I don't know if I would ever had enough strength to get them into place with the nut and spanner. Then I assembled the flanges and c/v inner joints on the uprights and the rear part is also ready to go on the car!
I then grabbed the scrubby bit for the driller and scrubbed the rust away from the steering column. Also cleaned it and got it ready for a lick (or better, a spray) of paint. Did it together with the 2nd coat on the ally panel for the passenger footwell. The column is good enough with just one coat and so is ready to go on the car. The panel requires a 2nd coat on the other side and then it's ready to go on the car too!
Went around unpacking disk brakes just to look at them and looked at parts I'll be using soon.

In the evening had some more car time. But controlled my urge to go fit parts on the car and did something I had been postponing for too long. When the car came, I saved the wood floor from the crate, to be cut for firewood. I stored it on the hall of the storage rooms, but it's an area shared with neighbours. I had a circular saw but got afraid to use it so the crate floor was still there, after 6 months... Last weekend I bought a jigsaw and 65mm wood blade and aluminium blade. The idea was to use it to cut the crate floor and also several openings on the ally panels (throttle pedal, manifold, hand brake, etc). I have to say it was a wonderful buy. It didn't look like it was going to chop a part of me off and in 2 hours I had the crate floor in bits. Some are still too big for the fireplace but I'll chop them later. Important is that the crate floor is no longer on the shared area!

Since my next tasks on the car don't require using power tools and will not cause noise, I'm hoping to work a bit one of these nights again!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Shocks Solved

Just a small update on this issue... Dumb me, that unpacked one coil and one shock instead of unpacking the four and looking with attention to them. There are two short shocks and two long shocks. And there are two short springs and two long springs. And I was trying to put the long spring on the short shock... Found this out when I unpacked them all because the wife was ready to help out.

I just assembled one and then left the other three to assemble when I get car time again (on the weekend).

Anyway, and for future reference, I would need a pair of "coil compressors" (compressor de molas). Knowing that, I looked online and they can be bought locally for around 25€, so it wouldn't be a problem.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Shocks and Painting

Everyone went to bed and I went to work on the car. Started by trying to hammer the wheel studs on the rear flanges but hammering iron on a basement at 23h00 in the night echoes a lot. I stopped afraid it could bother someone on the living floors.

Unpacked my coils and shocks to assemble them. Ends up even with the shock extended to it's maximum, I can't put the coil in. I either need a tool, a second pair of hands to help me or a clever trick I'm not capable of coming up with (and haven't found online). I'll try tonight with a 2nd pair of hands first...
Sanded the aluminium panel that will fit on the passenger footwell. Gave a 1st pass with acrylic spray paint, so that the panel will look like the steel one on the driver's footwell. Dried up in the announced 15m and looks OK. Will need a 2nd pass to look nice.

While the paint was drying, cleaned the steering column and then started to sand it down to also paint, but it has rust and to do it right I should use the scrub tip for my driller. That makes noise and I postponed that to the weekend too.

At midnight went back home, spending one hour but not having much accomplished.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Front Wishbones Done!

Started with the lower front wishbones After seeing Daveyboy's pictures (he's one of the blog readers) and exchanging a couple of messages, I got where washers should go on the ball joints. Thank you, Daveyboy, for your help!
I found out they were easier to attach on the wishbones with them on the car already. So, all front wishbones are now in place and with lithium grease on all bolts (I had previously forgotten about that).
After this, I revisited the rear uprights to try to pull the wheel studs. After some more tries I quit. Removed the uprights from the car (again) and disassembled them. Did it very carefully so that I wouldn't break the wheel bearings nor the bearing seals and was sucessful. I can now hammer them in place! I'll also take the time to remove the rear wishbones and put some lithium grease on the bolts before fitting them again.

So many new tasks await me now! Both on the front and the rear of the car! And I'll have to wait for the next weekend... I have to see about getting some time during the week, after the kid is in bed, since many tasks will not generate noise.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Front Upper Wishbones and Rear Uprights

Started today's session looking at the parts needed to assemble the front suspension wishbones and uprights, caliper, etc. After identifying the bits, figuring out what I still need to check on pictures and what I already understand, I went on to assemble the top ball joints on the upper wishbones. It was done in minutes.
After that I looked at the lower wishbones but was unsure of how to fix the lower ball joints, so I postponed it for another day.

Next was to take out and inspect the prop shafts since I'll have to fit them soon, so that I can put in the diff and assemble the rear axle. The shafts look nice and have a sticker stating that they should be lubricated with lithium grease before being used. Since I don't know where to lubricate, I'll leave that one for later too. On the box of one of the shafts came a bag with all the proper bolts to hold the shafts into place.
The last session was to fit the upper front wishbones and the rear uprights back on the car. The upper front wishbones went quickly and easily.
Went to the back of the car and attached the rear uprights. No pictures since I had taken some the first time I attached them and it looks the same. Next effort on the back will be to try again to pull the wheel studs into place with the wheel nut and a big wrench...

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Fuel Pipe and Front Wheel Studs

Had a great afternoon with the car today! Started riveting in place the fuel pipe. The new drill bit continued to be great, the 90ยบ angle accessory for the driller was also handy and in less than two hours, without any major issues or story, it got done.

It required two p-clips near together to be sure the pipe was held in place away from any chassis edge, but it was easy to get it all done.

Since I still had some time left, I tried to insert the front wheel studs on the wheel flanges. Steve told me that those could still easily be done with a hammer and some WD-40 or equivalent (the rear ones require other measures, see previous posts). I looked into it to see how I could pull it off.
Noticed that my spare bush pipe was bigger than the stud and larger inside. Putting the bush pipe under the flange helped me hammer the stud in. So, after around 30m of hammering, all 8 studs got done on the front flanges!