Saturday, February 26, 2011

Driveshafts and Visitors

Today I left the house carrying a trolley full of tools and parts plus the driller's case under the arm. I hopped to have everything I could need for the session.

First task was to bolt the front diff support to the chassis. Couldn't do it alone, need someone else to hold the bolt in place... Then looked into the bolts that hold the prop on the diff. Don't have an Allen key big enough for them... It will have to wait until I go shopping again.

Moved to the rear. Before drilling holes to bolt the upper diff support on the chassis, I want to have the driveshafts in place, to be sure where the diff needs to sit. Opened the CV boot box and looked into it: the rubber boot, two straps and a CV grease packet. Seemed easy enough.

Turned the CV inside out, slid it into place, applied the 1st strap, repeat on the other side. Then slide the shaft inside one of the CV joints (Steve from Aries sent them already with bearings inside and greased) and put the circlip on the tip of the shaft, to keep it in place. Steve had packed all four circlips in a small bag, tapped to one of the shafts; can't miss it, it's a great help! The circlips didn't have small holes on the tip and seemed to stay stretched after putting them around the shaft. I'm not sure if I got it right, although it looked like it was. Again, repeat on the other side.



On the first shaft, I filled the CV boots with grease and had a really hard time pulling them over the joints. For the second shaft I used a different and easier method. I turned the boot inside out, filled the cup of the joint and then pulled the boot over it. It was easier and cleaner too!
Having it done, it was just a matter of offering it to the diff and upright and bolting it by hand first. Fortunately had an Allen key big enough for those bolts (it was my biggest one). Repeated it all for the other shaft. And now I have propulsion from the engine until the flanges!


On a side note, I had several visitors on the four hours I spent working on the car. Including the wife and kid. Summing all visits, I believe I did not work for around half-hour. One of the visitors was the father of a neighbor, in his 60s. "Oh, your doing a Super Seven!" It was the first time someone actually knew what I am building! And he new about Caterham, about kitcars... I was amazed!

Another visitor scared me a bit. I was facing the wall, fighting the shaft on the joint and the circlip... My back to the garage. Out of nowhere, a man with deep voice greets me. I look over my shoulder and see two police men looking at me. Ends up a neighbor called the station because she saw a strange man going inside the garage and, since we have had 3 robberies in less than two weeks, they came around patrolling inside the garage. What worries me the most is that if the cops managed to sneak on my back and scare me, a robber could sneak and whack me with my big wrench I had left inside the kit... Maybe I should work facing the garage, with my back against the wall. Cornered but aware... ;)

Next time... Drilling holes for diff support, tightening all rear suspension and arms bolts, fitting rear brakes...

Thursday, February 24, 2011

More on the Prop Shaft

Spent my "car time" on the weekend moving parts and tools out of my storage room on the parking area to a room in the house. All because some robbers have been hitting the building storage rooms and I don't want to have missing or damaged parts.

So, tonight I went for a bit of car fun, to compensate. Problem is that, since I have to take all tools and materials that I believe will be needed, I ended up forgetting two tools, so I couldn't really finish what I wanted.

Started by bolting down the front of the diff support to the car. Ends up I need two spanners for that and had only taken one... Moved to the second (bigger) prop shaft. Recalling what I learnt almost two weeks ago, I got it done easier, although it still took me the best of 40m to do the four bolts there. Then I moved to the other side of the shaft, that bolts on the diff. And, again, I forgot the type of tool to do those bolts, so they got just temporarily done by hand.
On the weekend, after tightening the bolts that got just half done today, I'll drill the holes to bolt the rear diff support to the chassis and then work on the half-shafts that link the diff to the rear wheels.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Prop Shaft and Tricks of the Trade

After getting my prop shafts greased on a repair shop, I could finally get them on the car and move on with the rear axle and, actually, all propulsion.

Started the session with help from the wife to tie the prop shafts loosely on their locations and then to get the diff in place. I had tried before to put the diff on the car alone. I couldn't make it. But two people did it easily.
After that, I spent two hours trying to bolt the smaller prop shaft on to the engine and the MNR reverse box. And this is where tricks of the trade are important. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong and the trick to it, I bolted it all in 15m. But let me explain in (painful) detail what the problem was and how I solved it...

I extended the prop shaft to be in contact with both ends and placed a bolt in each end to hold it in place. The problem was that I couldn't fit a tool in there to bolt it, had to do it with just my fingertips. And then, the bolt head would clash with the universal joints parts and would not rotate or not even go straight. So it seemed some wouldn't go in because they didn't align...

The trick I wish I knew or had found in less than 2 hours... I put one bolt on a hole and, with the shaft away from the reverse box, bolted it just a bit. repeated with all other bolts. As the bolt head was away from the UJ, I could use a spanner. And as I tightened just a bit of each bolt and went around, the shaft got closer and closer. Near the end I placed some Pattex Nural 50 (equivalent to Loctite) on the bolt threads and fastened them until they were completely home. Bolts also had a kind of a colar that prevents them from unfastening with trepidation, but I sleep better putting some Nural in them.
The longer rear shaft is still just tied to the car, will have to wait for next weekend...