I'm tired of being the bug...

....I want to be the windshield/windscreen!  Was going to assemble some of the parts on the differential this morning after I put the cover on it, however it became very apparent that the new rotors wouldn't work.  I took a picture of them to try to show the differences but it comes down to the difference in location of the 'access' holes. The new ones do not line up with the holes for the bolts.  Will clean up the old ones unless SNG has some bright ideas and use them.  Next I had to hone out the inside diameter of the oil seal race to get it to fit on the axle shaft. This got me a sharp whack on the  wrist from the hone but I got it to fit.

A couple of bright spots in the day, got the brakes parts from White post today and they look very nice, helped Terry T. with his carbs and they seemed to be working well when we were done.

Show how far off the access holes are for the caliper bolts, can't use a socket on the bolts even if I can get the bolts started.

Installing the axle shaft in the hub, the bearings are greased and will press the axle into the hub

Rebuilt caliper pistons, ready to install.

A couple of caveats for the day, the metal for the grease seal race on the hub is very soft so be very careful with them, it is 'impossible' to replace the grease slingers on the hub axles. I removed them so that I could pull the bearing off the axle shaft thinking that I could just press them back on-can't do it as they are 'pined' in place.  As best I ca tell they aren't mandatory and won't affect the function or safety of the axle.

Cheers.

5.5 hrs  

Electrical issues

Took a little time yesterday and today to get the cooling fans set and working.  At some point an extra fan was installed and the relay for the fan was removed and in its place a switch was installed.  The original fan and otter switch were disconnected and I now understand why.  I re-wired the fans to have a circuit breaker and a relay to carry the switching load (both fans will now work).  The fans will be triggered by the otter/temperature switch and the under dash toggle switch so RJ should run cool (we hope).

The challenge today was trying to figure out why the otter switch keep blowing the fuses and it turned out that the otter switch wires were shorted out in the loom.  

I also dropped the driveshaft off at the driveline shop in the hopes that they could replace the worn out U joints and balance it.  We'll see if they can find U joints for it.

I cleaned up the differential previously and replaced the seals, today I decided to see what was inside the unit and replace the rear gasket.  The bottom of the unit had a fair amount of sludge in the bottom that I cleaned out.  The cover was cleaned/straightened and painted (wasn't painted originally but it was rusting so I decided to paint it.

inside the cover after cleaning

outside after cleaning and prior to paint

This picture is notable for what you don't see, the tangled rats nest of wires that were hanging under the top frame rail.

Cheers.

4hrs

TGIF

Worked on the upper control arms of the rear suspension and installed the U joints in them.  These pieces serve as the upper control arm as well as the 'axle'.  A very impressive design giving the car it's exceptional  four wheel independent suspension and handling that is very good even by todays standards.  

Also installed the bushings in the radius arm for the left side too, this is where having a press makes a difficult task relatively easy.   Removed the antiroll bar yesterday and cleaned and painted it.  The bolts got run through the tap and then used the die to clean out the captive nuts on the frame.  If not done the possibility of stripping them out is increases dramatically and it would be very difficult to fix them.  Will use Locktite on the bolts when they go back in.

On little trick with putting the u joints back together involves packing the 'caps' with grease so that the roller bearings don't fall in and jam between the cap and U joint.  That can ruin the U joint and your day.

Next week will take the Prop/drive shaft to the local shop and have them rebuild and balance it.  Of interest the U joint on the front was vert stiff and likely to fail very quickly if we hadn't caught it. Again the drive shaft can be serviced only if the engine or IRS is out of the way.

Till next week...

Cheers,

5hrs

Short day, lot's of pictures.

Today was broken up by a variety of things and so I didn't get near as much done as I had hoped.

The radius arm bolt was stripped so I had to 'make' a new one.  They should have safety wire on them so they need a hole drilled in the head (they did not have safety wire from the last rebuild)

Don't know if you can see it but the original bolt's threads are stripped

Chasing the hole with a tap to make sure it's 'good'.  I think this time consuming procedure is good practice for all old fasteners

This is a picture of the rear IRS mount attached, the rear ones are fitted to the frame and the front ones are mounted to the cage during installation.

An issue came up with the new mounts, the corner had to be ground down to allow the bolts to fit, the corner that I'm pointing to kept the bolt from lining up.  Pays to pre-fit critical pieces.

Old vs new tunnel plugs

Removing the prop shaft bolts through this opening was a bit like operating through a small opening, decided to make a larger incision through the top and removed the transmission cover.  Noticed that there wasn't any foam noise/heat insulation so needed to come off anyways.

It was held on by only 5 fasteners, 4 on the firewall and one at the back.

should have a foam 'pillow' here to keep out noise and heat.

Prop shaft on the counter, may send it to the shop for balancing and replacement of the U joints.  Of interest the bolts holding the flange to the prop shaft were all loose.

Removed the anti-roll bar for cleaning and replacement of the bushings.

Cheers,

4 hrs

Shocking....

Ok, not really shocking but just a shock.  Using my trusty spring compressor I took the springs off the old shocks today and cleaned up the springs and 'shield'  (new shocks don't come with this part or the lower spring mounting piece so don't throw them away thinking you'll have them in the new shock box or it will be shocking).  Many discussions have been had on JL about spring compressors and the dangers there-in.  This one is a HF special but it hold the spring very securely and I think is quite safe, just be careful because there is a lot of energy in the compressed spring.

Left side IRS components getting ready for paint

While I was waiting for the paint to dry I installed the new seals on the differential, put in the pinion seal and the 'O' rings on the output shafts (had already installed the seals on the output shafts).  

Some times I forget and wake up in a panic thinking did I tighten down those bolts or use locktight? Well this helps me with that (plus notes in RJ's notebook).

Painted pieces.

Reassembly of the IRS is starting, was going to paint the differential but it's really hard to tape it off so may just pass on that task?

Cheers


4hr

You know what....

I did today ;-)  Cleaning the other side IRS components, it's like a friend of mine used to say "it feels so good when it stops hurting you want to do it all over again".  Disassembled the upper control arm and noticed that Drew was correct when he said that he thought the U joints might have plugs instead of zerks.  I poked around and discovered that they do indeed have a plug.  On the other hand, not sure they were ever greased as the roller bearings were dry and just fell out like the autumn rain we got today.

The parts awaiting a nice day to paint them, should start reassembly soon.

Still need to pull out the driveline, clean it up and replace it's U joints since it isn't accessible with out dropping the IRS or pulling the engine.

Cheers.



7.5 hrs

Some days your the windscreen...

And some days your the bug.  Today I was the bug,  continued to disassemble the IRS on the left side and cleaned parts.  The bug part comes in with removing the bearing from the hub shaft only to have the bearing break into it's component pieces while it was being removed.  The other thing was that the hub bearing was seized up and looks like it's going to need replacing too.  I was hoping to reuse all the bearings so as to avoid the tedious process of fitting and measuring preload on them.

Yesterday played around with the brake and clutch bottles and got them installed, I think the 'low fluid' switches will work.  After I cleaned the contacts with contact cleaner it seemed like they were working.

Also played around with the electrics and installed the new fan relay and circuit breaker, just need to get some wire.

cheers,

3.5 hr

Sealing up the differential

Michelle's car has a Salisbury type differential which was leaking onto the brake rotor. So today I decided to see if I could replace the seals without disturbing the preload on the bearings.  Thus far it seems that the early differentials such as this have the preload set by shims and spacers so it's 'relatively' simple to replace the seals.  The output shaft is held in by the five bolts and once removed is easily drifted out allowing access to the seal.  I was able to pull it out and then separate the output flange from the output shaft and install the seal.

After I replaced the seals for the output shaft I decided to tackle the front seal on the pinion shaft.  Getting the nut loose turned into a major project, it's torqued to 130 ft pounds at the factory but this one was considerably tighter than that, I was afraid my socket would break but I put the diff down on the floor, locked the shaft with a tire iron and it finally came loose with a very long extension on the cheater bar.

Pulling the pinion shaft flange

Had to make a gasket for the output flange and have it ready to install on Monday.  The new seal is different from the original so hope it works....

Cheers,

4 hrs

The right tool....

...for the right job.  Didn't get a lot done today but made an executive decision on the Dunlop calipers and it was very tiring;-)  Michelle, we had the choice of ordering new from SNG or re-built from either Apple Hydraulics or White Post restorations.  New calipers were 4 X$130, A.H. would do them for $100 and WPR would do them for $85.  I have heard good things about all three but price won the day.

We got a parts order from SNG today so was able to put some things back together, this is what's fun, not the cleaning stuff but you can't get to this point without some 'pain'.

I don't know how much this thing weights but it was all I could do to get it up on my counter to be able to work on it.  Tomorrow I'll work up my courage to try to replace the seals and gaskets on this differential.

This is what the title is about, I was dreading pushing these bushings back in but with a lot of help from my 12 ton press and copper anti-seize this job was 'easy'.  This is the picture of the large bushing and note the orientation of the holes.

Small bushing end, used a large socket underneath and a smaller one on top to push the bushing into the radius arm

One of the two indispensable tools, large sockets are necessary not only for wrenching but also for holding pieces and as spacers  

My 12 ton press, if I were doing it over I might get the somewhat more expensive 20 ton unit.  Very handy tool for working on this kind of stuff.

Cleaned the caliper parts and sent the cylinders off to White post today

That's it for today.

Cheers,

2 hrs