What's up...

Well, Michelle's car for one.  Still waiting for the ball joint part so I can get the drivers side back together and put the car down on the ground.  On the other hand lots of other things to do, took the steering column down and checked it to make sure it's set up correctly for the horn and cleaned/lubricated the turn signal switch.   Got the radiator back in and drilled the mount for the header tank to get it set 'square' in the engine compartment.

This the adjusting knob for the adjustable steering column, I decided to strip it down and paint it since it is pretty visible.

Steering column, had concerns about play in it and the horn contact.  Hopefully it will work as intended otherwise I'll mount a bicycle horn ;-)

Radiator installed and isolated from the chassis as intended. Should be an issue with coolant changes every 2-3 years.

That dang hole, thought I could mount the over flow tank here so installed a Rivnut only to find that it's to close to the bonnet flange

Radiator and header tank

Overflow tank, hopefully it won't leak

Installed several hoses only to find that I need a spacer pipe for the lower hose,  the hose on the car was not a good idea since it was prone to collapsing and to close to the fan belt leaving the one that was on the car with a groove through the cording on the old hose.  Sounds like I'll need to put in another order to SNG for the pipe. If I do, I'll probably oder some new motor mounts too.
Cheers...

One step forward, two steps(?) backwards....

I think this is a common feeling when working on one of these cars, they have had so much done to them over the course of their lives that it not surprising to find things that make you wonder "what were they thinking?".  The answer is that when a lot of this happened they were not a valuable car and getting it running and back on the road was the first priority. Today I encountered several things that were questionable, in fact highly questionable.  The first two dealt with the steering,  the rack was mounted by just the rubber mounts and didn't have the safety spacers that keep the rack in position if the rubber mounts separate.  On this car one of the rubber rack mounts was separating (shown in a previous post) and had it separated while being driven the car would have become uncontrollable.  The second steering issue was that the splined U-joint had been opened so wide that it wouldn't tighten down on the pinion for the rack.  This would have caused wear and eventually gotten sloppy or worse.

The other thing I spent time redoing were the bolts holding the picture frame to the engine frame, I assume that this had been messed with when the engine was pulled out(?), but at any rate the nylock nuts were not engaging the bolts and could have worked loose.

Any good news? well yes of course ;-)  made some progress on the front end with the installation of the anti-sway bar, the rack and the shock absorber.  SNG is sending out a new ball joint to me this week so should be able to wrap up the front suspension.

New anti-sway bar bushes

'New' Shock?

Picture of the nylock nut, beneath the wrench, if you look closely you can see that the bolt doesn't come all the way through. The upper ones show how it should look with a new bolt.

Steering rack installed

Installing the steering column, will have to pull it back out since the horn pin seems to be permanently grounded 

Tomorrow, will get the horn working properly and install the radiator.
Cheers.

Short day, long post....

Happy Labor Day Ya'll,  Put in a few hours on Michelle's car working on the suspension and mud shields.

The upper 'A' arm is installed with a new upper ball joint.  These are assembled without the spring and shims are removed till the ball moves freely then the spring is installed and clip is installed.  

I found a bolt missing on the engine/transmission brace so spent a little time installing a new bolt.  Then I installed the bottom mud shield, the fender mud shield the battery mount and finally the battery.

As soon a I get the part for the lower ball joint I'll be able to finish up the suspension, install the rack and the radiator....

Cheers.

Long day, short post....

TGIF ;-)  Today was a little challenging because I decided to install the torsion bar on the drivers side but I'm getting ahead of myself.   I painted the shock, again they seem to be in pretty good shape and are fully adjustable with a turn of the knob.  Then I replaced the old steering rack mounts, they are what isolate the rack from the body of the car to reduce vibration into the steering wheel.  After 52 years it's time to check and replace, the one on the drivers side was beginning to separate.  Not life threatening but would make the steering very sloppy.  Like many reproduction parts they had to be fiddled with to make them work, at least we can get the parts.

This was when I decided I could attach the 'A' arms while I am waiting for the replacement part for the ball joint, hope that comes soon.  The A arm and bushings go on then the setting link is used to set the torsion bar, so far so good.  Got it set at just the right tension and was tightening it down when I realized I couldn't get the torsion bar to go into the 'A' arm far enough to put the holding pin in.  OK, now I'm thinking I know why they didn't put one in, they couldn't line it up.  Well, to make a long story shorter the end of the 'A'arm where the splines are was beat up and damaged so that the torsion bar splines wouldn't go through.  At this point I had no choice but to take it all back down, start over and file the female splines down to get the 'spurs' off.  Won't know till next week if it worked but at least on the bench I could get it to mate properly.

Just painting the shock

The steering rack mount with a screw driver in the split, it's made of two metal pieces bonded together with rubber.

Cheers

Reunited and it feels so good.....

Today was much more pleasant than yesterday but it was nice because of all the cleaning I had done yesterday.  Still had a few things to clean today and tomorrow will be another cleaning day too, but today it was fun to start putting some parts back on the car.

Air cleaner box reassembled and installed.  

Panels were installed prior to the installation of the air filter box, they were cleaned and painted yesterday

Wheel bearings cleaned, greased, new seal for hub, rotor installed and then the caliper.  The bolts for the caliper were drilled for locking wire and since I like to do this, even though the bolt has split washer and locktight I did it anyways.  Belt, suspenders and...?

Freshened front suspension on passenger side.



Today wasn't without mishaps though,  I was working on the lower ball joint on the drivers side only to realize that the ball joint kit was missing the upper 'cap'.  The other kit had it so I had proceed to remove the one on this side in preparation for reassembly and it was destroyed during the removal process.  A quick note off to the supplier and I hope it comes soon because the front suspension is waiting.
Cheers

Did I mention.....

...that I hate cleaning stuff, why yes I have.  The only thing I dislike more is working with and installing grubby parts!

Front suspension removed!

Removing one of the sleeves for the bushing on the lower control arm, what a PITA. It was frozen in place.

The spindle ready for it's bath!

Got a fair amount done today, got the suspension off, cleaned most of it and painted some panels/mud shields.  Not a great paint job (I think some silicone brake fluid got on it) but it's protected and hard to see once it's installed.
Cheers,

Dead Mans Curve....

I've always wondered what happened to the Jag in that song by Jan & Dean,  Since the tale is being told by the kid in the Corvette I've always maintained the the Jag pulled on through the corner and although crosswise in the road survived.  Now I wonder, Michelle I've found at least 4 different ways that RJ would have killed you, not because RJ's a bad fellow but because RJ had been keeping some bad company.

Todays discovery was that the drivers side torsion bar was not pinned in place, missing the small but important bolt that keeps the torsion bar locked into the front 'A' arm.  Had the torsion bar come out the best thing that would have happened was that the drivers side suspension would have collapsed, the worse thing would have been that the bar would have dropped out, caught and pole vaulted the car.

There have been 4 major things done poorly on the suspension that could have been dangerous, thankfully the car didn't run.  That being said the car is a good sound E Type that will run and drive much better when we are done and should be a pleasure to own.

Here's a mystery, the aluminium for the brake bottles has been dissolved

Normally the cork is enclosed in the aluminum

The drivers side getting ready to disassemble. Found that the lower ball joint nut was loose

Today was a short day but tomorrow will get the rest of the drivers side suspension off, start cleaning and painting.

Cheers