Monday 30 October 2006

Troublesome.

The front suspension has been proving troublesome, plenty of penetrating oil and plenty of care. Slowly but surely my collection of disassembled parts has been growing. I’ve also been busy compiling a list of all the replacement parts required together with those parts to be reconditioned by Ward Engineering. Wards will be taking care of the diff, rear hubs and callipers. A full car set of reconditioned (including high and low pressure testing) callipers - front four pots, rear two pots and separate hand brake callipers at 245 quid in return for my own units as exchange seems like a particularly good bargain compared to the amount of work required to do it yourself – or am I just being lazy?

Tuesday 10 October 2006

Front Suspension Strip

Whilst the rear hub was being abused by messers Thompson I had been busying myself with dismantling the front suspension. This is a bit more of a hassle, many of the fastners appear corroded fast and have been requiring plenty of penetrating oil over a few days to come free. After having broken one bolt in the diff – I didn’t want to break any more.

However the lower shock bracket bolts were stuck fast – time to break out the angle grinder (grinding has turned out to be particularly therapeutic) followed by a drift and lump hammer.

Having discovered the pleasure of aimlessly grinding metal – It was pleasing to find that the lips worn onto the edge of front discs were preventing the callipers (pads frozen in) from passing. 10 minutes of showering sparks – sorted.

Friday 6 October 2006

Satan's Rear Hub - 5 - Good Triumphs over Evil

Sorted – Hub removed and only charged a tenner – big thanks to Tony at T Thompson and Sons.

Wednesday 4 October 2006

Satan's Rear Hub - 4 - The End is not so Nigh!

Following the application of 20 tonnes over 24 hours the driveshaft was still refusing to part company with the hub – I was assured that the application of a “gas spanner” (an acetylene torch to you and me) would sharp sort things.

Monday 2 October 2006

Satan's Rear Hub - 3 - The End is Nigh

Found a small family run Automotive Engineers close to where I work – took the stubborn rear hub in and was assured that it could be removed no probs.

Sunday 1 October 2006

Breaking Things

One of the last things to do is to remove the lower wishbone inner pivot brackets from the differential housing. These seemed to be particularly stubborn but came out after a few days of soaking with penetrating oil. However after 3 out of 4 came out the last one snapped off with no warning – this was probably due to the application of too much force on my part.




A quick phone call to Ward Engineering who will be reconditioning the diff assured me that the broken bolt could be removed easily - simply by me paying them an extra 25 quid – better than having to find a new diff casing.