Do want the Good News or the Bad News?

Well you are going to get the bad news first, things can only get better.

I took the rear diff to Canley Classics, and Dave has stripped and inspected it. Upon cleaning there was an obvious rust mark across all the components where they had been out of the oil for the last 30 years or so, and at this point the rust was through the case hardening on the crown wheel and pinion, the bearings weren't much better either. So its a new crown wheel and pinion and bearings - another expense.

However after discussions with Dave I decided that I had better inspect the Ferguson front diff too and inspect for rust, better to find it now, than run the car and cause damage. I had originally decided not to strip the FF components, because of spares issues, lack of manuals etc etc, so this was a challenging decision.

Anyway, got the "sump" off the FF front diff, and apart from old oil no rust and no wear to be seen

Some interesting numbers on the back of the crown wheel - don't know what they mean, there's also a small tag that I found confirming the diff ratio as 3.45 to 1.

The next job was to assemble the quill shaft assembly so that I could bolt up the rear suspension

and now with the trailing arms etc

The next job was to remove the sump on the auto gearbox - I needed to do this to replace the kick down cable connection which can be seen bottom right at the bottom of the valve block

Although the fluid had been clear when I drained it the contants of the sump were horrible ! - another gunky mess, with I suspect some water in it, so its a good job this came apart - very little metal on the captive magnet though.

And finally I changed the input shaft oil seal

The bell housing is now going off to be bead blasted and cleaned.

I started work on removing the rust from the front drive shaft

Its better, but I think it will require a few applications of rust remover before its fit for painting.

Finally I had an invite from the body shop to inspect the car and the paint progress

Its looking very good, and I think will have a really good finish when complete, I am very happy with the work so far. They have put a great deal of effort into "blocking" the panels so there are no ripples visible when painted.

640 hours now worked - 9 today

Front Driveshafts

Seems funny to be saying that about a big saloon, but I went to Dave Macs to collect the driveshafts yesterday. Sadly they hadn't done anything with them, as none of the splines or fittings were compatable with any modern products. They did say that they could make new ones, but I would need new front hubs too etc etc .... the cost was going to be huge so they hadn't done anything, but they did say that they had looked at the existing parts and there didn't appear to be any appreciable wear, so why didn't I rebuild them?

So I left there with 4 CV boot kits.

This is a front joint stripped, the grease was more like toffee than grease, but I stripped and cleaned them all

Ever wondered how they come apart - or go back together, the ball bearings are easy, just tilt the cage and pop them out, but there is a trick to the cages, which have 2 larger holes than the rest - these are more oval than round, and you use them to firstly rotate the cage into the joint, aligning them with the "lumps" between the ball bearing groves

Then once these are in place use the large holes to rotate the centre splined section in place

Now beware at this point, before inserting ball bearings make sure that both the cage and the centre section are the right way up - they usually need rotating through 180 degrees to ensure that the beveled spline input (which compresses the ring on the end of the shaft on insertion) is facing outwards - get it wrong and you won't get the shaft in !

Anyway 3 more joints later here are the complete shafts - I still have to fit the CV boot clips, clean the grease off, and give the metal a quick coat of paint.

I also completed the pedal box tonight, complete with NOS pedal rubber

And I painted the diff parts that I got back from blasting - except the rear alloy cover plate

When the paint is dry these will need the oil seal "bearing" areas polishing, but much better than the old rusty bits.

Time spent now 631 hours - 4 tonight
Money spent £13515 - £40 on blasting, paint and CV boots

Differential Troubles

Firstly today I completed the front suspension rebuild, so its all ready to go on the car when the drive shafts are fitted.

and struts fitted to uprights

I then intended to clean the diff, and replace the oil seals and quill shaft bearing. The oil seals needed attention because they would be the original leather type, and there was evidence of leaks.

So I removed the quill shaft and housing,

and then I drained the oil - this had water in it, and it was dirty. So rear cover off for inspection, the orange flecks you can see in the next picture are rust, but not on the components, they are just floating in the oil

there are some marks on the crown wheel teeth in certain places, which is where I think some of the rust has come from

I am not sure what to do about this at present, I can either wash the diff out with paraffin, or have it stripped and cleaned by a specialist - these units need a special case spreader tool to extract the crown wheel and planet gears. I shall have to mull this over.

Anyway time to remove the stub axle flanges - these feel a little notchy in situ.

On inspection there is dirt in the bearings, so little wonder they don't feel good. With these out the diff turns smoothly though.

The manual says remove the nut inside the flange and pull the flange off - it actually took about 7 tons pressure in a bench press to remove both of these and extract the bearing and seal.

I now have this pile of parts, some of which can go for blasting and cleaning before rebuild

I am not going to finish the diff today after all, so I then decided to remove the gerbox mounting, which needs blasting and powder coating - it was a swine to remove from the box, because one of the bolts was almost inaccessible due to the transfer box.

After the disappointment of the diff I thought I hade better look at the auto box fluid - I need to remove the sump anyway to replace the kickdown cable. This was Ok, nice red and nearly clear, so I think the box will be alright, at least there was no water in it.

thats it for today folks.

total hours worked now 627 - 8 today

Been to see my baby today

Well I actually went to the paint shop, good progress, the underside and wheel arches are fully prepared and ready for painting, with the seams sealed etc and so is the engine bay, and the interior, and this is how it looks

External preparation is next...................

I cannot wait to see the end result.

More suspension work

I made some more slow progress on the suspension today.

Firstly got the new tyres fitted to the rims

Then I got the rear brakes fitted to the trailing arms, complete with Nissan driveshaft and back plate, and the polybushes - the drums will go on later, I have just given them a coat of black engine high temperature enamel

A large part of the day was spent measuring bolts to ensure that I order the correct lengths, the extent of the problem can be seen here in the hub / caliper mounting, using a standard Stag caliper bolt there's a fair bit protruding, which will definitely foul the brake disk.

Then it was onto the front subframe, I pressed the ball joints into the track control arms, and fitted these to the frame, together with the steering rack. When this went to be reconditioned they set the mountings level - however for some reason thats not what this car needs, as you can see from the picture the passengerside mounting is far from horizontal.

To rotate it to this point was simple, it was just a question of undoing the locking ring, just visible in the housing, then rotate the housing and relock the ring. As you can see these bolts are also the wrong length, but were just some I had to hand to enable me to trial fit the rack.

Here's the other side.

thats it for today,

hours worked now 619, 7 today, 5 from last time which I hadn't added to the total.

Costs now £13475 - £236 on 5 Toyo tyres

Jigsaw Puzzle

Well, with the estate away in the body shop for painting, it was time to sort the suspension parts out for assembly, so after cleaning the garage floor again I dragged them out of the cellar and laid them out

As you can see there's quite a bit of stuff, in slightly more detail, polished alloys, with stainless steel wheel nuts.

The mobile tyre fitter is coming round on tuesday to fit some Toyo 175 80 14s to these

front suspension parts

struts and steering rack

rear suspension

 modified nissan drive shafts and brake drums, and rear dampers

 Thats going to keep me busy for a while.

One issue that I do have is with the modified front suspension - standard Triumph nuts and bolts won't fit, they are often too long or too short, so I need to take the original bolts that I have saved to a fastener specialist to get replacements, in particular this involves the rack mouts to the subframe, and all the bolts on the steering uprights.