Right, had some time in the garage this afternoon – football on the radio, tea in a Thermos, the smell of woodsmoke wafting in through the gaps in the roof First of all I hooked up the fan to the defibrillator to check that the thing actually worked and gave myself a surprise as it almost spun itself off the workbench … they’ve got quite some kick to them on startup. …
Back in the mists of time in November, a parcel of treasure did arrive from the land of ebay … Originally Posted by Stu.C … a radiator fan from an Escort RS Turbo… I forgot to check the address of the chappie that sent it, but I’m guessing this Escort lived in a seaside town and was owned by the bloke who ran the salted cod factory – no other explanation…
Well, I managed to get down to the local garage this morning to get both the alignment on the front and my general nut tightening abilities checked out Good news was that my nuts are fine However, it seems my ability to adjust the steering rack/rods by eye is rather lacklustre I had “about an inch of toe out” when they first checked it … now set to three millimetres of…
The ladies tell me that an extra inch can make all the difference On the left is the old 8″ drum setup, rather creaky, stiff and tired looking, but otherwise still serviceable. On the right is the replacement 9″ setup, off a 2.8, with new cylinders and springs, all greased up. I’m betting that there’s somewhere between “sod all” and “bugger all” noticeable difference between the two, but at least it…
Back in July last year I refurbished a set of rear brakes from a 2.8 ready to put them on the car … then put them in away in bags on the shelf while I “just popped over” to France. Turns out I forgot all about them Thought it was time I did something I’ve read up about how to swap them over and what tools I’d be needing for the job…
I couldn’t get my verniers inside the rim of the new wheels to measure the hole size, so Steve Law at Speedshack very kindly put a couple of second-hand ones in the post to me so that I could check for sure … they’re 5/8″ it turns out. Excellent service from Speedshack Now comes the question of refurbishing them I’m guessing that media blasting would be the quickest/simplest way of removing the old…
First up, I’ve been talking to Steve Law at Speedshack and apparently I need sleeve nuts, rather than longer studs and new nuts, so we’re just sorting out the right size So that it didn’t become one of those jobs I kept meaning to do, I’ve jacked the back up to remove the spring pads – given that nobody had a good word to say about them (not even “ooh, nice colour”) For completeness,…
It’s funny how one day you can be idly thinking about something in a “maybe one day” kind of way, and then a couple of days later the planets align and a deal drops into your lap I’d been browsing an old copy of Custom Car from the late 70s, devouring the adverts as much as the editorial content if I’m honest, and in amongst the stick-on murals, nudgebars and…
Rather annoyingly, I’ve just realised I never measured the drop from the top of the wheelarch to the floor before I started all this, so I can only really say “a bit lower”. The front springs are quoted as two inches lower than standard, whilst the single leaf rears had almost three inches less unsprung curvature and have currently got one and a half inch blocks on too. Against the tired old…
After a couple of weeks away from everything, I managed to get some time over the last couple of days out in the garage I managed to resist the urge to drop the back axle off and spend some time tidying it up – mainly because I’m sick of the car being off the road on the odd occasion I get a couple of hours to go somewhere No point having it…
As I’ve got all of the rear suspension off, it makes sense to take a good look at the state of the chassis rails whilst I’ve got relatively good access. Underneath a layer of flaky rust they’re basically sound, but both sides will need a section chopping out and replacing at some point, where they’re flaking a little too much around the top drain hole It’s not too bad, but…
Bastard buggering monkey jugglers! Which incompetent fool designed the Deflex sterring rack bushes? Have they even seen a steering rack, or did they just guess what one might look like? They dont even fit inside the brackets on their own – never mind when they’re wrapped around the rack About the only way I could make them fit is if I unbolted the crossmember, put it on the bench and “finessed” everything together with a…
Originally Posted by DarthVader First fit the lower control arms to the x-member and then swing the ARB up to their mounts. . You’re not wrong there Darth I was trying to be clever by attaching the TCAs to the ARB first, then attaching the TCAs to the crossmember … but even though I’ve been “pumping iron” at the gym. there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of it coming together like that Maybe with…
Spent an enjoyable afternoon out in the garage – football on the radio, Liverpool winning , rain drumming down on the (now mostly leak free) roof and taking apart the rear suspension. For some reason, the driver’s side is rusted up more than the passenger’s I might have thought it’d be the other way round, using the logic that most puddles are on the passenger side … but then so is the…
OK, to recap – when you shear off the high-tensile bolts in the ARB brackets, I found you have to take the brackets off to get the remains out. Not having a suitable drill at home, I used one of the ones at college The thing is seven foot high and has a chunk of torque in the low gears, so eventually the remains of the bolt were out. Cleaned…