April 2002
Monday 1stRemoved the Lobro CV joints from my donor drive shafts. This is very easy as they are only held on by a couple of circlips, one each side. I tried to clean the old grease out, but this proved impossible with the joints assembled. I therefore dismantled the joints by rotating the inner part until the six ball bearings popped out. I thoroughly degreased all the parts until they were spotless. Putting a Lobro joint back together is not quite so easy! It is like solving a Rubik's Cube. Once you get a couple of the bearings in, another one pops out again. With a lot of trial and error I managed to work out a method for getting them reassembled. You must be careful to make sure that the bearing channels on the inner part and outer part are correctly aligned, otherwise the joint will not allow any movement at all.
Sierra Lobro joints before cleaning
|
Shortened driveshafts
|
Cleaned and dismantled Lobro joint. When reassembled, the bearing channels on the inner part must lean the opposite way to the channels on the outer part.
|
Once reassembled, I packed the four joints with new grease and attached them to the Stuart Taylor-supplied shortened drive shafts.
Tuesday 3rd
Angle and bench grinders finally arrived from Machine Mart. Set up the bench grinder and had a go at putting a slight chamfer onto a suspension bush inner sleeve. Absolutely perfect! The rest of the bushes should be a doddle to fit now.
The bench grinder has arrived...
|
...so finally the suspension bushes can be fitted!
|
Wednesday 4th
Fitted most of the suspension bushes. The offside rear, lower wishbone has a big welding blob inside one of the brackets that has to be carefully filed down, >:-(. I need to order some more from Stuart Taylor as I damaged four learning how to get them in last week.
You can't see it very well in this picture, but there is a big blob of weld inside the bush carrier.
|
Assembled rear suspension. This is the passenger side.
|
Saturday 6th
Fitted rest of the suspension bushes. Assembled the front suspension on one side. I was going to fit a shock absorber to the rear suspension, but the bolts seem to be too thick for the bush at the end of the shock. Need to check which bolts I should be using...
Front wishbones and upright. In this picture you can just see the front brake pipe routed on the diagonal cross-member. I later re-routed this along the lower chassis rail.
|
Sunday 7th
Hammered the wheel bolts into the rear outer hubs. Bolted the hub carriers to the rear uprights. Fitted the inner hub through the bearing and pushed the outer hub onto the splines from the other side. This is a very tight fit and needs a lot of gentle hammering with a soft mallet. Remember that the left-hand inner hub should have a left-hand thread.
Assembled rear uprights with hubs.
|
Fit front brake pipes. The fit OK if I position the T-piece to the right of the engine bay, but I still feel that the pipes should be a little bit longer so I can fit them more neatly along the chassis rails.
Monday 8th
Bought a 'C' spanner for adjusting the shock absorber spring seats from Hunters Tools in Godalming who have an amazing selection of tools. Also bought some assorted washers including some large ones for the differential rubber mounts.
Saturday 13th
I had to babysit today, so no progress. :-(
Sunday 14th
Today I had to fix one of the other cars in my fleet, and then I decided to wash it as moss was starting to grow.
Re-routed the front brake pipes along the lower chassis rails. Much better. I'm sure that must be where they are meant to go, given the lengths I was supplied with. Not much else this weekend, unfortunately.
Monday 15th
Now I know some of my regular readers are impatiently waiting for me to update the costs page to show the price of the 'C' spanner. Until then, excite yourselves with the news that I got home from work today to find another bucket of bolts had arrived from Mr. Fast'ner that I can't remember ordering! Does it get any more exciting!? I knew building a Locost would be fun, but this is beyond my wildest dreams...;-)
Tuesday 16th
Phoned Ian at Stuart Taylor and asked him what to do about the bolts not fitting through the shock absorber bushes. He said that AVO had changed the size slightly and that I should simply run a drill through them. Hmm, think I'll investigate if there's another way of doing it before I attack my shocks with a drill...
Saturday 20th
Took one of my shocks and a suspension bush and bolt to Hunters Tools and asked what the best way of getting the shock bush internal diameter to match the suspension bush. I was told that I need a 'reamer' to enlarge the hole. It looks like a drill bit with six adjustable blades around its shaft. Using a T-piece you turn it by hand to ream the inside of the bush. Also bought a 41mm impact socket for the rear hub bolts.
Used the reamer on my shock bushes and it worked brilliantly. The bushes are now the perfect size, and if anything, the inside surface is now smoother than it was before. I got some nasty blisters on my hands after doing all eight bushes though.
Reamer and shock absorber bush.
|
Gary Boyle and the ex-Slappymobile.
|
Fitted new bearings into the front hubs. The large inner bearing shell I tapped in using the old bearing shell as a drift. I used a socket for the smaller outer one.
Fitted the rear brake pipes.
Sunday 21st
Drilled the holes for the top diff mounts and fitted the diff mounting bolts. Fitted the driveshafts. I used new Allen bolts and lock washers with some thread lock solution.
Diff mount showing rubber bush
I tried to trial fit a rear caliper, but there was no way it was going to fit. If I position the caliper up against the mounting holes, there was no room for the disc. The calipers are from a Sierra, which I was told are the right ones.
Monday 22nd
Phoned Ian at ST and he informed me that there is another part, a 'caliper carrying bracket', between the hub carrier and the caliper. I'll see if I can get new ones from a Ford dealer, but if not, it's off to the scrappers again!
Moved the website from Freeserve to UKOnline. Hopefully the performance will be better.
Tuesday 23rd
Took my photos in for developing today so there will be a big update of the site tomorrow night. Must get a digital camera...
Phoned Ian at ST to order replacement poly bushes and chase up rear springs which were out of stock when I picked up the kit. He also tells me that he has a mint low mileage ZX9R engine available for £1000 plus VAT. Damn! Can someone lend me a grand? Please send all donations to the e-mail address opposite.
Wednesday 24th
Bushes and springs arrive! How's that for service?
Friday 26th
Fit bushes to remaining wishbone (NSF top).
Saturday 27th
Planned to go to the scrappers to acquire some rear caliper carrying brackets, but too busy baby-sitting.
Sunday 28th
Phoned scrappers, no answer. Tried every scrappers in the Yellow Pages. They're either closed or don't have any Sierras in. Bugger.
Fitted NSF suspension. Fitted springs to rear shocks and fitted to rear suspension. I've got one locking nut left for the suspension, but I need another four for the mounting bar at the bottom of the rear hub uprights. I counted all the nuts before I started and I had 27. I thought that meant I'd got one extra, but it is actually three short! I noticed that the OSR lower wishbone is about 5mm further back than the NSR lower wishbone. This appears to be due to a slight difference in the position of the mounting brackets on the chassis. The difference can be taken up by appropriate washers on the mounting bolts, but it is still a slight cause for concern. Hopefully when the suspension is set up properly it will not be a problem.
OS front suspension and brakes
|
OS rear suspension, driveshaft and caliper
|
NS rear suspension
|