Suited and booted

Putting the new boots on took longer than I expected,  mainly because of the weird clamps used to hold them on. They're a bit like Jubilee clips but tricky to get tight as they rely on using a pliers to crimp them. But finally finished and look pretty good:

... and then fitted in to the diff:

While I was on a roll,  I whacked the rear hubs on as well:

Not torqued up yet because I'm a bit worried I didn't do enough thinking/checking before putting them on.

But in one foul swoop,  I have a much better car-shaped thing in my garage now.

Lines of thought

I was getting a bit panicky about how many jobs there were that I'd  started but couldn't finish - handbrake,  pedals,  master cylinder etc. 

But after some thought,  this is the plan of attack:

1. Fit driveshafts (now painted but need new boots fitting). 

2. Fit rear hubs. 

3. Rear brake discs and calipers. 

4. Fit handbrake cable to caliper. 

4. Brake lines from 4-way unit above diff to calipers (copper to braided). 

5. Brake line from master cylinder to 4-way unit. 

Started by fitting a rivnut for the 4-way unit:

More difficult than it sounds - the hole is too big really and I destroyed 4 rivnuts before cunning use of a soldering iron got the job done. 

As I plan to start on brake line routing,  I thought I'd better check where the steering column goes:

Raised a few concerns about proximity of brake pedal to column and if I've done the 'grommet from Hell' properly. 

Mix 'n match

I've been keeping my eye open for a brake fluid reservoir as they're supposed to be hard to find and that was proving to be true.  None on eBay (yes,  it's possible) and no luck on those various sites supposedly linked to breakers yards round the country.  There's one listed on the GBS website but whenever I've looked before,  it's always said 'out of stock'. But suddenly,  while aimlessly looking at other stuff,  it came up as 'in stock'! I've never rushed through a payment process so quick! Arrived yesterday:

UPDATE: I thought this was the standard Sierra reservoir that fits on top of the master cylinder but no,  it's the reservoir that goes with the remote kit that GBS sell - doh! The Sierra ones are almost impossible to get now -  Ford have stopped making them.

Bits and pieces tonight - got the old boots off the driveshaft,  cleaned them up with a wire brush and brake cleaner and put a coat of Hammerite on the main shift. I'll also do the ends another day.

Got the correct bolts for the master brake cylinder and loosely installed them. Loosely because I seem to have a habit of needing to unscrew everything.

Attached the handbrake and cables (loosely ☺) :

Finally tonight,  some practice with brake pipe flaring. First attempts a bit iffy (on the left) but sorted by the 3rd attempt (on the right) :

Update: OK,  major problem here. The flares I did here are single flares and they are NOT right for brake lines. They need to be double flares. 

Bouncing on

Well,  turned out I'd left a penny washer out of the lower wishbone to hub carrier bolt,  which is why it was sinking in to the bush. No harm done apart from the time needed to take it out and re-do it.

A good piece of advice from GBS when tightening this all up is to disconnect the shock from the upper wishbone.  Before tightening,  the hub/upper and lower wishbone combination should move freely -  in fact,  it will drop down under gravity alone.  Then tighten one bolt at a time,  checking that you can move the combination by hand. The suspension may stay in one place by this point but still be moveable by hand. I just then tightened it as much as I could (within reason),  checked it was still moveable by hand,  reconnected the shock and job done,  finally.

Last little job was to use a paint pen to mark all the bolts.

Oh and another good piece of advice is to make sure any bolts that come close to where the rear panel will be,  is to make sure they are put in with the nut end nearest to the panel. This means that,  one day in the future when the rear panel is on,  you will still be able to remove the bolt without having to make a hole in the rear panel. Hope that makes sense...

I've started on the next job of preparing the drive shafts:

They're directly off an old Sierra,  so I just want to replace the boots and clean them up a bit. Taking off the old boots produced a large amount of old grease which has made a right old mess of my workbench. Not done any more for now as I need to work out what to degrease it with and what sort of grease to put back in.

For a laugh,  I took the handbrake kit out of its bag but not a great move -  I have absolutely NO idea how it fits in. I fear poor Simon at GBS will be called upon again...

Groundhog Day

Spent the evening putting the new crush tubes back into the suspension and rebuilding it all.

This is the slight difference in length (rubbish photo,  sorry) - very little and maybe it wouldn't have been a problem especially since I've tightened it all up with the new tubes and it seems... er... just as tight.

I've also tried to torque up one of the bolts. I asked GBS what torque setting to use and the guy said he never torqued bolts (apart from major engine bits). I suggested 90nm (from a website he had recommended) and he said that sounded right,  so that's what I tried. Problem is,  the washer is getting squeezed into the bush without getting to that torque level. Another GBS question...

Crushed

Darn,  flip,  bugger.... Captain Screw-up has made a visit...

You know I said the suspension seemed a bit firm? It is.  Too much.

When I started the suspension,  I read some older blogs which stated that they had to file the crush tubes down a little because they were too long and not flush to the bushes.

What I didn't  realise was that,  a year or 2 ago,  the crush tubes were being produced 3mm or so too long so they did have to be filed down. However,  since then GBS have a new laser cutter which cuts the crush tubes much more accurately so they don't need any filing now.

In fact,  the crush tubes are supposed to protrude a tiny amount (0.1mm maybe).  I saw this protrusion and assumed this was the extra length that others had to file down.  Nope. No. Wrong.

If you do this,  when you tighten up the bolts,  they lock up against the bushes instead of the crush tube. As the suspension relies on the bushes being able to rotate around the crush tubes,  if they are locked up,  the suspension cannot move and you get what I have.

Bugger.

Spent an hour removing the suspension and getting all the crush tubes out. I've called GBS and they've sent me a new set of crush tubes.  I also ordered some bolts needed for the brake hubs and carriers - £50 I didn't want to have to spend.

On a slight positive,  I've done my first rivnuts for the LP fuel pump shelf:

Strangely enjoyable and they are a great invention. I vaguely put everything together,  with the exception of the filter.  Being a tightwad,  I bought a filter off eBay (£6) instead of paying GBS (£45) - however,  mine doesn't come with the bracket to attach it to this panel,  which I guess the GBS one does have?

Washing up

GBS have advised that I should use the smaller flat washers under bolt heads and nuts rather than the penny washers I had used. Because they're thicker,  the smaller washers are less likely to distort when tightened - the penny washers are only for shimming.

So I spent a good hour replacing the penny washers on the suspension parts,  so they look like this now:

I've tightened (not torqued) the bolts but I'm a little concerned - the suspension feels too solid. Before I tightened up,  I could just very slightly compress the shock by hand by lifting on the hub carrier  - now I can't.  Another question for GBS... they're going to get very bored of me.

Also,  the bolts for the shock don't seem long enough - I'll only 1 or 2 threads showing when I tighten them up,  which doesn't seem enough.

And the rear hub carriers that arrived the other day have no bolts with them - am I supposed to source them? Another GBS question.

Who'd have thought bolts would cause so many problems?