Tuesday 29/11/11

Hi

Well last day before I go back to work, (seem to say that a lot). Not as much to report this time home as most of it has been cleaning and painting.

With the axle and fuel tank out of the way I managed to get at the rear underside, as I said before this was in really great shape with just a few places needing a bit of rust removal and rust cure applied. Then a scrub up with degreaser and a bucket of floor cleaner and ready for painting, I removed the fuel pipes which are all new to the engine by the last owner then rubbed up the paint to give it a key and gave it a good coat of chassis paint. I started on the wheel arches next but only managed one of these, getting of the old undercoat was a bit messy but a wire wheel on my grinder made light work of it.

Just a note for those that are going to work on there car this winter, have a look and a feel under rear lower section of the wing as I found a hole. It feels like it is a proper cut hole and not corrosion and is in one of the worse places to be as all of the wet gets thrown into that corner, so a real corrosion problem.

Just a few inches from the bottom

This is defiantly going to get filled before underseal is sprayed on.

Next effort went on the fuel tank, a bit of rust on the lower weld edges and signs of brazing on 2 of the edge corners but other than that it cleaned up rather nice. I removed the sender unit which also looks in good condition, I don't know if it works yet but will put a meter on it before I refit and see if I get any readings.

Fuel tank

After a good cleaning I gave it a couple of coats of primer then a couple of black and its ready to fit, need to wrap around some sound deadening strip to stop any road noise and rubbing first. Also had a look inside and its not to bad at all.

The axle came next, quite a bit of weight in this; you don't realise how much steel goes into one till you have to hump it around.

The brakes came first so lots of photo's for putting them back and stripped them off, I have been on eBay and ordered new springs and shoes, the shoes are here already but waiting for the spring set also found a hole in the handbrake lever dust boot which will either be repaired or replaced if I can find a supplier. Will put the number of these items on when I have fitted them.

Next came cleaning the axle, this was done over a 2 day period first with sand blasting then the needle gun and then the rotary wire brush, not for the faint hearted but the results are defiantly worth it.

Axle before

Axle after

I then attacked it with the hammerite and you can see the results. The brake areas I have sprayed with high temp paint which I shall also use on the brake drums when I get round to them, 2 days of hard lifting and cleaning but it looks like new.

Now for the oil leaks, I suspected that the leak was from the gasket but did not want to fit the axle and find out it was from the pinion so I bought the oil seal and the gasket. The first to get a look at was the gasket, this was fixed on with a red sealant. I don't know if this is factory fit or has been replaced in the past but gave it a good cleaning.

I also gave to inside a good staring at as I ain't got a clue what I was looking for, but all seems well; no wear on the teeth and no play or movement in the cogs or the shims so all good.

I bought some hylomar red for the refitting of the gasket and cover just to ensure a good seal, tightened it all back together and fingers crossed.
The next job was the pinion oil seal, I have never; and I imagine nearly everyone reading this will never have changed a one of these, so youtube got a good seeing to and it looked so easy; famous last words.
Well surprisingly enough it was just that easy.
First job is to mark where the nut is positioned and to count the threads, this is because it has to go back exactly where it came from. It is factory torqued and there is a crush washer that needs to be pulled up to its original position.

Next, remove the nut, I had to use a impact gun to do this and a fully pressurised air bottle as it was on that tight. Once off, the flange just pulled off.

And there is the oil seal, it was covered in a lot of dust and crud which I imagine was from the sand blasting even though I tried to keep the stream away from the joint. On youtube it says to remove with special oil seal removal tool, ye right. I am afraid I had to revert to old fashioned methods of brute force and a huge amount of ignorance.

After a bit of persuasion out it came, of course I did try the new one up against it before whacking it. Here it is alongside the inside of the flange.

This is the inside of the pinion. Unfortunately I forgot to get a shot of the new oil seal in position, but it went in easy enough I just sprayed the inside with WD40 to give a little lube; fitted it in square and using a block of wood tapped all around until it was in position. I then replaced the flange on the paint marks and tightened back up until the paint marks all aligned and the correct count of threads were showing.
Of course I did all this on a bench, I would imagine it is a different ball game lying on you back under the car.
I had a run out and picked up a litre of 80 - 90 mineral oil and topped it up, I was expecting it to overflow from the fill hole but it took the whole litre straight of, I shall make enquiries as to the volume as it may require more to fill to correct level. I know a man who will know.
I have spoken to Cat at Flo-flex again today who has tracked down the 2 void bushes for the rear suspension but unfortunately has not had much luck on the rubber bobbin type bushes. She plans to keep on looking and is happy to make a mold if I can get a bush in good condition, unfortunately they need to be forced out and this squishes them a bit so no good for mold making. If anyone out they has a new bobbin bush that a mold can be made from then please let me know as once they have a set made then they will be available to any Kallista owner that wants to re-bush there car.
Well that's about all I got done this time home, hope for better progress next time if Christmas doesn't get in the way, I've asked Santa for Halfords vouchers.
See ya Paul

Thursday 24/11/11

Hi

Back again for a weeks leave, I did a 3 week trip again as one of the lads went sick; lucky me. That's 3 weeks overtime since I bought the car and over 3/4's of my expected budget covered, 1 more extra week and I'll be looking at side exhausts.

While away I have been trolling through ebay looking for some bargains and managed to pick up a few, the best being an original pair of Boge oil filled rear shocks for a Vauxhall Magnum. These are the shocks fitted to the Lima and will also fit the Kallista, unfortunately on trying them I found the bush holes larger than those fitted at 15mm where the Kallista has a 12mm bolt, still; not a problem as I just need to fit stainless steel inserts which I have already sorted, only cost £40 plus p&p. I was going to buy the Spax adjustable but having saved over £100 by buying originals I am well happy I shall also get a comfy ride instead of a sporty one.

I also got a bit indulgent and bought a Panther sculpture to fit on the new grill when I fit it, cost a bit more than I was hoping but they do look good.

I was also wondering where to go to to buy new front brake caliper shims, pins and clips, well I finally found the Tech page on the Panther car club web site. I new there was one somewhere as I had read references to it but could never find it, then I finally looked in the Jump To drop down section and there at the bottom was the link to the Tech page. It is full of useful info including an article posted by Terry Borton on where to buy the shim kit and the number on ebay. So here it is for all.

Ebay # 310353988329

Big Red shim kit 

Shim kit

The rear axle is a modified Capri 2.8 Atlas which are still well catered for, so finding a Pinion oil seal and gasket for the diff was easy enough, I went for the upgraded seal and gasket on the premise that if its good enough for a rally car then its good enough for a Sunday driver like me. Just hope it fits.

Pinion seal Ebay address

Rally pinion oil seal

Diff gasket Ebay address

Atlas axle Diff gasket

Pinion oil seal & gasket

I also picked up an original Cortina void bush removal fitting tool for a fiver, very lucky as I have spent the afternoon removing the void bushes and it would have been a much harder job without it. When this job is done and anyone needs to borrow then just let me know.

Cortina void bush removal tool

I have been in contact with Terry about rear bushes for the Kallista and found that Deflex supplied a set of bushes for the car, unfortunately Deflex are no longer with us as they were bought up by Flo-flex. I have been in contact with Flo-flex and sent off a sample of the rear bushes, there are 3 different bushes fitted. The axle and upper arm are Cortina void bushes both slightly different, the Panhard rod and the lower arm bushes are of the bobbin type and are of the same size. I have posted the sample set today on next day delivery so hopefully i shall get a call soon saying they can supply, I hope so as the bobbin bushes get slightly distorted when removed as a lot of force is required so I doubt they will be able to be re-fitted. with this being a bit of a worry I have left the other ones in position until I get a ya or na. Which means my trip to the powder coaters is delayed.

Another problem that I have found is that the top of the springs have a rubber interface fitted between the spring and chassis contact, this is riveted on, I could unfold the rivet and remove the rubber but it could cause damage. So I'm thinking of sandblasting and spraying these myself as I don't think they will like the powder coater's oven.

Rear springs

You can see the rubber on the top and under the top turn of the spring.

Not much done today, but will crack on tomorrow.

See ya Paul

Tuesday 01/11/2011

Hi

Well last day home today so been rather busy, all of the jobs that should have been done during the week have been handed down to me. Tried to escape but she had me, so after 2 cars washed all the floors vacuumed, washed and believe it or not; steam cleaned, add a few other bits and I was free.

I did manage to get most of the jobs I had planned done but the highlight of the day was the arrival of the post man, he had the most fantastic steering wheel I have ever laid eye's, I've told Lynne that she is on the settee tonight and the steering wheel is getting her side of the bed.

My baby

Isn't she lovely! well some people are easily pleased. £108 + p+p and well worth it.

I started with the fuel tank, I had one of the brackets off yesterday so just one left before it could be removed, I new there was not much fuel in but the jack went under anyway. After a look in the back of the car I found the fuel filler pipe and the sender unit, and after disconnecting them all got the last bracket off

Filler and sender unit

There are no bolts inside the car so it just lowered out nice and easy, I managed to empty around 4 litres out of the tank and this went into Lynne's car.

Fuel tank

I was a bit concerned considering the condition of the rest of the car as to the state of the tank, but I was surprised at how good a condition it is in. Not only the tank but the whole area above and around where it sits is very clean and in great condition, so all this needs is a good clean and spray paint.

The rest was not so easy as the tank, I first removed the hand brake mechanism which is just 2 R clips holding a pin and a bar that goes thru a bush attached to the diff, this was the easy bit

hand brake mech

The next step was to jack the weight of the axle but not lift it of the stands and then the first bit of the suspension system the Panhard rod. This was the start of the Battle of the Bolt, even my big air ratchet could not budge these, I even tried heating them but it eventually came down to the grinder which soon had them off, shame really as these are high tensile bolts which I will have to replace. The next battle came with the top 2 nuts on the dampers, no matter what I tried they would not budge so again the grinder took over.

After these 2 main items that hold everything up, it all was resting on the springs and the jack, I then removed the bolts from the prop shaft after paint marking the 2 flanges, I probably did not need to mark this but just to make sure; I shall chisel mark the paint marking before sand blasting. The rest of the nuts came of with the big gun and left them in place. The bolts I was most worried about was the top spring bolts but surprise surprise there practically threw themselves at me, it was strange though that the pass side had a 17mm head and the drivers had a 13mm head I found the same on some of the other bolts 19mm one side and 17mm the other. What's that about.

Spring un-bolted

Wheels on ready to drop

 I now fitted the wheels so there was less of a drop before I removed all of the other bolts, it was now just a matter of sliding off the prop shaft and levering the arms out from there brackets.

After releasing the jack out it rolled, I still had the brake pipe connected which I had difficulty getting at before so removed that and pulled out the axle.

You can see the oil stain that much clearer now on the diff, I don't know if its the pinion oil seal or just the cover gasket so I will have to change both just to make sure, well next time home.

I have received a number of emails from people after reading my blog and I would like to thank them for there help and advice, of course Terry is helping me continuously which is a great. John Manuel who let me know about the pit falls of changing seats even though they advertise as fitting the Kallista. This morning I received a very interesting one from Alun Williams concerning my thoughts of powder coating the drum brakes. Alun was an accident investigator for VOSA and has seen a number of incidents where the wheel nuts have become loose and the wheels coming off due to the powder coating softening because of the heat generated during braking. Again something that would never come to mind. 

I also received another email from Paul Yates, I had been in contact with Paul before concerning rocker covers. Paul has a website www.regaliarockercovers.co.uk and he makes rocker covers for specialist cars with the Essex engine, I contacted Paul thinking that the Essex had the same rocker design as the Cologne v6 and if he could make a set with Panther or Kallista imprinted in the top as he does with his others. Unfortunately this is not the case, but I am sure I am not the only one who would like a pair of alloy rocker covers, I have been looking on Ebay and they are quite a regular item and always go for around £130. SO if there are any like minded Kallisa owners reading this then contact Paul at his web site and maybe if enough people want a pair he will design a set for us.

Well that's all for this time home, back away for another 2 weeks.

see ya Paul

Monday 31/10/2011

Hi

Well the last bolt went into the subframe today and what a happy chappy I was.

First I had to go hunting for the new nuts and bolts, I also received an email from Terry concerning the positioning of these bolts and the importance of getting them in the correct way around. I never thought that this was an issue but as Terry explained the join area is a potential shear point as a number of owners have found out. You need to fit the bolts from the inside to the outside keeping the threads away from the scissor action 

Dome nut

The new bolts are stainless 12mm x 100mm 8.8 tensile strength and at Terry's suggestion I replaced the normal nut with a dome nut to give a nice clean finish. I was a bit worried about maintaining the tightness of the dome nuts so belt and braces I fitted a spring washer and also a good dab of thread lock, never coming off and at only £2.40 for both side I was well surprised

All that's left is to tighten the track rod ends and the tie rods but I shall leave this and do some basic tracking when the wheels are on so it will drive safely to the garage for its MOT and pro tracking.

I also fitted the other hub after a good strip and clean of the bearing, weather caps on and all done. 

So that's that now for the back end.

I have spent most of the day studying the rear underside and taking lots of photo's, I was going to push the car out to turn it around for easier access but a reworking of the work area in the garage has canceled this move.

It seems that everything that contains oil in this car leaks, the diff being no different, it looks like the oil seal has gone. There is nothing on the garage floor but as you can see from the photo the oiling around the diff, hopefully it is just the cover gasket that is leaking.

Diff oil leak

Anyone who has read this blog from the start and seen the state of the front suspension will not be at all surprised by the condition of the back end, but as with the front its only surface rust and underneath is good steel and will look like new with a good blast and powder coat.

Pass side rear suspension

 Well got to start somewhere:- so

First off is the rear exhaust pipe, this had a new U clamp on which came of easy, then I got wondering what the drums were like so off they came.

Drum brake

The inside of the drums looks good just the surface rust on the outside, I'll have these powder coated. The inside are a bit seized as you would expect after so long unused, I have over my numerous years owned around 15 cars yet I have never stripped down a drum brake, disc brakes yes but never drums. Looks a bit daunting but what the hell I'll give it a go. The bearing sound Ok but will check when I tear it apart.

Next to come off was the spare wheel, luggage rack, number plate, lamp cluster and bumper. I have labeled all of the wiring as I removed it and found a bit of damage that will need sorting.

Sad back end

The damage is to the number plate / lamp cluster holder, this is just flimsy plastic, also all of the lamps will need replacing. I shall contact Bruno to see if he has a new one and lamps and also order new Spax dampers.

You can see the broken section by the rust stained area, if a new one is not available I shall repair and fiberglass the inside to give it more strength. The break had been looked at in the past as a newish piece of angle ally was bolted on to keep it in place. The number plate could do with replacing but as this one is the original Panther plate I shall give it a good clean and re-fit it.

Once the bumper was off I started looking at the fuel tank, part of the work done to the car before I bought it was the fuel system. All of the the pipe work from the tank to the fuel pump has been replaced also there are new stainless bolts in the tank brackets. The brackets need replacing so I shall make 2 new one's up  in stainless. I never finished removing the fuel tank, got to figure that one out so that's tomorrows job. 'O' yes and drop the whole rear axle suspension unit. Just a little job.

See ya Paul

Wheel Bearings

Hi

Not much time to do things today but a bit of progress on the hubs, the roller bearings in the hubs (i have read) have a life of around 100,000 miles, so at 35,000 on the clock jut a clean, check, re-grease and re-fit.

The outer bearing is easy to remove and clean as it comes of with the removal of the hub, the inner roller is retained by the grease seal which has to be removed first. The book says to replace the seals after removal as they get damaged, I had no problem with the removal just a wide blade driver under the seal and it popped out, it was just a matter of cleaning out all the old grease and have a close inspection to ensure all is fine.

Hub bearing

Here are all the bits laid out, right to left are:- Grease seal, inner roller, outer roller, tab washer, nut, nut cap and split pin. There are 2 more parts to the bearing that I have not removed and these are the other half's of the two rollers. These only need to be removed if replacing the bearing as they need to be knocked out with a drift and may get damaged.

Hub inner bearing

You can see the 2 half's of the un-removed bearing in position on the cleaned hub.

I cleaned out as much of the old grease as I could and packed the inner race with new grease working it into the rollers as much as I could then slipped it in followed by the cleaned and checked grease seal. The hub is now fitted onto the stub shaft, the outer bearing is packed with grease and slid into position followed by the tab washer. 

Now comes the tightening, put the nut on and tighten by hand until the hub is positioned fully back, it is important that a little float is allowed in the hub to take into account of the expansion that will take place due to the friction heat created when driving. The Haynes manual says to tighten to 27 lb ft which is around 37Nm then to turn back 90 deg's to give the end float, unfortunately my torque wrench starts at around 50Nm so I had to use another method. Basically I just tightened with a shifter turning the hub constantly until the end float was lost then turned back 90 deg's. Give the hub a shake and the hub just moved around a mil which when on the road should take up to the correct tightness. I shall check again once the car has done a few miles.

Hub into position

I then fitted the nut cap and split pin, the cover is still wet from painting and shall fit tomorrow.

I have cleaned up the original disks, only a very small lip around the outer edge which I have ground off, sanded and cleaned the disc with brake cleaner and it looks in great condition.

There were 2 bearing manufactures used on the Cortina, Timken and Skefco, the bearings fitted on my 86 is Skefco.

SKF bearing

This is the outer bearing with the bearing i.d stamped on  SKF EK-LM11749, I am sure that if anyone requires the Timkin order number Terry at the panther club will have it or know's who has it.
Just need to fit the other hub, find some new nuts & bolts for the subframe to chassis fit the wheels and I will be able to have a rolling car, tomorrow i think.
See ya Paul

Steering Rack Modification

Hi

First off! for those of you who spotted yesterdays deliberate mistake then well done, for those of you who did not spot it; then 'what mistake'.

I foolishly got the control arms on the wrong sides, it was not until this morning when I tried to fit the track rod ends that I realised the internal tapper was upside down. Once I stopped swearing I found it was not as big a problem as I originally thought, It just required the tension in the spring being held while the control arm nuts were removed and the arms swapped round.

Spring being held

I fitted a spring compressor on the underside of the lower arm and the other end over the upper arm, a bit of tension to hold then gingerly undid the control arm nuts. I refitted the dampers and around 40mins later all done.

The paint was dry on the steering rod and knuckle, and the stiffer one soaked over night in oil was nice and free so time for my small mod to prevent future seizing. The universal steering rack boots are perfect for the job and cheap at only around £5.

Universal boots

The boots have cut of areas to fit lots of sizes, the top was is uncut and the lower ready to fit.

Boot fitted

I first packed the knuckle with grease then slid the boot over, being rubber I was able to stretch it over all the lumpy bits. One end I secured with a tie wrap and left the other end until bolted to what was left in the car.

Not a great photo but you get the idea, once bolted on I slid the boot over the bolt and tie wrapped in place.

Rack end

Once the sub frame was slide in place I pushed on the steering rod knuckle end, unfortunately I got the fit wrong and the steering wheel is a few degrees out, I am hoping that when I change the wheel I can sort it, If not the the rack will have to come off again to turn the knuckle. 

Once in place I packed with grease and slid down the boot,

Unfortunately I have not been able to get a tie wrap to stay in place on the bottom end yet as it keeps sliding of but I'll get there.

The subframe went in quite easily considering its awkward size and shape, a few things to remember when fitting.

First the large black plastic washers need to be in place before jacking into position.

large black washer

Secondly, Don't forget when positioning the subframe the steering knuckle is slid in first. You can't fit after without unbolting the steering rack.

How did I learn this, by firstly fitting without doing either, secondly by fitting with the big black washers and not the steering knuckle then thirdly by fitting the right way.

The big bushes for the subframe were a bit difficult to fit at first as the lead edges were to shallow so a little shave and a spray of silicon grease and they slid in position, there was an i.d mark showing the upside to get it right.

Subframe in postion

All in all the whole job of removing and re-building was not that difficult, I replaced all of the bushes, ball joints, track ends and dampers. Sand blasted everything and had most pieces powder coated, those pieces not coated were hammerited. 

Before

After

Before

After

 The next job is to fit the hubs and get the wheels on, hopefully tomorrow.

See ya Paul

Subframe and Suspension

Hi

Back home again after a 3 week stint onboard my ship, 1 week of before I return so I need to cram in as much time on the car as my wife will allow.

I did not get as much done last time home as I would have liked but I did crack on, it was mostly underside work which I am finished with for the time being although no where near fully finished. Last time I managed to get some protection on the outer and importantly the inside of the framework. The sides and under were cleaned of all rust that I could access while on stands, the areas that I had difficulty getting at were given a rust cure treatment, then primed and 2 coats of chassis paint applied. Thankfully I could find no more signs of pitting or holes in the box sections, I then got out my Schultz gun. Now this is one messy job, first off I fitted the extension hose and got right inside all of the box as far as I could spray with Vactan rust cure. I used over 1 1/2 litres in the hope of hitting anything that was not previously treated. Then it was the turn of the wax oil, over 4 litres was sprayed inside the box section and around half a litre over the garage floor and me. I also looked at where water was ingressing through the fuel pipe drilling's as this was the cause of the underside rusting, I had a tube of flexible roofing sealant handy so I sealed everything I could find with this. Next was the gap where the body work ends and the chassis begins this had a nice big gap which you can't really see with the wings on, no more gap now. Once the engine, gearbox and exhaust are all of I shall be able to get further underneath and preserve everything before I spray with schulz or some other underseal.

Typically the day before I left my new poly bushes arrived, I know I went for the cheaper option with the Flo-flex as opposed to the Superflex but as I said before for only a couple of thousand miles a year around country roads do I really need track running gear. Anyway I did do a search on Flo-flex and was surprised at some of the good comments.

http://passionford.com/forum/ford-sierra-sapphire-rs500-cosworth/221543-powerflex-v-flo-flex.html

Flo-flex poly bushes

As you can see, a rather bright shade of orange.
The Superflex and Powerflex have a different colour scheme, each of there colours denotes the hardness (shore rating) of the poly, so each different use ie. wishbones will be one colour / hardness while an ARB may well have a different colour / hardness. Flo-flex does it a bit differently in that they use just one hardness therefore keeping the price down, but as you can see there is no skimping on quality; I originally bought Powerflex which I had to return and comparing the 2 I can see no difference.
http://www.floflex.co.uk/index.php?cPath=23_40_44&osCsid=f4819c91798b26c3c59d41d08e58aadd

Cortina Mk 4/5 poly bushes used for the front suspension and steering.

• CRT45X Cross member mounting set £14.75p

These come in a set of 4 for the Cortina, call and ask for only 2 and stipulate the insert to be 65mm not 70mm as used on the other 2 not required. I ended up with 70mm inserts as you can see in the photo and had to put them on the lathe.

• CRT45FRNTG Steering rack large £7.26
• CRT45FRNTF Steering rack small £6.05
• CRT45FRNTC Tie bar                  £12.10
• CRT45FRNTB Lower wishbone    £14.52
• CRT45FRNTA Upper wishbone    £14.52

These all come with galvo inserts or there is also a stainless option that I went for at £3 per insert.

http://www.superflex.co.uk/products.php?cat=148

The Superflex bushes do look the biz and if I never had next to every item on the car to replace I may well have went for them.

• SF148-1547KSS front subframe      £52.75
• SF148-1187K Steering rack kit        £18.75
• SF148-0046KSS Tie bar                 £25.75
• SF148-0262KSS Lower wishbone  £30.75
• SF148--1401KSS Upper wishbone £110

All of these above prices are subject to VAT and P+P.

I have spent some of yesterday and most of today re-building the front subframe and boy what a difference from when I first took it out.

Just a reminder

Fitting the steering rack and the bushes into the arms went without a problem, the fitting of the springs was a bit more problematic and dangerous if not done correctly.
For any one wishing to do this here is a step guide.

First of is safety, these things can cause serious injury or kill if not handled correctly while under compression so beware.
I used a internal set of spring compressors, these are a slimmer set than the normal heavy duty ones as they have to fit through the small space where the gas damper fits, you can also use them for external compression.

1st stage

Place the spring in position, there is a stop on the bottom where the spring end is located, ground end up. I had pieces of rubber gasket material ready so as not to damage the powder coat, slip the compressors in from the bottom and hand tighten on to spring. Try and get the back one the highest as it has the most work to do.

2nd stage

Tighten the nuts on the compressor evenly and compress the spring far enough down so that the back end can slip under the upper locating ring. Once this is achieved you can fit the control arm onto the upper and lower ball joints. The spring will not stay in place just yet because of its weight so clamps are required.

3rd stage

Fit the G clamps to hold the spring in place over the upper locating ring.

4th stage

You can now undo the compressors, again take care as even though the spring is now safely trapped the compressors can get a bit stuck and needs a tap which releases them a bit with a loud crack. Finger out of the way, just undo evenly and out they will pop.

5th stage

The last job is to fit the damper, I have fitted gas dampers from my local auto supplier for around £30 each, these locate on the bottom 2 studs and you feed the long bolt in the top. This can take a bit of wiggling as you cannot move the lower arm to position it correctly but with a toggle bar it went in Ok.
I have been getting into the habit of painting every nut & bolt as I tighten it, this ensures I don't miss torquing any up and prevents bits dropping of at 70mph, so any unpainted bolts will need checking at the end.
The last job of the day was the removal of the steering rod and knuckle joints, I had already removed the lower one that went onto the rack and this was really stiff, the one coming from nearest the steering wheel was lovely and free; so I guess the MOT failure I had on notchy steering was down to the lower knuckle. Its hardly surprising that this was to blame seeing as how there is zero protection from the weather. I have managed with a lot of WD40 and oil to get it moving freely and ready to fit, I have also bought a set of universal steering rack boots. I am going to slide these up the steering rod when I fit it, then fill the knuckles full of grease and slide the boots over them, a couple of tie wraps and this should prevent any future seizing. I have all the steering bits painted so hopefully tomorrow I should be in a position to fit the subframe as I need the car rolling to turn it and start on the rear suspension.
I have been debating since the purchase of this car as to the colour it will end up, I was always after a 2 tone finish but could not decide on red and cream / ivory or red and black. Well the decision was made for me.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200664549116?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648
(Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to copy a photo from ebay)
But I am now the owner of this fantastic original Kallista steering wheel in maroon & cream leather a bit expensive at £108 and I must apologize to the other guy bidding but I was determend to get it and had a £350 max on it; stupid but hey!. So the colour coding of the car is sorted. 2 tone in Maroon candy with cream frost paint and hopefully a leather interior with the same colours, I also secured a pair of chrome over riders, just had to get rid of them plastic ones.
Well that's all for today
See ya Paul