"Underneath", installment #9
Finally starting to bolt things back together; I was starting to
tire of only tearing apart, cleaning, painting, coating and above all,
spending, without much to show for it.
The front suspension is coming together quickly. The lower
fulcrum pins, with the a-arms, etc, went in pretty well, although there
was one spooky moment. The threads in the crossmember I had cleaned out
with a tap, just before I bought the thread-chaser set, and I was afraid
a bit too much metal got removed. It's not that many foot-pounds
required, per the manual, but my Sears Craftsman torque wrench literally
fell apart in my hands, so I had to use the same borrowed unit that
earlier resulted in a damaged front hub. So, I'm turning and turning,
not a lot of resistance, but no 'click' either. I had about resigned
myself to a damaged crossmember when I finally got a 'click'. Whew!
After that, the lower balljoints, poly snubbers and spindles went right
on. I took some more photos. Look at all the pretty colors! :^)
The rubber coil spring spacers fit the crossmember nice. They
can also be stretched a bit to fit the new "Dale's" springs. But getting
all three parts to go together has so far eluded me; I bet I've used a
1/4 bottle of dishwashing liquid as lubricant while trying!
Saturday, I went to visit fellow Lister Larry Paulick and a
couple other interested parties for some Tiger activity; I had a chance
to show the rear-axle-seal retainers to a British car mechanic. He
simply told me to pound away on those seals and they'd come out. When I
got home, I found he was right, I just needed reassurance I wasn't
ruining an irreplaceable part. They cleaned up nice. Now, I have to
worry a mite about all of the powdercoating and POR-15 I've been putting
on everything affecting the thickness of the "stack" of parts that will
impact the end-float of the axle bearings.
A comment was made Saturday about the conversion to rear discs
and the effect on the brake lines. It was pointed out that the Fiat
calipers are 'floating', thus move a bit; the suggestion was to
transition to a braided flex line to each caliper. I could see an
alternative of using a rigid line, but putting a spiral (helix?) in the
line to allow some flex, as you often see right at the master cylinders
(esp for clutches) on many newer cars. BTW, I finally got around to
reassembling the rear calipers after painting; they went together OK,
but getting the second pad in each is a _bear_; it'll be tougher still
once on the car and one wants to install replacement or upgraded pads.
At lunchtime today, I'll go up to pick up the Caterpillar bolts
that I ordered Friday. They were helpful, but I made sure I didn't tell
them what the bolts were for until after the order was paid for. I'm
going to have to re-use the thick washers at the crossmember-to-car,
rear-shocks-to-axle-housing, and sway-bar-to-a-arm locations.
Lawrence R. Wright
Purchasing Analyst
Andrews Office Products Div. of USOP
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
|