Estate trailling arms part3

So I finally got to complete the trailling arm swap this morning. The halfshaft with new UJ had it's splines cleaned and greased, the new hub securing nylocs were tightened (gently) and it was time to put the drum back on.

The drum that came off had a couple of fairly deep grooves in it from the shoe rivets in a previous life. I had noticed this before but this time I could remedy it. I still have the original rear brakes off the pi from when I upgraded to Stag rears, so a quick ferret around had one of the pi ones ready to put on. The picture shows the grooved original on the right.

After putting the replacement drum on, reseting the rear brake adjusters and reconnecting the handbrake cables it was time to put the wheels back on and see what difference this work had made.

Driving the estate down the road I could instantly feel something missing.

When I replaced the original rubber bushes in the trailling arms for yellow poly ones I fitted new CW 520lb uprated springs. There has always been a little harshness from the rear end with no weight on board, it has always felt smoother with rear passengers. I put this down to the uprated rear springs.

This harshness has now gone, so it must have been down to the inferior yellow polys, good news.

So then I tried the estate up to about 70, much quieter, well you can here the exhaust more actually, but the knackered UJ must have been contributing it's own tune to the naturally more boomy estate ride. So that was two very noticeable differences, makes the job seem more worthwhile and if I can score some petrol tonight, we can go on the 'April fool's run' tomorrow.

Estate trailling arms part2 and my achilles heel

So the long day at work yesterday lasted just over 15hours, I was quite relieved to find that the expected long day today didn't materialise. So with a car run booked for Sunday there was no time to lose.  

 30mins in, the old trailling arm was off and after a bit of a struggle the refurbed arm was on and bolted up. But then disaster struck.

Whilst checking the driveshaft outer half, in preparation to regrease and slide it back into the inner section, I found the UJ was notchy and stiff in one plane. No play, but very stiff and very knackered.

Everybody reading this blog who works on their car will have an Achilles heel, think about it, something that you really detest and hate doing, that you always have problems with. Mine is UJs

After dismantling, this was what I found in the 'sealed for life' UJ. At least replacing this UJ will make a difference. After spending far too long replacing the joint I was left with the rebuilt shaft. 

I wont have any chance to get the shaft refitted and the handbrake and rear shoes reset until Saturday now, but at least this won't need doing first. I hate doing UJs.



Estate trailling arms part1

Having obtained a spare pair of trailing arms and having become concerned over the suitability of regular poly bushes to avoif NVH on an estate, I cleaned and installed some superflex items to the spare arms and prepared to change them. Recent warm weather and Amanda working 10-6 gave me a spare hour or so yesterday to get started.

Having removed the rear wheel after jacking the car up and supporting under the rear sill jacking point, the handbrake cable was disconnected, the drum was removed and the 6 small retaining nuts removed from their studs. Driveshaft withdrawn and brake backplate secured out of the way after undoing the brake pipe retaining nut on the trailling arm bracket, left me with the scene below.

The rear shock retaining nut was removed after supporting the underside of the trailling arm. Once undone the jack can be carefully lowered and the spring removed, I had already loosened the trailling arm pivot bolts.

So the trailling arm was removed and on the floor. I installed new springs, poly insulators and the poly bushes shortly after we bought the estate, so the insulators were taken from these arms, wiped and placed into the cleaned arms in readiness to reinstall.

The picture above shows the replacement arm ready to go in, I had cleaned it up and sprayed with clear laquer. Looks much better.

Replacement is just reversal of removal, cleaning and greasing the splines on the driveshaft is a good maintenance idea and new nyloc nuts on the six small hub retaining studs should be considered essential. The box of new nylocs is just showing at the bottom of the picture.

The brake shoes and inside of the drum were sprayed with brake cleaner to safely remove any dust and the drum and wheel were replaced. The trailling arm bolts should be tightened with the car's weight on them and the handbrake will need to be adjusted once the nearside is completed. This took an hour and a half to do one side, the other side will have to wait until the next couple of hectic long days at work have finished. Mind you we need the car for an April fool's day run on Sunday.



Stoneleigh 2012

The scene at our house the morning before Stoneleigh, Mum and Dad had arrived a couple of days before, so just the trailer to pack and 100miles to travel.

When we arrived at 'the cowsheds' Mike Weaver was already waiting with the FF estate on the trailer, so that was 3 of the cars for the stand already there.

 The trip down was foggy and wet, so the estate had another wash and polish ready for the next day. Mum and Dad did the same with Cecil, by the time the photo above was taken, Andy Roberts had arrived with Janey the Stag saloon and Kevin and Ann Warrington had buffed  their French blue 2000 OPaL to perfection.

Sunday saw the rest of the show cars arrive bright and early including Pete Johnson's Mk1 pi estate, formerly known as 'Gonzo', the shots above and below show the stand during the day.

It's fair to say the stand was busy all day, we had a great time.

Thanks to all who helped us put on the stand at Stoneleigh.