Refurb underway (finally)

[Mazza]

Some progress made today, but not a lot!!!!
Carried on spraying all the various nuts and bolts with penetrating fluid....the fumes got so bad in the garage had to open the door

But I did have a tidy up and put all the bigger bits ( wheels etc ) out of the way in the shed.

Once the air had cleared I carried on..... very carefully removed the 6 nuts that held the heat shield (10mm AF)
These nuts have integral washers about 1in dia,
Happily they all undid without snapping off the stud. ( so good start to the days’ proceedings)

It was a bit fiddly to get out only because the front end of the exhaust is still in place.

Next the brake cables......slid the gaiter out of the way and got to the locking nuts fairly easily 9mmAF and 12mmAF

Only took the picture so I would have some idea of where they should be when its all reassembled.
( To that end I been like paparazzi photographer and have taken loads doing all this)

Having removed the heat shield I could now see the cable ducts which were stuck, but a bit of fluid , a tap with a spanner and wiggling with a pair of pliers out they came

Need new cables as one had the outer sheath broken in two places.

Easy bit next, disconnected the electrical cables, diff cable, brake wear pad, and the two ABS cables.

At this point after numerous soakings and cleaning out the dreaded M8 captive hex bolts, I thought I would try to break/loosen all of the remaining nut and bolts.
Two brake pipe unions ( 11mm brake spanner ) ok
Two large Beam bolts. (22mmAF socket with breaker bar) , definitely moved but thinking about it now could be undoing the main bolt rather that just the nut....check that later!

Then ran into a bit of a problem as the 1/2in drive H6 Hex socket that I have would only fit the front captive nuts on each side. The rear ones are close to a flange in the plate and my socket would not seat correctly.
You will have seen in the earlier post that @Lee came to my rescue again.
So been out an bought a 3/8 drive

Ready for tomorrow now......and will follow the instructions as per @Synclare , and hopefully they will undo without any problems.

Just realised writing this, that I forgot to have a go at loosening the diff bolt.........

So all being well tomorrow.......should have it all on the floor.

( and for those that frequent the ZedSheds’, for you, it must be like watching it in super slow motion............and if you think that this is slow, wait till I try and put it all back together

 

[Stevo7682]

Good to see your making progress

It's not a race

When the guys do a rear end rebuild down at Zedshed there is 4 or 5 of them on a job they have done several times now so of course they rattle through it .
Just take your time be methodical and you will get there in the end

Stephen.

 

[t-tony]

When I took the diff. out of an old E30 saloon I got an 18mm 3/8" drive socket and cut it down so that it was only as deep as the bolt heads then I could use a ratchet on them rather than a spanner.

Tony.

 

[Lee]

Good to see your making progress

It's not a race

When the guys do a rear end rebuild down at Zedshed there is 4 or 5 of them on a job they have done several times now so of course they rattle through it .
Just take your time be methodical and you will get there in the end

Stephen.

You'll be lucky to see more than 2. We only ever have two people working at one time. We get another pair of hands in when lifting the subframe back in. Just not enough room under the car.

 

[Mint]

Great progress so far, it's not a race. Love your tidy garage

 

[Mazza]

Right, today started for me at 4.30 thanks to a neighbour revving his car to defrost it...
Still, by 7.00am had done last weeks ironing , all the washing and been to Tesco and did some shopping.

At 7.30 I went into ZedShed mode ( sorry Lean-to mode)

Started in the approved and correct fashion ....Tea and sausage butties

I made a load of tea and filled up a thermos to save me time later on.

Armed with ipad ( so I can check all the advice that I have received) , phone ( got @Lee on speed dial ) and clipboard ( crib sheet ) , went out to the garage.
First job, insert my precision custom brake pedal depressor

Under the car like a ferret down a rabbit hole, undid the brake unions and capped the pipes off with brass blanks that I picked up a while back on ebay. Also used Ed Chinas tip of using a couple of the fingers cut off a rubber glove, wired them onto the open end of the brake hoses just to stop fluid dripping out all over me.

Removed the diff nut but left the bolt in place

Then onto the dreaded M8Hex bolts....followed Adrians’ ( @Synclare ) instructions to the letter and no problems what so ever What a relief ...I was dreading doing that bit.

Put the trolley jack , with a wheeled plate, under the diff and took the weight.
The undid the two 22mmAF nuts that locate the beam bushes. Again all the spraying of penetrating fluid had worked its magic and both undid really easily.
Two side plates removed, and pulled out the diff bolt.

Started to lower and not surprisingly did get stuck. Difficult to get the balance point exact, but with a bit of persuasion, the use of a prybar, another axle stand and second jack, eventually eased it down.

Then hey presto the Eagle had landed

The underside is not too bad at all and has been treated to protect it. I will wash it all later and check it thoroughly.
My fuel tank straps are crap.....but they wont be going back on anyway so not bothered.

I checked the pins on either side to ensure they hadn’t been bent and they look ok. Also put an axle stand under the end of the propshaft so its not hanging on the centre bearing.

Before anyone comments ....thats a leaf .....I didn't have any little accidents

I would like to say I am totally grateful to everyone on this forum that has given me tips, help, and support in getting it this far.
@Lee , there is one thing you didn't tell me ......how frigging heavy this lump is


Anyway the wheel plate was really useful in moving it about. I put a couple of seed trays under the discs to save the back plates getting damaged as I dragged it back into the garage.

Bit of a clean up and that was it for today, I will start dismantling the assembly tomorrow, and I am looking forward to doing it.


Hmmmm.......might as well do the front end as well

 

[Lee]

Amazing effort man. And it didn’t even take you that long. One thing I can see, we removed the arch liners it gives you more access to the beam and plates.

Top work. What’s the plan for the new bushes ?

 

[Mazza]

I’ll get the arch liners off to make it easier on the assembly. Thanks for that.

New bushes will just be standard rubber ones......and apparently there is somewhere in Basingstoke that does a fitting service for them.
If only I could find out who and where.....

 

[Bazza]

Great work Mazza. I will assume new tanks straps will be used,

 

[Lee]

I’ll get the arch liners off to make it easier on the assembly. Thanks for that.

New bushes will just be standard rubber ones......and apparently there is somewhere in Basingstoke that does a fitting service for them.
If only I could find out who and where.....

Oh yeah I remember now we briefly spoke about it. Just let me know when you want to pop over. Shouldn’t take us more than 15mins to swap them over.

 

[Synclare]

Very satisfying isn't it When reassembling don't forget to ensure the trailing arms are at their normal ride height angle before torqueing up to avoid permanently twisting the bushes. Great job, trouble is you get tempted into other jobs whilst it's all out !

 

[Sean d]

Excellent work Pal, well done

 

[Jack Ratt]

Great job @Mazza you've earned a few Stella's

 

[t-tony]

Very well done Malc. What did you do after dinner

Tony.

 

[Mazza]

Took @Jack Ratt ’s advice.....

 

[Mint]

Excellent work Malc, you've made it look so easy. Just goes to show what can be achieved on your own (with a bit of help from the forum gurus). See if you can get a lie in tomorrow

 

[Fender2004]

Keep up the good work, you will laugh about it when it is all finished and wonder what all the fuss was about.

 

[Mazza]

Bit disappointing today as I didn’t get as far as I had hoped.

I started by spraying all the nuts and bolts that need to be removed.
Then proceeded to undo everything to get the beam out of the way.
Using my impact gun, the diff bolts undid easily, as did the outer trailing arm bolts. Couldnt get the gun on the inner ones so use breaker bar with a push on ratchet attachment. ( bought it after seeing one a few months ago on here by @t-tony )
All good and beam freed off and put it out of the way.

Then, removed the ABS sensors and wear indicator wiring.

Now it started to go wrong...
Went to remove the 12 Torx bolts from the driveshafts to diff and had no way of holding the axle still
What I should have done was loosened them when I loosened off the 4 propshaft to diff bolts earlier in the proceedings
Eventually, after thinking about it, I put a wheel nut back on and held it still using a long breaker bar with my foot on it. Used a smaller breaker bar on the torx bolts and it worked Happy again!!!

Celebrated this achievement with a cup of tea.....

Now ...in my mind...I thought...that the driveshafts just pulled out of the hubs.....But mine wouldn’t
I did try pulling, but to no avail. And I remembered when @ZedHead did his refurb, one of his was also stuck.
So thinking that there might be something mentioned in my Bentleys manual....went to have a look.

OH F***, theres a bloody nut on the end that is torqued to 200nm, and it recommends that this is undone while the car is on the ground.......BIT BLOODY LATE FOR THAT

AND absolutely no blame on me for not reading the book first !!!

Now I have to find a way to get it undone ......suggestions on a postcard to Dummy of BOGNOR !!!!

At this stage I could have removed the calipers, discs, brake shoes, pipework etc .....but decided that I needed a break while I work out a cunning plan to get that nut off and release the drive shafts from the hubs.

 

[t-tony]

Try the impact gun, unless you already did?

Tony.

 

[Synclare]

For what reason are you wanting to remove the driveshafts?