Hand brake

GBS came through with the handbrake kit which I picked up at Newark.
Handbrake mounted, and cabling roughly in place:

I still have the R clip on the handbrake crescent on top here - later I changed it, pin through from the top with washer and R clip on the bottom so gravity is holding the locating pin in place too.

The cable should also be attached with the top hole in the handbrake, i.e. to give maximum leverage

Clearance for the brake line 4 way above the handbrake cable is tight. Currently I have the 4 way mounted in the existing chassis hole. This is probably why it comes with a rivnut and bolt & will probably get mounted about 5mm higher in due course.

Revised route for the handbrake cable, copied from various other blogs, low around the hub and under/between the arms of the top wishbone. There is a P clip to install somewhere near where my thumb is - but probably not going on until I have the offside mocked up too:

Seatbelt mounting threads

My 7/16ths tap arrived from Ebay this evening, so cleaned out the seatbelt threads.

WD40 to lubricate, care/paranoia about cross threading the tap, and an adjustable spanner cleaned them up nicely. The inboard ones seemed to be heavily powder coated, this process seems like a must process rather than an option:

Before:

After:

I only need 2 taps for the project, this one and one for the front top balljoints, so no full tap kit. Adjustable spanner has to do. Half turn forward, quarter back & WD40, taking it slooow:

Inboard mounts clean:

Rear uprights - reversed the bolts

Much better - bolts reversed with the nuts inboard.

The 50mm bolts actually just fit in behind the hub, or would pass through the large holes in same so there should be no problem dismantling (if required) once everything is assembled.

All torqued up:

Rear hub/calliper & brake line

Before fixing the hand brake cable I wanted to understand the route; so decided to fit one of the half shafts, hub assembly.

This let me understand how the brake bracket fitted, which way round to put the hub bolts etc.  None of this is torqued up yet - purely done to understand layout, the caliper has to come off anyway to fit the disc, pads & to be bled.

Rear Brake hub/caliper fixing:

Worked out from other blogs the order from inboard to out is:

1. Zero rear upright
2. Zero caliper mount bracket - flat side inboard
3. Shaft hub
4. Calliper on upside down - otherwise there is no route for the handbrake cable

The shaft CV joints will compress to allow this to go together & the bolts are just long enough to get a nut on before tightening them up a little each and pulling everything snuggly together:

I decided to put the bracket bolt heads inboard, and nuts outboard - this means

1. I could place the bolts in the holes and push on the hub/bracket assembly just enough to get a nut on before tightening it.
2. I can remove them without having to remove the hub nuts & once the hub nuts are finally tightened they are never coming off - thought - thats what the big holes in the wheel hub are for! - inserting the bolts.

Addendum:

The more I look at this, bolts inboard, nuts outboard - the more I dislike it, looks nasty - I'll be swapping it round I think...

Update - when changing and maintaining the bearings the nuts will be going back on the outside - much easier to get a spanner to on a built up car!

 Identified handbrake cable route, The P clip will sit on the rear upright:

Addendum:
The cable will actually route lower than this and go under the top wishbone arm in the picture.

Everything in situe - I used the original old hub nuts to pull the hubs back onto the shaft splines, I have new hub nuts when I'm sure this isn't coming off again - I dont know if I can get the wheel studs back into it while assembled like this (should have thought of that earlier :) )

Caliper bolts:

My kit had a bag marked 'rear calliper' which contained 12x M10x50 bolts/washers/nylocs - the rear callipers need 2xM10x40(ish) bolts.

50mm is definitely too long - they would foul the disc, I cut down a couple of the 50mm bolts to 40mm , I might re do it a couple of mm longer to allow for the washer. These bolts will be threadlocked in, I need to decide if they need a locking/shake proof washer too.

This 50mm if tightened would emerge from the other side of the calliper:

Note this was re-worked with locking washers behind the bolts and slightly longer 43mm bolts Here

2mm longer at 42/43mm total would have been perfect -or- do without the washer These need a locking washer & will be re-fitted later.

Due to the mystery 12x nuts/bolts bag I am only short some M10 washers now - might be due to my habit of placing a washer under the head as well as the nut of every bolt :)

Front suspension

I decided to move on with the front suspension and get the rest of the bushes over with:

The kit now has a tube/spacer for the top of the shock, it was too long so I cut the nearside on in half. I prefer this to the offside (later) but still not entirely sure I like the narrow spacer -  I need some more washers anyway so may do away with this and go with 5-6 washers instead..

Offside wishbones in place:
The top wishbone rear chassis bracket wasn't at all square, it must have deformed during welding - its probably ok, just needed a few more washers:

This side was wide enough to take the spacer as supplied (see nearside) however I'm really not happy with this, i.e. no room for a washer between the spacer & chassis, I'm either going to cut down the spacer and go with the approach on the nearside, or replace it all with washers:

Thats as far as I can go, waiting on order of an M18 tap to clean  the top wishbone/balljoint thread & 2x M12 pinch bolts for the uprights.

Suspension washers and short bolts - correction

Talking to Richard @ Newark, I realised my mistake and the reason for my bolts being apparently short.

Scenarios:

1. Where the bolts go through the bottom of the rear hub, and a bolt head/nut faces up against a bush directly then - small & penny washers required to spread the load across the bush.
2. In all other places where a bolt head/nut faces up against a chassis bracket only a small washer is required - thus I save about 2mm per bolt in length.

I may leave the rear suspension as I have it - small & penny washers all round.
The front will be off again anyway to fit the side panels so will be small washers only.

Front nearside wishbones

Bottom balljoint and wishbone, no real issues except one of the three locking nuts which hold on the balljoint was slightly malformed and needed a little cleaning up with a file; balljoint nuts torqued:

Bolts downwards with the balljoint bracket underneath the wishbone; not critical but the weight when she is on her wheels is balljoint to wishbone rather than hanging off the bolts, and if any nuts lost then gravity holds in the bolts in (wishful thinking right?):

Started to try and fit the top balljoint, I think the IVA cover is still too long and I was too tired to work out how to screw this in without the locking nut moving as well. Then ran into an issue with the length of thread - it appears to run out of thread in the top wishbone tube before the ball join is screwed in fully.

Found its a known issue: RHOCar - Top Balljoint threads  M18 1.5 Thread

Looking to get the nominal 48mm between the back of the lock nut and centre of the balljoint.

I'll take a look at Newark and see if I can get some advice.

Ahah! - opened all the bolt bags !

I'm planning to go to the Newark Kit Car Show (provided the weather isnt so bad as to make the journey dangerous) , so also decided to check the bolts issue and make sure I pickup the right ones from GBS.

Issues at this point:

1. Rear suspension 240mm bolt was bent
2. Rear suspension top hub bolt too short 80 & 90mm in the bag, needs 2x 100mm instead

Actions:

I checked through all the remaining bolt bags, front upper/lower etc & the front lower bag had 2x 100mm bolts which don't appear to be needed. 

Addendum:

I found out from Richard @ Newark, the 100mm bolts are for the narrow body chassis (mine is GT) where the top wishbone bolt goes through a chassis upright as well as its bracket - great - this means I can use them on the rear end and will not miss them later.

So - the 2x 100mm will be used for the rear top bolt... compare the lower bolt here with the previous picture using a 90mm bolt

Before:

After:

Then the 80 & 90mm bolts from the rear top bag can be used on the front top - the rear brackets need an 80mm bolt rather than 75mm - the 75mm was probably just ok, but I'm much happier with it now:

Resulting need list:

1. 1x Rear suspension 240mm bolt replacement
2. Swap the 90mm for an 80mm
3. 2x Front Sierra hub pinch bolts (the ones that pinch the casting around the cycle wing bracket) Sierra pinch bolts discussion M12

I do just have a niggling feeling those 100mm bolts from the front lower wishbone bag were meant for something else - I'll check with GBS tomorrow.

Gearbox mount fettle

20 minutes with the hacksaw and the gearbox mount is ready to be lined up and drilled:

I'm just not sure yet if the fore/aft positioning is critical, i.e. I can potentially drill & fit it 20mm nearer/further from the front of the car -  which will be dictated by the propshaft length etc - I need a combination of measure/offer gearbox & prop & ask GBS I think.

Checked with Richard @ GBS - provided the mount is central in the chassis hole it will be fine - no need to mount/offer up gearbox to check.

Finally fitted it to the chassis here: Gearbox mount

Rivnut tool & unrelated P clip test

So far this rivnut tool has worked well - its pretty slow but gives good control over pulling the rivnuts. Needs greasing every now and then to make sure it slides, then the MO is to tighten, then loosen & tap the screw with a hammer to loosen, allowing the black mandrel to be easily removed:

Test pull of a pop rivet through one of the plastic P clips - no problem at all, didn't crack the clip, so all set now permanently fix the brake lines with them: