Front discs

My brake discs had been stored in grease to prevent rusting, which is brilliant and grim in one.

So out with the rags and white paraffin again and a good scrubbing sees them restored to shininess. After I've attached and torqued to hubs they will be lightly coated with wd40 again to keep the rust at bay whist car build goes on.

So to attaching to hubs, straightforward stuff remembering to use copper grease on all mating surfaces including bolts and  washers. That means should I ever have to undo them again then they won't need my weight on the end of a 4ft bar to undo them.

Copper grease smells a lot better than the graphite grease. (I'm thinking of a side blog entitled "Greases I have smelt"... "Eminent Grises?" Ok, not funny.

Bolt all copper greased up.

All bolts in.

So the final part, torquing the bolts to correct value from Jaguar. Armed with trust well thumbed Haynes manual and torque wrench this is a case of just follow the instructions.

And the last bit - a consistent mechanism for telling myself and the IVA tester that the bolt has been torqued and double checked is a line of nail varnish (bright pink) across the bolts and disc interface. 

I will do this on ALL torqued bolts.

It also lends itself to a visual check as the car notches up miles - any line that is broken or has moved needs attention.

 Belt and braces, both sides done so can be easily seen when the wheel is off too.

Repeat for other hub.

Front wishbones

For the wishbones I decided to use modern polythene type bushes and not the original type Jaguar ones. After the battle I had getting the Jag ones out I couldn't face the same getting new ones in plus the polythene ones should wear better.
There are differing schools of belief on this and whether the ride is better or not - they come with different ratings - effectively the density of the plastic. I have gone for medium ones.

Using graphite grease is apparently the key to putting these in. Stinky stuff and gets everywhere but both upper and lowers are all put together in a few minutes.

 

 

 

Two posts in the same day... well, trying to get the hang of this blogging site and catching up on bits hit - and it does seem to mainly be hitting things that gets them apart - I got behind with the narrative.

One lone front caliper - not much for several hours work.

Front hub carrier - amazing how much stuff gets picked up and stuck to these things but I guess not surprising for a 17 year old car. I gave the end closest to bottom with photo with a couple of taps of the rubber mallet to get the stub axle out for it to shoot 6ft across the garage in a beautiful ballistic arc and dent the garage door.

Still thinking about how I'm going to clean all the grease and crud off. The Sand / grit blasters I've spoken to don't like grease as it plays havoc with their machines. Researching online there are a number of products that claim superior degreasing capabilities - I have a feeling this will be a trial and error process.

As such this process whilst about getting these important suspension / brake / transmission bits back to their former glory, is also about testing my commitment and ability. Whilst I can lay claim to tinkering with engines and car bits when younger and more latterly arming myself with a mech. Eng degree, I feel like a total amateur who has no right to even be considering playing with this stuff let alone actually building a car.
For some reason these thoughts seem to permeate most just before going to sleep (along with what engine, wheels, colour, under slung exhaust or side pipes, nudge bars, and so on - ad nauseam)

Anyway, here are some more pictures of rusty bits. My iPhone seems to have a differing opinion to my own as to which pictures it will actually transfer onto my PC on any one evening. Given I work for an IT Software company it pains me greatly to admit being beaten by technology.

This was a defining moment - the removal of the first bolt from the first brake disc hub assembly (front right). What you don't see is the socket wrench operator jumping up and down on the handle and resorting to rubber mallet based persuasion to shift ONE bolt.

Good job I've been visiting the gym or I'd be failing the first hurdle of getting these wretched things off.

And the prize for removing five bolts is... Another rusty bit! Hmmmm. This is going to take a while.