01/08/2003

2.5hrs
 

Front Supension

Fitted the front lower and upper wishbone bushes.  I smeared the inside of the bush housings with copper slip, like wise the bushes. The upper wishbone bushes can easily be pressed in by hand. The lower wishbone bushes need the hydraulic press to fit them. This is a bit of a balancing job to keep the press, bush and wishbone aligned whilst resting on the press bed.  It can be done. It is easier, as I found out, to use a socket underneath the wishbone. The socket needs to be slightly larger than the bush and fit centrally up against the bush housing. I used a ⅞ BS / ¾ W socket.  Place the socket on the flat bed of the press. The wishbone housing centrally on top of the socket. Align the bush and the press with the housing and socket and apply the pressure. The bush will slide in easily. Keep applying pressure until the bush is protruding an equal amount from each side of the wishbone.  Investigated the fitting of the uprights and came to the conclusion that the Haynes manual is wrong. The upright is shown with the calliper mountings pointing forward.  Referring to the photographs I had taken during dismantling of the XJ6 shows they should point rearward.   The cleaning up of the bolts and washers that need to be reused during assembly continues.   I finally got round to getting some washers from “Unimaster” to finish fitting the power steering pump bypass pipe.  On their advice I added a couple of extra “Dowty” washers (3 in all) and tightened up the union and the pipe.  Let’s hope it is oil tight when it is time to run the engine.

03/08/2003

4hrs

Flywheel

Drive Shafts

Painted the front upper wishbone washers to protect them now that they are de-rusted. Fitted the upper fulcrum bushes these care easily fitted by hand.  Got the flywheel out of the de-rusting fluid. Cleaned it up with wire brushes. Degreased it with gunk. The front face is scored but not too badly. I’ll put off a decision to have it skimmed until after my holiday.   Assembled the Left drive shaft. The bench press made easy work of assembling the universal joints. It also facilitated easy dismantling when I had some difficulties seating one end caps to get the retaining circlips in place. You learn by experience and I now know I should have used the press to dismantle the drive shafts rather than follow the Haynes manual. It is possible I would not have damaged the oil seals and had to replace the UJ’s.    As it is, the left drive shaft is complete with new UJ’s and the Right one has the UJ fitted to the final drive flange.
 

18/08/2003

2hrs

Drive Shafts

Completed rebuild of RH drive shaft. Replaced Flywheel in the de-rusting fluid since it had shown some signs of new rust whilst we were on holiday.  The fluid in the dishes de-rusting the bolts, washers and camber shims dried out and needed to be replaced.
 

19/082003

2hrs

Front Suspension

Rebuilt left front upper wishbone with new ball joint, caster shims and bushes.

20/08/2003

5 hrs.

Front Suspension

Rebuilt left front upright with new lower ball joint.  The ball joint kit came with a new top cup. I removed the old one with a combination of drift / hammer and press. The new one was tapped in with a drift. The assembled ball joint was too loose using the 3 shims provided. I removed one and this seems to be ok.  Temporarily fitted new stub axle. Investigated suspension geometry, particularly the camber shims.  Left side components are almost ready to be fitted to the chassis.   Started to rebuild the right upright. Fitted the new lower ball joint this was very stiff and seized when assembled. I was concerned about the number of shims (using some of the old ones as well) that I had to fit to obtain free movement.  Disassembled it again pressed out the top cup and compared it with the old one.  There was no apparent difference. Refitted the top cup using the hydraulic press. Reassembled the ball joint. This time it was better though I still needed to fit 4 additional shims to obtain free movement.  I think I will reinvestigate this tomorrow.  I’ve just taken a look at the stiffness of the upper ball joints (which is pre-built and sealed for life) These are stiffer than the lower ones I have built.  I need to think about this.  I can always take a shim or two out if necessary as wear takes place.

21/08/2003

2 hrs

Front Suspension

Most of the time today I was trying to discover why I needed so many shims in the right upright to get free movement of the lower ball joint. I suspected that the upper cup was not fully fitted or skewed.  Comparing measurements with the left ball joint indicated this to be true.  Disassembled the ball joint again and removed the cup. Refitted the cup using the hydraulic press and an oversize socket to support the upright and a approx correct socket to press on. This seemed to improve matters but we are only looking for a few thousands of an inch.  Reassembling the upright showed only a slight improvement.  To eliminate the cup from the problem I took it all to pieces again and fitted the old cup. This made no improvement either. So it was back to the new one.  I decided to sleep ion it.

Fitted the grease nipples with new copper washers in place of the nylon ones. I found it gave a better seal.
 

22/08/2003

3hrs

Front Suspension

I began disassembling the  left upright and measuring the depth of the cup from the machine face. Comparing this with the right upright show almost no difference so I concluded the cup is full home and the difference is caused by manufacturing tolerances of the upright or ball joint combination. I reassembled both joints and accepted that one has more shims than the other. If the right one wears or beds in, I can remove shims to correct the problem.  Reassembled the right upper wishbone. Lubricating all fulcrum washers and bushes with copper slip.  Fitted the upper ball joint but it was necessary to open out one of the bolt holes in the wishbone with a file to insert the bolts through the wishbone and ball joint.  Greased the ball joint.
 

25/08/2003

3 hrs

Rear Suspension

Geometry

Fitted 3/8 UNF bolts to the right lower wishbone to fill where the original coil spring pan had fitted . I had to tap one of the holes because the top of the thread had been stripped during the removal of the XJ6 coil spring.  I didn’t have a tap of the correct size so I went to see John Hopkins and he did have one so we completed the job there. John is also going to look at whether his lathe is capable of skimming the flywheel.   After investigating the detail of the drive shaft camber shims I fitted the rear brake discs and shimmed them and the drive shafts with new shims the same as originally fitted to the XJ6. The left side has 2 shims between the diff and the brake disc and 3 shims between the brake disc and the drive shaft.   On the RHS the shims are 2 between the diff and the brake disc and 4 between the brake disc and the drive shaft.  This should centralise the brake calliper when fitted and provide the right camber angle. All this will need rechecking at suspension set up time but should be in the correct ball park. Finally I played with the front suspension upper wishbone mounts. Nostalgia advises using the triangular washers and shims from the original XJ6. SNG Barratt, provided me with new camber shims that are round and thicker. I have decided to use the new ones.  I’m sure that fitting the suspension to a new chassis will mean entirely different suspension geometry and hence will need different shims at set up time.

Total hours this month = 23½ hrs

Total hours to date = 342½ hrs