Diff refurb

As mentioned previously the diff was feeling a bit loose and getting some clonking noises on overrun so decided it was time to get this sorted.

Problem number 1 is getting the thing out of the car as a) its 50 lbs in weight and b) there is a fair bit to dismantle to extract it.

Fortunately my new lift has made life a lot simpler.

So, rear wheels off,
Fuel tank drained and removed,
Diff Oil drained.
Handbrake cables unclipped
Coilovers unbolted from lower arms
Lower suspension a frame removed.
Drive shafts removed,
Propshaft unbolted from pinion.
Rear suspension carrier and tie rods removed from Diff.

At this point I'm thinking about how to unbolt and lower the diff without injuring myself so came up with an idea to build a jacking system to catch the diff when unbolted.
I made this out of timber and its essentially a lifting bed that I can raise and lower using a trolley jack.
This worked a treat and I could safely extract and lower the diff to drag it from under the car single handed.

Problem number 2 is getting it refurbished.
I spoke to Simply Performance as recommended by Jon at AK and arranged to take it to their place in Dorking. They did a full rebuild service - its not cheap but I'm hoping it will do the job.
All new bearings and washers, a new carrier (cross pin had made the holes in the diff carrier oval (hence a lot of play), all set up and painted.

Problem number 3 is getting it back in the car.
My lift bed was really handy in positioning the diff and sliding it back into place single handed. Then simply  a case of bolting all the suspension, drive shafts, brakes etc back into place. For the re-assembly it took me about an elapsed day.

Fuel tank sender
The old fuel tank sender had never worked properly so I invested in a VDO dip-tube unit.
This caused a challenge in that the tank is drilled for a 6 hole sender mounting at 60mm PCD wheras the new VDO requires 5 holes at 54mm PCD. There was just enough room to drill new holes on the tank to suit the new sender and great news - I now have a working fuel gauge!

Road test - its actually a different car with the refurbed diff. The clonking noise on overrun has gone and driving pleasure improved significantly.

Scissor lift

Finally got round to purchasing a mid rise lift for the garage. And why didn’t I do this years ago instead of struggling with axle stands!

Purchased this handy gadget from Equipment4garages.  This is a single phase unit so ok for my standard mains supply however I had to get a commando socket and plug fitted and update the garage circuit breakers to 20A ‘C’ curve. The breaker is required to allow for surge current when the hydraulic motor starts. Standard breaker would pop.

The lift arrived on an oversize pallet and the fork lift truck driver just managed to push it into the garage on the end of his forks.
There was a small amount of assembly required, hydraulic hoses connections and you have to source some hydraulic oil. The lift comes with some castors which gives some manoeuvrability in the garage as a one person job.

Really chuffed with it and will make those essential maintenance tasks a lot easier.

Shelsley Walsh Breakfast Club

Lovely morning out at Shelsley Walsh for the breakfast club meeting. A gathering of like minded petrol heads, with a nice breakfast and bit of exercise walking it off up the hill.
Love the photo from behind, really shows how the paint colour pops out in sunlight.

Rounding the Circle

So 5 years ago we visited the national Kit car Show at Stoneleigh when we were doing research on which kit to go with and this year the guys at AK asked to borrow Redmist for their stand!.

Pride immediately followed by panic! particularly as AK had not physically seen the car other than in photo's and I started to worry that our car would not meet the exceptionally high standards of the cars usually on display.

This spurred on a few outstanding jobs, i.e. finishing the boot carpeting and three minor paint repairs from the assembly process.

The paint repairs were entrusted once again to Option 1 and Frank managed to turn these round in a day and to a good standard.

A good clean and polish and then off to the show.

Wendi from AK was quite keen to have Redmist it turns out due to the options we had selected, i.e. we were the only car on the stand with a 'proper' engine ( i.e. carbed) ( no offence to LS3 lovers!) plus the bonnet vents and overriders.

The trip to the show was actually the longest she's done at 50 miles each way and first on motorway.
She ran straight as an arrow and cruised fine at 70 ish - albeit quite deaf when arrived!.

In the event Redmist didn't disgrace herself and looked fantastic on display.