Time to start putting my s2 (79070782g) back together!

[jonroberts]

58 minutes ago, vintaylor said:

Has anyone else found the lower link bush washer near impossible to fit?  is there a hack to get everything to line up in the housing before inserting the bolt?

 

Getting the last washer in and having it line up is near impossible.

Hi Vin - looks like your lower wishbone bushes are too big between the mounts ?  Do you have any photos of the links prior to re-bushing them ?

[peteyg]

Mine were very fiddly to fit. It's quite tight. I used a bolt the same diameter going in from the front to hold it all in place then knocked the footwell bolt through when all was lined up which taps out the alignment bolt. Having said that your bush looks much bigger than mine unless yours are the earlier lower links without the 'modification' which require a different bush?

Pete 

[vintaylor]

23 minutes ago, jonroberts said:

Hi Vin - looks like your lower wishbone bushes are too big between the mounts ?  Do you have any photos of the links prior to re-bushing them ?

Hi Jon,

 

Mine are the later version with the tube welded in.  Here a pic before fitting the bushes.  To be honest, Steve from SJ said that they could be fitted by hand, but I actually took them to a local engineer who has to press fit them in

I'm thinking I should use thinner washers as I'm going to damage the bushes trying to fit them in .. there's no way I can get the washers in without hammering them in 

[vintaylor]

Even though my bushes have been pressed in, it seems they're still not sitting right?

[vintaylor]

Might be a stupid question, but should the pivot bushes have washers either side within the chassis housing or should they be mounted on the outside ?

The kit comes with 4 washers.  

 

 

[EXCEL V8]

I had exactly this with my Excel - I trimmed a bit off the centre spacer tube in the lathe.  Fitted fine then.  Try fitting just the centre spacer tube and washers without the poly bushes/arm to see if you have the same problem.

Pete

[Paul Coleman]

I remember now why I didn't fit any poly bushes to my car!

[vintaylor]

Problem Solved!

After installing and removing the bushes multiple times with the same result of the bush not sitting flush on the wishbone, we've discovered the actual bushes where slightly larger.  Each time we would press them back in they would press on each other in the middle and bounce back up once removed out of the press.

We skimmed each bush slightly re cleaned the bush housing and all bushes fitted perfectly.   Managed to test fit them on the car and happy to report they fit perfectly.

  

 

Now onto the next issue.  I need some guidance on what grease you guys recommend for the rear hub bearings.  I have a NOS set which were bought a while back and I am planning on intalling them on the hubs.  Can anyone give me the idiots guide to fitting the seals and whether the bearings should be greased before going into the freezer overnight prior to installation.

And yes.. I'm waiting for the wife to be out long enough so I can heat up the hubs in the oven 😁

[JimmytheTurbo]

For heating the hubs I do what classic team Lotus does and put them in a big bucket of boiling water.

Freezing the bearings will do nothing unless you go down to below -100 and something.

[drdoom]

Likely @JimmytheTurbo is correct on cooling the bearing in terms of fit but I had mine in the freezer beforehand nonetheless, happy to think the casting's heat wouldn't melt the grease. It was into the barbeque grille to heat the casting up to the upper 200's Fahrenheit, after which the axle/bearing simply droped into place. My choice of grease was a standard wheel bearing spec from Castrol. Absent heat from braking (thanks to the inboard brakes) the grease will not be unduly taxed.

Cheers

[vintaylor]

Both front wishbones are now installed alongside the hard brake lines (still need to straighten everything out).  Waiting for the chassis bushes to arrive from SJ alongside the ARB and rear suspension bushes!

    

Next dumb question.  Is this the correct positioning of the rear hub seals?  A past mechanic took them all apart, so I want to make sure I'm fitting things right as I go along.

 

Had the hub vapour blasted .. very chuffed with the result! 

 

[vintaylor]

Can anyone confirm whether I have the correct hub seals.  I have measured them out as follows:

Seal 1: inner diameter: 53mm , outer diameter: 68mm

Seal 2: inner diameter 42mm, outer diameter 57mm

 

[vintaylor]

Got the go ahead from the wife and made some good use of the Kitchen.😁  Froze the bearings overnight and heated up the hubs in the oven at 200 degrees for around 1 hour.  With a light tap of a rubber hammer, both bearings dropped in.  Also found out that my hub seals aren't the correct size, so will go ahead and order them with the next batch of parts I'll be needing. 

 

In the meantime, I went ahead and re-did all the chassis brake and clutch hose fasteners.  Made use of some electrical heat shrink tubing which was the perfect size.

 

Hoping to send off some suspension parts off for powdercoating next week and I can finish off the front suspension.

[vintaylor]

Will soon be tackling the remaining front suspension installation.

 

Is it recommended to fit the arb in before fitting the springs and dampers?  I've read that as a rolling chassis there isn't a lot of weight to help compress things, so I am assuming the arb will help keep in the lower suspension arm in place and prevent it from hitting the end of the housing on the chassis.

 

 

[vintaylor]

While I have the last remaining bits of the suspension off at powdercoating and still waiting for the remaining bushes to arrive; I've gone ahead and refurbished the dials and binnacle:

 

 

 

I also had a set of fuel filler neck finisher rings reproduced in stainless steel locally