So a relaxing trip to Iceland provided a nice break from the stresses of work and also continued progress on the car,but good news - labour has been arranged following a last minute call from my Brother in Law and Nephew.
Suitably fed and watered with bacon rolls, crisps and tea we set too and commenced what I consider to be a defining moment of the build. Its a bit irrational really but somehow seeing the differential fitted is a landmark in the build as finally you are seeing something mechanical installed into the chassis plus it was one of the first acquisitions late last year.
Fitting kit was provided courtesy of GBS and the first puzzlement was the two 70mm hex bolts...utterly perplexed what they are for, clearly too long for the front of the diff, too short for top and bottom, a post on the GBS forum revealed nothing...am I missing something fundamental?
Thankfully I had the existing front bolts for the diff when I acquired it, so I sourced some of similar size and elected to ignore the 70mm hex bolts..anyone who has a clue what they are for please let me know!
Simple process (on paper):
- Get some heavy labour in!
- lift into position
- Insert bottom long bolt in first through slotted hole in chassis
- Insert top long bolt in
- insert front two bolts with spring washers
- torque up
The lifting in is the awkward and cumbersome bit, and its with grateful thanks to Neil and Alex we managed to get the diff into position with Neil on his back effectively bench pressing it in from underneath and into position whilst me and Alex gave encouragement from above! (probably a more dramatic way of getting it into position, but it provided a good money shot if nothing else!)
Next we inserted the two long bolts in top and bottom centralising the differential in its position. Spacers then need to be put in between the differential and chassis frame. Having read various blogs on this installation it is apparent the spacers need trimming down to fit and mine were no different so we spent quite a while getting the spacers to a nice snug fit through a combination of filing and bench grinding mm off each one, lining up to the gap, further filing etc remembering all the while to note which one went where - top, bottom, left, right.
Once this was done, we removed the bolts re-inserting with the spacers and washers and that was top and bottom done, attention turns to the front...
this is where progress slowed... the front holes needed opening up slightly to take the bolts cleanly through into the diff, so out with the diff, open up hole, diff back in, check for fitment. Still not right. Out with the diff, open up hole, in goes diff check for fitment...well i think you get the gist of where this is going. Fair to say this took a while to resolve but eventually we got a clean fit of all the screws and it was successfully in situ.
the top and bottom bolts were torqued up to 80nm whilst the front two stayed loose pending threadlock (to be bought) being applied before final torquing to 50nm.
With grateful thanks to Neil and Alex, without whom this would not have been achieved.
a landmark day in the build!
Following fitment of the rear brake pipes focus is increasingly turning to getting the differential fitted (must get my act in order and arrange the heavy labour!). A weekend trip to Iceland is coming up on the rails so the fitment will be delayed a while longer.
so some spare time and a quick-ish job is the fitment of the swirl pot located ahead of the drivers foot wheel panel.
GBS provide a plate for locating onto the chassis frame which acts as a surface for the left hand side of the swirl pot to locate onto via some rivnuts whilst the right hand side sits on the chassis frame near to the transmission tunnel.
the fitment of the plate is slightly awkward in the sense you need to drill at an angle to get the rivets located but a good centre punch and slow drilling prevents the drill wandering and you can get a clean hole drilled with some perseverance and patience.
Next up, rivnuts. Another step into the unknown, not used such a tool before so spent the first half hour working out how it worked, which mandrel fitted the rivnut and remembering to screw anti clockwise to tighten and clockwise to unscrew, all very confusing!
9mm holes need drilling into the plate and chassis frame once marked up on masking tape, looking at the holes they looked way too big but when the rivnut is put in and the tool applied to the rivnut to compress the fitting it is all good and secure and four rivnuts later we are good to go and fit the swirl pot....
Some slight opening up of the holes in the swirl pot to allow clean access for the four screws and hey presto one swirl pot fitted.
results thus:
Whilst waiting for the heavy labour to arrive and provide assistance to the differential fitment thought i would turn my mind to the rear brake pipe installation.
so what comprises the rear brake pipes..?
4 way brass union
x2 copper brake lines with male and female unions
x2 braided brake hoses
Working in sequence, the 4 way brass union requires an 8mm hole through which a bolt with Nyloc nut holds the union onto the chassis. The existing hole in the chassis that the union should fix through is 10mm which is puzzling of GBS to provide when trawling the market for brake unions there does not seem to be a fitting which has a 10mm mounting point...
so new hole needs to be drilled to accommodate an 8mm bolt which I duly positioned top right of the existing hole. Simple drill, bolt on and job done.
Onto the copper lines next which run left and right from the brass union to the chassis mount point where in turn the braided hose connects to the chassis. These two pieces are quite short and a good starting point in which to practice the art of copper pipe bending.
Clearly there is a knack to this as the first one I did was distinctly average in its final look and I elected to replace with a new one - if a jobs worth doing right...
Lessons learned:
- Don't strive to follow the chassis precisely, this approach does not work
- Start with the copper brake pipe screwed into the union as that acts as a fixed point from which to bend / form and get the pipe to meet with the hole leading to the braided brake pipes.
- Use a pipe bending tool to get a nice curve in the pipe plus it saves sore fingers doing bends!
with this knowledge in mind the second pipe running left from the union is one I am far more pleased with and is now ready for final fitment and p-clipping to the chassis.
in terms of the braided hoses, the hole in the chassis needs cleaning out with a 10mm drill bit to remove the powder coat and provide better clearance for the end of the braided hose to come through the chassis and fix in position / connect to the copper brake pipe.
so progress made on the rear brake pipes.
