ALL OUT

All the front suspension, apart from the main damper struts and springs, are now out. All of the old perished rubber bushes have been removed. the photo below shows my home made bush puller in operation on the main front sub frame, removing the bushes through which the steering rack is bolted. Effectively a length of threaded rod, a socket large enough for the old bush to be drawn into and a smaller socket at the other end to push the old bush through. A nut and spanner at each end and as the nuts are tightened so the bush is pushed out.

All of the components have been degreased and the suspension arms and all of the various brackets have been scrubbed of paint. However when I spoke to Francis at Adept Industrial Finishers, Thornton Heath, he said they prefer to shot blast all components themselves, before spraying, thus ensuring they are absolutely free of old paint and guaranteeing a perfect new paint job. I happily agreed, knowing that it would be impossible for me to thoroughly get into all the nooks and crevasses of the sub frame, so I just ensured that the anti roll bar, drag struts and the sub frame where cleaned of crud and grease.

All of the nuts and bolts have been cleaned up and threads inspected and apart from a couple of slightly rounded nuts all are serviceable.

I have just dropped of the suspension arms to Russ who said he would get the ball joints pressed out, at his friendly local garage, apparently this is almost impossible to do without a ten ton press, when they come back to me it is off to the spray shop, with all the bits and bobs, for a nice powder coat of  glossy black and then it will be time to get it all back onto the car. In the meantime I must order up the replacement ball joints and the odd nut and bolt.

BALLS AND BUSHES

I didn't take too much time to plan the next job as I already knew what I had to do. Whilst I had been under the front of the car I saw that three of the four steering ball joints had got split rubber bellows. It looked as if the lower near side one had already been replaced, but I decided I would replace all four

All the old rubber bushes looked to be in poor shape and I had already order and received  replacement poly bushes.

The track rod ball joints split easily. To get the anti roll bar out, I had to remove the oil cooler and as the steering rack bushes also need changing, I drained down the pump and removed it, disconnected the UJ from steering column to rack and eventually managed to wriggled the rack out.

The lower ball joints are proving to be more difficult to split, and I intend to apply some heat and hope that does the job, when the remainder of the bits are off I will push out the old bushes,clean and scrub of the old paint and get them all powder coated, before reassembling with the new bushes, but quite a way to go yet.

COOLER DAYS

Although the cooling fluid in Stella looked clean and blue, I had intended right from the start to drain, flush and refill the system with a fresh 3 to 1 anti-freeze mixture. Eventually last month I got round to getting Stella up onto ramps at the front end and axle stands at the back, the bottom rad hose came off easy, I had already drained out a small amount when I fitted the header tank (more of which later). Most of the coolant I caught in a large bowl, but then I had to get right under the engine and unscrew, one at a time the crankcase drain plugs, situated either side of the case. Getting your arm wet with warm anti freeze is inevitable, however this procedure had to be repeated 5 five times when the 2 part flushing agent was used, with much running of engine till hot, draining and flushing. By the time I had finished it was not only my arm that was wet, but at least I hadn't got scalded. The good news was that there was no sign of rust or sludge in the system.

One last drain and I removed the radiator ready for taking it to the radiator expert, to put in another boss about half way down the left side, (about that header tank), Russ my Stag guru, said that the feed from the header tank should go to the radiator rather than to the top of the water pump, hence planned trip to Gavin at Aaron Radiators.

Whilst the rad was out I degreased the front end of the engine block, changed the rusty return pipe, that goes to bottom of radiator, for a nice shiny stainless one. I also changed both drive belts, alternator and power steering pump, the old belts looked to be sound, as in photo, but new ones fitted, just to be on safe side.

When I collected the radiator, not only had the new boss been fitted, but it had been pressure tested, cleaned and sprayed shiny black. Before I put the rad back in, the two brackets that support the power steering pump were removed, they were a mess, covered in flaking paint and rust. With a flap wheel in my angle grinder, I removed all the old paint and most of the rust. A quick coat of Hammerite I thought, wrong, to get the paint on thick enough to flow it collected in the six bolt holes and then formed large runs. Nothing for it but to grind the paint off and spray with grey primer and then gloss black. That's better, all bolted back and radiator in place.

When I tried to connect the header tank to the new boss in the radiator, the hose kinked, so I decided to use a couple of 22mm plumbing elbows, not the neatest of jobs, but sound enough, but I will paint the copper elbows black to make them less conspicuous.

Last job, before I refilled with coolant was to remove the defunct temperature sender from the back of the cylinder block and replace it with the sender from the new dual oil pressure/water temperature gauge. 

OK, now in with the distilled water and antifreeze, I premixed it 2 to 1 first and then start the engine. Only a couple of little leaks, soon sorted by tightening jubilee clips, job done, new gauge working well. Now time to start planning the next job.