DRIVE SHAFTS AND BRAKES

The new drive shafts arrived from E J Wards, a huge box full of plastic balloons, bubble wrap and scrunched up cardboard and there they were, nestled right at the bottom of the box were the two shafts.

These new ones are a major advance on the originals, the two UJ's have grease nipples fitted and the splined shaft is Rilsan/Teflon coated which means that even under accelerating loads the shafts will still slip and stop the Stag twitch. The splines are also concealed within a metal tube, rather than just rubber bellows and also have a grease nipple fitted. There is no big rubber boot fitted over the inner UJ which means that there is easy access to all the nipples for subsequent servicing, something that the old shafts had never experienced in the previous 40 odd years.

 However before I could fit the shafts I used the transmission jack to push up the the underside of the trailing arms to compress the road springs, the arms are then held in place and the springs in compression by bolting the arms to the bottom end of the  shock absorbers. For the moment I connected the old shocks as getting to the top bolts to remove them is difficult in the confines of the garage, but it will be easy peasy when she is back on her wheels and out of the garage.

Without the rubber boots the new shafts slipped through the large hole in the trailing arms easily, ensuring that the brake back plates were correctly placed on the six studs first. Then it was just a case of gradually tightening down the six lock nuts per trailing arm and then the four nuts and bolts to connect shafts to differential.

The above photo of the connected left shaft was taken laying on my back, looking directly upwards.

I forgot to take any photos whilst I puzzled out how to refit the brake shoes to the near side brake. I constantly referred to my photos and printed off diagrams from workshop manual and eventually worked out how the self adjusting ratchet operated, which way round and which holes the three springs hooked into. The right side brake shoes took no time at all and soon the drums were both  back in place.

The above is a fairly crap photo, you can just about make out the new copper brake pipe connecting the SS flexible hose to the rear slave cylinder. Bleeding brakes tomorrow. Oh by the way my garage creeper, seen in above photo, came in very handy whilst I was tightening the shaft to differential nuts and bolts, saved a lot of neck ache. Bleeding brakes tomorrow,

DIFF AND REAR SUSPENSION GOES BACK IN

Whilst I was waiting for the differential to be rebuilt and suspension parts to be resprayed I tidied up the garage and saw lying on the floor in the gloom, the brake back plates, I then realised that I should have included them for spraying. Out with the bench grinder and then into my paint booth for several coats of spray Hammerite black.

Finally Hardy Engineering at Leatherhead called to say the diff was ready, They explained that they had to fit a replacement rear aluminium plate, I knew when I removed the rear steel mounting bracket that is attached by four nuts on studs to the cast back plate, that there was a lot of corrosion between the steel and the alli, so I was not surprised, but there she was looking very smart and just needed oil to be added. Next job was to collect all the suspension parts from the sprayers as I had by now had a call to say "Job done"

 Russ said he had a transmission jack that I could borrow, I took him at his word and went to collect it, bloody wonderful, I strapped the diff down onto the lowered jack and attached the rear mounting bracket, but first I smeared grease between the contact surfaces, the bracket now having a thick coat of paint I hope that there will be no further corrosion.

I bolted back onto the suspensions arms the two brackets to each one, these support the trailing arms. I made sure I got the brackets bolted right way round with the correct set of packing shims fitted behind the correct outer brackets. The two big new poly bushes were also bolted in place and the two arms were then bolted to the front of the diff housing.

I pushed the new bushes into the trailing arms in readiness for attaching to the suspension arms.
I had also decided to fit new SS brake hoses and also a complete set of copper brake pipes, so before the diff assembly was in the way, I removed the old rubber hoses, one needed to be cut off with the angle grinder and a bit of heat applied elsewhere to remove the rearmost copper pipe connecting the two hoses. When all was replaced I trundled the transmission jack and strapped down diff assembly under the car and started to jack it up.

I got everything located, but before I jacked it up the last four inches or so, I filled the diff with oil and started to attach the trailing arms. the innermost bush on both arms slipped, with a bit of encouragement with my rubber hammer, into their brackets, however the two outer bushes just would not go in. My length of M12 studding, two very large substantial washers and two nuts were employed to very slightly spread the two brackets and hey presto, again with a little persuasion all the bushes slipped into their respective brackets and with a bit of levering the bolts slipped into place.

A last lift of the jack and with all the bushes and bolts lubricated with silicone grease and with new lock nuts everything is now firmly in place. As with the front suspension I am not tightening down until the car is back on its wheels and the suspension is settled. The new drive shafts are on order and when they arrive I will move onto the next stage of assembly.