Brakes Pipes..Started

So another week has passed and some more progress made. I have finished the front suspension having fitted the coil over shocks & springs, the steering rack and connected to the front hubs. The chassis is now ready for wheels. Grateful thanks to Dave for letting me have a set of build wheels. This is an important step, not just because it's a milestone achieved but it allows me to get the chassis in and out of the garage which means when the engine and gearbox arrive I can get them inside.

Completed Front Suspension

On Sunday I turned my attention to the brake pipes. It's a while since I've done this, so I spent some time with spare bits of copper pipe practicing making flares, when I was happy with the quality I started for real. The first step is to fit a 3-way coupling to the front O/S chassis rail I drilled and tapped the chassis, this being the first hole I've had to drill the chassis it seems somehow sacrilegious - but anyway. The two calipers are connected into the brake system via the 3-way, the third will go off to the master cylinder. Similar story at the back of the car, most of the way I have used the push in clips as I think they look neater but around the diff I had to use P-Clips as the steel is too thick and the push ins don't seat properly.

Rear Brake Pipes & Handbrake Cable Mechanism

The other job I completed, was to connect the two handbrake cables from rear hubs to the mechanism that links them to the single cable that will eventually connect to the handbrake. You can see the assembly in the picture on the right, just above the diff.

Front Brake Pipes Connecting the Calipers

Whilst I'm happy with the way the brake pipes have been fitted at the front, I've been thinking about how it will look with the pipes for the clutch that will have to route round the front of the engine bay. I think I might have to make some changes and will probably end up doing that bit again. I think it was "Tommy Boy" that said "there are very few jobs that you can do once and be completely satisfied with".

I need to give some thought to the fuel pump. I'd hoped to use a mechanical pump in preference to an electric one, it would take up less space on the chassis rail and be one less item on the loom to worry about, along with some other fringe benefits. I know there's a perfectly good mechanical pump available for the SBC but my engine builder warned it may not fit with the Gen II chassis, this has since been confirmed by Jon at the Factory. I'll need to give that some further thought, the big V8 needs a decent fuel delivery. I'll try and get a pump, filter and pipe ordered this week so I can start to fit the tank and the rest of the fuel pipes.

Front Suspension

Warmer weather this weekend and was able to keep the garage door open for most of the day. I completed the last few parts of the rear suspension including the brakes and moved onto the front.The front all went together without a hitch although I did have to spend some time getting the camber angles right, this involves shuffling washers between the front and rear of the lower wishbone.

O/S Front Wishbones & Upright

Here's the offside all set up. Have a guess how many times I've banged my shins on the stub axle every time I walk round the car!

Next job was to install the new bearings into the hubs, grease 'em up and fit them to the stub axle. You can see completed job below. The workshop manual talks about setting up the hubs with various end-float settings. But the AK supplied instructions are much easier in that it offers a sequence of steps involving various torque settings.

Front Hub with New Bearings Installed

With the hubs complete, I can fit the discs. I thought this would be a 2 minute job but removing the protective coating was much harder than I thought, until I realised that I needed to let the solvent start work for a minute or so before trying to rub it off. Below right you can see the disc fitted and left, with the caliper fitted and the bolts wire-locked. I couldn't fit the front springs as I need to order the correct bolts but I'll do this during the week.

N/S Front Disc

Front Disc with Caliper Fitted

Rear Suspension Part II

A brief update this week as I've not had as much time as I'd hoped. I've completed the rear suspension, all the camber angles are set and everything is torqued up and made a start on the brakes. There were no major snags to contend with, some of the bolts are too long for my liking so I'll replace them with shorter ones before I put the body on. I hope to complete the rear brakes one evening this week and make a start on the front end at the weekend.

 

Rear Suspension Part I

The first thing I have to say is how much I'm looking forward to the spring. It's been bloody cold in the garage and there's no natural light available in the evenings. Roll on March. Anyway, this week I've started on the rear suspension. I've fitted the wishbones, all came together OK. I found that, when torqued up, the wishbone was pinching up against the front diff carrier bracket but not all against the rear one (I could spin the washer). I varied the spacer washers front and rear and achieved a balance that I was happy with. With the drive shafts re-assembled with new U/Js I fitted them along with the rear hubs & handbrake cables. The next step is to set the camber angle, this is adjusted with spacers that sit between the diff output and the drive shaft. Now I know the gap I have to fill I can order these up and hopefully finish the back end next weekend.

Rear Suspension

On the left you can see where the camber angle is measured (having first raised the hub to the correct height). I'm using a handy little free App on my tablet to measure the angle (I did calibrate it first).On the right you can see the gap between the diff output and the drive shaft that needs to be filled with spacers to set the angle.