Rear Axle Strip Down - Part 1

Well if stripping down the front axle was a relatively straightforward affair, then tearing down the rear axle has been anything but!

Rear axle components prior to stripping-down

The first stage was to remove the rear brake calipers and caliper carriers and pads.  As with the front axle the carrier bolts were a bit stubborn but a combination of breaker bar and air spanner managed to get them out.

Rear Brake Caliper and Pads removed

This enabled removal of the rear disc rotor which was accompanied by a pile of knackered handbrake pad linings falling onto the floor!  Fair to say they were completely shot!  More worryingly on the offside hub, the pins holding the handbrake pads in place were bent and had pulled through the brake back plate.  Not sure how to address this - but will put it on the list of things to sort.

Remnants of Handbrake Lining

Brake Rotor off - Loose Handbrake Pads due to missing pins..(found them on floor subsequently looking rather bent......)

Next stage was to remove the large nut from the end of the drive shaft to allow removal from the hub.  Not only is this bad boy torqued up to 220lb/ft but it also is a locknut with some cinches in the thread to grip onto the thread of the drive shaft.  In other words it is a complete sod to remove.

It was also at this point that I realised that Simply Performance, having partially disassembled the rear subframe when they removed the diff for refurbishment, was not as helpful as I first thought. With rear hub carriers separated from the lower wishbones I just could not get enough weight on the carrier to be able to get any decent leverage on the nut.

In the end I had to reassemble the carriers onto the wishbones so that the subframe weight could provide some additional ballast to resist the leverage of trying to undo the nuts.  With the subframe placed on a wooden pallet, a pry bar wedged under the edge of the pallet and and between the wheel studs, my weight on the subframe and with some pre-heating of the axle end with a blow torch, I eventually managed to get enough leverage on the nut to get it to shift!.  At one point I was convinced the swivel pin on the end of my breaker bar was actually going to shear before the nut moved but it did finally shift.  Final removal was assisted with the use of my air spanner.  Then I (simply!!) had to repeat for the other side.

Removal of the drive shaft from the hub could then be undertaken using a 3-legged hub puller and an impact wrench which was a relatively straightforward affair.  By then supporting the hub carriers on a couple of pieces of wood and using a suitably sized impact socket, I knocked the end of the hub out of the rear spacer / ABS ring which allowed removal of the hub.  This also gave access to the rest of the handbrake mechanism to remove the adjuster, springs and remnants of the brake shoes.

Rear Carrier - hub and handbrake shoes removed

Next stage is to finish disassembly of the hubs

Kit rescheduled / Lending a hand

So yesterday was supposed to be the day that my body and chassis kit arrived from AK Sportscars.  However some weeks ago I realised that I was making slower than planned progress and made the decision to delay my kit delivery until early next year (Jan 11 2019 in fact).

So last Friday I helped Richard Chippendale (see Local Cobra Builders) take delivery of his AK chassis and body kit.  Richard and I have been exchanging WhatApp messages quite regularly sharing progress and advice on stripping down of axles (he is way ahead of me!) but this was the first time we had actually met!

When Noel from AK pulled up with the car trailer I think I was almost as excited as Richard was!  

First sight on arrival!

Second Generation AK Chassis

AK Body - even the bare shell looks fast!

Unloading went (relatively) to plan.  Richard has a nice big roof space in his garage and the idea was to place the body on a wooden frame to support the floor and then lift this up into the roof space with a couple of chain winches so he could work on the chassis below.  The first attempt was reasonably successful although body was hanging a bit lower than hoped (and yours truly managed to clout his head on hit - so yes it was too low!!) - so future adjustment is planned.

We then carried the chassis into the garage and then went and had a well earned beer and talked cars for a bit!. It was good to put a face to the name and hopefully that was the first of many beers!!

Seeing Richard's kit arrive made me regret putting back my delivery date - but to be honest, although I've stripped the front axle, I have only just started tearing down the rear axle and I haven't even started cleaning or painting any of the parts yet so am a while away from being ready to start building, even if my kit had arrived (plus it would make life in the garage a bit cramped while trying to finish off all the other stuff as well). So i think I have made the right decision.

However it did give me a bit of impetus and I managed to spend the next couple of days in the garage cracking on with the rear axle disassembly.

Front Axle Strip Down

OK so it took a bit longer than hoped - but I have finally managed to completely strip down the front subframe.  Life has been a bit busy with packing my eldest off to university, having to decorate the spare room and other small jobs that my better half deems more important than me 'playing in the garage'.....

Given that I'm a bit behind with the blog, I am not going to do a step by step strip down of the front end (there's plenty of info out there on other blogs) but thought I would share a couple of tips based on my experiences.

The first would be to invest in a heavy duty (and long) breaker bar.  I bought a 3/4" drive bar which was 600mm long from Machine Mart.  In hindsight I would have gone for the 900mm long model.  Some of the fastenings on the subframe, particularly the brake caliper carrier bolts and the ball joint nuts were particularly stubborn to remove, despite lashings of penetrating oil,  and needed some force on the breaker bar, combined with the ballast of a 14 year old boy standing on the subframe, to get them to shift.

600mm Breaker Bar compared to standard 3/4" Socket Wrench

The second would be not to bother wasting time buying a ball joint / remover separator of the type that consists of two hinged halves that work by trying to pry the ball joint out of the joint.  I found that the one I bought a) only fitted properly on the upper ball joint in any case and b) was not strong enough for the job anyhow - it only managed to release one joint and this was a joint that I had had to clamp back together in any case to allow removal of the nut without the ball joint stem just spinning uselessly!!

I would go straight for the ball joint splitter / pickle fork option.  Even this required some hefty blows from one of my largest adjusting hammers (combined with the aforementioned ballast) to finally split the joints.  This tool does destroy the rubber seal on the ball joints, but as they are being replaced this is not a problem for me!

Ball Joint remover at top - "Pickle Fork" below

The tear down of the front subframe was actually quite straightforward and without incident.  The order of events was as follows:

• Unbolt and remove brake caliper and pads
• Unbolt and remove brake caliper carrier
• Remove brake rotor
• Remove dust cover, undo stub axle bolt, remove front hub, bearings and oil seal
• Remove brake shield
• Undo upper and lower ball joints and remove stub axle
• Undo and remove upper and lower wishbones.

I have also drifted out the inner and outer bearing races from the front hubs.  I have bagged everything up, keeping left and right axles parts separate, ready for degreasing, cleaning and painting at a later date.

All parts from one side of front axle fully stripped down

Fully stripped front subframe

Now to get started on breaking down the rear axle!

Donor Parts have Arrived!

Bit of a catch-up needed on the blog front!

My donor parts from Simply Performance arrived back at the beginning of August.  

A very securely wrapped pallet was delivered all as arranged with Ben Thomson.  Having fought my way through the plastic wrap and undone the rope used to secure the spare wheels and parts to the pallet I could examine the axles and parts that will provide the running gear to our build.

Pallet unwrapped and slave wheels / tyres removed

I have a complete front and rear subframe assembly from the donor car from which Simply Performance had cut and removed the coil springs.  The differential unit has been removed from the rear subframe and refurbished; which has the slight advantage that the rear hub carriers and drive shafts are already partially disassembled.

Refurbished Differential - looks like new!

I have set up the front and rear parts on separate pallets ready to start stripping down fully.

Front Subframe

Rear Axle - minus differential unit

(A quick health and safety warning - as usual it's an obvious warning, but then most accidents are caused by overlooking the obvious.  The disk brake shields on both the front and rear axles do get severely corroded and this can leave them with extremely sharp edges.  When moving the heavy axle assemblies around you should wear a pair of heavy duty gloves.  I didn't and upon lifting the first rear axle assembly off the pallet by grabbing the disk brake shield I managed to sustain a particularly deep gash in the palm of my hand!  My son was quick to demonstrate his First Aid skills, learnt at the local ACF, and managed to patch me up and save me a trip to A&E!)

Now to spray everything liberally with penetrating oil and start stripping down the parts!