Front Axle Part 3 - Keeping a Level Head

Having initially assembled the front wishbones and stub axles, the next step is to check the caster angles on the uprights and adjust if necessary by redistributing the washers between the wishbones and the chassis.

Technical bit - the caster angle (as opposed to the camber angle) is the angular displacement of the steering axis from the vertical, the purpose of which is to provide a degrees of self-centreing for the steering.

Before checking the caster angles, the first step is to level up the chassis and the wishbones.

My garage floor is far from flat, level or even, so this apparently simple exercise took a fair amount of time.

The wishbones need to be horizontal for this step.  Expecting to to have to do some redistribution of washers I did not fully tighten the wishbone bolts.  This meant that I needed to support the wishbones on a another couple of axle stands.  

Then I checked the chassis was level side to side, by placing a spirit level across the chassis rails at the front.  

Wishbones supported - checking level across chassis

My chassis is supported on axle stands with some off-cuts of carpet between the axle stand and the chassis to protect the powder coat.  To get chassis level I jacked up the chassis and placed additional strips of carpet and / or thick corrugated cardboard on the axle stand to get everything levelled up.

I then placed a level on the top of the wishbones (you can just see the smaller level on the left hand wishbone in the photo above) and levelled the chassis front to back in a similar manner (whilst trying to maintain the level side to side...)

With that all sorted I carried out a final check on the level of the rear crossmember.  I didn't need a spirit level to see that this was far from level - in fact it was about 10mm off across the whole length!!

I couldn't believe that the AK chassis would not be level - so I double checked all the levels again (with both my large and small spirit levels) and deduced that one of my spirit levels (if not both) were not reading accurately.

My iPhone is equipped with a measuring and level app; I have tried the measuring app and found it to be bobbins and didn't expect the level app to be any better (and besides it reads in whole angles only).  So I downloaded the Angle Pro app which does give a reading to a 1/10th of a degree.

In order to check the Angle Pro app was working I also decided to buy a digital level from Amazon (ignoring my previous warning to check that what you are buying is the same as the picture - I received the world's smallest digital level by next day delivery....)

Then using a combination of spirit levels, iPhone Apps and the world's smallest digital level, I started the process all over again.

Level Front Crossmember - CHECK!

Level Rear Crossmember - CHECK!

Wishbone Horizontal - CHECK!! (it was also level front to back)

Time to check the caster angles.  

AK recommend a caster angle of between 6 and 8 degrees (with the aim that both sides are the same!).  AK provide a paper  gauge for this purpose; although the print quality is not great and it does rely on ensuring that a) the edge is actually parallel to the zero line on the gauge and b) the plumb line is fixed exactly at the intersection line of all the angle marks.

AK Caster Gauge in action (Photo courtesy of AK Sportscars)

I wasn't convinced that this was going to give a particularly accurate result so I decided to use digital methods!

The caster angle is measured by butting the gauge / level up against the two M6 screws previously installed into each upright.  The angle is then adjusted by redistributing the various washers on the upper and lower wishbones between the front and rear to alter the inclination of the upright.

The initial AK recommendations for distribution of the various washers proved pretty close in my case and I only had to move two washers from the front of the off-side upper wishbone to the rear to get readings on both sides of 6.7 degrees.  

6.7 Degrees on off-side upright...

...and 6.7 degrees on the near-side upright.  Result!

Now I can get on with the final assembly of the front wishbones and install front shocks.

Front Axle Part 2 - Getting Shafted...

As mentioned in my Front Axle Part 1 post, since my donor lower front wishbone pivot shafts had some minor scoring on them, I had decided to replace them with new shafts.

Scoring on existing Lower Wishbone Shaft

I originally ordered replacement shafts / castellated nuts (Part Number JLM11858) from SNG Barratt.  At the time of ordering these parts were on back-order with a 1-2 week delivery period.

Well after 2 weeks and no sign of my replacement shafts, I gave SNG a call.  They were very apologetic and advised that the parts needed to be supplied by the manufacturer and currently they were unable to provide a delivery date.  Since I really needed these shafts to progress with the build of the front end, I decided to cancel the order and look elsewhere.

Browsing through the internet sites of most of the well known Jag parts suppliers, these shafts appeared to be on 1-2 week lead time with them all and so I assumed I would have the same issue as I had experienced with SNG.

A fellow AK builder, Barry Boughton, who had got in touch with me after reading my blog, had mentioned a company called British Parts UK as a good source of parts.  Having checked their website, they did indeed have the parts and were showing them as in stock.  Rather than ordering over the web and then finding out that these were also on back order, I decided to give them a call.  They confirmed that, yes the shafts were in stock and that they could be delivered in 1-2 days, so I placed my order over the phone.  Job done!

Ok - perhaps not.  

3 days later there was no sign of any shaft delivery and even more strangely to my mind, no email confirmation of my order or delivery.  I gave it a couple more days to be sure, but with still no sign, I gave British Parts a call.  Well thankfully they did have a record of my order, but it transpired that although their system was showing the shafts in stock, when they had gone to the bin in the warehouse it was empty.  The shafts were on back order but the manufacturer was currently unable to advise on a delivery date (obviously the same manufacturer that SNG use...).  I'm not sure when British Parts were actually going to inform me of this, but being less than impressed, I cancelled my order with them.

I was running out of options and getting desperate to press on with the front suspension build.  My final resort was eBay.  Now I'm always very dubious about buying certain items on this well known auction website; many things are obviously low quality, fake, dubious origin, dodgy location etc etc and as these shafts are a major component in the front suspension of what will be a very high powered car, I did not want some inferior quality, cheap, reproduction items.

Having entered the part number into the eBay search box, the required items popped up as being available by seller called E-Type Parts.  All the feedback seemed very positive (and I was even more reassured by the fact that E-Type parts actually has their own website and are based in the UK, in Hull).  So taking a deep breath I ordered two shafts and the corresponding castellated nuts (Part No NL609401J).

Two days later I received a parcel containing two lower wishbone shafts and two castellated nuts.  Success!

Unfortunately not quite....

The supplied nuts did not fit onto the threaded ends of the shafts.  However Jonathan from E-Type Parts was very quick to offer a full refund on the nuts (he was surprised as he also thought that the NL609401J nuts, which are a 9/16 thread, were the correct ones for the shafts).  Between us we concluded that the shafts must have a metric thread, which I managed to confirm by checking with an M14 nut that I had in the AK nut and bolt pack. 

So now I needed to track down two M14 castellated nuts (the nuts are secured to the lower shafts with split pins).  Again not so straightforward as metric castellated nuts don't seem to be that common, but eventually I found a company called Westfield Fasteners who had the offending items for sale and an order was placed.

So now I have the new lower wishbone pivot shafts and nuts, I can get on with the front suspension build-up.

The shafts from E-Type Parts are slightly different to the original donor shafts; aside from the M14 thread instead of the 9/16 thread.  They are also very slightly a different length (longer), which might need some additional washers to accommodate, and the shoulder between the shaft and threaded portion is not chamfered, as on the original shaft, which does make it slightly more difficult to fiddle the shaft into place, through the various bushes and washers on the wishbone assembly.

New Lower Wishbone Shaft (top) vs original donor part (bottom)

Front Axle Part 1 - Wishbone Assembly

Having spent ages cleaning, stripping and prepping bits, it felt like a major step forward to start contemplating actually beginning to build up the new chassis, starting with the front suspension.

First on the list was to purchase some new service parts; I ordered the following from SNG Barratt.

Service parts - not a lot to show for 300 quid!

The donor vehicle top and bottom wishbone shafts both had some slight scoring on them so I decided to replace with new parts.  SNG had the top shafts in stock but the lower shafts are a special item and were on 1-2 weeks back order.

Having read through the AK Build Manual a few times, assembly of the front suspension looked quite straightforward and I was looking forward to some rapid progress......

Yeah right!

The first issue was that my replacement upper wishbone shafts didn't pass through the tubes in the AK chassis.  Not a massive problem, just required some fettling with a round file to remove some excess powdercoat and open out the tubes very slightly.

Next step was to fix the upper ball joints to the AK upper wishbones.  The ball joints sit in a recess in the wishbone and are fixed in place with M10x75 bolts and secured with M10 Nyloc nuts.  

Parts for upper wishbone

I found that there was quite a bit of play between the wishbone housing and the balljoints so I added another M10 washer in-between the two to take up the slack.  The M10 bolts were then tightened enough just to cinch the balljoint housing onto the balljoint itself and stop any movement.  The AK Gen III wishbones have elongated holes to allow camber to be set at a later date so these bolts are not fully torqued up at this stage.

Next was to assemble the offside upper wishbone to the chassis using the new wishbone bolt and 1 1/4" x 5/8" washers as spacers.  AK recommend three washers; I put two at the front and one at the rear for initial assembly.

Bearing in mind that all the wishbones and washers might need to be disassembled and reassembled when setting the front caster angles (reading ahead in the AK Manual) I elected not to grease up all the shafts at this stage, so everything was dry assembled.

First Upper Wishbone done!

The process was then repeated for the nearside upper wishbone.

Next job was to fit the lower wishbones.  As I was still waiting for the new lower wishbone shafts to arrive I temporarily used the original donor shafts for initial assembly.  The lower wishbones use 1 1/2" by 7/8" washers as spacers; on the offside 3 washers are fitted to the front of the chassis and one to the rear.  Getting all these washers in required some gentle application of a pry bar to create enough of a gap to insert the final washer and some gentle taps with a rubber mallet to ease it into the right position.

Offside Lower Wishbone installed

The offside wishbone is exactly the same except that the AK Build manual suggests 3 or 4 washers to be installed at the front of the chassis and none at the rear.  Despite judicious use of the pry bar I could not get close to getting 4 washers in at the front and decided 3 was good enough!

Next step was to fix the lower ball joints to the stub axles.  The replacement ball joints I purchased included the fixing bolts although I needed to buy some M8 spring washers to fix (as per the AK Build Manual).  It is also recommended to apply thread lock to these bolts.  Amazon supplied a disappointingly small bottle of Locktite (at a disappointingly astronomical price.  Note to self - check that size of bottle being supplied is the same as the one in the product photograph...)

Parts for lower balljoint / upright assembly

Assembly was straightforward and fixing bolts were torqued down to 41 lbf ft (as per the Jaguar XJ40 Haynes Manual)

Balljoint fixed to front upright

The stub axle assemblies are then fixed to the upper and lower wishbones.  I tightened the ball joint retaining nuts down sufficiently to fix the alignment of the ball joints but did not torque down bolts fully at this stage.

The last thing to do before setting the caster angles on the front uprights is to tap out the M6 holes in the uprights where the splash guard would be fitted.  These were actually already tapped on my uprights but the threads were not protected during powder coating, so I ran a tap through them in any case just to clean out the threads.

Tapping out M6 holes in front upright

An M6 machine screw is then fitted into the upper hole and another machine screw loaded with M6 washers is fitted into the lower hole.

M6 screw top / M6 screw & washers bottom

Next job is to level up the chassis and wishbones and check front caster angles!

Sand Blasting on a Budget

After derusting and a good session with a wire brush, my first batch of donor parts are looking pretty clean and shiny.  There are however, some traces of the old coating remaining in some of the recesses and within the rough surface of some of the cast parts.

Time to break out the sand blaster.  Oh wait - I don't have a sand blaster.  

Again  the internet is a wonderful place and after some research I found plans for a DIY sand blaster.  Actually I found several plans for full blown blasting cabinets, which was not really what I wanted.  I needed sand blasting on a budget!

First thing on the shopping list was a cheap air gun; this one was less than a tenner on Amazon.

Unfortunately this air gun came with a male 1/4inch BSP outlet.  The thread into the gun is actually smaller than 1/4inch so I couldn't just remove it and screw in a male 1/4inch airline connector.  No I needed to buy a whip hose (another tenner - budget blown!) with a 1/4inch female connector at one end and a quick release male connector at the other.

Thread in airgun is smaller than 1/4inch BSP....

....requiring purchase of an additional whip hose

Then it was time for a drink.  Actually I just needed the bottle and it needed to be one of the ones made of slightly harder plastic than your average drinks bottle.  This Greggs orange juice bottle fitted the bill perfectly, although I did also need to purchase a southern fried chicken baguette and a couple of steak bakes to go with the drink......

One bottle - empty and washed!!

First thing to do was to mark a section on the top of the 100mm long nozzle, roughly in the middle of the bottle opening.

Then with a dremel and cutting disk, I carefully cut through the top of the tube just enough to make an opening in the tube.

Next step was to remove the retaining ring off the bottle lid with a pair of cutters and then to drill a hole through the top of the bottle just big enough to pass the nozzle through with a bit of interference fit.

Then it was simply a matter of screwing the nozzle back onto the air gun, filling the bottle with sand (I used kiln dried paving sand), putting the lid on and hooking it up to the air compressor.

I used a plastic crate as a make-shift blasting cabinet (mainly I thought to prevent covering my driveway with sand), set the air regulator to 100psi and pulled the trigger.....

Surprisingly it did actually work.  Although the first attempt did attempt did result in a small sand storm blasting back of the plastic crate and abrading any part of my exposed skin it could find!

HEALTH AND SAFETY TIP - when sand blasting make sure you wear gloves and eye protection.  The sand goes everywhere and at 100psi makes short work of removing skin!  I also found it necessary to wrap a scarf round my face and do my best Bedouin impression to avoid lasting damage to my mediocre good looks.

Grab your blasters!

The eagle eyed among you will note that the picture above is actually of Sand Blaster Mk2.  The opening I cut into the nozzle of Mk 1 was too large for the kiln dried sand which was so fine it just poured out of the nozzle when angled downwards.  So I used the 200mm nozzle from the air gun kit and cut a much smaller slot.  I will keep Mk1 and maybe try it with some proper blasting media (either grit or walnut shells) which may be slightly coarser.

Mk2 - smaller opening in nozzle tube

The blaster is actually quite effective and removed all traces of remaining paint off the wishbone tie.  Its obviously not as effective as a proper sand blaster and it took a bit of time (not helped by needing to stop every now and then to allow my 2hp compressor to try and keep up!!) but for a budget sand blaster I think its a tick in the box!

All traces of paint around bushes and in corners of
recess removed with Blaster Mk 2!

I still had to sweep up all the sand off the drive though....

Project Snake hits 1000 views!!

I've now had over 1000 views on this blog!

80% of the views have been from the UK, but Project Snake has reached Ireland, South Africa, United States, Australia, France, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland as well.

Thank you to all who have viewed the blog.  I'd really like to get some feedback and hear from anybody who is in the process of building their own car (whether it is an AK or another manufacturer).  If you have your own blogs, on-line build diaries etc please send me details - I'm really interested in other peoples tips and build experiences.

As I have said before I hope my blog is of some interest and would really like to get some feedback - feel free to comment or send me an email.

In the meantime I hope you all keep coming back and thanks for looking!!

Rear Axle Strip Down - Part 6

I have to admit trying to get this last taper bearing out of the rear hubs is seriously starting to get on my..........

Further internet research suggested welding a plate onto the front of the bearing which would a) allow the use of a straight drift to drive the bearing out from behind (rather than using an angled implement to try and get into the slots behind the bearing) and b) the weld apparently acts to shrink the bearing slightly making it easier to drive out.

Deciding to give this method a try, I purchased some a 300mm length of 20mm by 5mm steel strip and a 200mm length of 20mm did steel bar from eBay.  

Using one of the taper bearing races that I had managed to extract as a template, I cut a length of the steel plate and ground down the ends to fit inside the bearing race (including chamfering the ends to account for the taper).

Marked up.....

Cut.....

Grinding....

Final Result

I decided to tack weld the steel bar onto the back of the plate to make a more solid piece to be able to hopefully hammer the bearing out so I also chamfered the bottom of the bar slightly to facilitate tack welding.

Ready for welding...

Plate tacked onto bar...

I then attempted to weld the plate into the offending bearing race.  This proved to be more difficult than I thought.  Not sure whether it is because the race is hardened steel or that my welder is not powerful enough (or both), but the first few attempts to weld the plate in resulted in a lot of weld being deposited on the plate and very little on the bearing race.  I had to try several times, grinding off the weld deposit from my make-shift drift and rewelding.  Eventually I managed to get a welded connection of some sorts between the plate and the bearing race.  

Not pretty....

So armed with my trusty lump hammer it was time to get this bearing race out. Placing the hub on the ground and gave the protruding bar a couple of heavy duty blows.  Eventually I was rewarded by the bar shifting and I turned the hub over expecting to finally see some movement of the bearing race.

Not a chance - unfortunately all I had achieved was to crack the welds between the plate and the race (demonstrating that my welding had achieved zero penetration into the hardened steel race).  

I tried a couple more times to weld the plate in again but the result was the same each time - my welder could just not get enough heat into the bearing to get any weld penetration and after a few blows with the hammer, my home-made drift simply parted company with the bearing.

I gave Ben at Simply Performance a call and he acknowledged that these bearings can sometimes be a complete pain to remove.  His suggestion was to heat the rear hub up and then dunk it into an oil bath, to repeat this a few times and then to try drifting the bearing out. 

Determined to not let this bearing beat me I was all for giving this method a go, but when I was up at AK before Christmas I mentioned my dilemma to Jon who recommended just running a really hot bead of weld around the bearing to shrink it (as per my original thought) and offered to help me out if I brought my hub in.

So a couple of weeks back I drove up to AK with my hub and in less than 5 minutes Jon had welded round the bearing (with a welder about 10 times the size of mine) and drifted it out with ease!!!  I didn't even have time for a cup of tea before I was back out of the factory!!!!

I reckon I must have put at least 10-12 hours of effort into shifting that bearing (probably more).  It just shows that having the right gear can make such a difference.  In fact the difference in welding power between my hobby welder and the AK industrial welder was clear when Jon handed the hub back to me and it was so hot I could barely hold it!!

So the bearing is out and I think that completes the strip-down of the rear end. (I still have to drill out the brake shield retaining screws from when I sheared the heads off - but I'll deal with that as part of the rebuild).

Finally - last taper bearing removed.
Happy Days!!!

Who ya gonna call - Rustbusters!

I am very behind where I had hoped to be in terms of donor part preparation.

The chassis and body kit have been delivered but, although I have stripped down both the front and rear axles (except for my saga with the rear hub taper bearing), I have not degreased, de-rusted or re-painted any of the parts.

My previous experience with working on cars has told me that there is no miracle when it comes to removal of rust.  It comes down to elbow grease and plenty of wire brushing (unless one has one's own sand blasting cabinet - which unfortunately I don't!).

I am also not a fan of the various rust encapsulation products that are available (POR-15 and the like).  While many people swear by them, again my experience has taught me that the only way to prevent rust from coming back is to remove it completely before attempting any painting or coating.

That said, while I was looking through the various auto restoration catalogues that I have, plus some internet / forum browsing, there do seem to be products available that do 'what they say on the tin' and remove rust.  One that caught my attention was Bilt Hamber deox-C.  This is mentioned on many of the automotive forums, generally in positive terms, plus it was also used with great success and recommended by my fellow local builder, Richard.

Photo courtesy of Bilthamber.com

"deox-C is a crystalline, 100% active corrosion removal product formulated for the removal of corrosion products from steel, stainless steel and most ferrous materials. This product when dissolved in tap water, produces a bath of powerful rust removing liquid."

All sounds very good.  The only downside I could see was the price, as 4kg of deox-C runs at a shade under £50 and I figured I was going to need a fair amount to immerse all my bits.  So embracing my wife's new fiscal strategy, I continued to look for cheaper solutions (no pun intended!).

Further internet browsing revealed that the primary active ingredient in deox-C is citric acid.  The science bit goes along the lines of:

Citric Acid + Rust = Iron Oxide + Carbon Monoxide + Water + Hydrogen

Or for those of us who did chemistry at school many years ago....

C6H8O7 + Fe2O3 = 2 FeO + 6 CO + 2 H2O + 2 H2

However the really important bit for me was that I could pick up 5kg of Citric Acid plus a small aquarium heater (rust removal process works best if solution is maintained at around 20degC) from amazon for £20!

Rust busting on the cheap..!!

So armed with a large plastic bucket, I made up an approximately 10% solution of citric acid by dissolving 2kg of the crystals to around 18 litres of hot tap water.  I added the aquarium heater (I used a 50W heater) set to around 24degC and my rust removal bath was ready!

Ready for a bath...

The first bits to be de-rusted were the rear pendulum bracket, the rear wishbone tie and the rear spacer tubes - these were all quite heavily corroded.  I just immersed them in the bath without any prior treatment - no washing or brushing - just straight in!  Surprising bubbles started forming on the surface of the metal very quickly and before long the solution was gently bubbling away!  I covered the top of the bucket with a foil lid and left it for a week for the magic to happen.

Its a kinda magic...!

A week later when I took the foil off the top of the bucket I was greeted with a delightful black swampy looking bucket.

One week later!

Then I set to work with a bucket of hot soapy water and various nylon, brass and steel brushes.  To say I was impressed would be an understatement.  All surface corrosion had been converted to a grey sludge which washed off quite easily giving clean metal underneath.  The solution also managed to loosen off most of the remaining paint on the parts which again brushed off with little effort.

Rear Pendulum - before...

On removal from the acid bath...

After a wash and brush up!

Rear wishbone ties and spacer tubes before...

Rear wishbone tie after wash and brush

I forgot to take any pictures of the spacer tubes after their initial clean but they had come up practically like new with just a couple of spots of corrosion left on them.  The eagle-eyed of you will also notice that the wishbone tie in the photo above is my original one (with the missing and irreplaceable bushes).  There is a reason for that - which I will come to in a future post.

After the initial clean of the parts there were still a few areas of corrosion left so I decided to give them a dunk for another week (plus I stuck in the front brake calliper carriers at this time for a soak as well).

WORD OF WARNING - it is possible to leave parts in the acid solution for too long.  Once there is no more rust for the solution to work on, it starts to etch the surface of the metal (causing microscopic pitting of the surface).  I read this on the internet after I had worked it out for myself.  After two weeks of immersion of the heavy cast pendulum bracket was unaffected, but the thinner metal brackets on the wishbone ties were showing some minor pitting and the spacer tubes, which after one week looked almost new, were extensively pitted. Nothing that a good wire brushing / flap wheel won't cure - but something to be aware of!

Etching of surface due to over immersion

A final wash and brush of all the other parts, plus a quick tidy up with a wire brush in my drill has left the first batch of parts looking nice and shiny and ready for re-painting / coating.  

After bathing for two weeks and a quick wash..

...followed by a quick wire brushing = shiny parts!

I have to say the results were far better than I was expecting and will be working my way through the rest of my rusty donor parts in the same manner.