Rather than press on with installing the rear wishbones and hubs (well my hubs aren't ready in any case), I decided to install the rear differential tie bars. I had seen from Richard's blog post that he had had some fun and games getting these fitted and I figured it would be easier without all the extra weight of the drivetrain if things needed to be jiggled about!
The AK-supplied tie bars are fixed between two chassis lugs and the upstand flanges on the wishbone tie; one on each side of the chassis.
I offered up the tie bars to the chassis lugs but despite trying both ends of both bars, they did not fit between the lugs. I find this a bit surprising really; as the tie bars are supplied by AK and the lugs on the chassis are welded on by AK, I would expect the fit to be a bit better. The difference is more than the thickness of the powder coat and would require some metal removal to allow bushings on tie bar end to fit between the lugs.
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| Nope - that isn't going to fit! |
The simple solution used by many others to this issue has been to reach for the file and file down the ends of the tie bar bushing to fit. But I don't like removing metal unnecessarily so I went for a different approach.
My plan was to ease the chassis lugs apart very slightly to allow the end of the tie bar to fit between them. This was achieved using a long bolt passed through the chassis lugs with two nuts installed in between the lugs (with washers under the nuts to protect the powder coat). Using a couple of spanners to tighten one nut and back off the other, this has the effect of spreading the lugs apart very slightly (I did this very carefully as I didn't want to bend the lugs, just ease them apart).
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| The patented Acme lug-spreader tool... |
I am pleased to say that this actually worked! Using this approach I managed to spread the lugs sufficiently to be able to tap the end of the tie bar in between the lugs - obviously, the presence of the bolt meant that it only just sat between the lugs. Then it was a case of gently undoing the nuts on the make-shift lug spreader tool, without disturbing the tie bar. Then the tie-bar could be gently tapped fully into the lugs and centred over the bolt hole. To make sure these didn't slip out of position while fixing the differential ends I passed one of the AK-supplied 7/16" by 3" fixing bolts through each of the chassis mounts.
Using this approach I had the chassis ends of both tie bars installed in under an hour - result!
The other ends were much easier, in that the ends of both tie bars fitted between the upstand flanges on the wishbone tie - although the holes did not line up perfectly. This was easily rectified by loosening the mounting bolts of the wishbone tie which gave enough play to allow the bolt holes to line up. Again I passed a 7/16" by 3" bolt through each of the holes to hold it in place and tightened the wishbone tie bolts back up again.
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| First tie bar in place.... |
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| ....both bars in place |
After the fun and games I had had with fixing the wishbone tie, it was good to have a job that I was expecting to take some time only take a couple of hours!
I haven't yet tightened up all the nuts and bolts a) because I need to try and work out from the Haynes manual what all the relevant torque settings are, and b) in case I need to loosen any bits off again to facilitate installation of the rear wishbones and hubs.
I will also probably attempt to re-coat the wishbone tie; since I originally thought this was going to be a spare and I used it for my initial attempts at powder coating, there are some areas that are a bit patchy and thin. Being the perfectionist that I am I want to get a better finish on this piece - it won't be seen (hidden behind the fuel tank) but I want to minimise the chances of any corrosion developing in future.
I will also probably replace the AK-supplied tie bar mounting bolts with some shorter ones; AK provides 3" long bolts which leaves a significant amount of protruding thread. I reckon a 2 1/2" or even a 2 1/4" long bolt will look neater.
Now I need to crack on with cleaning up the rear hubs...
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