Sunday 6th November - New Hubs

 To my surprise the new hubs for the Green Cortina arrived on Friday. I say surprise, because I had been told they were out of stock and they were waiting for them to come in. 

So, while the weather was still reasonably mild I decided to get out to the garage and get them fitted. I had also ordered new front wheel bearings and new wheel studs, so the first job was to press the bearing sleeves in. This was made a whole lot easier by using my 20 ton press. I don't use this piece of equipment very often, but it doesn't half make life easy when I do! With the bearing sleeves in I then put new wheel studs in. Unlike the bearing sleeves, these have to be 'pulled' in as opposed to pressed in. 

Everything was now looking good, so the hubs were then fitted to the brake discs. After giving everything a good clean with brake cleaner the assembled units were fitted to the car along with the brake callipers. 

The front wheels were added after this and then the car was finally taken off the axle stands and lowered to the ground. Considering I had decided to have a day off of working on cars and sit on the sofa doing bugger all, I had achieved quite a lot. I've still got to replace the wheel studs on the back wheels, but that's not urgent and can wait for another day. At least this car is now driveable again, that's a bonus. 

Saturday 5th November - A trip to Norfolk.

If you go back to April 9th on this blog, you will see that a Triumph Mk1 estate was purchased from Nottingham and delivered to near East Dereham in Norfolk for some welding work to be carried out. Well, to cut a long story short, the estate joined a long queue of cars to be welded and had to wait its turn. 

On collecting the estate in Nottingham, we had found the brakes non-existent along with a few other issues. Now that the car was ready to be moved into the workshop it needed some brakes so it could be moved around without crashing into things.

So, Dave Maton and I set out for Norfolk taking some newly rebuilt brake callipers and other brake type parts with us. On arrival in Dereham, the first thing we had to do was get the car started after its long lay-up. This wasn't too bad and after manually priming the fuel pump, it started and ran fine with no issues.  We then had to move it from under the canopy where it had been stored and down to the workshop. (With no brakes!) Using just the hand brake for brakes I managed to reverse it down the lane and get the front end into the workshop. 

With this done the front end was jacked up, front wheels removed and both brake callipers (which were seized) removed. We then fitted the rebuilt callipers I had prepared some time ago and also fitted new brake pads. Bleeding the hydraulic system was next on the agenda and after doing each side twice we had a semi-decent brake pedal. (The whole system will be checked thoroughly when the car eventually arrives at my house!)

The other job I wanted to do was to replace the driver's seat as it had completely collapsed and you're almost sitting on the floor when you try and drive the car. I had brought up an Alfa Seat with me, so this was fitted as well just to make the manoeuvring a bit easier. 

By the time we had completed our work it was gone 3pm and it was time for Dave and I to make tracks back to civilisation. I still had to drop Dave off at Harlow before heading back home.  We suffered non-stop rain on the way home which slowed things down considerably and I ended up not getting home until gone 6pm. It had been a reasonably successful day though, so we were quite pleased with our efforts. 

Sunday 30th October - two steps back!

 So, after my dilemma of the spinning wheel stud on Saturday, I decided there was only one way to resolve the issue and that was by very carefully cutting in the wheel nut with an angle grinder. Obviously, the hub itself is knackered as well, so I now had the job of removing the brake callipers, brake discs, etc on both sides so I can replace the hubs. (I've opted for upgraded alloy ones from retro Ford.)

So, once again the car was jacked up and placed on axle stands (I think it's spent more time in this position than it has driving on the road!) I removed all of the nearside hub first as I was waiting for it to get a bit later in the morning before I started getting noisy with the grinder.

I used the air grinder first of all to cut into the wheel nut but had to move onto the electric grinder in the final stages. It did put up quite fight, but in the end, it was no match for my perseverance. (As you can see below)

With the front wheel finally off, I was able to remove the front brake calliper and front hub in readiness for the newly ordered parts to arrive. So, the Green Cortina has now reverted back to what seems to be its natural position. I.e. In the garage, up on axle stands!

Saturday 29th October - One step forward.......

With all the right parts now in my possession, I set about putting the Green Cortina back together. The first job I tackled was fitting the adjustable shock absorbers that had been repaired by Gaz on Monday. This is an easy enough job, and it didn't take long. I then fitted the new wheels from Retro Ford on the back and took the car down off of the axle stands at the back. Looking good!

I then started on the front end. I fitted the 8inch springs I had bought from Gaz on Monday. With the car lowered on the floor I found it was a bit too low to be honest and also, the springs were coming out of the holders when the car was jacked up. So, I fitted the 'helpers' that Gaz had provided and this raised  the front up one inch, and also took up the slack between the tops of the springs and the upper mounts, so it looked much better

While inspecting my work, I then noticed that it didn't look like the wheel nuts weren't locating in the stud holes on the wheels properly. I jacked the car back up again found that I could rock the wheel even though the nuts were done up tight. Further inspection revealed that extended wheel studs have been fitted on the car and they have longer 'shoulders'. So, therefore the nut was tightening on the shoulders before it was even making contact with the wheel. 

The only answer would be to replace all of the studs with ones with shorter shoulders. So, I started to remove the wheels again. To my dismay and horror one of the front studs was obviously worn on the splines where it fits into the wheel hub and was just spinning round when I was trying to undo the nut. I was stuck with a real dilemma now, because how can I get the wheel off if the stud is not gripping and the wheel nut wont come undone? It was at the point that I called it a day and went indoors. Sometimes when things aren't going right it's best to just walk away and leave it for another day. Plus, I had to have a serious think about how I was going to get this wheel off with the knackered stud. You can't get to it from the back because of the brake disc and back plate, so it's a real problem.    

It was really annoying though, because the car was looking good on its new wheels and sitting at the right height. 

Monday 24th October - A trip to Gaz!

 My first action on Monday morning was to make a phone call to Retro Ford to discuss a leak I had found on one of the adjustable rear shock absorbers I had bought off of them recently. Chris at Retro Ford was helpful and offered to change the item no problem. Retro Ford buy these items from Gaz at Basildon, so instead of me posting it back to Retro Ford, then them posting it to Gaz who would then repair it and post it back to him for him to post it back to me, it was agreed that, as I was going to Gaz this morning anyway, I would take it with me this morning and he would ring them and tell them to go ahead and repair or replace. 

I then had to quickly go out to the garage to remove the offending item as I had forgotten to do this at the weekend. (I actually removed both shocks so Gaz could inspect the other one as well)

On arrival at Gaz I handed the shocks over where they were taken to the workshop to be addressed straight away. (Impressive!) I then spoke to the main man there who advised me to try a set of 8-inch, 200 lb rated springs instead of the 12-inch, 160 lb springs that had been fitted. He also provided a set of 'helpers'. These are very small spring inserts with a low poundage. The reason for this was so that if the 8-inch springs are too short, I can fit the helpers which would then bring them up to 9-inch. Luckily, he had all these items in stock and because I had had the inconvenience of having to take the shocks back off and bring them back, he did the springs for a very good price! They also repaired the leaky shock absorber while I was there. Very good service indeed!  The normal lead time for springs is about four weeks, so I was resigned to the car being off the road for a month. 

 The pic below is an original 12-inch spring, a new 8-inch spring, and a 'helper'. I can't wait for the weekend now, so I can put everything back together.

Saturday 22nd October. Front spring investigations.

 My first job Saturday morning was to take both front wheels off of the Green Cortina and put 10mm wheel spacers on to see if that would then move the springs and height adjusters away from the tyres. it did cure the problem, but I don't like using wheel spacers and extended studs, so this wasn't an option for me. I did give me a chance as well to look at the damage to the two front tyres and confirm my fears that they were ruined. More expense! You can also see where they tyres have polished the adjusters and taken the paint off of the spring. 

The blue Cortina also has coil overs fitted, so I then took a front wheel off of that in order to see what was different as I don't have this problem with that car. I discovered that the springs on the blue car are much shorter, and the adjusters sit much higher up the strut so that they clear the wheel much better. (See below)

I then had a break from the Fords and completed a couple of jobs on my daily driver Renault Clio. It had passed its MOT recently but got a couple of advisories that needed addressing. They were the nearside track rod end, the rear exhaust mount. These went very easily, and I also replaced a rear number plate light bulb while I was at it. 

I then decided to get stuck into the issue with the Green Cortina. I wasn't looking forward to this as I thought I would have to remove the entire front struts, and I know how long this had taken me a few weeks back when I originally fitted them. However, to my surprise and elation all I had to do was put the car up on axle stands, undo both of the inserts and lower them, and then move the struts into a position where I was able to remove the top mounts and pull the springs out. With the springs removed I then put them in the car ready for a trip to Gaz on Monday morning to see what they could do for me. 

 

Friday 21st October - 2nd test drive!

 So, still not happy with the ride height at the back of the Green Cortina, Friday morning before work I fitted one inch lowering blocks to the new rear leaf springs. With this done the drive to work went well and once at work, I parked the car in the warehouse on its nice flat and level floor. 

It looked good and I was happy with it.

However, when I moved the car at the end of my shift in the nice quiet empty warehouse, I could hear a squeaking noise. Puzzled, I looked underneath and found that the newly fitted front coil over springs were in contact with the tyres and chafing grooves into the sidewalls. With this in mind I took the shortest possible route home and drove at no more than 40 mph. The last thing I wanted was a double blow out at 70mph! I then spent the rest of the night on the internet looking at how to resolve my latest problem. Damn!