Front Axle assembly.

Now it was time to seriously start bolt bits on and begin to make this look like it might be a car one day.
Up the front the Jag lower arm was readied for installation, I trial fitted the lower pivot shaft and found that, as was stated in the GD build notes, my new shaft was slightly over on OD due to the plating. With the shaft clamped in my press it was the work of a few minutes to reduce the OD with a bit of abrasive pad.

The chassis tube and pivot shaft was well greased, the lower wishbone was offered up to the chassis and persuaded to fit with the thrust washers between the chassis and bushes in the lower arm.

With the shaft knocked through (not all the way or you wont get the nut on!) I could fit the washer and nut and tap through to complete. The nut was tightened and the split pin inserted and bent to lock the nut in place. It does not matter with the powerflex bushes where the lower arm is when the nut is tightened but if you are using direct replacement Jag bushes the lower arm must be horizontal to prevent the bushes from tearing.

With the lower arm in place The upper arm came next. A small issue was found here, as assembled the pivot bracket would not fit to the chassis. The inner thrust washer was fouling on the mounting plate. So I disassembled both sides and swapped the pivot shafts over and eventually I managed to get a combination that would fit without having to take a file to the chassis!

With a pair of new bolts (not supplied in the GD bolt kit!) and additional washers front and back I bolted up the top pivot shaft, note the main pivot shaft nyloc's are left loose at this stage.


I'm not sure I have enough thread protrusion on the rear of these bolts for Mr SVA, only time will tell.

Next I fitted the shock unit, you can leave this out if you are going to set your geometry now but as I have a bit of time before I come to that task I decided to fit the shock such that the front assy. was self supporting.

Simple really, just use two bolts, two nuts and 4 washers.

To finish off this side the final bit to fit was the upright assembly. This is a heavy part to lift into place and fiddle around locating ball joints!


From the back..


And a closer shot of the front..

One point of note, it is not possible to get a socket and torque wrench on to the bottom ball joint nut once the top ball joint is located. Well not with my torque wrench anyway!

The same sequence was repeated on the other side except I tightened the lower ball joint nut before I located the upper joint into the upright. Took a bit of balancing of the hub on my jack, oh and a support strap in case it slipped off the jack, but the job was done.


Next up the steering rack.....

Front axle sub assembly.

With all the bits of the front axle either cleaned and painted or new parts purchased I started to assembly the upper wishbones.

The new powerflex bushes went in first and all the parts were laid out ready to go. That's new nuts, bolts, washers, camber shimms and ball joints.

Following the jag workshop manual I put it all together and wound up with:

Now as it says in all the best manuals, LHS shown, RHS similar. So repeat the operation for the other side!

The lower wishbones were much easier with just the bushes to press in place.

The upright assembly started by installing the lower ball joints, don't do as I did and shear off one of the bolts, Much swearing later Id drilled out the bolt and obtained a new one, luckily it all went together OK.

The stub axles went back in OK and finished off with the water defector.

The old workbench is a bit untidy there, must tidy up a bit.

New wheel studs went into the hubs next, after battling with them in my vice I bit the bullet and purchased a press. Id resisted doing this earlier in the project to save money but wished I had no as the studs went in in moments. The press also came into place when fitting the bearings and I'm sure it will find many other uses.

With the hubs now fitted with new bearings I assembled the new EBC vented, dimpled brake discs to the hubs.

Next the hubs were dropped onto the stub axles and the retaining nut put place to keep everything where it should be. The hubs were then filled with grease before the brake calipers were fitted with new bolts and washers.


To complete the assembly the new GD steering arms were fitted with the modified brake pipe brackets. Job done!

Publish

Running Gear - Front Axles.

My front axles were sourced from The Jag Shed in Swindon, I started by removing the road springs to get to this stage.


From here it didn't take too long to take them all apart although copious use of WD40, a breaker bar and the impact wrench were required. I'm really glad I got a compressor with a 50L tank.

Unfortunately at this time I was more interested in taking things apart than I was in documenting the process, so virtually no photographs exist of the destruction.

I can show a brake caliper though.

But that's about it!!

Needless to say I wound up with lots of bits and an equally large box of scrap that wasn't needed.

What you end up with is a shelf of bits like this.


All the good bits were thoroughly degreased in my wife parents old bath (handy them renovating at this exact time!) gave the wife a laugh!


And then they were sent to a local firm in Chiseldon for shot blasting.

Once cleaned I painted the bits with POR15, this involves 4 stages.

1) Degrease and clean with POR15 Marine Clean.
2) Surface etch the metal with POR15 Marine Clean.
3) Paint POR15 in Silver.
4) Paint with POR15 Engine Enamel in Red.

Stage 4 is optional but the POR15 is not UV stable unless covered in and top coat, I chose red to be different from everyone else who has black or silver. Plus I like red!

Heres the first batch of parts after stage 4.

All ready to start putting the front axles together, thats for another night!!