Final axle assembly.

With the shimming sorted the axle can now be finally assembled. The axle was stripped down again and the diff put back up on the bench, I started by lock wiring the pivot bracket bolts. I'm fairly happy with my first attempt at lock wiring.

Next on the disc shims and disc's.


Followed by the caliper's.


Cross Pipes and hand brake calipers next.


Hand brake pads set as per Haynes manual instructions.

Finally the main pads go in and thats that, diff assembly completed.

I'm rather pleased with that!

The diff was then put back on its 8" blocks on the floor as it would get too heavy for teh work bench from here on in.

The axle was built back up again starting with the lower arms and this time putting the bearing together with grease. Ive documented the last bearing going together as it was a lot easier taking pictures with the arms held in place on the diff!

Step 1
Bearing tube is in

Step 2
Inner thrust washer goes on with grease.

Step3
Seal fits over the inner thrust washer.

Step4
Seal retainer goes over the seal

Step 5
Outer thrust washer fits over the lot.


Thats it, do that 8 times and after a bit of juggling the pivot shafts can be tapped through not forgetting the spacer tube!

Then on go the GD brackets, hub (with shim's) and drive shaft assemblies.

Just to remember what it looked like when purchased on the 3rd November 2003!


And now the finished article.

I'm a bit chuffed with that!

Bit of an update

Well its been a while since Ive updated this blog, I have been doing things but have neglected to keep this updated. So here goes at an update.

As I left it the rear axle was temporarily assembled ready to check the toe and thrust so I decided that measuring the toe in on the floor wasnt really worth it, Id have to measure it again on chassis anyway.

First off before fitting the axle I marked the center of the chassis at the front and the back and then stretched a string line between the two points.

I then positioned the chassis over the axle and attempted to bolt it up, here I found out why GD recommend fitting the rear axle first before the front, it makes the chassis a whole lot lighter!!

With a lot of battling the axle was bolted in and I could start to measure up.

Here again I saw no reason the reinvent the wheel, so I followed Simons measurement method as described on his blog. Theres no need for me to go into it here, if you want to know how its done see the link to Simons build in the Links section and look under running gear.

Anyway the initial results were not too bad I had toe out. So I jacked up the chassis and fitted shims in situ, now here I saw the benefit of not fully assembling the axle, I could undo the pivot bracket bolts and add shims without removing the inner pivot shafts.

Working on the O/S first I adjust the front shimming from 12 thou to 7 thou and remeasured, the O/S now toed in by 0.22mm So onto the N/S and again adjusted the front to 7 thou, remeasured and obtained 0.30mm toe in.

Simply all I had to do now was drop the axle out and fully assemble it for final fittment. Simple he says!!

Rear end assembly.

With a full day in the garage at my disposal I decided to carry on with the rear end trial assembly. My aim is to build it all up as it will be, set camber, toe and thrust and then remove the axle from the chassis. Then I can strip it back down again to finally assemble it with correct torques and lock wire.

Having mounted the diff. 8" off the floor I proceeded to mount the first lower arm, this fairly easy with care being required to stop the inner bearing tube popping out of the small thrust washer.

The other side proved more of an issue however. The bearing tube refused to go into the bearing, both side of the wishbone were the same with either of the two remaining tubes.


This is not what I need! So after a bit of head scratching I realised whatever happened those bearings had to come out so I carefully removed the bearings again.

With the bearings out the tubes fitted easily so the problem must be the bearing journal crushing the bearing down, on closer inspection the problem became apparent.

I have failed to clean all of the POR15 from the casting, hence this small amount was reducing the ID by enough to crush the bearing and prevent the tube from fitting. Out came the paint stripper again and after a fair bit of work on both side I was happy the paint was gone. Of course this involved removing the grease nipples and cleaning it all again.

With the bearing tubes now nicely fitted I applied the inner thrust washer before offering up to the pivot bracket. Ill get more pictures of the bearing setup at final assembly time.

So both lower wishbones now on and 2 3" fence post sections placed under the end as per GD's instructions. You can see in the picture that Ive fitted the GD carrier brackets and torqued up the pivot shaft nuts with plenty of washers to protect the nylon section of the nyloc.


In this picture you can just see the hub and drive shaft assembly, these I pre-assembled for both sides.

Here's everything ready to go.

Two things not to forget, the wheel bearing shim which came with the hub and the seal track.



With loctite on the splines the drive shaft dropped easily into the hub, apply new washer and nut and torque to 100 lbft. Used Simon's trick of a bit of wood to stop the hub from turning.

Job done,just repeat for the other side!

Next step was to fit the hubs to the wishbones, Ive already tried this once but that was without the drive shaft fitted, now the assemblies a bit heavier!

Anyway both hubs fitted OK at first without camber shims.

Measured the camber and it was a bit out, unfortunately I have no picture but I had over 1 degree negative camber. So I applied 5 shims in the end to arrive at this setting.

Not too shabby!

Procedure repeated for the other side where two shims were required to achieve as near zero camber as I could get.

So that's it for the day, I must admit that shifting these bits around has taken its toll on my somewhat unfit frame and I find myself embarrassingly tired! How pleased am I that I installed the chain winch!

Next job is to check what toe Ive got on the setup as it stands.

Sort of progress.

Well having dropped the diff onto the floor it has become obvious that there is insufficient room to actually get on and build it up. So a solution had to be found.

I have enough room to move the chassis to the front of the garage and work on the diff under the chain winch however with the front end built up there was no way I could shift the chassis. Until the logical approach dawned on me (it does some times!)

After cleaning off a couple of the donor wheels which are stored under a tarp in the garden I fitted them to the front and lo a wheel barrow!


I was then able to lift and drag the chassis back by 1 meter to give me the extra space I needed. The next logical thought has dawned and I may turn the chassis round so that I don't have to shift the completed axle to the other end of the garage. This will also allow me to shine lasers
onto the garage door to set up the thrust etc.

There will be a bit more of a break now as I'm out of garage time for a bit. Oh and the new thrust washers turned up, much better!

Rear End fun and games.

Ive deciding that I will replace all of the rear thrust washers and seal retainers for new ones as mine are pitted and worn. I'm confident that a couple of them would not have sealed up properly due to the excessive pitting and may even have worn the seal away.

So that's held up progress a little though Ive ordered the new ones (£104!!).

Following GD's build advice Ive set the diff up 9" off of the bench to get the drop on the lower axle correct, with that done I trial fitted the lower arm with the bearing tubes in place.


Then I fitted one drive shaft after cleaning the bolt holes of paint.

At this point I noticed that the diff had gone off of the level and it turned out my "bench" was bending under the load so I swiftly took it all apart again and have now set the diff up on the floor ready to go again.

Next step is to install the drive shaft to the hub and select appropriate shims for the outer wishbone forks.

Now its starting to look a lot better!

One thing which I may need to attend to is the diff pivot brackets. Ive noticed that I have not yet cleaned the paint away from the surfaces where the thrust washers thrust against! Therefore Im thinking the pivot brackets are coming off again (looking after the shims this time!) to clean them up. Hey ho!

Discs all set.

Spent a bit of time today finishing off the disc shimming. Ive wound up with 20 thou on the right disc (viewed from rear of car) and 25 thou on the left disc. This brings both gaps well within 10 thou of each other on each side. As you can see from the picture below the disc is bang in the middle of the caliper.

So thats it both discs set and the calipers fit OK, I will take them off for the next few operations to reduce weight and improve access.

So next step is to lift the diff up such that it is supported high enough to get the required drop on the lower arms to match road attitude. May need to beef up my work bench as the work mate has a 160 Kg limit!

Problem resolved.

New bolts arrived today and Im glad to say they fit perfectly! So thats its I can now carry on and shim up the discs which judging by my initial look are going to need a few shims to center them up.

Again many thanks to Ed for sorting this one out.

Calipers cause confusion....

Finally made it up to the garage last night with good intentions of fitting the calipers and shimming the rear brake discs.

However as always things conspired against me and I didn't get half of what I wanted done. I did manage to temp fit the rear discs with no shims.

However when trying to fit the caliper bolts through the problem occurred.

This is as far as the bolt goes in, in fact I gave it a little tap with my hammer and that jammed it in solid! Luckily I was able to get it out with the press but if I didn't have that it could have gotten nasty!

I managed to fish out on of my old bolts and when compared you can see a difference.

By measurement the new bolt is 11.16mm in diameter vs 10.8 for the old bolt. The hole in the caliper is around 11mm.

The old bolt fits OK in 3 of the 4 holes in the caliper but still does not quite fit in one.

A few emails to Ed at Wards and a quick conversation today and I am informed that Jaguar used 2 suppliers for their calipers for a while, this one used a slightly smaller bolt hole. Jag, in their wisdom, only have one part number for the two different bolts required. Ed is going to send me some new bolts to try.

Ill let you know how it goes!

Now for something a bit diff..erent!!

One of those frustrating days on Tuesday where me and the old man spent all day in the garage and didn't really have anything to show for it. Basically fitting the diff to the chassis did not yield the results I anticipated. I fitted the diff but the brackets would not line up nicely.


So after a quick call to Andy at GD who said I was doing it all wrong, and a subsequent chat with Simon (fellow GD builder) I decided to abandon initial diff fitting and build the rear axle up off of car.

Once built up the assembly is fitted and the chassis may need to be helped to fit with a sturdy bar!

With the diff now placed at a more workable height on my temporary bench I was able to trial fit the jag pivot brackets to the diff without shims. This showed me that the rear GD diff bracket fitted perfectly but the front one did not.

I tried 5 thou shims one each side which improved the front fit but it would still not go on. Eventually 10 thou on each side enabled the front bracket to fit but now the rear bracket wont go on.

10 thou worth of shim's


A bit more shim fiddling and Ive wound up with 12 thou on each side at the front and 7 thou on each side at the rear, most importantly both brackets fit and the shafts turn relatively freely.

The thinking being that the GD brackets have been drilled to suit the original jag shims, so that should have set my carrier brackets somewhere close. Next thing to do is to fit the discs and calipers setting their shims as I go. I can then fit the lower arms, hubs and drive shafts and sort hub camber. Once all this is done Ill probably drop the calipers off whilst I set up the rear toe in and thrust on car. Once all is set Ill remove the assembly, refit the calipers, lock wire the carrier bracket bolts and caliper bolts ready for final installation.

Hub sorted.

Major thanks to Ed at Wards. Despite Citylinks best efforts at delaying delivery and not ringing my door bell I now have a replacement hub which does not wobble about! Ed was great about it, especially given that it was 2005 that I originally took delivery.

Hub problem, major pain!

Whilst checking out the shims required to install the rear hubs to the wishbones, I noticed that one of the hubs has excessive free play.

The hub was free to move in and out by around 5mm and also could be rocked from side to side. The other hub was fine with no free play at all in any direction! Damn!

A quick email to Ed at Ward Engineering confirmed that I should return the hub for it to be checked, so thatwas that, off it went today and hopefully I should get it back in time for next weeks assembly game!

Still I cant fault Ed, its well over a year since I had these parts. Im not sure if hes charging me though, thats yet to be worked out!

Not much happening.

Not much to report at the moment, no time spent in the garage for a while now. Hoping to get up there next week during my weeks holiday.
Here's the plan.
1) Fit Diff to chassis by top four mounting bolts.
2) Fit diff carrier brackets to chassis.
3) Fit diff pivot brackets loosely to diff.
4) Fit lower pivot bolts through brackets into pivot brackets.
5) Fit shims and bolt up pivot brackets.
6) Remove diff and setup on floor at required height to set geometry.
7) Install brake discs and calipers adjusting shimming to centre disc on caliper.
8) Fit hub to lower arm, adjusting the shims Ive forgotten to buy!
9) Install drive shaft to hub and ensure fully home.
10) Install drive shaft to diff output flange using camber shims to set camber.
11) Adjust toe in at this stage.
12) Fit assembly to chassis (easier than it sounds as I cant lift the diff on its own!)
13) Check toe in again.
14) Check thrust.
15) Adjust as required. (I think this is going to be the killer!)

So that's it, the plan for next Tuesday, Ive a few things to order in before then so Id best get on with it!

New carb.

Here's a few pics of the new carb, its rather large!



Just for interest really!

Some Progress.

Started preparing the rear axle parts for assembly today. First up the diff carrier brackets needed the pivot shaft holes cleaning out as some paint had run in.

Round file and some wire wool sorted that out.

So now the pivot shafts can go through OK.


Using new bolts Ive temporally mounted the brackets to the diff after cleaning the paint from the mating faces.

After this I turned my attention to the lower arms and again cleaned out all the shaft holes, installed new grease nipples and bearing's.

So that's both arms ready for installation.

Its getting to the point where I can put off no longer the assembly of the rear axle, still not convinced I know what I doing though!

New Gauge & dash direction.

As always I change my mind on a frequent basis so keeping up is not easy! Ive moved away from the classic look back to a more modern feel. I'm back looking at Autometer gauges and I like the look of the Cobalt range.

And illuminated.


I hear the purists shuddering but care not I!

For the Speedo, Tacho, Fuel gauge and oil pressure gauge I will use the full sweep units. The fuel gauge is programmable so it can be set to match any quirks of the sender caused by the tank design.

And for the water temp, oil temp and voltmeter the half sweep units will do. This is worth doing as the half sweep are nearly 50% the cost of the full sweep but they are the same size.


The blue illumination will match the push button switches Ive chosen, again a much more modern take.


The warning lights will be those as supplied by ETB.

With a couple of standard Lucas flick switches for the lights and fan controls that completes the dash items.

Gauge dissapointment

Ah well, not everything goes to plan but my latest dissapointment will no doubt be approved by the Cobra purists.

The all singing, all dancing, Autometer Nexus gauges I had hoped to use are not suitable for use in an open top car. (see the "check these Gauges out link")

A quick email to Autometer confirmed the following.

"The Nexus instruments will not be easily seen in a convertible. The gauges have a tinted lens on them for a clean look when they are powered down. However, the tinted lens also makes it difficult to see in bright sunlight. We have had people use the Nexus series in a convertible, but they were in a shaded area."

The dash of a Cobra is hardly a shaded area so that's them out of the running, too much cost to take the risk I'm afraid.

Now thinking to go a bit more authentic and use either Greengauges or Smiths Electric Cobra range. Either way this will at least be considerably cheaper than the Autometer units. Ho hum.

Stoneleigh 2007

Took a trip up to Stoneleigh last Sunday, I hadnt intended to go but my dad fancied it so that was good enough excuse for me!

Took in all the usual suspects, paid GD a brief visit to collect some nuts I needed and hunted down suppliers of silicone hose. If GD cant supply the Ford set in red I wil use an alternative supplier. Ive added potentials to the suppliers list.

The CRC area was again well attended with one of the biggest turn outs of the day.

You dont get a good impression form this pictures but there are a lot of Cobra's there!

I think the most unusual thing I saw was this dash.

Nice job, thats the actual car painted onto the dash (somewhow!)

All in all a good day out and I only spent £4.50 on some P clips!

Parts update.

Finally arrived!!
Is wrong to get excited about some parts from the USA? Anyway they all arrived in good condition, the starter is smaller than I expected and the carb is bigger! The ignition module looks to be a good unit and most annoyingly comes with a link cable to go between the ignition and dizzy so I dont need the MSD one Ive got. Still the MSD one looks to be a better grade cable and its got sleeving whereas the Summit one does not. Ill stick some pictures on here later.

Still waiting.

Well at least my box from Summit has made it to through customs and is now sat at Bristol international hub awaiting a letter to arrive on my door mat asking for more money. Then once Ive paid that they will deliver it, no one will be in so it will go back to Bristol, I will spend hours on the phone trying to talk to a human before getting it redirected to my local post office (hopefully) for 50p or worst case to my parents for £5.50!!

Beginning to think the extra $30 for UPS might have been worth it!!