The automotive circle of life was in full effect this weekend as I have finally moved from this....
To this....
So what is the automotive circle of life? It is when you do a Google search for a picture for the correct orientation of an assembly and end up being presented with a picture of the very same assembly, you took, before disassembling of said assembly....
So, let's rewind shall we.
My Saturday saw our very own Santa Claus, Glen Anderson, arriving at PY Towers laden down with gifts that had been accumulating at Grizz place over the course of the Pandemic, amongst which was the loan of a torque wrench to assist in putting Woody back open his wheels.
I would like to say that I cracked straight on with assembly but the foot tall grass - the unwelcome result of the past 2 weeks rain and sun - meant that I had an appointment with my mower...Which lasted all of 10 minutes before the grass collector decided to break and then the battery went flat (probably because dumbo here left the ignition on whilst fixing the collector) Thankfully it started raining again so called it a day and retired to the comfort of my chair and a beer.
Sunday started at the crack of Noon due to family commitments, first things first...
How many of us have thrown bolts in a box during disassembly because "I will be putting it back together next week so will remember where everything goes..." 4 years later I am greeted with this.
There are another 3 boxes of these so first job was to sort out the various fasteners before the 'fun' can start.
First job was to put the bushes into the trailing arms.
Pretty simple
Lube, Lube
Press, Press.
Mmm... now how to get the rather snug bushes into the mount?
Well this involved two bits of an old oil drum, a bit of wood and a jack.
Taa Daa!
The assorted screwdriver, mallet and grips where required to remove the bits of tin that took longer than actually getting the arms into the mounting.
Next job was to unearth the axle from the very back of the garage, realise that is was round the wrong way and then pull, push and swear at it until it was safely tucked under the chassis.
No. I am not going to show the Eiffel Tower of wood required to get the chassis high enough to make the above happen but needless to say, not my proudest moment...
With the axle roughly in place time to dig out the lowering blocks and newly painted U Bolts,
Push, push. Lift Lift. Swear, Swear.
All in place...oh...hold on...
Forgot to put the mount on for the panhard and anti roll bar so a bit more pushing and we now have the things looking a little closer to being loosely assembled.
Doing this for the second time made me realise that I had not done a particularly good job first time round, witness the gap between the panhard rod mount and the chassis...
Previously I had just left it but this time made a quick spacer and we are good to go!
Oh Look! Its nearly level at ride heigh ( or will be with a bit more weight on the back)
A quick bit of twiddling with the bar and we are within a 1/16th side to side.
Nice....
Quick break for these and then back out.
Spent about an hour trying to work out why the antiroll bar drop links was outside the bar on one side and inside on the other even though all the measurements seemed to indicate that everything was square and true. Eventually just accepted that "it is what it is' and moved onto the shock absorbers.
Which is where I called it a night... The shocks don't quite fit properly and the more I looked at it the more I realised that I was going to have to do a little 're engineering' to get everything to work as it should.
So....
I 'think' I will meet my objective of getting Woody back on his wheels by the end of the month but you will have to stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment!
ONWARDS!!!!
P.
