Quite a long one this time - my image host is starting to whinge about the number of images I've uploaded
I've hit a few annoying problems recently...
1. These are the rear lower-link bushes and mounting brackets...
2. ...that fit together nice and easily like this.
3. This is one of the rear damper upper mounts...
4. ...and it bolts on like this - a bit awkward to do, but not too bad.
5. These are the rear axle upper-link chassis-brackets...
6. ...and you really need somebody else to hold them while you bolt them in place, as they're heavy and awkard.
7. Rear bump-stop fitted (note the bolts the right way round!)
8. Time to roll the axle into place - I've got the lower spring-seat in place, but not bolted down, yet...
9. From this picture, you can see that I've got the chassis hanging from my engine-hoist so that the axle could fit under the tank-guard...
10. ...and I could get the springs in.
11. Quite a lot has happened here that I didn't take any pictures of - my Defender has inner springs at the rear - these sit on inner lower seats that fit over the top of the outer-spring tie-down bars and then the two fixing bolts go through the whole lot. You need a very long extension to get at them once the springs are fitted. The galvanised thing in the middle of the upper-mount here is the inner-spring retainer.
12. So, there we go - not a brilliant picture, but there's the chassis sitting on the axle springs - hooray!
13. This is just a picture of the chassis taken for no real reason, really...
14. ...er, so's this - not sure what I was taking these for...
15. Oh, right, here we go - this is the rear anti-roll bar with the galvanised mounts and poly-bushes fitted. unfortunately, I discovered that the chassis mounts had galvanising in the holes and I didn't have a big enough drill-bit with me to clean them out, so I had to think of something else to do...
16. ...so I fitted the engine mounts, as the bolts had turned up.
17. Very easy to fit - the red stuff is masking tape left over from painting them.
18. Also turning up in the post that day were poly-bushes for the drop-links - for some reason, my super-poly-kit didn't include these.
19. Here are the rear-axle lower-links painted and ready to fit...
20. ...while they were drying, I decided to fit the fuel-filter backing plate - his did not go well...there are four bushes that, it turned out, needed to be threaded to M8x1.25 - easy enough, except for the last one (why is it always the last one?) where I found somebody had got there before me and had left a snapped off M8x1.25 tap - brilliant! This turned out to be a total nightmare to drill out and I still haven't sorted it out...
21. Anyway, I then went to fit the lower-links and discovered that they didn't fit into the poly-bush inner-tubes. That vernier-gauge says the bush inner diameter is about 19.6mm...
22. ...and here it's saying that the lower-link outer diameter is about 20mm - problematic, to say the least.
23. Luckily, I hadn't worn out my ability to swear, so got a bit of that done and then fitted the rear anti-roll bar to the newly drilled out and painted chassis brackets.
24. I'm getting quite near the bottom of my pile of brackets etc now and found these seatbelt mounts hadn't been sanded/painted, so I did that to pass the time.
25. Check it out! Actual proper engineering being done before my very eyes! This is the lower-link bush tube being bored out by about 0.6mm - the fit is still pretty tight, but at least they fit now!
26. Fitting the lower-link is fairly straight forward - I found the best way was to insert the threaded end into the mount-hole with only one side of the bush on it and then jack the axle-end up into its mount. The trick is to keep the link square to the axle, hence the metal plate on the jack. With this end in and pinned by the bolt...
27. ...the other end is now pretty tight against the chassis mount...
28. ...and the other half of the bush, the uber-washer, the small washer and the fixing nut can all be added.
29. In fact, I had to tighten just the nut and the smaller washer onto the thread first to pull the lower-link through the bush a bit, then take the nut and the washer back off again and fit the uber-washer, the smaller washer and the nut all over again.
30. Here's the lower-link on the other side fitted.
31. The last job of this particular night was to fit the chassis cross-member, which I knew was going to be a bit awkward. You can see not only a jack forcing it up into position, but also a ratchet-strap forcing it forward - I bl**dy laughed when I found that one of the bolts was missing from my stainless pack!
32. Here it is fitted anyway - 3x 30mm bolts and 1x80mm because that's all I had laying around - that'll annoy future me when I go to take it out again for some reason - I don't envy that guy (as Homer said...)
33. Next job is to fit the upper-link to the rear axle. While my friend at work was lathing the lower-link bushes, he also made me a stepped drift to push the old bushes out with, which worked brilliantly...now I just need to clean up the holes and fit the poly-bushes...oh, and fit the axle-ball-joint-mount...and the upper-link itself - I'm sure it'll all go swimmingly
Right, that's where I'm at - I've bought so many nuts and bolts now, I've genuinely forgotten why I bought some of them...hopefully their requirement will become apparent as work progresses.
Cheerio