Rear Axle Off

02 Sept 2015

I've not been terribly good at keeping this diary up-to-date, I blame summer, and things.

Anwyway, work on the 'B has continued, although I've only been managing an evening or so a week, with the odd weekend day here and there.

I completed the strip of the engine bay, removing the brake servo/cylinder assembly - probably not a moment too soon, the fluid was filthy:

Also removed the heater - this is a bit bloody awkward, even with the engine out of the way. Easy enough to get at the bolts, but a great deal of cajoling and wiggling to actually get the thing out of its hole. It doesn't look in terribly good nick so I will very likely replace it with an upgraded one. But for now, it joins the growing pile o' parts.

Then, in a stripping frenzy, I also pulled out the loom from the engine bay and interior. It's been hacked about over the years and is looking very tired, so again I will probably replace it.

From there, it was time to tackle the back axle. This entailed the usual battling with rusted suspension bolts, most of which came out with enough penetrating oil, hammering, and grunting. The front bolts which hold the leaf springs on though were just not for moving, which is apparently quite common. So I had to resort to the angle grinder for those. That came later however, to get the axle off, I just disconnected the rear spring mounts, and removed the U bolts holding the axle to the springs, and wheeled it out. The flexi brake hose to the chassis was rather badly perished and the unions corroded, so I just cut that off.

From there, I could give it a good jetwash, and attack the remaining bolts - the check strap mounts in particular are known for being impossible, but although hard, I was able to get them off now that I had enough room to work on them.

The axle itself was covered in gunge and surface rust, so it took a while to clean; however, seems in pretty good nick. The backlash in the diff itself seems well within limits so I elected to simply paint it, replace the brake lines, and leave it at that.

For paint, I primed with red oxide, then sprayed with engine enamel; was going to be black, but I ordered silver by mistake, so silver it is. Not that I've a picture of that yet.

I then replaced the hard lines along the axle with new kunifer; I know I've said in the past that I'd use copper next time, but in the end I didn't. With a new flaring tool and a bit of practice I seem to be getting decent flares in the harder kunifer pipe without too much trouble.

Wiring

Sept 2015

I did some umm-ing and ahh-ing about the wiring loom. Eventually I decided to pull the main loom from the engine bay and interior, and leave the sub-loom for the rear lights in place. I've had a few electrical gremlins under the dash, and the loom has been hacked around a bit at various points. I'm likely to want to modify it a bit more as well, so starting over seemed like a good thing. So out it came.