Day 11 - De Dion Fitment (4 hours)

Following a morning doing some paper work with a friend (Chris Sewell), we moved into the garage and I showed him around the car and what had been done to date. On asking if he fancied assisting with anything we set to work.

Job 31 - Torquing up the Engine to the Rubber Mounting Bolt

Having waited for 2 weeks for a 5/8" Allen key head with a socket attachment we used a couple of wobble bars to reach the bolts. A nice easy job to start with.

Job 32 - Re-attaching the Washer Bottle

A Job definitely aided by having 2 people on the job. Whilst I was underneath the car feeding the bottle and mount up, Chris manoeuvred it into position. Once in position and tightened up we located the washer tube onto the diagonal down tube and used zip ties to secure.

Not a lot of room to fill it!

Job 33 - Engine Wiring

Following this we moved on to looking at the engine wiring! Having read the instructions several times we could figure out some of the wires, but others weren't so easy! I As a result we gave up and decided to move on to the next element! If there is anyone who can offer some assistance it would be greatly appreciated. :-(

Job 34 - De Dion Fitment

After failing at the front end we decided to move the the back end of the car, as I had already fitted the brake pipes to the De Dion we manoeuvred it into positions from the RHS (it won't go in from the Left as the Brake Union gets in the way!).

Job 35 - Radius Arms

We moved on to positioning the Radius Arms on the lower setting at the front. The RHS front bolt went in nice and easily, the LHS was somewhat more problematic! A bit of gentle persuasion with the rubber hammer saw it through though. I didn't use any copper grease on this as it had a Nylon Loc Nut on the end, wonder if I should have!? Anyone?

Radius Arm mounted on the lower setting

Lower Radius Bolt from inside the car

We then secured the rear of the Radius Arm to the De Dion tube, which again took a little gentle persuasion with our friend the rubber hammer.

Radius Arm mounted to the De Dion - No Copper Grease?

Job 36 - Rear Anti-roll Bar

Following advice from Tom Wood I fitted the Orange Bushes to the rear of the Anti-roll Bar and then fitted to the chassis mounts loosely. The bar sits on some nice Aluminium mounting blocks.

Aluminium Anti-roll Bar mount

Job 37 - A-Frame

Thought this would be a quick job as it looked simple (which in theory it should have been)! It took an age to locate the Nylon Washers, once located we married everything up and looked to put the bolt through A-Frame and De Dion Tube. Again easy in theory, but we could not for the life of us we could not get the bolt through! We decided to take it off again and try it all separately, and guess what, no issue! The only solution after some discussion was to get a file to the paint inside of the A-Frame mount. Bingo it went straight in. :-)

On to the front attachment points, which went in much easier. 4 shims on one side and 3 on the other. Measuring up provide confirmation that the De Dion was centred to within 1mm. :-)

As advised by others I checked the arc of travel for the rear suspension, very close to the LSD plug!

Again I haven't Copper Greased these as they had Nyloc Nuts on the end.

Job 38 - Drive Shafts

Final job for the day was to fit the drive shafts, but in order to do this you need to remove the Dust Covers fitted to the LSD. The easiest way to do this was to use a screwdriver between the covers and LSD housing. Chris and I worked from the top and bottom until it loosened. It was simply a case of pulling the covers out! What a smell! (I had put the LSD oil and additive in already).

RHS Dust Cover prior to removal

LHS Dust Cover half removed

View of inside the LSD with the Dust Caps removed

As recommended in the manual we used some bearing grease on the end of the drive shafts and inserted them accordingly (as they are different lengths).

Inserting the drive shaft into the LSD

Having positioned each drive shaft in to position the manual says you need to knock them in. Something we tried, but I don't believe that they were located properly as the Dust Caps to not butt up to the drive shafts as I would expect. Can anyone shed any light on if this is correct?!

Drive Shaft inserted into LSD - Not sure if it is far enough in!?