What's in the workshop? Gareth's Tree-find

[MikkiJayne]

Yes, facelift with 17 or 18" wheels had aluminium uprights / knuckles / achsschenkel with bolt-in wheel bearings for either Brembo or HP2 brakes, save for the first 500 cars which had a unique steel one. Factory FL with 20" wheels all had steel uprights, again for Brembo or HP2, but with a larger bolt-in bearing.

All FL had aluminium rear uprights too.

[Heksi]

That's interesting!

I had 20" wheels from D3 on my PF S8, and it was just horrible to drive. I thought maybe I had too much unsprung mass, because I had read that FL cars had more aluminium on the chassis. But strange to hear that factory 20" had steel uprights. Bigger bearings make sense. There's a reason for everything I guess.

[MikkiJayne]

Some edge-case where the original design calculations showed the alloy upright and / or 82mm bearing wasn't strong enough with the extra rotating mass / inertia of the 20" wheel I think, so they went for a steel upright and 92mm bearing, making the unsprung mass even worse!

The D2s with 20" wheels ride remarkably well though tbh.

[MikkiJayne]

Did the other upright yesterday. The tie rod bolt came out with the nut method, as did the pinch bolt, so only two hours for this one.



I replaced one of the CV boots (I've shown that before) but when I checked the other shaft I noticed the outer joint was loose. Its oddly common for people to reassemble the joints incorrectly when changing a boot. I have no idea why. As usual with this issue, the spring washer and spacer were missing



Luckily I had these two spare



Boot on first, then the spring washer, then the spacer



Should look like this:



Both shafts ready to go back on



So I put them back on



That's as far as I can go with the drivetrain now, so on to the car. This has been a city car so the arches are full of cobwebs rather than dirt



Both front and rear halves of the arch liner are damaged on this side. I think its run over some road debris like a traffic cone



Clean with Gtechniq W5 all purpose cleaner



Much nicer to work in



The tie rods are utterly seized and are never coming apart



Rescued the boots as they are just fine



Luckily I had some good original inners and low mileage Lemforder outers in the box of useful things so stuck those on. Same on the other side.

[MikkiJayne]

A day of mending and cleaning today.

The power steering pipes are in pretty good condition (city car) so I'll soak them in evaporust for a couple of days to clean them up, and then paint them with Rustoleum.



Grot:





All the AC unions are seized - I can't get the filter or dryer out, so just removed the whole lot so I can either separate the pieces in the vice or replace them.



The ABS unit has been replaced and for no obvious reason, someone has bent all the pipes so it doesn't sit properly so I'll sort that and re-seat it.



Much nicer





On to the other side



The screenwash bottle shows signs of mould growth so that needs cleaning otherwise it'll clog up the pumps



Loads more detritus up here. Cleaned it all but forgot to take a picture.



On to the various seized / snapped fasteners. I was able to turn the front panel bolt with the mole grips, but at only 10° a time it took a while. It came out though, so I cleaned up the thread with a tap



This one needed drilling out and then also cleaned up with a tap



This is the middle bolt for the windscreen wiper trim panel - whoever has been in here before just tore the panel off it and left the bolt with some plastic in place The bolt was so seized the rivnut just spun in the sheet metal so it'll need grinding out and replacing



Protected the glass and electronics box hole before cutting the bolt head off



Ground out the remains of the rivnut and replaced it



While I had the rivnut tool out I fitted a couple more in the engine bay to replace the silly plastic rivets with bolts. One for the trim round the air filter



and the other for the trim behind the header tank



Nearly ready to reassemble it soon!

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

A day of mending and cleaning today.

Grot:




Nearly ready to reassemble it soon!

I am very curious. Where do the vacuum pipe connect when you reassemble it? At the moment it looks like mine did, from the reservoir, without any connection. I doubt I refitted mine correctly, as I had only some schematics to help me guess

[MikkiJayne]

It joins the vac system here, but this the 40V. The 32V vac system is different though.



Cobwebs everywhere under the bonnet!



Nibbled! I don't have a spare one of these at the moment



So I painted it At least it doesn't draw the eye now. I'll replace it next visit



Yay new parts at last! Just cabin filters, but at least its progress.



Engine bay all cleaned up



Most of the AC lines capitulated when faced with the bench vice and the Decider.



This is the Decider. It decides whether something will come apart or break



The larger condenser line put up a considerable fight. I wrapped a wet cloth around the hardline so I could get the gas torch on the nut without cooking the hose. It came apart in the end, but took the thread off the remains of the condenser. I'm hoping I'll be able to clean out the threads in the nut and re-use it.



This grommet is something of a problem as it has disintegrated, and is NLA.





If only we knew someone who could make new grommets...