02 Apr - No huge advancements today, spent an hour trying to get the old calipers off after trying with various 18mm spanners and sockets one retaining bolt decided it wasn’t having any of it and rounded itself off so I fired up the angle grinder and it was history!! Off they came and I offered up the rears. I also have decided that to make access easier for fitting and removal of the engine/subframe I will have the back panel as removable so I am able to just slide the engine in and out which may be useful especially in the early stages sorting out teething problems so I shall convert the panel to a bolt on type which shouldn’t effect the structure to much.
05 Apr - Well i did it, I was slightly worried that the rear quarters were suddenly going to ping outward but fortunately they didn't move an inch, which is probably down to the amount of strengthening around the turrets. This aside I have now welded a couple of extra plates to position and mount my now removable rear panel which I'm quite pleased with as it'll make life so much easier from now on. The below pics show the results. One last bit of work on the rear and thats to tidy up under the quarters (the back of the turrets) but I'll save that until next week
09 Apr - A good full day today, starting at 9am which for a Saturday is quite good for me. Finished off the removable rear panel by inserting the nuts and bolts, it all fits snuggly and takes my weight sitting on it so I'll deem that a success oh and the fact the boot still shuts! next was the steering rack this is now welded into position not the neatest of welds I can assure you but it has bonded well this was placed on the subframe and the wheels line up nicely although fine tuning can be done at the track rod ends. the third job was to clean up under the arches I have now ground the turrets flush with the existing wheel arch to avoid the wheels catching. After doing these jobs it was time to reassemble and lay it on the ground as you have probably read previously the springs are no longer so it was going to sit literally on the bump stops and it did, a mild mod to the bodykit and the car was lower with amazingly no rubbing even sitting on the bump stops which is good! a quick call to my mate Glenn and he and is nephew turned up to help turn the car around the only incident was rolling the car over my foot.. a small price for the satisfaction of seeing the car rolling, I only got to see it for a short time but we didn't have all day so the gormless gazing had to stop and get it back in the garage. I started on the frontend dismantling but it was getting on and I was starting to get hungry..
22 Apr - below you will see a picture of the alternator I got stuck on one of the terminals which seems to just spin. After gently persuading the plastic capping from the alternator there was another nut that I could grip whiles I removed the nut holding the terminal on, after this everything seemed to run smoothly until I came across the rear mounting bolts on the subframe despite soaking them in WD40 I’m managed to snap a socket. This coupled with not knowing how to remove the steering column from the rack I spent the rest of the day marking up labels on the electrical side of things just to aid things when putting things back together in the back.
23 Apr - With a better frame of mind I was on a mission to machine mart to buy a proper breaker bar and set of high impact sockets, a gentle pull and it cracked free the other side followed suit this was a great relief, also the steering column connection wasn’t so hard despite the bolt being an odd type with nothing to attach my spanner to I gripped it with some molegrips and the nut span off quite happily. Before I knew the engine was out on the floor. I put the front shocks on the rear it was at this point I realized that ideally the subframe should have been a couple of inches lower, but I just dropped it down the desired amount connected them and jacked the subframe back in position, this should give the springs a little more pretension if nothing else but I can always drop the subframe a little more if this becomes an issue. To finish the day I removed the driveshafts from the hubs (a very messy job).
27 Apr - It was time to depart with a bit of hard earned cash I bought some solid 8mm discs from the campus and a 'uprated' clutch derived from the volvo I believe, in addition a new timing chain and tensioner just for peace of mind as I don't fancy separating the engine and box to often!
28 Apr - My mate Mark came round today to fit the chain tensioner and clutch, simple job as it sounds but I'd rather have peace of mind from someone who knows
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