10/05/03

I took the suspension bits to work and pushed in the bushed with a fly press, it is nearly impossible to knock them in with a hammer and socket. Then whilst still at work I shot blasted all the parts to give a nice base to spray.

Two coats of red oxide later..

While the red oxide was drying I drilled out all the holes in the area I would be working today, (the front suspension), I found you need a very long 12mm drill to clean out the galvanized holes. Some of the holes are deep tubes and inaccessible with a normal length drill bit. This may sound a bit crude but I managed it with first getting as deep as I could with the normal drill, then using my 12mm 12" masonry drill on a slow speed, worked fine.

Next job was to make up the Spax shocks , simple job, didn't even need spring compressors. Going through the supplied bag of nuts and bolts , it is quite apparent there is nowhere near enough. Guess I will need to place an order with Namrick. Later in the day I painted the first coat of Hammeright, then to finish off the day, the second coat.

11/05/03

No problem with assembling the front suspension, as per then manual, a 14mm, (not that easy to find), opened out the bottom fixing hole on the strut., Everything thing bolted together as expected.

I adjusted the camber to 0 degrees at full droop, well as best I could measure, and it's a bit of a pain undoing the top joint each to to adjust the camber.

Once both sides were assembled all that was left was to temp fit the steering rack and drill the reverse taper in the suspension strut.

I was a bit dubious about drilling the reverse taper , but with an old track rod end cut off clamped in my drill, and plenty of cutting paste, the job was a good'un in about 5 mins each side.

Next weekend will be the rear suspension, in preparation I have mounted the diff onto its carrier.

17/05/03

Started off the day by drilling out all the holes I would be using today, no problems there all easily reachable. Now to mount the diff, I decided to try and manipulate the diff into place using both of my trolley jacks, (I am working on my own). It took a lot of struggling and swearing but eventually the diff was secured into place. I found it best to fix wires to the rear mounting plate and pull up through the fixing holes in the body, then use the trolley jacks to raise and push forward the diff.

Anyway soon  had all the fixing bolts tightened up and the diff was done..

Had to go out in the afternoon so I just had time to make up the rear Spax Coil-over's ready for the swinging arms tomorrow.

18/05/03

Now to have a go at the swinging arms, hmm a bit heavy and awkward on your own, but I found a bucket was just the right height to support the swinging arm whilst I maneuvered the fixing points into place. The fit was good with no shims required.

I had to drill to holes in the swinging arm to take the bottom bracket for the Spax Shock, other than that no real problem. Oh just one thing there is a 16mm clearance hole for the top shock mounting, well this is no longer a clearance hole because of the galvanizing. It is very difficult to get at but I found that you can just , but only just, get a round file in there at an angle and clear out enough of the galvanize plating.

That done I simply lifted up the swinging arm and bolted the shock into place. It was then a simple case of re-attaching the drive shaft to the diff.

The same the other side and the rear suspension is complete .

Fitted the servo and pedal box next, but before fitting the pedal box I replaced the original clutch ratchet quadrant, (yellow), with a replacement ,(white), which is 5mm larger in diameter. This extra 5mm makes a lot of difference with the clutch 'bite' area,(it lifts the clutch engagement up a bit from the bottom of the travel),and gives a little bit more leverage.

No problem in fixing the servo and pedal box, I then continued on and fitted the steering wheel and Handbrake.

24/05/03

Went to Partco and bought 2 25ft reels of brake pipe and a large container of brake fluid. I used a length of stiff wire to measure the required runs , then starting from the from began to make up the pipe runs. First off the short run from the front of the master cylinder to the offside caliper. Nice and easy and no problem with the little hand tool I borrowed to flare the pipe ends. To secure the flexible pipes I cut a female brake pipe fitting in half to make a 'nut' this worked quite nicely to clamp the end of the flexible brake pipe in the fixing holes.

The pipe runs along the inside of the top chassis rail, next the nearside front pipe, (also from the front of the master cylinder), along the inside of the chassis rail and fixed the same way.

Now to attack the rear pipes.

I decided to fit a brake compensation valve to ensure the front brakes come on before the rear, to pass SVA. I had done this before with my last Kit, so I took a valve from a Sierra, (found on the inner nearside wing), cleaned it up and positioned it on the bottom chassis rail. The rear pipe then goes into the back of the valve, out the front and onto the rear brakes. The valve is fixed at a 30 degrees angle facing forward.

The brake pipe then continued its run the the rear along the offside chassis rail, then across the back of the back panel to a tee piece.

Again used half a female connector as a 'nut' and fixed the flexible to the mounting holes supplied.

Right now to bleed the brakes, I had borrowed, (a lot of people owe me favors !), an Easybleed system. I had never used one before and I have to say I wish I had, it was very simple to fill the reservoir then pressurise the system with a spare tyre, and hey presto just go round all the nipples and listen to the air come out followed by fluid.

Mind you I did drop the jar once holding my expelled brake fluid and managed to kick over my container of fluid, god what a mess !.

Now that I had brakes, decided to call it a day. (by the way it takes 24ft of brake pipe for the Sumo), yes I know I bought 2 Reels of 25 ft Doh..

25/05/03

The plan today is to fit the engine, but first I need to mate the engine and gearbox. Just remembered in time I had to modify the clutch release arm to accept a cable instead of the normal hydraulic plunger. This was a simple task of drilling a hole in the arm (12mm) to accept the sleeve of the Granada Clutch cable, then drill a corresponding hole in the bell housing, just large enough the let the cable nipple through. The idea is that the other sleeve pushes the arm back as the inner cable is prevented from moving anywhere.

This done I fixed the release bearing into place and positioned the gearbox on the garage floor with the bell housing sitting on a bag of sand, (the kids playsand destined for the sandpit). This allowed me to set the gearbox at an angle ready to accept the engine.

Next the engine was hoisted up on the winch and naturally hung at about a 30 degrees angle, then I could offer up the engine to the gearbox then wiggle the gearbox about on the bag of sand until the two came together nicely. Inserted all the bolts and bob's your uncle, job done.

Now the whole lot was hoisted up on the winch hanging at about 45 degrees.

As you have probably realised I am on my own doing this so need to make things as easy as possible, so I lowered the front of the chassis to about a foot lower than the back. This seemed to give a easier route in for the engine. All the engine and chassis mounting plates were loosely fitted at this time.

Little by little I lowered the engine/gearbox into the chassis , each time checking underneath to see where the gearbox was relative to the floor. Then I placed my trolley jack under the gearbox in line with the engine so that as you pushed the engine forward the trolley jack simple moved with you. Each time I lower the engine a little I jacked up the end of the gearbox. Within half an hour or so the engine was sitting on the engine mounts and that was it !. Note I had removed the steering rack first.

So it is possible to fit the engine on your own.

Then I marked up the fixing holes for the gearbox mount and bolted that into place too. Tightened up the engine mounting bolts and job done !.

There is enough movement on the chassis mounting plates and enough holes to choose from so that you can get a good fit fore and aft. I used the third hole from the front in the chassis mounting brackets and the top hole nearest the Rad for the engine mounting bracket.

Engine In
Clearance to steering rack

I was so pleased with myself, decided to call it a day.

31/05/03

Taking a second look at the engine in situ, the oil filter is very close to the chassis rail, in fact almost touching, Pilgrim suggest a replacement filter part number FRAM PH2991. Hmm means nothing tome so I went to Halfords who looked up the FRAM number which corresponds to Halfords HOF221. This filter is a lot smaller in diameter and gives plenty of clearance. WHilst in Halfords I then opened a few other filter boxes noting the thread size and sealing ring diameter, it is obvious you could also use a filter still small in diameter but also much longer, maintaining the oil capacity.

Anyway back home and the filter fits no problem and clearance is not an issue. Right onto the clutch , the re-engineered clutch arrangement suggested by Pilgrim seems to be working but does not seem to have much pedal travel, I have also used the larger ratchet quadrant suggested. Looking amongst the bits supplied I noted a small spacer tube which fits where the clutch cable comes through the bulkhead. If fitted this would give the cable some extra length in the engine bay, hmmm better fit it and try.

Well It meant I had to remove the servo and pedal box, but once fitted the spacer tube made all the difference, the clutch pedal seems just right now.

Now to fit the Alternator, this is a standard Alternator as fitted to a Sierra 1.8 or 2.0 , and uses the supplied bracket. I found the bracket need to be drilled out for the 5" bolt and nut I had but otherwise no problem in fitting and a 1100 mm fan belt fits fine.

Now to fit the radiator, but first you have to fit the two cooling fans. The fitting kit provided means you have to push 8 fixing pins through the radiator ! gulp, better be careful here.

It was very daunting pushing said fixing pins through my £125 Radiator, but with my heart in my mouth all went okay. You also have to remove the 'wings' on the side of the Radiator otherwise the overrider bars cannot be fitted.

The Radiator is actually fitted upside down, apparently this gives better hose runs. Two of the bottom fixing holes on the Radiator, (in reality the top), line dup perfectly with two of the pre drilled holes in the chassis, so on it went, I also made up two brackets for the top mounts. For the top mounts I used a couple of exhaust fixing bobbins from Halfords, but note they have 5/16 UNC threads so get some there and then else you will have to trot all the way back to get some nuts ..

 

Rad Ready
Rad top mounts

Next weekend I would like to complete the plumbing, having a quick look it is easy to make up a bottom Rad hose from an original SD1 top hose and part of the Original SD1 bottom hose, with a joiner, the top hose also looks quite simple, so I will order the parts during the week and assemble next weekend.