Anyone want to buy a Hub Puller, hardly used!!!!!?
Got my Half Shaft and Hub Assembly back from the engine shop today, duly separated. Spent this evening taking the UJ's out. The Hub assemblies are now ready for refurbishment and will be sent to Ward's as soon as I get round to it (and get a bit more money together!!). They do a very good job apparently and have a courier collection service, door to door return for £28, which isn't bad!
After getting the UJ's out I cleaned the half shafts and associated bits up with Frosts "Marine Clean". Brilliant stuff which gets all the oil and grease off. I then went over them with a stripping disk and wire brush to clean them up. After that I treated them with Frosts "Metal Ready" which gets the bare metal ready for accepting paint and also leaves a coating of zinc on the parts, neutralising any rust deposits. See the pics below . After that they look a bit manky and you can see the zinc deposit on the parts. I may go over them again but after that they will be ready for the POR15 paint.
I also received my other parts back from bead blasting. The guy sprayed them with a zinc primer after blasting (he did ask me first!) which has left an ideal surface to apply the POR paint. He would have had the half shafts as well if I had got them apart in time to go with the rest!! Anyway it was fairly satisfying stripping them myself!!
Going to have to wait a while to start painting as its still only about 10 degrees in my garage, even with the gas heater on!!
Spent today clearing branches out of the garden following the storms of the last two days. Thought I would just nip in the garage before I went in to get cleaned up, and remove the UJ's from the half shaft that I had managed to remove the Hub Carrier from. After all, how difficult could it be?? All the comments on the CRC website and other sites suggest its a five minute job.................WRONG!!! I finally got the things out after an hour of extreme violence!! Either I am doing something very wrong or I have got the Jaguar running gear from Hell!!! To see how it's supposed to be done click on the following link, it makes it look easy!! "UJ Removal"
Got most of the running gear parts ready for blasting (pic's below). One of the Hub carriers came off the half shaft really easily, the other was a child without a father!!! I bought a "Universal Hub Puller" (pic below) but it was a waste of money as it had no effect. Plan "B" was a big hammer, but I just couldn't shift it despite the size of the hammer I hit it with!! Eventually I gave up, and today I took it to my local engineers (Northern Road Engineering), who also took the stub axles out of the uprights for me (no charge, how good is that!!?). Should get it back Monday. Once that is back I need to take the UJ's out of the half shafts and then everything is apart and ready for preparation and painting!!
2nd January 2007 - Happy New Year!!!
I took an extra day off work today so it gave me an opportunity to get over to Stourbridge to get the correct Front Hubs!! The guys there were fine and helpful, and I finally came away with a matched set of hub assemblies from the same car. The brakes have the desired four pot callipers on them. They were a bit rusted up and a sod to get apart. I Also today took the brake callipers and disks off the Diff ready for getting the callipers reconditioned. The rear callipers were also a bit of a sod to get off as the pads were seized in but I eventually persuaded them to shift! Think I may need new disks front and rear!!!! ;o)
Now need to find some time to get the rear Hub Assemblies stripped down, and together with the rear wishbones, half shafts, Diff and a few other bits, get them sand basted ready for painting. I know this is lots of fun, someone told me!!.............;o)
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26th December 2006 - OK, that's Christmas out the way, back to the garage!!!
Just found out from some guys on the CRC website who have looked at the above pictures, that I have stupidly got myself two left hand hub assemblies!! Not only that, one has a four pot calliper and the other a three. I guess I can put this down to lack of experience, a rainy day and not looking properly or asking the right questions!!! Either way this means a two and a half hour drive back to Stourbridge to change one of them. The Learning curve just got steeper!!
In the mean time started to strip down the rear axle assembly Some parts will be reconditioned (Hubs, Hub Carriers and Brake Callipers), other parts like the wishbones will be sand blasted and painted.
18th December 2006 - Had a day off work today prior to going abroad for a couple of days, so I drove over to Stourbridge near Birmingham to get the Jag Diff and Axles (supposed to be Christmas shopping!!!). The guy advertises on E-Bay under the name of "1tWolf" and is basically a Jag breakers. If you need any Jag Stuff ring him on 07860 456551. After a two and a half hour drive I finally found the place (thanks Tom Tom!!). He had tons of Jag bits but not many 3.31 Diff's which is what I needed. Anyway he found one, so I had everything I needed. Fortunately he had the front axle with the springs all ready off so I didn't have the problem of having to cut them (read all the threads on the CRC web site about this problem). All needs stripping down, sand blasting and painting, but that's all part of the fun isn't it..................?? :o)
More painting!!!!!
I have ordered some EBC front and rear discs from Russell_Ram of the CRC website. He can do them hugely discounted (see "Costings" page). Hoped to get them this weekend but not ready for them yet anyway, so next weekend will be fine.
I have also sent off an order to Wards for nuts, bolts, washers and bushes (full car kit of Powerflex Polyurethane type) to assemble the front upper and lower wishbones. It ain't cheap this game!!! Anyway that lot will keep me going for a weekend when they arrive. Once that's done I will order the stuff to complete the rear wishbones, half shafts (UJ's) and front hubs. Then.......... start thinking about getting the hubs reconditioned!!
Anyway, back to the painting!!!
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Stripping and painting finished!!!!!! Still need to send the hubs away and also recondition the Differential but I am now in a position to start actually putting things together!! Let the build commence..........................!!!! :o)
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Got my first load of stuff from Ward's today. Basically all the Nuts, bolts, Washers, Bushes etc etc, to put together the front upper and lower wishbones. I like to keep one step ahead so I always have something to do!!! Once I've finished the painting (bored with that now!!) I can start putting the wishbones etc together. That will be a momentous occasion because at that point the build will have officially started!!
As a point of interest to other builders, I had to buy two Lower Wishbone Pivots Shafts because they were missing from the stuff I got from the Jag breakers. New Jag components (C30722C in the wards catalogue) are £20.00 each. I spoke to Ed at Ward's and he said he could do reconditioned ones for £20 per pair including washers and nuts (see pic below). Bargain!!
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Temperature a bit better this weekend and with the gas heater going full blast in the garage and a mask on, I started to paint the rest of the Jag parts. Put the first two coats of POR15 on. This will be followed by two coats of Chassis Black. Got to admit, the finish of POR15 is brilliant, look at the pictures below.
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Painted the Front Hubs This afternoon with Frost's VHT "Calliper Paint". Did them in the garage where it's still a bit cold and then rushed in and let them "go off" in the kitchen (very understanding wife until she was overpowered with the smell!!!). The redness on the studs and inside is zinc primer, put on after sand blasting. See picture below. Still a bit to cold it the garage to start the POR15 on the other parts.!!
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See below!