PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

removed the filthy rear coilovers

bottom of the spring perch is abit battered n corroded against the axle so I machined a fresh lip to it

the left side chassis was ok, axle has alot of bubbly surface rust, but why did I have to disturb n prod the right-side

cos now there's some rust to repair

good thing it's just the one outer spring seat panel. drilled out spot welds shown

gonna have to wirebrush this piece, weld a fresh piece at the bottom and plug weld it back on

 

[pollyp]

We have all been there, caught out by one (or a few) too many drinks. More than once did a student / uni night end like yours last weekend. The only thing is as you get older hangovers last longer.... They can cause the issues you felt.

If your road trip comes near Aylesbury, do pop by.

that made sense.
thing is, I've never had a hangover before so suppose my head was curious & like what-the-heck drink this tasty stuff. gotta try stuff once in ur life eh.
I thought hangovers involved headaches from dehydration, which I didn't have. that morning I was just still woozy, tipsy, groggy, miserable with wet weather and tired, which my sister says was the hangover.
and cos alchohol exaggerates our feelings (depressant or stimulant), I suppose it may have amplified my anxiety & paranoia n stuff.

so no more booze for me then, especially with my mental state lol. there was a reason why I don't usually drink.

 

[SuperUno]

Alcohol is a depressant and does alter how you feel and think. Hangovers are part of life (not a good part), but all part of life.

Given how you feel atm, the answer isn't at the bottom of a glass. Eat well, be active, and plan for the future.

At least you didn't make a complete tit of yourself whilst drunk, I did that more than once during my Uni years.... Thankfully this was before digital cameras and social media, so real evidence of it

 

[pollyp]

Alcohol is a depressant and does alter how you feel and think. Hangovers are part of life (not a good part), but all part of life.

Given how you feel atm, the answer isn't at the bottom of a glass. Eat well, be active, and plan for the future.

At least you didn't make a complete tit of yourself whilst drunk, I did that more than once during my Uni years.... Thankfully this was before digital cameras and social media, so real evidence of it

certainly altered how my brain felt when drinking excessively.

when lightly drunk on thursday, remembered I was tipsy and slurry talky and expressing emotions or thoughts or actions are less hindered/restrained/controlled in the brain.
when moderately drunk, I'm just really sleepy.
when brimmed drunk on friday, I loose eye tracking control, focus, definately balance and then the tummy eventually ejects the poison.

I wasn't after an answer at the bottom of the glass (unless I dropped a fortune cookie into the cup )
I just thought I'd join in being naughty on this one-occasion drinking unknown amounts with tom (suppose I was pushing my limits experimenting and without any knowledge or experience of booze I overboosted too much) and yeah we all know the final result of that lol and never again

 

[SuperUno]

I suspect most (if not all) of us on here have been there before like this. Just when experimenting aged 17 the hangover effect is far less...

Tick it off as another one of lives experiences.

As said before, get planning another project and focus on that and all the boring life stuff like job, money etc...

 

[pollyp]

the old coilover covers have deteriated so time to make new ones out of spare rice bags that's waterproof and strong.
sewing fabric into a cover or clothing with a zipper n features takes a surprising amount of thought & planning.

sewed the zipper

folded the ends for feeding the ziptie through

closed the other seam to complete the sleeve

installed onto coilover

just hope I got enough material to make the other side and then the rear covers.

 

[pollyp]

wirebrushed rust off the chassis

cut rust off the panel and bolt it upto the body

some CAD & tacked the new piece on

finished welding the new section

welded up the rubber bung hole

all welded back on

 

[pollyp]

cleared as much rust off the rear beam axle and drilled a drainage hole near the spring support column

made new rear spring covers

installing springs and covers

all protected

 

[Huggy444]

Not a bad idea that - I always get water pooling in the spring seat area :/

 

[pollyp]

Not a bad idea that - I always get water pooling in the spring seat area :/

yeah the BC spring column blocks off that drainage hole in the middle so it's a good idea to drill another hole nearby to let water out or else the axle may rust faster.

 

[yorkiesteve]

I always cringe and feel sorry for what you guys back in the UK have to deal with when winter rolls around, I don't miss all that salt and brown slush one bit.
My last car in the UK was a much cherished Pug 1.9 GTi ( to the point where I would lay it up in winter and commute to work by mountain bike or scooter ) though to be fair the pug was pretty good having a galvanised shell and really good underbody protection from the factory.

 

[yorkiesteve]

My 20 yr old LX.....

 

[pollyp]

Damn, the chassis n axles on both of urs look fresh af. Mines crumbling away with prob few yrs to spare? She's had a hard life.

 

[yorkiesteve]

The top photo was after a bit of a scrub prior to fitting my coilovers but yeah other than a bit of grime they look like they did when they left the factory, no rust in 20+ years, quite amazing really. Ironically, the biggest problem over here is the sun ! Clear coats peel and metallic paint is particularly susceptible to peel and fade from the harsh sun. A good uv stable polish is essential, but I guess it's like anything, the better you look after it from the beginning the better it will last.
The second pic is with the BC spring and perch in place ( notice the drain hole drilled as per your blog )

 

[pollyp]

The top photo was after a bit of a scrub prior to fitting my coilovers but yeah other than a bit of grime they look like they did when they left the factory, no rust in 20+ years, quite amazing really. Ironically, the biggest problem over here is the sun ! Clear coats peel and metallic paint is particularly susceptible to peel and fade from the harsh sun. A good uv stable polish is essential, but I guess it's like anything, the better you look after it from the beginning the better it will last.
The second pic is with the BC spring and perch in place ( notice the drain hole drilled as per your blog )

I'd rather have an immaculate undercarriage with faded paint over a rusty chassis with ok'ish paint, and I would be keeping her in garage if sun was an issue.

cos I drive mine daily in all conditions & scenarios with the rubbish UK roads & weather treatments, suppose rapidly rusting bits is what I'll have to deal with for yrs (good thing I have a MIG now).
abit jealous that cars I've seen outside UK like china or europe all have immaculate cars on clean salt-less smooth roads

 

[pollyp]

Btw the engine cover & side timing chain cover that I recently resealed with copper sealant before jae no longer leaks oil now

Book her for an MOT next, realign the wheels and then get ready for a solo road trip up Scotland

 

[pollyp]

didn't like how the thick zip tie head at the top of the coilover covers was fouling the pillow-ball mount so tied it with string instead

the weak 3D printed clutch cable spacer is breaking apart

so now that I have a lathe and Andy gave some spare nylon rods, what better time to machine some proper replacements

had to grind the edge of this bracket to clear the bore

new solid spacer slotted in

 

[pollyp]

tday has been a good day

I took kasandra to my friendly local MOT place.
before doing the test there was this interesting red 1986 ford mustang GT I've never seen before that seems to be for drag racing cos it had a massive tacho, line lock, bias valve, 4-P harness, santapod stickers. the guy fired it up to move it round the corner and phwoa what a meaty V8 rumble

alright lets test kasandra. he pointed out I should preferably cover the exposed loom wiring with plastic conduit cos the new regs could be abit picky about that in some centres.
drove onto rollers to check brakes, front are fine but I think the rear is just within uneven % limits (that rear left caliper is beginning to stick and needs servicing).
drove up the 4-post ramp, first time I've sat in the car whilst being lifted up

everythings fine, slight corrosion under the rear right floor that needs looking but he's found the rear left wheel bearing abit gritty, Ah so that's where the rumbly driveshaft-rattle-like noise was coming from. sounded deceptively like it was from the front bulkhead when it's actually from the rear end and this explains why it rumbles more during fast right-turns when that wheel is under most load. time to replace those rear bearings then.

back to the emissions machine, we were talking for awhile as the car was idle warming up and we know that the engine itself tends to collect & burn oil during long idle under vacuum but would the new turbo help?
last year with the old worn smokey turbo she barely passed with 0.6%CO and 202HC.
tday after prolonged cold idling, it was reading 0.66%CO as expected and needs a good blast to clear up and heat the cat.

so went for a quick blast, hoping on the way back that her emissions behave.
because it's a 1993 reg, the limits of 3.5%CO / 1200HC are less strict than models above 1995.

to my surprise with a hot system and new turbo she easily passed with 0.12%CO and 112HC
good girl kasandra, she passed

think I'll replace her rear wheel bearings and then get ready for a road trip

 

[pollyp]

does anyone know the rear wheel bearing number?
just the bearing itself, don't fancy paying £40 for a new hub and swapping all the long studs

 

[frank]

i get it to 27 i/d 55 o/d and 40 width paul ? (cant read the part numbers tho)

 

[pollyp]

i get it to 27 i/d 55 o/d and 40 width paul ? (cant read the part numbers tho)

not sure. I think I'll need to remove my current hubs n read the bearing number.
they're different to front bearings right?

 

[pollyp]

took the rear calipers off, spun the hub and yeah this bearing is really rough

removed the hub and just look at how dry that poor old grease is, no wonder it's poorly

no bearing number markings at all, only the casted stamping SKF, 40, A V
guess SKF the bearing manufacturers make these hubs as a whole cos the outer bearing race seems to be part of the hub.

so I guess I'll have to fork out £40-80 for some new hubs..
but really don't like the flimsy build of these apparantly new £40 non-SKF rear hubs

there's only one new £30 SKF hub in ebay

or £40 for a pair of used oem SKF rear hubs off ebay next week,
or I just pop down to local scrappies tomorrow to grab some used hubs for an instant repair before the holiday next week.

...lets pop down the scrappies for quick cheap repair

 

[frank]

yes integral aint they paul

 

[pollyp]

yes integral aint they paul

View attachment 51366

aye, time to grab some spare good ones from scrappies. hope they quote me £40-60 for a pair

 

[pollyp]

lets dismantle the bearing to find what's going on

the bearing grease is like the gunk I'd find in a fast-food extraction fan system
there's also flecks of metal in the grease

christ-almighty this big chunk of the inside-outer race missing is probably why it's been making that whirring once-per-rotation noise.
how did this survive the trip to germany over 135mph and many highspeed trackdays without destroying itself?

the inner race is ok, just a tiny pit on the inner race.

regreased with generic lithium grease should be able to get me to the scrappies

 

[SuperUno]

Don't bother with a cheap ebay pattern rear hub, I fitted one beginning of August due to a bit of play in the OSR bearing, and within a month (2 events) it was moving again....

I am now going to try a used one of a spare beam i bought.

 

[pollyp]

Don't bother with a cheap ebay pattern rear hub, I fitted one beginning of August due to a bit of play in the OSR bearing, and within a month (2 events) it was moving again....

I am now going to try a used one of a spare beam i bought.

Yeah I didn't like the weak structural look of em. Gonna goto scrappy in abit.

 

[pollyp]

reinstalling the hub, disc & wheels, I noticed they not seating straight?
so removed the disc and found these spline notches

ahh the splines of the extended studs are abit longer than the thickness of the hub so the disc won't sit correctly if it wasn't fitted at exactly the same position as last time

so I chamfered the hole to clear the splines

after just greasing the worn hub, it's kinda abit quieter but can still hear the balls running over that chipped outer race at high speed.

I went to a nearby salvage yard in peterlee/ guy quoted £25 each and I'd have to bring own tools to the yard to remove.
I only found this single grey facelift and the rear drums were seized on solid and was PITA, gave up & fook this.

so rang an alternative, JapParts in stockton where I use to get spare quality parts from before.
quoted £20 each AND they remove it off the car for you
bargain and nice quality & service

for reference the bearing is marked SKF 44733CC France 257Y.09V

 

[pollyp]

hammered the studs out and gave em a good wirebrush clean

the same old horrible hardened grease inside

everything cleaned n shiny

rebuilt with fresh grease ready to fit

 

[andy]

hammered the studs out and gave em a good wirebrush clean

View attachment 51387

the same old horrible hardened grease inside

View attachment 51388 View attachment 51390

everything cleaned n shiny

View attachment 51389 View attachment 51391

rebuilt with fresh grease ready to fit

View attachment 51386

look like new parts now, very nice.

 

[andy]

tday has been a good day

View attachment 51358

I took kasandra to my friendly local MOT place.
before doing the test there was this interesting red 1986 ford mustang GT I've never seen before that seems to be for drag racing cos it had a massive tacho, line lock, bias valve, 4-P harness, santapod stickers. the guy fired it up to move it round the corner and phwoa what a meaty V8 rumble

alright lets test kasandra. he pointed out I should preferably cover the exposed loom wiring with plastic conduit cos the new regs could be abit picky about that in some centres.
drove onto rollers to check brakes, front are fine but I think the rear is just within uneven % limits (that rear left caliper is beginning to stick and needs servicing).
drove up the 4-post ramp, first time I've sat in the car whilst being lifted up

everythings fine, slight corrosion under the rear right floor that needs looking but he's found the rear left wheel bearing abit gritty, Ah so that's where the rumbly driveshaft-rattle-like noise was coming from. sounded deceptively like it was from the front bulkhead when it's actually from the rear end and this explains why it rumbles more during fast right-turns when that wheel is under most load. time to replace those rear bearings then.

back to the emissions machine, we were talking for awhile as the car was idle warming up and we know that the engine itself tends to collect & burn oil during long idle under vacuum but would the new turbo help?
last year with the old worn smokey turbo she barely passed with 0.6%CO and 202HC.
tday after prolonged cold idling, it was reading 0.66%CO as expected and needs a good blast to clear up and heat the cat.

so went for a quick blast, hoping on the way back that her emissions behave.
because it's a 1993 reg, the limits of 3.5%CO / 1200HC are less strict than models above 1995.

to my surprise with a hot system and new turbo she easily passed with 0.12%CO and 112HC
good girl kasandra, she passed

think I'll replace her rear wheel bearings and then get ready for a road trip

the years go by so quickly did ya not take it back to dave dent? who done it last year.

 

[pollyp]

the years go by so quickly did ya not take it back to dave dent? who done it last year.

Yes indeed, great lad

 

[h701micra]

Seems like a LOT of work for ultimately a roughly small gain, is it worth all the work?

If body roll is that bad, fit a diffent ARB or springs or dampers/settings. Easier than all this...

Changes like this yield massive improvements in handling.
If suspension was as easy as bolt ons I'd have a pointless job

 

[h701micra]

So much to catch up on

Hope you're ok Paul

 

[pollyp]

So much to catch up on

Hope you're ok Paul

I'm alright, just concentrate on the little +ve achievements each day and this past few days have been good such as, actively meeting with therapist, car passing MOT with little issues, finding & easily fixing a bad rear wheel hub.
car repair almost complete, meet therapist on monday and then HOLIDAY!

 

[pollyp]

removed the poor old hubs. they're abit tired after afew long years of abuse

the extended studs were really tight in their holes. had to put a spare nut on top and bash them through with the biggest hammer as hard as I can. my poor vice jaws doesn't like this abuse

while the studs are out, may as well neaten everything up. machined all the studs to exactly 62mm long on the lathe

and then machined all the nuts to 28mm long

it takes quite abit of a body work-out to screw those studs back onto the new hubs

new hubs installed and spins so smooth n quiet now

 

[Huggy444]

Could you not have used a vice to press out the studs? Or where they stuck in there that badly?!

I remember changing just one stud and how much that sucked haha

 

[pollyp]

Could you not have used a vice to press out the studs? Or where they stuck in there that badly?!

I remember changing just one stud and how much that sucked haha

the studs are wedged pretty tight into the hub with a ton of static friction so a vice will require quite abit of work.
plus my vice jaws had to be almost fully open to fit these long studs in, meaning that not alot of vice threads are inserted so there's a high risk of wrecking the vice with these tight bad boys.

much easier & faster to just bash them out with big hammer on a vice.

 

[pollyp]

made spigots to keep the rear spacer and rear wheel perfectly centered

and now all the studs n nuts are sitting nicely flush & even

 

[pollyp]

sparks looking abit crusty old so replaced em all before the trip

so did the new rear hubs fix the bearing noise? erm yes & no.
yes most of the rough bearing noise has gone but I'm still getting that subtle rattly bearing noise during fast right turns, so I think one of the front wheel bearing is still abit poorly but meh it'll do.

 

[pollyp]

and now time to align the wheels.

equalised all the tyre pressures from 2.6/2.7bars front/rear cold to 3bars all round.
checked tread depth and they're all pretty even.
tyre sidewall heights were 69/72mm front/rear.

the front camber was at an odd 1.6deg/1.9deg left/right so adjusted the camber plate till they're both 1.9deg
the rear axle was pointing slightly right, making the steering drift to the left so I straightened the rear axle.
the front alignment was pointing to the right-side alot, so the car was crabbing abit.
straightened the front wheels and induced 0.1deg toe-out to preload the tyre sidewalls and sharpen up the steering dead-center area.

now just took it out onto motorway and ooh yea it Sooo good to have a perfect straight steering, no shaking or rattling, doesn't drift left/right at all, and I think the toe-out has very slightly (hard to notice) reduced the vagueness near the steering dead-centre and weighted the steering feel abit when turning beyond 10deg, makes it feel abit meatier.

happy with the result.

 

[Huggy444]

I've always ran toe-in on the rally car to help grip when launching etc - have you tried this?

 

[pollyp]

I've always ran toe-in on the rally car to help grip when launching etc - have you tried this?

I used to run abit of toe-in or zero toe but I think it just made steering sluggish but stable.
I've read before that on fwd the driving torque pulls & flexes the wheels forward which induces some toe-in. too much toe-in would make it respond sluggish. so they should have abit of toe-out to correct the geometry.

now that I tried some toe-out, I like the +ve feel of it.

 

[pollyp]

tday I realised I haven't changed my fuel filter since 2013 so got a new one

here's the old filter

cut the seam off with tin snips

and here's the filter

a fair bit of small particle residue remaining inside

but what's going on here?

opening up the element, it's done it's job of capturing some odd fine metallic specks & dirt on the outer side

but look at this. seems the clay binder had cracked through and potentially allowing unfiltered debris to flow towards the delicate injectors?
one of many reasons to regularly replacing our fuel filters along with the annual oil changes.

 

[SuperUno]

I run zero toe in/out. If the front end has good poly bushes then this is the best setup in my experience.

 

[pollyp]

I run zero toe in/out. If the front end has good poly bushes then this is the best setup in my experience.

that's what I've been running for the past few yrs upto now

 

[pollyp]

replaced the cardboard vent guides for the catchcan with plastic so it doesn't fall apart

and she's all ready for the trip

 

[pollyp]

Weather forecast looks shyte overall this week with tons of low pressure so having 2md thoughts of waiting till nxt week :/

 

[pollyp]

painted the rear wheel nuts to reduce rust

recently thought the engine felt abit "mushy" during hard acceleration and found that the old 2-piece rear mount inserts have finally crushed apart

so now I printed a solid 1-piece insert with no end plates to snap off

hammered in place

yup upshifts feel alot sharper n better.

ready to go on sunday/monday to wales and then scotland

 

[rct]

Pollyp I know you will know the answer to this, what size are the bolts that hold on the front anti roll bar please?
I have one to fit but am missing the bolts.
Many thanks rct

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