I'm getting too old for this ^$(%
Discussion
Had the 390SE in for its MOT last weekend, which it passed, although Big John did mention that the handbrakes were operating unequally (though still within spec.).
On Monday Nursy and I went out for a spin and the bloody brakes failed again, exactly as last year which prompted me to rebuild the rear calipers.
Once underneath I decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for the full Monty: bushes, UJs, sort the brakes, paint the chassis, fix the oil leaks... although this does mean I probably won't now make the 'Fest. To be fair though, the car was near undriveable with the brakes playing silly bu993rs.
Now in my 12 years of ownership I've only done minimal work down at the mucky end so I was expecting major hassle in getting the bits apart but apart from a few seized fasteners it hasn't been too bad so far - apart from the fact that I'm finding it hard going lying on my back and rolling around the floor: I'm pushing 50 for god's sake, I should have staff to do this for me
The car's history file does show that it's had a couple of suspension rebuilds but the last would have been around 1995 (the Koni shocks are dated 1992) so I don't think I've done too badly in getting away with it for so long: I've been aware of some play in a couple of UJs for three or four years now but an annual squirt of grease pre-Wedgefest has kept the spanners at bay. Unfortunately the sticking brakes issue has not only cooked the brand-new pads but has also melted the Nylocs that hold the driveshafts on (!) and, I suspect, caused the diff seals to fail as there's a lot of oil about the place.
This'll be an expensive 'do' I reckon, so without further ado here's a cluster of pics. to enlighten those who have yet to venture under the rear arches
View of the nearside: I left the exhaust on but access to some bits, e.g. the drivesahft nuts, would have been easier with it off...
A cluster of rusty bits.
One of the recently-rebuilt brake calipers. You can see that one of the handbrake pads has disintegrated (again); I wasn't impressed with the quality of the parts to start with. Bloody Asian quality control...
These two bolts hold the rear end of the diff. cradle. One of them turns, the other is so seized I fractured a Britool socket on a 3-foot cracking bar and it still didn't shift. Where's me grinder
Amazingly, after all these years it's the first time I've realised that the diff. is the 3.31:1 ratio rather than the more common 3.54:1. It's a PowerLok LSD, of course...
On Monday Nursy and I went out for a spin and the bloody brakes failed again, exactly as last year which prompted me to rebuild the rear calipers.
Once underneath I decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for the full Monty: bushes, UJs, sort the brakes, paint the chassis, fix the oil leaks... although this does mean I probably won't now make the 'Fest. To be fair though, the car was near undriveable with the brakes playing silly bu993rs.
Now in my 12 years of ownership I've only done minimal work down at the mucky end so I was expecting major hassle in getting the bits apart but apart from a few seized fasteners it hasn't been too bad so far - apart from the fact that I'm finding it hard going lying on my back and rolling around the floor: I'm pushing 50 for god's sake, I should have staff to do this for me
The car's history file does show that it's had a couple of suspension rebuilds but the last would have been around 1995 (the Koni shocks are dated 1992) so I don't think I've done too badly in getting away with it for so long: I've been aware of some play in a couple of UJs for three or four years now but an annual squirt of grease pre-Wedgefest has kept the spanners at bay. Unfortunately the sticking brakes issue has not only cooked the brand-new pads but has also melted the Nylocs that hold the driveshafts on (!) and, I suspect, caused the diff seals to fail as there's a lot of oil about the place.
This'll be an expensive 'do' I reckon, so without further ado here's a cluster of pics. to enlighten those who have yet to venture under the rear arches
View of the nearside: I left the exhaust on but access to some bits, e.g. the drivesahft nuts, would have been easier with it off...
A cluster of rusty bits.
One of the recently-rebuilt brake calipers. You can see that one of the handbrake pads has disintegrated (again); I wasn't impressed with the quality of the parts to start with. Bloody Asian quality control...
These two bolts hold the rear end of the diff. cradle. One of them turns, the other is so seized I fractured a Britool socket on a 3-foot cracking bar and it still didn't shift. Where's me grinder
Amazingly, after all these years it's the first time I've realised that the diff. is the 3.31:1 ratio rather than the more common 3.54:1. It's a PowerLok LSD, of course...
Oops, dammit, meant to hit Preview, not Submit... where was I?
Some more crustiness needing attention... the yellow paint is my doing: about ten years ago I replaced a wheel bearing and while I was in there I got busy with some emery cloth. Then I went looking for the black paint I could have sworn I had... but at 5PM on a Sunday the shops had shut and yellow Smoothrite was all I could lay hands on!
These are so far the only two bolts I've had to destroy to remove; they pass through the shocks, to which they'd rusted. I sawed through them in order to detach the shock from the A-frame then brayed them with a 4-pounder, but only one came out. The other took the Koni's bush with it!
It's nice to have a bit of space to work (gratuitous lathe pic into the bargain 
)
Some more crustiness needing attention... the yellow paint is my doing: about ten years ago I replaced a wheel bearing and while I was in there I got busy with some emery cloth. Then I went looking for the black paint I could have sworn I had... but at 5PM on a Sunday the shops had shut and yellow Smoothrite was all I could lay hands on!
These are so far the only two bolts I've had to destroy to remove; they pass through the shocks, to which they'd rusted. I sawed through them in order to detach the shock from the A-frame then brayed them with a 4-pounder, but only one came out. The other took the Koni's bush with it!
It's nice to have a bit of space to work
(gratuitous lathe pic into the bargain )Ignorance is bliss on my part here Ian but i had exactly the same problem 2 BBWFs ago If you can remember. I crawled home with various scary occasions, rear brakes smoking and having no brakes at all eventually now and then at 50mph. When i gave it to car tech in hartlepool as it was far beyond my knowledge, they said the Diff bearings had collapsed causing the rear brakes to bind resulting in brake fluid boiling and hence no brakes after certain amounts of motorway driving. Like i say i have never been "at" the rear brakes but it sounds alot like the symptoms i had maybe worth a look at the diff bearings. Or was it just charge the clown £650 and tell him it was the diff bearings. HTH
Dix
P.S if you need a hand im off for the next month and would gladly help if needed. you have my number.
Dix
P.S if you need a hand im off for the next month and would gladly help if needed. you have my number.
- but I don't own it. It's 40 x 19 feet, the one I do own is only 30 x 9. And full of cr*p. And is sinking 
mrzigazaga said:
50 is the new 20 mate..Or at least thats what i keep telling myself... 
..Hope you can get it sorted...Ziga
I like that ! Benefit of cheaper ins. too and more cash to spend on sports cars/parts for same ...Hope you can get it sorted...ZigaVery bad news that you won't get to the fest Ian , thats another expert who will be missing , Jeffs not getting there either.
Well that's another weekend over... still, I got some more work done on the 390.
Diff coming out with its cradle...
...and on the floor:
Alloy top hanger removed for bead-blasting:
Nearside tie-rod front mounting bolt was taking the rubber bush around with it. Only one thing to do; thin cutting disc in the air grinder:
You know those threads where people talk about renewing the gearshift extension support bushes? Well there's only this much clearance between the bottom of the housing and the propshaft!
Started the real mucky stuff by knocking out all the driveshaft UJs; this is one reduced to its component parts...
The following pics show why the joints are wearing:
...and you know they've been getting some stick when you find snapped needle rollers!
Confirming that the joints are HS179 size...
Diff coming out with its cradle...
...and on the floor:
Alloy top hanger removed for bead-blasting:
Nearside tie-rod front mounting bolt was taking the rubber bush around with it. Only one thing to do; thin cutting disc in the air grinder:
You know those threads where people talk about renewing the gearshift extension support bushes? Well there's only this much clearance between the bottom of the housing and the propshaft!
Started the real mucky stuff by knocking out all the driveshaft UJs; this is one reduced to its component parts...
The following pics show why the joints are wearing:
...and you know they've been getting some stick when you find snapped needle rollers!
Confirming that the joints are HS179 size...
dixiebabes said:
Ignorance is bliss on my part here Ian but i had exactly the same problem 2 BBWFs ago If you can remember. I crawled home with various scary occasions, rear brakes smoking and having no brakes at all eventually now and then at 50mph. When i gave it to car tech in hartlepool as it was far beyond my knowledge, they said the Diff bearings had collapsed causing the rear brakes to bind resulting in brake fluid boiling and hence no brakes after certain amounts of motorway driving. Like i say i have never been "at" the rear brakes but it sounds alot like the symptoms i had maybe worth a look at the diff bearings. Or was it just charge the clown £650 and tell him it was the diff bearings. HTH
Dix
P.S if you need a hand im off for the next month and would gladly help if needed. you have my number.
Cheers Jeff: I've had a feel of the diff. bearings and they seem fine. The Jag unit is built like the proverbial brick outhouse, not quite sure what you'd have to do to get the bearings to collapse, maybe traffic-light Grand Prix is a tougher game over your way Dix
P.S if you need a hand im off for the next month and would gladly help if needed. you have my number.
Diff support beam after blasting...
Offside half-shaft after a night in the parts washer; could be the original paint lurking under all the diff. oil and brake dust!
Quick coffee-break in the middle of sandblasting the halfshaft...
... and the diff-end drive flange (snigger):
Almost seems a shame to have to put paint back on:
The diff. cradle draining Jizer. Don't get any in your eyes kiddies, it bloody stings
Note the splayed sides (top left of pic) where one of the A-frames pivots: that'll need squaring-up. Not sure if it's accident damage or from some tyre-monkey with a jack...
Need to knock all the old bushes out and then the cradle and the A-frames can go for powder-coating; they're too big to fit in my sandblast cabinet and I want a better finish than I could achieve with paint.
Offside half-shaft after a night in the parts washer; could be the original paint lurking under all the diff. oil and brake dust!
Quick coffee-break in the middle of sandblasting the halfshaft...
... and the diff-end drive flange (snigger
):Almost seems a shame to have to put paint back on:
The diff. cradle draining Jizer. Don't get any in your eyes kiddies, it bloody stings
Note the splayed sides (top left of pic) where one of the A-frames pivots: that'll need squaring-up. Not sure if it's accident damage or from some tyre-monkey with a jack...
Need to knock all the old bushes out and then the cradle and the A-frames can go for powder-coating; they're too big to fit in my sandblast cabinet and I want a better finish than I could achieve with paint.
Edited by Wedg1e on Tuesday 12th June 00:46
JMF894 said:
Out of interest have you an access hole in the boot for the top diff mounting bolts?
Jimbo
No, it was easy enough to get in there with a 19mm spanner. The bolts can't lift out as there's insufficient 'headroom' but they're free to turn in the bushes and the diff carrier just drops off the bottom of the bolts once the nuts are removed.Jimbo
I guess as long as the bushes aren't shot, even if the bolts have rusted in you still don't 'need' to chop bits out of the car.
I'm off to my local bearings/ drivetrain supplier this afternoon to try and source the necessaries. Then it'll be a ride to the fasteners stockist to replace nuts'n'bolts. Then a visit to the bank manager to explain it all
The fasteners guy always rolls his eyes when I wak in because I generally seem to be looking for something obscure like an M7.5 x 4.753" 93tpi left-hand thread flange-head socket screw in pure Unobtanium
Edited by Wedg1e on Tuesday 12th June 13:24
Looks like my garage!
Since this picture was taken I've now got the diff out too. Mine didn't leave the factory with an LSD, so I've got a 3.54 LSD
to go in.
Lots of work ahead, but glad I did it. It's shown up loads of hidden nightmares: Knackered trailing arm bushes, bent trailing arm pins, a crack in the chassis etc etc
She'll be a good 'un when I've finished though! Good luck with yours!
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