Rear Brakes, Steering Rack, Pedal Box

August 14, 2013 -

  It's been a little while since I posted. Sorry, but things have been getting done. I got the rear brake rotors and calipers mounted.

  After that I got the steering rack and shaft in.

  Lastly, I put together the pedal box and installed it into the driver's foot box.  The brake pedal is in with two master cylinders connected (two metal cylinders on top with yellow caps on them.) You can also see the clutch cable coming over the clutch quadrant in the lower left part of the picture. The hardest part of the pedal box was using cheap snap ring pliers to get the snap rings off and on.  What I eventually realized was that the holes in the snap rings were just a little too small for the points I had on my snap ring plier attachments. (Yeah it's the kind with multiple attaching heads so you can imagine how good that grip is.) But since they were cheap I didn't care about taking a file to the points and filing them down to a smaller diameter which would fit in the holes in the snap rings.

Rear Spindle with Upper Control Arm

August 6, 2013 -

I got the upper control arm into the frame with its spacers around the heim joint and the other end onto the rear spindles. Soap helped slide things together (Thanks Damon!) Also, Joe at Factory Five suggested using the handle of a hammer to try and spread the frame mount tabs apart a little to get things to fit easier. While this helped a little with the lower control arms it helped a lot with the upper control arm since those mounts stick out from the frame further so you have more leverage on them. That tip probably would've helped with the front shocks where I had to file down the spacers to get them to fit.

Rear End

August 5, 2013 -

  As I was waiting for the IRS center section I thought I could skip ahead and assemble the e-brake (or parking brake) handle assembly. It was cool putting something together that I'd be touching as a driver. Pushing the spring pin (it looks like a small cylinder with a cut running up the side) into the ratchet mount plates and ratchet tooth took a little finagling but none of it was too hard.

  And then wouldn't you know it, at the very end of the day the UPS man came and dropped of my IRS center section and rear spindles. That IRS center section was heavy and really hard to push up from under the frame into where it needed to go. This was a great way to see how it needed to go in. (In the video his weighs 15 lbs because its empty. Mine came full of everything except gear oil and was probably 80 lbs.) To get it seated correctly I called Damon over and had a second set of hands. He stuck around to help put in the lower control arms, shocks, and CV axles. We tried to fit in the rear spindles but it was too tight a fit. I know now, to stop when things aren't going easy and you are tired. Go to the internet for answers and come back another day. Thanks for all the help Damon!

The bright stuff up front is just plastic covering the end of the CV axle keeping dirt and dust off a greasy end. The big aluminum thing towards the back is the IRS center section. 

Driver Front Footbox

August 4, 2013 -

  I have been waiting for a while now on the independent rear suspension (IRS) center section to work on the rear axle, shocks, spindles, etc.  As that is still on back order, I skipped ahead in the manual to put on the driver's front footbox panel. The cool parts were more riveting with the pneumatic riveter and I got to use the new Cleco fasteners I got for my birthday. (Thanks Meredith!) The Clecos are the copper colored things sticking out below the big hole in the panel. (There are two of them used in this picture.)

Front Wilwood Brakes

July 19, 2013 -
 
  Since I wasn't sure I used the *exact* right thread locker on the small bolts that hold the two pieces of the front brake rotor together, I followed a friend's advice and ran safety wire through these dozen bolts on each front rotor.  I looked just about everywhere but no local stores had safety wire.  After looking online for 5 seconds I found it as well as the concept of safety wire pliers which make twisting the wire faster and prettier.  I bought the wire online with some cheap safety wire pliers. First, unless you've done safety wiring before, you will cut your hands or fingers at least once learning.  Second, your first one (or two) won't look so great so you'll probably just pull it out.  Lastly, my cheap pliers worked just about until the end.  Right as I was doing the last two, the clip that slides back to hold the pliers clamped down on the wires started bending in a way that let the pliers mouth pop open and not stay clamped on the wires.  I don't think I'll have to safety wire anything else so I can see both arguments for good tools that cost more, and a cheap tool that lasts just as long as you need it.  Here's one of the rotors with safety wiring.  The safety wire pliers are above and next to them are some needle nose pliers which came in handy too.

  Once that was done I could put in the front Wilwood 6 piston calipers.

Front Spindle-Hub

July 14, 2013 -

Got the front spindles and hubs on. Thanks to Dave for the 36mm socket!

Some Time Off

July 13, 2013 -

Had to take some time off this past week to practice for a golf tournament with my Dad. It paid off though as we won the low net in the 2013 Westwood Member-Member golf tournament. Way to go Dad!