More progress..... Tonight when I got home the new(correct) companion flange was waiting for me on my porch, so I grabbed it and took it straight over to Mike at JP-Evo, we installed it and I loaded everything into the back of the Clubby (god that diff is heavy!) All (!) I have to do now is clean everything up and put it all back together and into the car. The good news is that I have a 4 day weekend to accomplish that so come Monday I expect to be taking a few exploratory drives around the block.
I think the webpage I have the images linked from is down right now, I don't see the images either....I'll upload them here tonight when I get home, but it was just a couple of shots of the center section all put back together again like Metalman said..... You can go here also to see all the pics I've uploaded so far - it's on the KC MINI site....Kansas City MINI Enthusiasts • Index page it's under the "off topics" section...I can't get there from here at work, it's blocked.
So why black? Was the car black from teh factory or do you just like black cars? I always wonder why people pick the color for their restoration projects.
It's a long story......The car was originally Primrose yellow from the factory and I've never been fond of that color. When I got it it was white, which I liked OK, but........ Many years ago - in fact it was the late 60's - I was working at an import repair shop as a mechanic. One of our regulars was a young black kid who had this gorgeous 61 E-Type - all black of course. I worked on his car a number of times and did a lot to it and I always wondered how this young guy could afford such a cool car, 'cause I sure couldn't! One day he brought it in with a bent lower control arm, he told me he'd just come back from a trip to Colorado and regaled us with stories about crossing Kansas at 100 + mph and touring the Colorado mountains in his Jag, on the way back he'd hit something in the road, but the car felt good so he just kept his foot down - ruined a brand new Michelin tire doing it since it was bent pretty good. While it was in the shop getting that fixed he decided to have us replace the drive shaft U-joints too - which entails removing the rear end assembly, much like I'm doing on my car right now, and it was while I was lying on my back removing parts that the mystery of how he could afford this car became clear - when I spotted the seam weld going all the way across the bottom of the car. His car had been rebuilt from two cars! Anyway, that black Jag always stuck in my mind as the prettiest car I'd ever seen, and one day I decided I'd have one. As it turns out, mine was in worse shape than his by the time I assessed all the panels I'd have to replace due to rust, but no matter...... So that's how it wound up in black......
The images are hosted on a site named JaguarLinks.com however if I try to go there I get the following. jaguarlinks.com This domain is expired, please renew it. Please contact us for more information.
Hah... I was expecting a hidden panel with white powdery stuff.... Glad I was wrong.... Good story...
Don't know what happened to the Jaguar Cafe, hope they didn't give up.... Here are the two pics I posted over there of the diff, not much to see yet, there will be more tomorrow as I start putting it all back together again.
Got a little more work done on the diff this afternoon, got the brakes all cleaned up and bolted on. Tomorrow I'll need to get some help lifting the the diff off the bench, like I said - it's heavy! 5 bolts that hold the brake calipers on are safety wired, it was a common practice back in the day - a holdover from the aircraft industry I'd guess - but I can't see any way in the workd to do this with the diff in the car, or even in the carrier for that matter. I dug out my old safety wire tool and stainless wire and had at it - it took hours because on the right side you have to attach the caliper to the bracket and bolt the whole assembly. When you do it's almost impossible to reach the bolts to insert the wire into the holes in the heads! For those that haven't used one of these, you lock the plier onto the wire and pull the chrome knob on the back and it neatly winds the wire up, you then daisy chain the bolts together, but you have to do it correctly so that the bolts are pulled tighter, not looser... Here's what the safety wire pliers look like, and how the bolts that hold the diff into the carrier are wired.... This pic shows the braket bolts wired up... All the brakes are installed and I'm ready to bolt the diff back into the carrier...need to remember to fill it with diff oil too....
Nice. I used to use safety wire pliers when I worked on aircraft... They do make easy work out of safety wiring.
I still have mine too, but I liked to safety wire by hand. Guess I just got comfortable doing it that way. BTW: You forgot to bend the pig tail over, which is required in the FAR's. :lol: Jim
Well, I wasn't done yet when I snapped the pic! Got all the parts cleaned up and accounted for, ready for reassembly.....a parts washer and compressed air sure make this job easier! As do some of the wife's old cake pans and cookie sheets....she also gives me her old tupperware, it's great for cleaning handfuls of odd shaped parts and nut's and bolts. Just put 'em in there with a good shot of parts solvent, give 2-3 minutes of a good shaking and rinse 'em off. Job done. Hotter'n hell and humid beyond belief today......after low sixties and rainy all day yesterday.
Allrightythen......all put together and ready to go back under the car, but first I'll roll it outside and hit it with the pressure washer..... Then while I'm under the car putting everything back I'm going to drain and refill the transmission too. It's been leaking from the drain plug, I think a good wrap or two of teflon tape should take car of that.
Looks like you need to remove the rear sub-frame to service the brakes. That is a marvel of packaging.
You can change the pads in the car easily enough, there's actually plenty of room to do that, however changing the rotors or replacing seals in the calipers requires a complete removal and teardown.... I managed to get the assembly hung in the car tonight, it's a bit of a challenge working by myself, but once it's in place the rest is pretty straightforward..... All I have left now is to hook up the front control arms, sway bar link, driveshaft, brake line and em brake cable. Then once I run it a bit and make sure everything's right, just hang the exhaust back on and it's road test time....but I'm out of gas for tonight.
More than you realize..... I'm embarrassed to say I had to redo the entire project this morning when I figured out I had installed the carrier the wrong direction yesterday - backwards - I didn't even think it could be done that way, but I managed. So, I shortcut it a bit by leaving the axles attached to the diff and just removing the control arm pivots, the top bolts and the em brake assembly. Getting it all back together again was hard and really took it out of me. I probably won't get back to it again till Friday unfortunately....
The carrier is completely symetrical except for two small tabs welded on the front (not the back the way I had it!) so it's very easy to mess up........I had a 50/50 chance, didn't I? :blush2: Once everything is buttoned up and running again the rebuilder told me to make half a dozen short 15 min or so gentle trips at varying speeds to break in the new gearset before running extensively on the highway, I guess I'll drive it the 20 miles to my office on the back roads.....that'll be fun anyway, at least before it gets too hot outside. We're supposed to have 90's all this week, but June usually is more moderate so I'm hoping for a few good days to get her broken in. Not only is it hoternhell in a black car with a black interior with no A/C, but the engine runs warm anytime it gets over 80*....doesn't overheat, just runs hotter than I like it to....