LP2a SAR restoration

[Phillip]

Lynn,

You are absolutely spot on. Picked up the roller cage bearing and assembled the gearbox last night.

Fitted the detent bracket and found all the gears and yes - reverse just misses the 25mm lugs.

Just waiting on the pinion seal to finish it off completely.

[Phillip]

I need to turn up the Bakelite grease seals/ bushes in the suspension so that I can start re-assembling, however I decided to tackle a job I was not looking forward to. Wiring.

I tracked and labeled all the wires and made all the connectors. Having all the wires the same colour makes life interesting and I've still got to make up the coloured tin tags to identify each wire.

This whole process was made a lot easier by assembling the conduit in sections and feeding the wires through a little at a time.

Getting the wires through the little t piece underneath and then up into the junction box is going to be 'fun' 10 wires in such a small diameter conduit

[Lynn Eades]

Nice work Phillip! Now about the seals. Where do you get bakelite from?
The Aussie seals do go hard, but the material is a rubber type, which twists in itself when the arms move. I had a few injection moulded, but the guy would only do one set for me. (a trade for a favour) Old stock British/ Canadian ones remain pliable.

[Andrew Rowe]

I just use 10mm nitrite rubber. The local gasket guy does it with his CAD program using a thermal knife cutter, but you can also water jet the rubber out for a reasonable job as well. I believe it is only there for a water proof seal for the grease.

[Lynn Eades]

Andrew, that sounds like a good way to do it. I'll keep that in mind for the next one (maybe in my next life )

[Phillip]

Rubber

Mine were so hard I thought they were Bakelite but closer examination shows them to be, yes - petrified rubber.

We only have one firm in town that offer CAD cutting, I'll have to see if they can cut rubber, then I'll have to find some nitrile rubber sheet.

Another option may be a seal, is there any sideways force on the seal?

[Lynn Eades]

Yes there is quite a reasonable lateral pressure. The seal surface (pin collars) is grooved and the compressed seal is forced into the grooves under compression. The seal twists in itself as the suspension arm rotates, effectively no movement at the mating points. So, no, not a conventional seal. Find someone with a water cutter.