LP2a SAR restoration

[Phillip]

The long awaited pinion pilot bearing is currently clearing customs so should arrive next week.

In preparation I re-cleaned inside the diff and fitted the new bearing races. NOS crownwheel is fitted to the diff centre. Here's the matching NOS pinion next to the old one, you can see the amount of wear in the teeth. I guess the old one would have been okay for a while

Diff gaskets and seals are sitting on the shelf, so once pinion bearing arrives, just have to press the new bearings into the diff centre and pinion, then bolt up and fit diff.

Next, suspension......

[Andrew Rowe]

You may already know this but with setting up the diff the preload on the side bearings of the crown wheel is only achieved by the thickness of your gaskets on the two halves of the diff housing. Good idea is to set this up without the pinion in so you can rotate the crown wheel through the hole to get the desired preload, then when you have worked out how many gaskets you need pull apart , put pinion in and seal gaskets and bolt together, just my idea anyway, cheers Andrew.

[Phillip]

Just after the New a Year, I dropped an original exhaust pipe into the local muffler shop to get them to bend the pipes and find some mufflers that were as close as we could get to right dimensions. I picked up the components from the shop on Thursday and spent the long weekend fabricating and fitting them.

There were a few issues, the first being that I could not get the pipes mandrel formed locally, so had to contend with changing pipes diameters caused by press forming. The second issue was that the mufflers are close but not identical to the originals - The main difference being the that inlet and outlet pipes are 2 1/4” (pipes are 2”) and about 1/2” further in from the edge when compared to the originals.

The change in piper diameters was overcome by turning up some bushes, this allowed me to, starting at the bottom, position everything then weld the pipes to the bushes, whilst allowing the bushes to sit snugly in the muffler.

Once everything was cut, assembled and tacked in place, the top pipes were welded to the muffler and the original cut offs on the lower pipes were welded in place before a (incomplete) coat of paint was applied.

[Phillip]

The semi hollow rivets turned up today, so with a glint in my eye and a handful of rivets I disappeared down the shed for the evening.

Using guesswork and black magic, I made up a former to hold and roll the rivet end and welded these to a sturdy g-clamp. Results are 50/50, the tool works okay but I now have to find some 3/4” rivets and modify the tool to get the right angle on some of the rivets.

[Lynn Eades]

Phillip, over here I used some aluminium rivets. I followed exactly what a friend had done. because of the small quantity, the company supplied and sent them free, believe it or not.
They were solid aluminium with the countersink flat head, and the right length.
I set up a dolly with knob on it, to keep the counter sink finish, and peined them over.
I must add, it was not the most successful thing I've ever done.

[Phillip]

The diff has now been rebuilt, twice. The first time with the correct gasket size 0.010” but this did not provide any backlash, it took a slightly thicker gasket 0.040” to give the right amount of backlash. I can only put this down to the NOS crown wheel/ pinion and bearings and maybe they were ever so slightly different.

Diff is now all installed. Dropped the brake drums and pads into the local brake shop and they will match the pads to the drums.

Assembled the trailing bogies. The nitrile bushes fit and seem to work well at keeping the grease in.

One set of springs are installed, the other boggie is installed and just the other set of springs to be painted and installed. To completely strip and rebuild the suspension has been a laborious job, but I suspect will be well worth it.

Now I can finish making the new brake rods.

[Phillip]

Brake drums and matching shoes are back from the brake man.

The grease seals in the hubs were obviously what ever could be found locally and a galvanised steel shim of around 1mm in thickness was used to hold them in

New grease seals have arrived courtesy of Macs Auto in the US of A (same part number as per the manual) and new snap rings from the local bearing shop.

I cannot find the little steel cap that goes over the top adjuster. It’s probably not that important but would be nice to find.

When I took the springs off, they were not coloured and were all over the place. Some careful checking to the manual and some references has hopefully enabled me to work which spring is the right colour and therefore where it goes.

The first hub is back on and the shoes centred, the second hub can go on until the cap turns up and then I can complete the brake rods.

The engine is still in the machine shop - it needs a new cylinder liner, the heads and block faced and four broken studs extracted. 4 months down the track the studs are out, hopefully another 4 months and the rest may be done