Differential - Final Fitting

After some thinking time I finished fitting the differential to the car. Before fitting I drained the oil and replaced the drive shaft seals. I didn't replace the forward seal because I don't have the right equipment and thought I would do more harm than good as it wasn't leaking when removed from the car. I will leave one of the cockpit side panels unbonded so I will have good access in the future if I need to get to the diff.

I flattened off the top of the differential with a grinder and a file to get a flat finish, then I used a combination of heavy duty square steel washers to space the diff from the chassis and get a good solid fit. I used a combination of my engine hoist and some lifting straps to move the diff into position ( a right pain in the arse). When dry fitted I found the spacing left a gap which I have decided to use to route the fuel pipes to get a less cluttered situation around the fuel tank.

 I used M10 8.8 bolts with nyloc nuts to secure the rear of the diff. These were torqued to 50Nm as per the bolt specs

For the forward bolts I used some M12 x 110mm 8.8 spec. I saw that MK Sportscars sold crush tubes suitable for Mazda diffs (why don't GBS). I don't have the kit to make those properly myself, so I thought a few quid well spent. I use some square washers on the bottom and nyloc nuts to ensure a good fit to the chassis. These bolts were torqued to 85Nm.

Must remember to fill with oil once the drive shafts are in! Speaking of driveshafts, GBS have lost their supplier and I am currently waiting to find out what options I have. I have not been given the driveshaft measurements to get some made, so relying on GBS to solve the problem which is now over 4 months old.

Brake Pipes

Now this was a right battle. I ordered the brake pipe kit from GBS only to find male fittings on all the ends. A quick call and some photos, and then a replacement kit was received very quickly.

With all the brake lines I used some stiff wire to template the runs before committing to bending the pipe. I used a small pipe bender coupled with some light hand bending ensuring no kinks.

I started at the brake MC. Since I was using an ABS cylinder from the donor car, I only had two outlets. That meant I needed a front 3-way tee which I mounted using a rivnut centrally on the lower cross brace. I then ran the line from the front outlet to the 3-way.

Then I ran the line to the rear 4-way down the right hand side of the tunnel keeping it tucked under the longitudinal chassis member as much as possible. It was here I realised I needed to ensure I could get the right run and clearance to all the other systems going down the tunnel. That meant some dry fitting of the handbrake and fuel lines. I intend to run the aft travelling wiring loom with the brake line. 

So far so good! p-clips at approx 200mm spacing to ensure I meet IVA guidelines. Next up the rear brake lines.....

So here I screwed up. I got the brake lines prepared and then managed to nick one of them with the drill meaning I needed to replace it. Then I had to buy some more brake pipe and descended into the world of brake pipe cutting and flaring, and working out which one to do. Kevin Broomhead came to my rescue as Google was just a minefield of advice. I bought a handheld pipe flaring tool which only did SAE flares, either the bubble type, 45deg single or double flares. After some practice I was producing some good flares.

Then I could get on with finishing the rear brake lines ensuring they were p-clipped up.

The finally onto the front brake lines. I got them all finished just to kink at the final bend. Luckily I had enough pipe left to re-do the line I kinked. Front lines were designed to be hidden as much as possible. I wasn't as successful as I wanted when going around the pre-installed footwell panels but still happy with the result.

With all the lines in, I then went round with a spanner to tighten up all the fittings on the MC and tee pieces. That was more of a saga than it should have been, but happy with the result and have learnt a alot.

Hub Carrier Preparation

After a battle getting the hub carriers off the car, and subsequently getting the knackered bushes out of them, I set about a bit of renovation to make them look half decent. Thanks to Harbour Road Garage in Portishead for removing the rear carrier bearings. I'll be going back to get the new ones pressed in.

The general state of them was rough but serviceable. I set about them with a wire wheel attachment on my angle grinder and it made short work of all the loose and ingrained surface corrosion. I then used Ronseal rust converter followed by some black hammerite. Was quite pleased with the finish, but not sure how long it will last once they're on the car.

For the rear hubs, I cleaned up, etch primed and sprayed with satin black. For the front hubs I expect I will buy new aftermarket ones as they tend to come assembled with the bearings.