Yetchh's MKIII zephyr "Spethial"...

[yetchh]

So today I installed the cylinders dustboots and springs, hooked up the springs and put the diff back in.. 

 

Springs, 

 

All together and looking so much better that before and working also, only thing is there needs to be some sort of spacer in the rubber boot as the bolts that hold the boot plate on also hold the cylinder one and so compress the rubber and bend the plate, this was like this before but I bashed the plates flat again, will have to see what I can find.. 

 

She's all in and looking very clean, also very low.. 

 

After putting it in and being finally happy with the height as will @Valiant I gave it a test and it's very soft, softer than it was which I guess now there's no fiction it's much easier to compress the leaves.. I do have a set of helpers that came off and I painted but the u bolts are an odd size that I can't find, hopefully just the addition of that will change the spring rate enough, that and the additional changes to the damper valves makes it better.. As it is, if I get a couple of people on the back she'd be very low... 

 

Now to move onto the front.. 

 

 

 

 

[yetchh]

Put the shoes and drums back on today, my mates at the platers also managed to lose one of the shoe retaining pins which is a cunt, went to a brake place in Nelson yesterday and the closest they had was from a falcon but 4mm to long. Broke it trying to modify it so I barried one up of of a split pin for now.. Also upgraded the oil in the dampers to 40wt and they're much better. Put my other rims on and straight away they hit the innner guard which sucks a bit, after I took them off I put the helper springs on to see what difference they make to the spring rate and it's way better, suits a touch higher also, so I'll clean up the u bolts and put them on.. 

 

 

Looks so much better tho, can't wait to do the front.. Been meaning to do this for about 6 years.. 

[yetchh]

Pulled the front out on the weekend as I'm in chch for a month doing a shop fit out.. 

 

All ball joints to be rebuilt, calipers rebuilt, new h/brake cable, new bushes, lots of plating etc.. Should be much nicer to dive when it's all back in as pretty much every joint was fucked.. 

 

Made sure I took a photo of all the bits as I don't want a repeat of the last experience.. 

 

Spent the day driving round dropping everything off, that's the one good thing about a big(ish) city.. 

 

 

[yetchh]

Sheesh.. Well over a year later.

Anyway, about a month ago I finally got around to painting all the bits I had blasted in may last year, had them all in bags with damp proof in them so no rust, just had the cross member cleaned up in the last school hols and the last of the bolts etc plated, kind of wish I had the car cleaned underneath before I started, that's a past me vs future me discussion for later.. 

Some pics.. 

 

 

Was surpass how long it took to paint everything, but I guess it was two coats wet on wet epoxy and 2k chassis black.. . 

 

Struts assembled, also took a while to figure out where all the bits and bolts went 15 months after pulling the all apart. 

 

 

 

Looks a bit blingy and I may still paint some things black (but prob won't), I have it on the ground at last, just need to do an alignment and bleed the brakes etc, speaking of which, had the calipers sleeved at CBC for about 200 each, New handbrake cable for about 120, and the most expensive bit was the ball joints, tie rods not to bad but the control arms were about 400 each.. Should outlast me tbh, I doubt this will do another 100k in its lifetime. 

Sits nice and low now, just got to get over the hill so @yoeddynz can build me an exhaust then it's wof time, first since 2016 I think.. 

[yetchh]

Took her for a burn today finally.. Could also go lower I think but looks way better than it did. 

 

Had a list of stuff to finish, mainly tightening things and bending up lock washers etc. Did a tape measure toe in job and a leveling tool castor job, seems to track ok but it's been so long I can't remember how it drives, covid was the last time I drove it. $1600 drive shaft seems to have done the trick with no vibrations at 80km anymore (thank fuck) 

 

But tbh still feels like I'm diving an old clunker even with all new suspension bits. Also saftey wire on the strut bolts was a total ball ache, next time I'll think about that while things are being put together rather than after the fact.. 

 

Now that I've finally tested it out and all seems fine next on the list is a trip over the hill for a new exhaust care of @yoeddynz... And then wof time. 

 

Edit*.. Oh, and should prob bleed the brakes again as they feel a bit spongy. 

 

 

[yetchh]

[yetchh]

She's all legal again 10 years later..  Failed a wof on a reverse light, loose bumper bolt, handbrake adjustment and a noisy front wheel bearing. Took it in for a recheck today then drove it to golf. 

Pics of the the exhaust work, think Alex took more than I did.

You can also see in the below pic that the drive shaft is rubbing on the tunnel which is annoying, it's slightly offset and touched the side lightly, there is a provision for a bump stop on the body right at the front of the diff head so I'll look at putting one in there, prob means I need to stiffen the springs more also.. Had to paint the drive shaft twice to hide it from the wof man then drive it gingerly to the appointment.. 

 

 

Couldn't find someone to cut mirror glass all so I ended up polishing some 304ss plate to "mirror" kind of, I mean, you can see a reflection but it's textured slightly.. 

 

Glued then in with 11fc which worked till it didn't and one fell out while driving, lucky it bounced on its edge then landed on the back not scratching the face at all.. So I stuck it back in with extreme tape, see how that goes. 

 

Wheel bearing shot.. Water got into one when it was being blasted and did it's work over the last year, I thought it might have been just some discoloration when I cleaned them out but it ended up being damaged, no biggie. 

 

Ended up getting it a wheel alignment just to be sure, old mate says I wasn't too far out.. Half a degree or so.. Not bad for a tape measure.. There's a bunch of other things that still need sorting (like the miss matched carbs) but I can now do them whenever.. 

 

 

 

[yetchh]

Been driving this clunker around a bit, gave it an oil change to 20w60 instead of whatever shit I had in there before (leaked so much i just topped it up with whatever was handy/available at short notice).  Definitely runs quieter but I discovered some things in the old oil... 

 

No funny noises except for tappity tappets so I guess I'll just send it..