Rolling Chassis

It's been a while since I managed to get any significant time on the car due to a combination of illness, holidays and Christmas. At the start of December I decided it was time to drop the car off the stands before it all got too heavy - this is where I encountered a slight problem! Once the nice shiny wheels (which I have managed to pick up off ebay) were on, the rear wheels would lock; odd I thought so I removed the handbrake, tightened the wheels up and once again everything was jammed up. The same would happen with the brake shoes out (drums on - old or new!) so I put it down to a warped drum back plate. After hours spent on the Internet, I found out I should have used a series of spacers, another thing that would have been apparent had GBS put together a manual or full list of parts on the website. Skip through December whilst I waited for the parts, went on holiday and enjoyed Christmas before getting a cold!

My first free weekend of January I got round to fitting the spacers; once tightened up and the rear brakes rebuilt, I could see the results and funnily enough the rear wheels were able to move as I had expected back at the start of December. After this I had to get on with a dull job, tidying the garage.
The second weekend of January I was lucky to have a helpful hand (Jordan) for the whole of Saturday. With the engine planned to go in on 4th February, I had to finish of all of the little jobs that would be best done without a Pinto in the way. I thought the list was ambitious to complete that day but was pleasantly surprised to find that everything got completed:

• Repair engine crane
• Widen steering track rods as my wheels weren't quite right.
• Reconnect NSF top ball joint as the nut hadn't gone on very well originally.
• Shorten steering shaft connector bolt
• Reconnect handbrake following pre-Christmas issues
• Connect the propshaft
• Finish attaching up the loom in the engine bay
• Attach sump
• Take engine off the the stand ready for new clutch & flywheel
• Attach clutch & flywheel

No real complications with any of this except that we managed to fit the flywheel before putting on the metal adaptor plate, soon corrected but disappointed about the wasted time!

Part way through the day once all the 'clean' jobs were done I took the opportunity to get some 'rolling chassis' pictures.

On Sunday I finished off the clutch job by replacing clutch bearing in the bellhousing on the gearbox, messy job but one I was recommended to complete. Again no issues with this and the gearbox is one step closer to being attached!