Ed B's Journal

Mid-December.
Greetings to all, and may your holidays be great!

I stumbled into this site today after years of "going-it-alone" on my own projects. For now I'll touch on just the Spit. We found this one "road-side" a few years back for sale. I drove it home the next day. That in and of its' self is a story for another time. Leaping ahead to the present, I decided to take advantage of the Moss summer sale and bought two new calipers, to "freshen-up" the original brake calipers. The old original seals had holes all through. It's a wonder that they ever worked!
Well, the wheels came off, again... we're up on jack-stands, I have new EBC brake pads (green) and new drilled/slotted rotors to install and new calipers. Well dummy-me, didn't research enough about the "felt-seal fit delema" that appears to be so prevalent now! So now I have to find another hub-assembly to use an old "felt-cup", install the new felt in the old steel-cup for re-assembly, so I can re-install everything.

[At anytime, feel free to jump-in with suggestions]

At all four corners set new Spax adjustable shock absorbers, the leaf spring was rebuilt: stripped clean, each leaf zinc-chromated and then spray painted, re-assembled with those nifty nylon "buttons" to replace the non-existent rubber discs and lift the ride hideth. New rubber at the outer ends of the leafs too. New hard rubber between the leaf centers [top& bottom], new differential studs on top, new diff. mount bushings at the rear and Polys up front. The long bolt on the rear mount is up-rated. You can ask about that someday. With that all re-assembled, I serviced the Diff with "redline" and found out the next day that what went in, pretty much came out, at the in-put seal!, So now.... that's gonna be a tear-down, again! I'd simply like to have someone else replace that seal, since it's a critical fit .... I'm open for suggestions here.

So I'm a bit eager to feel the ride difference what with all the "up-grades". The "laundry-list" of up-grades and flat-out changes are long, since we purchased it a few years back now.

December has closed; time to post the "annual". Another trip around the Sun, here we go...
Recapping the year in brief goes like this: The differential leak got repaired & the front brake system is done.

The [leather] differential input seal was replaced with a new rubber/synthetic seal, and upon further inspection, so were the others seals and bearings. This was the easy part of the job. The worst part proved to be a personal challenge during the re-installation due to the rear diff. lug-poly/bushings not fitting the chassis mounts, and then lining-up for the long cross-bolt. Eventually it went in with new poly-bushings up front and hardware. The re-built/finished leaf-spring was re-installed, bolted up and the whole assembly looks superb! ...and no leaks!

The front brake/hub assembly was rebuilt as well. The EBCs and newly painted calipers look fine. The dust plates got cleaned & refinished [sorry, 'can't afford the new SS plates from Moss yet]. The real problem was the inner seal assembly; felt-seal inboard or out? Well, too many references with apposing directions... I picked one, cleaned, inspected & re-packed the bearings & re-installed it all. Everything rolls real smooth now! Very clean too. While there, I had purchased the adjustable sway-bar linkage some time ago, and that replaced the stock OEM linkage.

Battery compartment got a make-over: compartment cleaned & re-painted/sealed, new drain-hose, batt. felt liner, new clamp-down system, & new battery cables. All the age-old corrosion on the starter relay was carefully removed and the steel got buffed & clear-coated, matching other buffed engine compartment items.

Stay tuned for more.
Ed.