My chassis build

[Bonzo]

I forgot to undo the hub nuts on my first donor

Should know better but forgot anyway

My rattle gun at full tilt wouldn't shift em.

Ended up using a 1" drive socket & T bar + a 6 foot long scaffold pole . One person standing on the subframe & another person standing on a long flat pice of 12mm thick bar that was trapping the wheel studs.

If you don't want to damage the studs, put a tiny piece of rubber hose on them ( The donor will have plenty spare )
If you do damage the stud thread, don't worry, simple to replace & easy to get hold of

Good luck, those nuts are about as tight as it gets.

[geeman]

ok, i phoned 11 places just now looking for a 41mm socket, only one place said they had it in stock, but they wanted £30 for a socket, there no way id do that. I phoned camberly auto factors and they said they can order one in for this afternoon for £14 so i will get it from them now.

[mark]

I had to heat mine up then get my impact gun on them.

Heating stuff up always helps............

Thats what i keep telling the other half when shes making my dinner

[geeman]

Well today was a pretty fulfiling day as for the last foew days the work on the car has been wuite painful and not so enjoyable(several cuts and brusies and burns).

Today i went to get the 41mm socket around 3pm and then got straight on the car from then. i managed to get the rear hub nuts off preety easily, i just put the wheels on the hub, and then put bricks on either side of it and got someone else to hold it in place as easily as possible while i undid them, AND i remembered that the left side hass an opposite thread. .


After that i spent almost 2 HOURS trying to just get the handbrake cable disconected from the hubs, it was a real pain as ive never touched drum brakes before and just didnt get hoe to disconnect it, i didnt understand the haynes manual for the sierra at all either. I eventually got it out, and then sdecided to put the rear right side of the car on a wheel (as i didnt have enough m12 studding left for the left hand side) Unfourtunately i would have had all 4 wheels on if i had any more m12 studding and the lower wishbone plates as i recieved them unbent from the seller so i am awaiting a bent set of lower wishbone plate which i should get next tuesday , but seeing the quater rolling chassis is nice as it gives a real sense of achievement to get to this stage.

One thing that i am worried about id the steering column attached to the wheel as i dont see how that will fit to plates cp15 and the steering wheel support as there are noe boltholes in the steering wheel assembly for bolts to attach to cp15 .

I also tried some electrolytic derusting using some baking soda water and stainless steel. It worked magic on one of the front habs. the pics in my set dont really do it justice as neaarly all the surface rust has gone and for some reason the hub that i derusted turns much more freely.

[HandyAndy]

a big well done on your build, putting the rear wheel on does make it feel more like a car, it gives the chassis a sense of width, as you can now picture the rolling width so much more,
don,t get upset about a delay for parts, the fact that you have only been building approx 6 to 7 weeks & to get this far so quickly , you are doing a damm fine job, well done.

the steering wheel bits should have a bright steel bracket attached about 4inches further down the column from the switch wires ???

all the best & keep up the great work.

andy

[Bonzo]

A very big well done on your progress to date

You can feel very proud of what you have achieved in such a short space of time.

The Sierra steering wheel should haev been held on the donor car with a yoke plate, silver in colour.
This is the plate that bolts onto the steering wheel support frame on the Roadster.
It is quite easy to discard this when you strip the donor or even worse leave it on the donor.

I'll try and take a photo for you in a moment.

Well done

[geeman]

ahh crap, that would have been binned so i dont have it . here is all i ahve from the steering wheel

[Bonzo]

Here's a couple of photos that may help to make things clearer

Yoke




Yoke fitted



I hope that helps you

[HandyAndy]

not to worry, a fellow forum member has made a very nice replacement part that does that job, i believe its billet made & a very reasonable price too.

it fits on to that slotted area on the column then attaches to CP15.

i,m sure he,ll be along soon too,

andy

[mr henderson]

I've come across two different types of Sierra column, I remember having to make up one good one from two that had different required features. I'm afraid i can't remember the details, though, but I do remember that the mounting bracket was one of the issues.