Spare Front Springs Cleaned and Painted

I took a little bit of time over the weekend (Laurel says a lot of time), to wire brush, clean and paint the spare set of front springs for the Vogue.

Wire brushing them wasn't much fun. Here they have been wire brushed already.
Next was a coat of rust converter.

  I also cleaned, rust converted, primed and painted the un-bent spare front anti-sway bar.

Then a coat of etch primer and a top coat or two.

Now I know that no-one likes to leave comments but is this colour too "loud". I still have time to paint them black.

They are a bit darker then it looks here. The Flash lit them up.

It's the same paint I used on the rear brake drums.




I read on some 4x4 and street car forums that it's a complete waste of time painting coil springs - oh well - they'll look better for a little while.

Front End work Delayed

I went to drop the Vogue in at around 5PM and the mechanics place was crowded with dead cars. They had an unexpected influx of problem vehicles. I really didn't want to leave the Vogue there with guys squeezing past it doing other work so I was quite happy just to leave it to sometime next week when the place had cleared a little.

This will give me a chance to clean and paint the spare sway bar and springs this weekend (yes I found two spare Vogue springs under the house). That way I might be able to clean and paint the wishbones on a weeknight - minimizing the time that the Vogue is dry-docked. There is always the option of not bothering the clean up the wishbones at all but Laurel (better half) says I wouldn't be happy if I did that. She's probably right.

It would be really nice to have this front end - maybe one day I'll pull it out.....
(Not mine but off a similar Rootes vehicle!)

Picture from Bill Ashby's Sunbeam Alpine

I'm getting Back on the Bus tonight

No it's not a failure. The Vogue goes "over the road" tonight so that the front end can be partially dis-assembled on Friday. I'll take the Bus home tonight and bring the Super Snipe to work tomorrow so that I can pick up the parts that have been removed and spend some time on them on the weekend.

Meanwhile here is a picture of my array of SuperPro bushings.
(The bushings are missing from the lower shocker mounts packet as they are already installed in the shockers - see previous post):

Lower front shocker bush kit - SPF0718-80K
Control arm upper bush kit - SPF0730K
Control arm lower bush kit - SPF1059K
Sway bar to control arm kit - SPF1060-19K (19 is the sway bar diameter in mm)

(Control arm = wishbone)

Converting HQ Holden Shock Absorbers to Humber/Hillman

Dampers - OK they're dampers - but most folk call them Shock Absorbers.
The Holden H series shockers fit the Hillmans, Sunbeams and Singers(Humber Vogue) of the early sixties I'm told; so I just bought a set of Ultima Shock Absorbers off an eBay seller. They look about right - a minor change is all that is needed. Remove the bottom bushing and metal attachment and replace with a suitable Hillman style bushing. I have already bought some SuperPro SPF0718-80K bushings.

Step 1
Cut around one side of the bushing where a lip has formed when the bushing was installed.

Step 2
Drill out some rubber to make removing it easier. Try not to hit the metal.

Step 2.5
Make a mess.

Step 3
Place the shocker on a flat board and apply pressure with foot while pulling on the metal attachment with a big pair of multi-grips/pliers. A bit of rotational force helps.
Sorry no picture for this one but here the Holden style bushing has been removed (plus the one from the first shocker I did).

Step 4
Apply some of the supplied lubricant to one end of the new bushing.

 Ready vice...

Step 5
Squeeze the bushing in with a vice. The rag is just so I don't take too much paint off the shocker.

Once you reach the limit of what can be done with the vice a little heal-of-hand thump seats the bushing nicely.

All done.

About time for some Front End work

The Vogue's 49 year old control arm upper and lower bushes are on their last legs so I'm currently collecting parts to replace all the front end bushes - and shock absorbers.

I haven't been very happy with the knocks and squeaks that the Vogue front end has been emitting for a while, so last week, having got a ball-park price from elsewhere and not been happy with it, I visited Knox Tyrepower (over the road from work) to ask for some advice. These are the folk I spoke of here that gave the Vogue it's Silicone tyres and who mentioned in no uncertain terms at the time (point 5 in this post) that the front end was "on the way out".

As soon as I indicated why I was there, Ross took me by the arm and led me next door to the mechanics (unrelated business). They all appeared to know about the "Electric Vogue" and were keen to help out. They had a good look under the car (up on a hoist) and confirmed we needed the upper and lower wishbone (control arm) bushes renewed. This is a job I do not want to do as by the time I get someone else to press the old bushes out etc. it will become a major pain - I know I'll want to re-paint the whole front end! Spring compressors scare me too.

So this may look a bit different in a week or two.
(Knox Tyrepower has put tyres on, and aligned, all the cars in our family for a past 12 years and I have never been disappointed in their advice or workmanship - no they're not family!)

Wedges Installed - Problem persists

I finished installing the two degree wedges on both sides of the car on Sunday afternoon.

This is the front - about 4 to 5mm lift.

This is the rear of the axle perch.

The underside - just 'cause I took the picture.

The differential flange and the motor coupling flange are now within about 0.3 of a degree of each other.

....and the result. Absolutely no change at all!

We even locked the motor speed to 60 km/h to remove any doubt about speed variation and placed a big block of wood under the rear of the motor mount and jacked the car up about 15mm - no change.

I repeated a previous test and jacked under the middle of the motor cradle (the fan end of the motor) - no change in vibration. This stumps me. How can it be that taking so much load on the jack doesn't at least dampen the vibration?

I don't believe I have ever in my life put more effort into a problem with so little return.

So I am faced with a choice now of whether to give up on universal joints and have the tailshaft remade with CVs or persists in trying to find the reason for this vibration. Going the CV route doesn't automatically gaurantee a cure.

Suggestions from mechanically minded folk are very welcome but if you want to comment, please could you read the posts on vibration so we don't revisit older discussions too much (that isn't to say I haven't missed something).

I'm currently trying to ascertain what sized tube wall was used in the new tailshaft.

Ready to Re-assemble Driver Side Spring Mounts

I had wire brushed all the axle/spring mounting hardware a couple of days ago and applied rust converter. I cleaned off the rust converter residue and primed the bits last night. I gave them a coat of gloss black this morning. I can't paint inside the house or in the garage due to overspray, so It's a process of warming up bits (and spray cans) inside, painting the bits outside, then bringing them back in. I guess it doesn't matter much if glossy black bits under the car are slightly dull - but I'd know!

If my hands can keep from seizing up with the cold I'll re-assemble the right hand side tonight.

Changing the Differential Pinion Angle

My spring wedges (sounds like a potato treat with greens), arrived yesterday so last night I set about separating the axle from the leaf spring on one side of the car. I jacked up the car under the diff housing then placed the two rear body jacking points on axle stands. Then I lowered the jack until it was only just supporting the weight of the rear diff/axle.
The U clamps came off pretty easily (with the aid of some CRC56).Once the U clamps were off, I jacked up the axle slightly to removed the top rubber mount.

You can see the leaf spring centre pin that locates the spring on the rubber mounts (next photo).

A slightly blurry picture of the U clamps, upper and lower spring mounts and shiny new two degree wedge.

 

View from the rear of the car.

The spring wedge in the upper insulator/mount. The upper rubber insulators are not in very good condition but I tried unsuccessfully this morning to get new ones. I'll put these back in and keep trying to find a replacement now that I know how easy it is to "drop' the rear axle. I think I'll make a thin wedge to go in that gap in the wedge as well.

The left hand side - still intact. I'm doing one side at a time. That way the "other" side holds everything in place and I don't have to worry that the whole axle will fall out on the floor - tearing the brake lines in the process. The oil stains are an old testimony to (now-replaced) leaking rear oil seals.
I'd love to pull the springs out and clean the whole lot up but I want the Vogue back on the road ASAP. Maybe next year...

A couple of paragraphs from the workshop manual. It's interesting that Mr Rootes sometimes fitted wedges. No, I didn't find any.