Day 16: rear axle installation

Having bent my back trying to put the diff inside the rear axle, I was foreman mostly for this job, while my son did the heavy lifting.

The main thing to worry about is scratching things, dinging the axle into panels, and all the many sharp edges on the axle as you put it in place. My advice: cover everything you can with pipelag.

Rear axle from LHS

Once the axle casing is resting on the pipelagging covering the chassis members, then it can be swung up 90deg to the horizontal, and attached to the propshaft. Simple job, though torquing up takes a bit of a root around to find the right socket set extension.

Looking down through the cockpit onto the prop shaft (bottom) and diff/axle casing (top).

The panhard is fitted to the chassis next. Easily done. No clue when the other end should be fitted - apparently it's not mentioned in the Assembly Guide.

Next, the rear dampers are fitted. One major learning - there are two different sizes of bush for these. Both fit into the damper, but the internal diameter differs. Just check the bolt before you fit it in.

We found supporting the rear axle on axle stands was quite useful, and prevented damage to the chassis members

Gently tapping the top of the damper into place, before fixing with bolts

Rear right damper fitted. Without the car sitting on its wheels....

... the axle fittings are worryingly close to the chassis members (to which wiring is attached).
Chassis-end of panhard rod just visible on LHS of photo

Very much a 2-person job, but nothing complicated or confusing. Very satisfying hour or so's work!

The front wheels are now on, and sitting on ramps, to put a bit of stress and weight into the front suspension.

Front wishbones looking much more horizontal now!