Day 20: rear suspension

With the arrival of the bush spacers (spacer bushes?) for the radius arms, this job could be completed.

LATER EDIT: I recommend tightening up the upper radius arm right away, as once you've put the seats in, you can't reach the inside end of the bolt any more.

It's all very straightforward, and by magic the differential/prop shaft rise into the right position (just a few mm away from the chassis strut beneath them, but far enough. As usual, everything was smeared in Coppa Slip.

RHS rear axle, with radius arms in place

LHS rear axle, prior to fitting half shafts

Poor pic, but this is the LH end of the panhard rod, viewed from under LH rear

Fitting the axle oil seal requires a special tool, or something found in the garage that will do, to ensure it is driven in evenly, into its proper place. After a long hunt around, I found the least likely tool for the job - the finial off an old garden parasol! Made from some kind of cheap plastic, it was nevertheless exactly the right diameter, and even had a convenient boss on top to whack with the mallet.

Garden parasol finial (next to axle oil seal). A garage essential

Once in place, the half shafts fitted in nicely on each side, and were bolted and torqued up. 

LHS rear brake in place

Next job , rear brake connections

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!