Well I ended up final welding the suspension stuff this weekend. I kept on running into situations where it would be useful to have the car on the ground with the engine installed and whatnot, so I finally broke down and spent a while welding today. By “situations”, I mean things like wanting to mount the ebrake lever, but really I need the driveshaft and the shifter in place to do so. Things like wanting to do the steering column, but I need the engine in place so I make sure I don’t interfere with the engine placement or exhaust. Etc. Anyways, it was pretty gratifying to have the car supporting its own weight, and bouncing up and down on it for a good while was fun too!
In other news, I figured out how to route the e-brake cable without hitting the frame or re-doing the caliper e-brake brackets or swapping RH and LH rear uprights and upper control arms. Unfortunately, I think I messed up the passenger side e-brake by messing with it (trying to disassemble it) last week.. the lever pulls freely without engaging the brake, so I’ll have to take care of that at some point.
I also spent some time figuring out the mounting for the steering rack. The solution I came up with is really simple, though not the prettiest I’ve seen. I’m using some angle iron to support a rectangular frame which the steering rack bolts to. I need to cut the rack down to 18″ (from approximately 24.5″), so I’ll be ordering the factory service manual soon so I can make sure I disassemble the rack correctly. I’m also going to wait till I’ve cut the rack to the right length before I weld in the rack mount/bracket.
Officially a roller, steering rack mount and e-brake cable
Well I ended up final welding the suspension stuff this weekend. I kept on running into situations where it would be useful to have the car on the ground with the engine installed and whatnot, so I finally broke down and spent a while welding today. By “situations”, I mean things like wanting to mount the ebrake lever, but really I need the driveshaft and the shifter in place to do so. Things like wanting to do the steering column, but I need the engine in place so I make sure I don’t interfere with the engine placement or exhaust. Etc. Anyways, it was pretty gratifying to have the car supporting its own weight, and bouncing up and down on it for a good while was fun too!
In other news, I figured out how to route the e-brake cable without hitting the frame or re-doing the caliper e-brake brackets or swapping RH and LH rear uprights and upper control arms. Unfortunately, I think I messed up the passenger side e-brake by messing with it (trying to disassemble it) last week.. the lever pulls freely without engaging the brake, so I’ll have to take care of that at some point.
I also spent some time figuring out the mounting for the steering rack. The solution I came up with is really simple, though not the prettiest I’ve seen. I’m using some angle iron to support a rectangular frame which the steering rack bolts to. I need to cut the rack down to 18″ (from approximately 24.5″), so I’ll be ordering the factory service manual soon so I can make sure I disassemble the rack correctly. I’m also going to wait till I’ve cut the rack to the right length before I weld in the rack mount/bracket.