P38A Duchess is in the garage!

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Once I've got an MOT my plan was to get back under and smother the shiney bits with grease to slow down corrosion, some of the old bolt heads were in a shocking state and it wasn't cheap for new ones.
Never is cheapness. Someone out there always wants our money:D:D
 
Had a stroke of luck! The garter spring around the inside of the axle seal that I thought I'd knocked off during installation turned out to be the spring off the old seal and the new one was all good still:D. It's a bit gloomy working on the driver's side and I never saw it laying inside the axle tube when I removed the old one until I got a lamp looking for a dropped bolt and there it was, about 3" in:rolleyes:.
Meant I didn't have a wasted day waiting for the dealer to open Monday morning:)
So, apart from fetching 2 nuts for the top swivel ball joints tomorrow, repairing, somehow, the front mudflaps and improving how they are held on, fitting the new drag and track rods, the front is done and I can start on the back stuff. To recap, New axle oil seals, new Abs sensors and cages, new flexies, new discs, pads and calipers, top and bottom swivel ball joints, new dampers,new drop links and all new nuts and bolts/screws.
Some bizarre/annoying things I've come across are no nuts on anything new and a front hose having all new brackets, and banjos ( passenger side) but the driver's side, some brackets but not all. Abs sensors with the rubber grommets in totally the wrong place.
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Fitted the new lemforder drag and track tubes, top swivel balljoint nuts and refitted the arch liners with new clips, struggled with them, the holes just wouldn't line up easily, the top ones mainly but they are in now.
Torqued up the hub nuts after I converted lbs to nm as my teng wrench doesn't do lbs, 260 something iirc, worryingly it 'clicked' earlier than expected, wonder if it's gone faulty on me...
Anyway, decided to do something with the front mudflaps, originally held on with self tappers but they had rotted and were unmovable so out came the grinder, the bottom of the flap is supported by a 'Z' ish spaced plate which was rusty but sound so these had the two plastic plugs removed, got new ones coming- same as my tratter bulkhead/floor plastic 'nuts', and derusted and painted. All the holes in the mudflaps had rotted away and refitting them using the original type fittings was a no go.
So I cut out some aluminium shapes and drilled 6mm holes through them enligned with the 5 original screw holes. These will clamp the mudflap in place and I'm using stainless steel Tek screws to hold them to the replacement spire clips(two on each arch lip) and 3 into the new plastic 'nuts' when they arrive.
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Started on the back end..
Another fight with the mudflap screws which also hold on the plastic closing panel for the lower rear quarter panel, wheel liner out, lots of rusty stuff as the front but much to my surprise the ABS sensor came out with little effort.


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Hub pulled off easily with my 3 leg puller, even the hub nut came undone easily. Disc brake shield bolts , 8mm head(what was left of them anyway) m6 thread, were seized solid and crumbled to bits when attempted to undo so ground them off, I'll have to drill them out on the bench from the back now the hub is off.
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Dunno, no history at all. I feel like I'm the first to ever pull it apart, everything seems original thus rusty and buggered.
The bill will be a lot smaller for the backend though hopefully...:rolleyes:
 
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