Driveshaft Renewal

The driveshafts had previously been removed from the Sierra rear beam and set aside. Soon these will be needed for assembly onto the car. However, first they need to be renewed.

First the internal metal surfaces were masked in tape, i.e. those which go inside the final drive and the rear hub. Then a wire brush attachment in a drill was used to remove all loose rust. After degreasing, a couple of coats of smooth Hammerite were added.

The driveshaft gaiters were most likely the original from when Ford built the Sierra about 20 years ago. It seemed prudent to change these while the driveshafts were off the car. I used a 'slide-a-boot' kit for each. These were bought from eBay and can be used without having to dismantle the drive shaft.

First the old gaiter is removed. The cone is cut down to length and covered in the lubricant provided. The cone is placed over the end of the draftshaft and the gaiter is pulled over the cone on to the driveshaft. The gaiter needs to be pulled inside out beforehand. The gaiter is now pulled the back the right way, grease packed into the CV joint and finally the cable ties used to secure the two ends of the gaiter. The cable ties were used in preference to the metal bands as these were difficult to get tight.

Below the finished driveshaft, painted, gaiters replaced and ready for installation on the car. Same process for the other driveshaft.

Final Drive

Here is the final drive (differential) as it was removed from the donor Sierra rear beam. Quite sorry looking, with some oil on the case where the original oil seals had started to fail.


First job was to remove the nut on the prop shaft flange. Then the flange itself could be removed with a three legged bearing puller. The three oil seals were removed by pulling very hard with adjustable grips, being careful not to damage the inner surface of the final drive unit.

After spraying with water soluble degreaser the final drive unit was steam cleaned using a domestic steam cleaner and a small wire brush drill attachment. The result was very good, with all oil and dirt removed. During the cleaning the openings were covered to prevent debris, degreaser or water getting into the internals. A couple of coats of Hammerite special metals primer were added. This ensured the silver top coat would have good adhesion.


The final drive unit was then given two coats of smooth silver Hammerite. The prop shaft flange as well as the nuts on the rear of the unit were painted in black Hammerite. Then the new oils seals were installed, using a suitable drift and hammer. Camberley Auto Factors no longer stock oil seals or other parts for the Sierra, but eBay came to my rescue (yet again).

Here is the final drive mounted in the chassis using the new bolts and nyloc nuts provided by Tiger.

Steering column (upper and lower)

Two 12mm holes were drilled in the upper steering column mounting brackets. These were drilled towards the top to allow maximum leg room for the driver. The steering column is adjustable so it will be possible to lower it if required.


Sturdy 12mm socket head bolts were used to securely mount the upper steering column. Initially the grey plastic bush at the lower end of the upper steering column was chafing on the chassis mounted cylindrical bracket (tube). To minimise this I used a file to smooth the edge of the tube - removing a hard lip of powder coat and slightly radiusing the edge. Finally a smear of grease was added to the inside of the tube prior to assembly.


The lower steering column simply bolted in three places: to the triangular tube at the bottom of the upper steering column, the steering rack, and in the middle the rose joint bolts to one of the side chassis tubes. This rose joint mounting was left loose as it may need to be removed to install the engine. When it is ready for final assembly a thread lock solution will be used.

Steering Rack

Time to mount the Tiger quick steering rack. This is achieved by using the two clamps, each with a rubber insert. The clamps, as supplied by Tiger, are nothing more than bent pieces of steel. The rubbers each have a split underneath to allow it to be passed around the steering rack.


First the clamps had to be painted with black Hammerite and then measured for drilling the bolt holes. With the holes drilled it was simply a case of bolting through, while making sure that the rubbers were in the right position on the steering rack iteself.

Wiring Loom

When you open the Tiger provided wiring loom it can look a bit daunting. The fuses and relays are obviously on the branch that comes up through the battery tray, but what about the rest? Finding which was the front and which was the back was achieved by identifying the large black alternator plug. Also, the wider double brown wires connect to the starter motor.

With the loom fed through the transmission tunnel the next step was to cut a hole in the battery tray to take the rubber gromit which is already on the loom. To cut the hole I used my trusty hole saw with a 41mm blade. Overall this work well, but like drilling the holes in the aluminimum panesl for the seat belt bolts, the teeth did tend to snag. It was a bit easier on the battery tray as the aluminium is thicker. Next time I think I will use a step drill for cutting circular holes through the aluminium panels.


Next it was time to start attaching the loom to the chassis. For this I used cable ties, cable tie mounts and rivets. The ties and mounts from Screwfix. Once the loom was attached along the inside of the transmission tunnel I then moved on to do the rear and finally the engine bay.


To identify each of the wires I used a number of wiring diagrams: the ones in 'the book', plus a couple sourced from the internet. None fully matched the actual colour coding and make up of my Tiger wiring loom, but by a process of elimination I worked out what each wire is for. I also took the opportunity to label each wire as I went. This should make connecting the wiring loom to the various items later on that much easier and quicker.

Fuel lines fitted

I've now finished fitting the copper fuel lines. As the engine will be fuel injected there are two lines: feed and return. At a later stage the ends will be terminated with fittings allowing connection of the relevant fuel hoses. On to the wiring loom next...

Brake pipes fitted

Front and rear brake pipes fitted using 'p-clips' and rivets. Brake light switch and brake fluid reservoir also fitted to master cylinder. Bleed screw to be added to upper front hole later. The rear brake pipe is connected to the master cylinder via a compensator, which reduces the braking effort on the back wheels.


The front brake pipes will be cut to length once the exact position of the braided flexi hoses is established. After cutting the ends will need re-flaring with the appropriate tool.

Floor mounted pedals mounted

I am fitting the Tiger floor mounted brake and clutch pedals. First to do is the brake. The brake master cylinder had been mounted previously so, after inserting the pushrod, it was relatively easy to establish where the floor bracket for the pedal would go and hence where the holes needed to be drilled. The pushrod seemed a little long, so in order to maximse leg room in the cockpit I decided to shorten it. In the end I only removed about 5mm. This was to ensure that the pedal still had it's full travel, i.e. the master cylinder bottomed out and the back of the pedal did not foul the bulkhead. Also as the pedal swings the pushrod does not move in a perfectly horizontal plane. It arcs slightly and as such the pushrod cannot be too short or it fouls on the slides of the master cylinder plunger.

The clutch pedal was mounted next. Before drilling the holes this was lined up with the hole in the bulkhead where the clutch cable passes through.



The chassis now needs to be turned over so that larger holes can be drilled in the aluminium floor to allow the nuts to be added to the pedal mounting bolts. Finallly the lock nut can be added to the brake pushrod connector and the stop can be fastened under the rearmost bolt on the brake pedal bracket. This prevent the pedal falling towards the driver and the pushrod falling out of the master cylinder. Not what you want whilst driving!

Aluminium panelling (nearly) completed

All alluminium panels have now been cut to size, drilled and attached with Sikaflex and rivets. The only exceptions are the upper sides of the upper rear quarter panels, the transmission tunnel top, transmission tunnel passenger side as well as the battery tray. These will be attached later, only after access is no longer needed, e.g. to mount the gearbox, bodywork, etc.

The aluminium was cut using standard, new (sharp) tin snips, filed where necessary and then deburred using the pen style deburring tool. Rivets were spaced at 75mm intervals, or less where the distance was divided to provide an even spacing less than 75mm. Sikaflex sealant was used relatively sparingly, making sure the drilled holes were covered, prior to rivetting.

After fitting the panels I ran a bead of Sikaflex along the joints that needed it. Masking tape was applied about 5mm each side of the joint, a thin bead of Sikaflex was run along the joint, before smoothing out with a very sticky finger and finally removing the masking tape.

Overall I am quite pleased with the finish. There are few bits where I would do it differently if I were to do it again, but isn't that's always the way.

The rear hub nut challenge

It seems that people do various amount of renewal of the Sierra rear drive shafts. Some do none, some do a full rebuild, including sandblasting and new bearings and gaters. The gaters on mine definitely need replacing. On top of this I've opted to dismantle the hub carrier and replace the bearings and oil seals. This was not essential, but I would have not have been completely happy if I had ignored them. There was a lot of dirt where the drive shaft enters the hub carrier and I would never have been able to fully clean it. Also, while the bearings did not appear to have any play in them, but they were far from running completely smoothly.

How to get them apart? We'll I tried a 41mm 1/2 inch impact socket with a breaker bar, with the drive shaft mounted in a WorkMate. No joy. Tried the same, but with an air powered impact wrench. Still no joy. Yes, I did remember that one has a reversed thread and copious amounts of WD-40 had already been applied! This is all quite straight forward on the original Sierra as you can apply the car's handbrake and the drive shaft is not going anywhere. Much more difficult off the car.

My next solution was to try holding the drive shaft with a long metal bar with a hole drilled near to one end for one of the wheel studs and using a breaker bar to pull against it. Instant success. With the hub carrier and driveshaft separated it was then a very easy job to remove the bearings and oils seals. The bearings and oil seals were kept for reference and the remainder of the parts cleaned of grease and dirt, ready for rebuilding later.

Template made for seat back panel

Inspired by pictures on other build diaries I created a cardboard template to assist with the cutting of the seat back panel.

Floor panels completed

Floor panels fixed with Sikaflex sealant and riveted into place. Chassis turned back the right way up ready to fit the remainder of the alumnium panels.

Aluminium panelling started

Aluminium floor panel for the driver's side now cut to size and drilled ready for riveting. The passenger side floor panel had been cut too small by Tiger. One quick phone call and Tiger sent a replacement within a couple of days.

One small step... (well two actually)

The build proper finally started:

1. Waxoyl sprayed in to all open chassis tubes.
2. Plastic bungs added in to tube ends.
   

eBay is my friend

Up to this point I was still not in posession of a Type-9 five speed gearbox. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find a good example at a fair price (excluding fully re-conditioned units at £400, inc. bell housing).


Finally I won a good Type-9 on ebay for a reasonable price. Problem was, like so many, they are in other parts of the country. A 250 mile round trip was needed to pick this up. Apparently, this unit was bought as a spare by a Robin Hood owner. It was removed by the Robin Hood owner after driving the Sierra home and appeared to be working fine at the time. Fingers crossed, we'll find out if that is the case (much) later on.

Rear beam dismantled

Here is the Sierra rear beam as collected from Tiger:


Like everything else the brake drums were very rusty. In fact they were rusted on to the driveshafts. A large hub puller and generous amounts of WD-40 soon changed that. The rest of the dismantling was fairly straight forward and now I have the component parts ready for restoration. The suspension beam and drums will be discarded. All other parts were kept for re-use or reference. That said the majority of the brake components will be replaced for new items.

Here is the final drive, as well as one driveshafts with associated brake assembly:

Collection of chassis from Tiger

On a sunny Saturday morning we took a Mercedes Sprinter van up to Tiger to collect the chassis along with the other parts ordered. As the van has tool chests bolted in the back we had to lift the chassis on to the roof off the van. A bit of a struggle, but we got there in the end - the roller on the end of the roof rack helped a lot. Wish I'd taken the bubble wrap off as the performance/fuel consumption penalty on the way home was massive!

After loading up with the additional parts we headed down the road to the Tiger workshop to pick up the donor parts ordered and go out for a drive in one of the Tiger demonstrator cars. While at the workshop I had an opportunity to take lots (100-ish) of photos of an Avon being factory built. These should prove invaluable during my build. They can be found here: http://rapidshare.com/files/407147149/Tiger_Avon_Factory_Build_Pics.zip


Sierra donor rear beam ready for loading into the back of the van.


Then time for a spin in the Aviator with Jim.

Donor engine bought

Today I bought a low mileage 'black top' Zetec 2.0 engine from a car breakers. This was previously in a 2003 Focus that had been written off.

Here is the engine prior to stripping of the parts that will not be needed for installation in the Avon, e.g. clutch, flywheel, inlet manifold, a/c pump mounting bracket, etc.

SATOC meet - 27th May

Monthly SATOC meet at the Brickmakers Arms in Windlesham.

Stoneleigh 2010 Kit Car Show

I've decided its time for a real project. Something that will be a bit of a challenge and hopefully result in a weekend sports car. One that has decent performance and can be taken on the track occasionally. I've no previous experience of building a kit car. My most ambitious car maintenance to date has been '3 spanner' tasks in the Haynes manual!

Signing the cheque for the Avon deposit at the Tiger stand - a big moment.


Westfield Slalom Experience photos.