Front Suspension, Hubs and Brakes

Here are the very sorry looking Cortina uprights, discs and calipers bought from ebay.

These were dismantled and the discs discarded.  The uprights just needed the rust removing with a wire brush attachment in the drill before they could be masked and painted with Hammerite.

After cleaning the hubs I attempted to remove the outer bearing races.  Unlike the rears, which were easy to remove, these would not shift.  The task made harder by the fact that they need to be pushed from the opposite site, i.e. a tool was needed to get through the centre hole of the hub, from the other side.  In the end it looked my efforts were going to risk damaging the hubs, so I admitted defeat and took them down to my local engineering shop.  They removed the races the same afternoon for a small amount of beer tokens.

Here is one of the hubs with the new outer bearing races fitted and the wheel studs repaced for longer versions.  These are to accommodate the alloy wheels instead of steel.

The hubs were then painted.  After fitting new discs the centre of the disc was masked for painting, the part that is not swept by the brake pads.  The idea here is to prevent this from going rusty and looking unsightly behind the alloy wheels.  Time will tell if this area gets too hot for normal Hammerite paint.

The bolts that fix the discs to the Cortina hubs normally have locking tabs fitted.  Two were missing.  I fabricated two new ones from some thin sheet steel by tracing round one of the originals, cutting with a jigsaw and then finally filing in the vice, with the new and old clamped together as a guide.  Spot the difference?

Hub and disc ready for fitting.

Upright fitted to car.  Upper ball joint not fully torqued until the camber has been set.  This will be done at a later stage.

Hub assembly fitted to upright, using a new wheel bearing kit.  This was then torqued to the correct amount, as per the Cortina Haynes manual.  As one of the hub grease caps was missing I bought two new aluminimum ones from Rally Design.  They were not cheap, but are very well made.  Shame they won't be seen behind the centre of the alloy wheels.

I entertained the idea of renewing the calipers, but in the end it seemed too much effort when new ones can be bought from Rally Design for a very competitve price.  The old ones will go back on ebay.  Here are the new calipers fitted, along with a set of new EBC Green Stuff pads.

All complete, barring the fitting of the brake flexi hose.  This can only be done once the body shell is on.

Visit to Tiger, Revised Avon Body

Yesterday I took a trip to Tiger to collect some more shiny parts to bolt to my chassis.  While there I got the chance to look over a (nearly) finished Avon that was fitted with the newly revised body.  I was very impressed with the changes and I am fortunate that I have not bought my body yet so I will be able to get this new shape.

As you can see in the pictures there is now a proper boot locker with a locking lid.  Inside the boot is just a continuation of the single piece body - nothing to fabricate, just the hinges to mount!  No cutting is needed around the mounts for the roll bar either.  The fuel filler has been moved to the top (from the rear panel) and this now means that the inside of the boot space does not need cutting.  There is a revised alloy fuel tank too to fit this body - I think it is just filler neck moved further to the side.  The fuel tank is very neatly attached from below the car.  Fitting a braced roll bar might be more of a challenge than previously as the diagonal braces would come down where the filler now is.  I will rethink whether I want to fit a braced roll bar initially.

Apparently the non-symmetrical wheel arches should now be fixed too.

Wheels and Tyres Ordered

I've ordered some wheels and tyres from Tiger.  Once I collect these I'll be able to get the car on to its wheels.  The front uprights and hubs to be finished in the meantime.

Previously 6.5" rims were the widest that could be fitted on the Avon and still be compliant with IVA regulations (so that the tyres did not protrude outside of the rear wheel arches).  This is with 195 width tyres.  However, Tiger has now updated the Avon bodyshell mould and 205 width tyres can now be fitted on the rear.

I am going for 205 on the rear and 195 on the front, all on 6.5" rims.  In theory you could now fit 7" rims such as the popular Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2.  However, I have chosen wheels with 6.5" width as they were cheaper and will allow me some leeway with the wheel arch spacing.

Five wheels ordered (15" Team Dynamics Tornado S) - one rim spare for touring or as a spare in case one of the other four is damaged and this style is discontinued:

 
and four tyres (Toyo T1R):

I did want the new R1R, but they are not in stock for 195 at the moment.  I'll go for something more sporty next time.

Futher Modifcation of Suspension Uprights

The front and rear dampers were fouling the brackets on the rear uprights as well as the lower front wishbones.  The 'corners' were filed round and then painted with Hammerite.  Care was taken to remove the minimum amount of metal, so as not to damage the structural integrity of these components.

Handbrake Cables

The Tiger provided handbrake cables need some modification before they will fit the Avon.

Firstly, the end of each inner cable was adapted.  This involved soldering each cable near the end so that the ends would not fray when the cable was cut through.  Then the white 'hook' was cut off.  This allows the inner cable to be removed - necessary to be able to thread it though from the brake back plate from the wheel side.

The other end of the outer cable was adapted by unthreading the hollow bolt and then cutting the white tube down.  A shorter piece was cut from the hollow bolt and this was screwed back into the now shorter white tube.

A comparison of before and after is shown in this picture:

The shortened hollow bolt screws nicely into the tube on the chassis side of the brake back plate.  Only downside is that the adjuster thread/nut arrangement is no longer there - adjustment will now have to be done at the handbrake lever end of the cables.

The balance bar originally provided by Tiger was too thin.  It would not allow an 8mm hole to be drilled for the handbrake lever bolt and still leave enough metal to retain its strengh.  I called Tiger about this.  Turns out this thinner bar is used when an inner (third) cable is used to connect the handbrake lever to the balance bar.  As I will bolt the balance lever to the rod that is already attached to the handbrake lever I need the wider balance bar.  Tiger sent one of these to me.

An 8mm hole was drilled for the bolt and then two 4mm holes were drilled to accept the handbrake cables themselves.  The locking bolts were clamped onto the cables and after some adjustment the hole handbrake set up was operational - with full handbraking force coming into play after two or three clicks.

Wheel cylinders and brake shoes fitted

New wheel cylinders were sourced from the local motor factors. These turned out to be very reasonably priced. After looking through the catalogue it was determined that my rear brakes are from a 1.8 or 2.0 Sierra estate car. This seems to tally with the fact that these are the bigger, nine inch, drums. The wheel cylinders were given a couple of coats of Hammerite to prevent rusting.

After that the new brake shoes were fitted. These were bought from EBC's online shop. Free next day delivery too.

The brake drums will be fitted later, after the hand brake cables are attached.

Tightening the Hub Nuts

With the drive flange fitted it was time to fit new a new hub nut. Most torque wrenches do not go up to the level required (about 260 ft/lb). Instead I used an approximation of my weight multiplied by the correct lever arm. I measured the right length along the breaker bar (14 inches) and then applied my full weight at that point, making sure that the car was adequately supported. The process will be repeated on the other driveshaft.