Upper Wishbones, Vertical Link and Spring

Catching up on the blog yesterday gave me new impetus to get back out into the garage and crack on with the rest of the suspension.

The rebuilt upper wishbones were fitted. Note that the upper wishbones on a MK11 have to be rebuilt onto the upper fulcrum before the fulcrum is fitted to the chassis due to not being able to fit the left wishbone over the fulcrum when fitted due to a chassis support arm.

The vertical link and new upper ball joint could then be installed to connect upper and lower wishbones. To ensure that when the suspension is in the correct position when standing on the wheels the suspension was set up so that the upper bump stop is not resting on the chassis. I left a few centimetres gap.

Now the bit that I have been dreading, compressing the new spring and fitting the spring pan. I have created a home made spring compressor as traditional spring compressors will not fit. It's a Jensen, why would traditional tools work!.

The home made compressor is made up of an inch thick aluminium disk that fits in the underside of the spring pan. The disk has a 20mm hole in the centre in which a 16mm high tensile threaded bar can pass through the inside of the spring and , using 2 M24 nuts, locked off at the top using the shock mounting hole.

There is another M24 under the disk that can be would up the threaded bar and thus compressing the spring.

To guide the pan into the right position on the lower wishbone I used two 6" 3/8 Bolts in the front left and back right spring pan fixing holes into the upper wishbone.

What followed was 30 minutes of slowly winding up the spring hoping that the nut doesn't lock on or de-thread the bar! Surprisingly it worked rather well and as soon as the pan was close enough to the wishbone the 4 free fixing bolts were fitted and used to secure the pan. The guide bolts were removed and the remaining two bolts were fitted. These bolts were then tightened slowly a bit at a time working around the pan until all tightened correctly.

The spring compressor could then be loosened off. At this point the whole suspension initially lowers until the bump stop is resting on the chassis. The suspension will rise when the wheel is on and is taking the weight of the car.

Time for pictures...

Front suspension with spring installed

Shock installed

Front Suspension rebuild - Part 1

Finally at the point where I can start putting parts back on the car. All of the parts that were removed (wishbones etc) have been powder coated and new springs and shocks have been purchased.

Powder coated parts and new shocks

I also decided to replace nuts and bolts where replacements can be found. As usual Appleyards came up with the goods and an Imperial Assorted Garage Pack of nuts, bolts and washers in various sizes was sourced as well as various non standard bolts. Not all of the bolts could be found so the old ones were scrubbed and the threads cleaned.

Before each part is put back on the car the holes and threads need to have the powder coating removed. To confirm each hole and thread is ready I did a test build of the part on the bench.

Lower wishbone

The lower wishbone is now back on. Next is the upper wishbone assembly and vertical link. Then the dreaded spring and spring pan. I am not looking forward to that bit at all. 

Chassis Paint

Work has taken it's toll recently so there has been very little work done on the Interceptor or on the blog! I have managed to spend a few evenings on it with the following results....

A couple of coats of undercoat and top coat. I have selected a couple of products from a local company called Dacrylate Paints. The undercoat is Vinaprime and the top coat is Vinadac. Very impressed with the products and results so far.

Undercoat on Chassis

Top coat on Chassis

This is the turning point as I can now start putting suspension parts back on.