Leopold...

Chassis

The brake system, the wheels and tires and the driveline are ready to go.

New MGA brake calipers aren't available anymore, so rebuilding the frozen ones that came with the car was the only way to go. I couldn't get the pistons out with compressed air, but pumping the calipers with grease managed to pop them out. One of the bleeders was damages pretty badly, but these repair kit's work fine if you don't mind drilling and tapping.

The rear wheels cylinders are still available new, so these went straight into the trash. After spending quite some hours with the front calipers, I'm glad i didn't have to mess around with these.

I resealed the rear axle while it was apart, then finished installing the brake components.

This is the guts of the master cylinder. The pistons and springs cleaned up alright, the bores were honed (a lot) and the rubber parts replaced.

The universal joints were in bad shape- not much left of the needle bearings. I guess whoever drove this thing last didn't mind all the clunking.

I used the vise to press in new joints.

The wheels are now wire brushed and painted.
Tires should be simple, right? Just run by Sears and grap a set? Not exactly; there are only a few tires made in this skinny, tall, 15" size. I went with Kuhmos.

Tires with a high profile like this can easily be mounted by hand; they almost fall onto the rims.

Taking the wheels to the shop to balance them, in the family pick-up truck of course.

One old and one new wishbone. The big end pivots on the chassis and the small end goes to the trunnion (where the lower ball joint would be on a modern car).

The small end is completely worn out. No telling how long the bolt was rattling around in there.

The big end originally used rubber bushings. I replaced them with rubber and steel bushings, from the MGB V8.

Pressing the old parts out of the trunnions.

There is a bronze bushing and a steel tube in each one. The bushing should be pressed in place and the steel tube should float inside it, but these were all frozen together.

The Armstrong Lever Action shock absorber. A strange device indeed, but they work somehow. The left front one leaks profusely, so I'll replace them with rebuilt units from Worldwide Auto Parts.

Today's status (November 2005).

Posted by leo at November 14, 2005 07:17 PM