August 2015 - With the chassis propped up and the chassis black coating all dry, it was time to start the process of putting things back onto it. The rear axle has been assembled to include the handbrake clevis and new stainless steel operating rods. Brand new fabricated leaf springs have been attached using new U bolts.
The Y shaped shackles have had a coat of paint and new bushes pressed in.
With the rear axle fitted the new rear shocks are mounted. The front swing arm is fitted along with a new shock absorber. This is actually for later Reliants so the car will sit a little higher at the front. New rubber bushes are fitted along with hex head bolts to help make future removal a lot easier. The clutch pedal box is installed along with the a new brake cylinder. With a new brake light switch fitted brand new brake lines have been fitted. This was a ready trimmed kit making fitting very easy & safe. NOS flexible hoses complete the connections. In preparation for the body being refitted, nitrile chassis tape has been added to the top surfaces of the chassis. No more plywood packing here !
The rear axle features straps which may be essential for roadworthiness. The thin metal straps were badly corroded, as were the captive nuts in the chassis. these were drilled out and replaced with rub nuts. The first idea was to use Land Rover axle straps cut to size.
However, they were so inflexible they put too much strain on the rub nuts.
So a quick request to my brother saw some new stainless steel straps fabricated to the original design.
The engine was lowered onto the mounting points complete with the gearbox. At this stage the later type of water pump is fitted and this view shows the adequate clearance of the fan and radiator. Note the radiator pipe features an additional fitting. This type of hose was intended for the earliest pumps which had only the bypass feed. The additional connection was intended for the heater matrix, but later water pumps have a feed for this. This hose will be replaced later.
The radiator is fitted using titanium studs.
The seatbelt mounting bracket looked a bit tired. Once again, a new one is fabricated to be held in place with high tensile bolts.
The prop shaft was stripped, cleaned out and had new universal joints and grease nipples fitted. Getting a spanner to the bolts is a notorious task. These are metric bolts with part of the head trimmed. They are a better engineering fit than the original imperial bolts. Using standard types of nut and bolt head also means two spanners can be used to undo them easier than the half moon type head of the original.
6 SEP 15 and I now have a rolling chassis again ! Mounting the exhaust pipe required fitting a rub nut for the rear hanging strap. The captive nut had rotted years before and a homemade clamp system had been fabricated to hang the strap. The plan now is to test run the engine and trouble shoot before the body goes back on.
