After much procrastinating, turning Four-O, discovering the joys of downhill cycling and being on holiday in the sun, I've finally got some hours spent under the car again. Ball joint boots have been procured, joints cleaned and re-greased, and the control arms have been fitted. I found the easiest way to do them is bush-end first. Then on either side I lined them both up with each other and the upright and knocked the tapers in by hand. It helped to have the steering centered. I've tried fitting them ball joints first with a friend on his car, following his advice, but that was much trickier in terms of lining up the bolt holes with the bushes at the body end. I've clearly not consulted any books here, so I might have kicked in an open door :roll: Split pins had rusted solid in both the rear control arm joints and had to be drilled out.
RHF wheel bearing was starting to grind so I got hold of an axle set to go on. Both hubs - the whole of the central cavities - were packed full of grease, and the RHS was missing the non-rotating washer (for lack of correct term) so the hub nut was directly on the outer bearing. Tightening the hub nuts afterwards, the RHS firmed up quicker. Does the missing washer affect this? At any rate, the bearings that came out are probably serviceable, is my guess. Fitted the pair of SD1 hub centre caps in anticipation of the Vitesse rims later on. In the shot you'll see they are an interference fit inside the hub aperture, instead of round the (shiny) outside. Also, the brake rotors both have a fair bit of corrosion on the inside, in patches round the fringe.
Next came flushing the brake lines. I'm getting rid of the silicone fluid, as mentioned a while ago. I attached an old flexible hose on the wheel end of the lines to direct fluid away from where I didn't want it, and squeezed some water through using a drink bottle with a transmission-oil nipple cap in a bit of hose topside. After a something resembling a brain wave I found the nozzle on the brake cleaner can fit snugly into the lines themselves, so I followed on with alcohol, which evaporates quicker, blew some air through, then attached the new Goodridge hoses and made sure everything in the wheel bays is tidy. Did the same to the clutch line, the union and the master-servo line and closed down for the night. Next come fitting the servo, connecting and adjusting and bleeding everything, and then torquing up the suspension with wheels on the ground. Followed by a late EU inspection 8)