robrado974

Evening . This may sound a stupid question . Im running out of time with the current work im doing on the underside refurb. The reason for this is , a bolt which has sheared in the subframe , ive tried loads of ways to get it out but it will not budge . The bolt is now called bitch , i call it that every time i pass the car !. So back to it , because ive got to drop the subframe to get this bolt out as well as the front crossmember to refurb it and fit the refurbed rad support, its going to take me a lot longer . Im a little worried that because the rad is off , obviously ive no coolant in the block at all . But im thinking if its empty theres nothing in there to expand and contract when freezing and unfreezing , so i wont end up with a cracked block . I can see this job running in to winter time . So will the engine be ok without any coolant in it ?, i dont live in the south east any more, im in devon , so we dont get really low temps like some of you do , but you never can tell we may have a harsh winter. Also there is not any oil in the car as i had to drain it to remove the drivers side wishbone bolt . Thanks Rob

Hope you escaped severe damage Jim . Lucky man indeed . I had a cam belt go on idle , snapped the cam shaft in to three pieces .

Welcome back Rog . Looking forward to seeing the car .

No experience with that part Fla, I got mine from TPS.

Top man , than you Roger .

Thanks Roger . I think I will get a new sump . Mine is not the best .I will have to check if they do parts for early cars, otherwise I will end up getting longer sump bolts too .

Mine is the same . I've replaced the rollers , fitted new window scrappers . The passenger side is tight but still rattles . The drivers side has a gap in it near the door handle , this rattles terribly . When I removed the door car again , it seems to be banging on the slider , right at the bottom .

Thanks all of you , great info . Rob

I've looked at the Febi gasket . Will this be ok ?

Nice , I like those .

Thanks Jon . I was a bit concerned at moisture getting in there .

Morning chaps . Quick question . I need to order a new sump gasket . I've left a few bolts in to hold up the sump to stop moisture , but I didn't put the metal casing in place . Will this be ok for a while ?. Thanks Rob

It's great when you can do stuff like this yourself . I learnt to weld when I was sixteen , I doubt very much if I could do it now .

Thanks Easy .

Very true Jim , I was thinking exactly the same thing today . The bolt on the under side that goes into the chassis came out so Easily ,but when you look at it , it's gold in colour from thread to shank . I've owned the car for nearly ten years , it's never been out or replaced in my ownership . It can't be much older as that part of the car gets really wet in the rain . The one that sheared is in a right state .

I have a cunning plan . I'm soaking the bolt with plus gas at regular intervals . I will try a pair of mole grips tomorrow . If it slides off the thread because of inferior grip , I will gently grind two flat surfaces at opposites so the Molies will grip better . If that fails then I will stick a match in the petrol tank lol .

I had another go this evening and the bush is out . (Temper of a scalded rhino lol) . Just that nasty bolt to go now .

Thank you very much again for all your comments chaps . I got the angle grinder out in the end . The wishbone is now off the car . So I'm now left with the round part with the bush in . This is teasingly close to coming out but it's not giving up without a fight !. Once I get this out tomorrow with extreme violence I will be left with the bolt to remove . What a pain in the arse . I wish I could drop the subframe but I don't have a hoist to support the engine . And there's the thought , that if one of those bolts shears , I'm really in trouble.

Thankyou chaps , I'm now going to try and use a thread extractor on it .

Things were going really well on the passenger refurb side . But I've managed to snap the bolt on the wishbone , it's the end facing you towards the engine . I suppose my only way out is to get it drilled and RE tapped ? . Rob

They will be up soon Sean lol .

Not a bad day on the car today . I had a small job to do in the morning then I got back to it . The large nut on the hub was removed and everything split . Then the bearing was pushed home into the refurbed hub. I de greased the driveshaft rod and the rear subframe , roughed them up and got them painted . I was really surprised at the condition of the disc guard , virtually rust free , so that was painted too . Good job really as the pair I got from heritage eight months or so back , are not correct , so they will be going back . Hopefully tomorrow we can get the new wishbone in and then fit it all back together . Am I looking forward to doing the other side ? Not really no !.pics to follow soon.

I have now begun the front underside work . Despite some of the bolts being an absolute pig , we managed to get all the drivers side off , just the drive shaft to be removed . We had to leave it this way because nut that goes onto the hub would not budge at all . So my mate that works at kwikfit is going to remove the shaft from the gearbox end and take the lump to work and use the air gun on it tomorrow morning , to separate the hub .Speaking of the drive shafts , I'm not going to replace them . There is nothing wrong with them . All I need to do is prepare the shaft part and paint them . I'm doing this job , one side at a time . As I have said the front subframe is in great condition so I only need to prep that and paint it when the time comes . The rear one will be done in situ .I don't think I would recommend anyone to do this on a driveway it makes hard work of it . For instance having the leverage to undo rusted bolts is difficult . I had a spanner slip off a nut today as I had it wedged in the hub and was undoing the other side with a ratchet .It came off the nut and hit me straight between the eyes ! .

Thats what I used in the end Easy . With two of us the bolts finaly cracked .

I will have to do this I think . If I had the money to replace the shocks as well I could just cut the lot off and be done with it .