It was then onto more non-visible jobs. The front left wheel bearing was getting very hot very quickly so clealr needed work. So I've replaced the races and bearings, removed all traces of old grease, repacked with new bearing grease and adjusted to spec. When the troubled bearing was removed there wasn't any single obvious problem. There wasn't all that much grease left, but I think it was actually adjusted too tight - the drivers side wasn't running hot at all, but looked the same when unpacked.
I'd already noticed the flexible brake lines had some alarming cracks so had ordered new ones with the bearings. What I didn't know was that the pads were down to metal so had to be down there and then. Surprisingly, could get new pads off the shelf at Repco (so I did), but had to wait a bit while they- very patiently, to their credit - tracked down the (apparently) last of the current stock in the country for the fronts.
The pins and springs weren't the best. So I soaked them in DeoxC then hit them with steel wool and 240grit.
So they're all in now, except the passenger side which is putting up a fight accepting the new pads - I'll be back on them tomorrow and expect victory to be swift before finding how one bleeds a car with three nipples per caliper! ?
The most exciting development, though, are the wheels and tyres - both of which were very old and tired. The youngest tyre was 12 years old, no two were the same brand and three of them were brands I never heard of.
Getting this lot all sorted has been a bit of a saga carry them all over Hobart - and the last stage will happen this coming week, but so far:
1) The wheels went to the tyre shop to have the tyres removed and discarded.
2) The rims then went to The Wheel Doctor for re-rolling of the edges.
3) They then went to the powder coater for blasting and coating in (as close as possible to) the original silver.
In the meantime I had to order new tyres. There are plenty of threads on tyres for 164s, but the short version is that I've gone with original spec but with white stripes. The original width, of course, are alarmingly narrow 165s - so it's going to feel very different to the 205s that we're on it! (Which were rubbing, btw...).
Had bit of an argument with the tyre shop over how they speak to customers, so have to wait to next week to get the wheels and tyres into my usual place to have them reunited.
So *next* weekend will hopefully get to drive it again. Will be fascinating to see what new, narrow, tyres that don't rub combined with new wheel bearings does to comfort levels!
Tony.
