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Well the country is pretty much on lock-down now. Covid-19 is wreaking havic in Italy and Spain and I fear we are a week or so behind them. I’ve not been out all week as I am lucky enough to be able to work from home. Whilst it’s a little un-nerving as life as we know it is changed so drastically so quickly, if isolation saves lives and heartache then that is the least I can do.
The self isolation has given me far more time than normal to play in the garage this weekend. I have now completed the re-assembly of the rear axle and suspension as well as re-fitting the exhaust.
On the drivers side I tried fitting the drive shaft as a single item. Unfortunately the dust cover wouldn’t be forced through the apperature in the trailing arm. So back to plan A, or more accurately before Plan A, because I hadn’t realised how closely paired the inner and outer shaft were. I had heard that they came in pairs but didn’t fully realise the significance. The inner and outer shafts are machined to fit each other precisely. An inner shaft from one pair may not fit an outer from another pair. That’s what happened to me. I must have mixed up the pairs and one pair would not mate up easily. So the passenger side had to come off again.
This time I didn’t attach the inner drive shatf flange to the diff. It was the easier to slot the inner and outer shafts together this way, but more difficult to torque up the flange bolts afterwards.
For the timebeing I have decided to live with the existing exhaust. It hasn’t got that stainless steel snarl I love, but there is nothing wrong with it (although I couldn’t tighten one of the manifold studs). So it’s gone back on for now.