Recent content by james-c

At last I have had some time to finish off the roof rack. Here's the final product:

GRRRRRRRRR...... The right hand side knuckle that I rebuilt 2 weeks ago is weeping oil/grease again. D@mn. Either the breather is blocked, or the small groove worn in the drive shaft where the oil seal fits is worse than I thought. I've disconnected the breather, to be sure. I'll test it over...

Even with the 4 feet currently, I've had a spare wheel and 5 bags of wood up there with no problem. I don't really plan to have too much weight up there - a few jerry cans of diesel, some equipment, the side awning and the swag bags. Probably 100kgs at most.

Yeah maybe next time..... I think I need to learn how to weld aluminum and make the feet and flat bar out of that, or else it will end up being too heavy. Has anyone successfully welded aluminum with a MIG? Or is TIG the answer?

Yeah, I've seen those designs. The problem is that there is a slight curvature in the gutters and I don't trust my fabrication skills yet to match the curve. :-)

Did the other knuckle today. looks like who ever did it before me did a little of a bodge job :icon-cry:. They used a chisel to tighten the BIG nut. Swivel bearings were dry and needed replacing. Anyway, all grease up now and should be ok for the next few years.

I've just used a whole tub (500grams) of CV grease, and about a third of a 500g tub of wheel bearing grease for one steering knuckle.

Got my back seat back, on Monday too. Got them covered with grey canvas. Should give some protection against the kids and dog.. Hopefully the front seats are done soon.

Over the last weekend I rebuilt the front left steering knuckle, put a new studbolt in where the old one had broken off and glued all of them in place. Although its a relatively straight forward its a real PITA to do - not to mention the cleaning required. I also took the opportunity to paint...

Tomorrow I'm gonna get these fixed up. The upholster will replace the leather on the front seats and make a canvas cover for the back ones.