Pre-Build
|
|
The current Striker is based around the Ford Sierra. I ordered a Hybrid chassis to make use of the old style Ford Escort mkII front uprights, which are far smaller and thus lighter castings than the Sierra ones and also have a good selection of parts such as lightweight hubs and brake calipers. The rear of the car is based around the Sierra diff, half-shafts, hubs and brake assembly.
All of the parts I used were obtained from Ford Spares in Tendring. Not as cheap as buying a donor car and stripping it yourself, but everything was available ready dismantled, over the counter with a guarantee that it is in good working order.
The parts I bought are listed below:
One pair of Ford Escort mkII front McPherson struts and hubs. Remove the hubs and cut them just below the bottom spring plate, bearing in mind that they are full of shock oil and will make a mess, put them to one side as Sylva will further cut them down and attach the top ball joint.
One 7" Ford Sierra differential. I chose a 3.38:1 with push-in type tripod shafts. I determined the ratio by simply turning the input shaft and counting the rotations required for a single rotation of the output. Then I noticed it still had a tag on it with 3.38 stamped on it. One of the half-shaft oil seals on mine was leaking profusely which had then baked onto the casing, but someone had obviously been topping it up as it was full of clean oil. I removed the half-shaft oil seals (a claw hammer is good for this) and then tapped them back in place lightly trapping a piece of thick plastic bag in order to seal the unit up for cleaning and storage. I cleaned the casing with liberal amounts of Gunk and water and then gave it a couple of coats of Hammerite smooth black on top of their special surface primer. I bought a pair of replacement half-shaft oil seals to pop back in when I put the diff in the chassis, push in the inner lobro joints and fill with oil. The part number of the seals is 83BG3K169B5A.
One pair of Ford Sierra 1.8CVH tripod type half-shafts and hubs. These had the push-in shafts to suit the diff and used the smaller diameter tripod joints and half-shafts from the older 1.6 Sierra. These offer a significant weight saving over the larger 2.0 Sierra tripod type joints and half-shafts and even more so over the lobro type joints. The hub nuts were removed with the aid of a 41mm socket and a long breaker bar. One of these is a left-hand thread and one a right-hand thread so have a look at the thread before you try and undo them. Both these nuts took a lot of effort to get off. Removing the hub nut enables the hub to be separated from the bearing carrier and the half-shaft. I removed and replaced the wheel bearings and oil seals on both sides and gave the hubs a lick of black Hammerite. All four tripod joints were dismantled and cleaned in order to see if there was any visible wear. This is a little time consuming and involves cutting off the rubber boot and then removing the metal sleeve. In theory the sleeve should slip off when the end furthest from the boot is bent out to clear the tripod casting inside, but I spent ages doing the first one and ended up cutting the other three off with a hacksaw. When doing this be very careful not to cut into the tripod joint itself or the plastic disk. I found that a big screwdriver made a perfect cold chisel for splitting the sleeve and not causing any damage to the joint inside. Once the sleeve is off the joint will pull apart and the outer part of the joint, the spring and plastic disk can be cleaned and put to one side. In order to get the inner part of the joint off the end of the half-shaft I removed the circlip from the end of the joint and then tapped the tripod off with a drift. I am sure that some kind of three legged puller would be a better way of doing this, but I found that the tripod came off without too much force. With the outer halves of the tripod joint either in the hub bearing or on the diff this will enable the correct length for the half-shaft to be measured so that it can be cut and sleeved to suit. I will then re-assemble the joints using new boot kits. It took a few attempts to get the correct, smaller size boot kit from Ford but I did in the end. The FINIS number of the complete kit (sleeve, o-ring, rubber boot, clips and grease) is 1058426. The part number of the rubber boot is 83BG4697AA and the FINIS number of the metal sleeve is 6101698.
One Ford Sierra Steering column. I bought a complete unit off a late model with early model (horn on the stalk) switchgear, which I promptly cut off to tidy up the appearance.
One Ford Sierra accelerator pedal which needs to be cut off just below the pivot and reversed to fit.
One Ford Sierra brake and clutch pedal assembly which you need for the nylon bushes and pivot bar (if you don't have a balance bar box as this is too wide for the standard pivot and you need an M16x200 bolt instead).
One Ford Sierra steering column link to be cut and sleeved to suit.
One pair of Ford Sierra rear caliper carriers.