Suspension Build up - Rear

You've probably noticed that my blog is not in sequence to the build - sorry about that.
So the rear suspension went together pretty well. The Gen 2 build manual is really easy to follow.

Connecting the handbrake cable was a bit of a pain as I had to dismantle the handbrake assembly to connect the cable. When reassembling everything I found that one of the spring pins wouldn't hold in properly. These are the pins that turn and lock into the hub plate. The hole was too big so I had to send back one of the hubs to Wards to get it fixed.

I used the original drive shaft spacers and bought some shims from John Gordon Jaguar. On the passenger side I used 3 shims plus the spacer. On the drivers side I found the spacer was too big as it was giving me a 1 degree angle the wrong way. My spacers were 5.5mm wide so I bought a 4.5mm spacer and that worked fine. One thing to remember, when you tighten everything up recheck the angle as it will have changed.

I'm still a bit surprised to find that there is no lock pin holding on the drive shaft nut. As recommended in the build manual I bought new ones of these (£14 each!). They seem to have a thread which is separate to the nut and they have to be torqued up to 300nm. 

Anyway, all pretty straight forward and no major dramas.

Brake lines

The brake lines were one part of the build I initially felt a bit wary about. I invested in a Sykes Pickavant Flaremaster 2 flaring tool (part number 02729600). This is one of the more expensive tools but I have to say it works brilliantly and I'm really glad I bought it. It comes with SAE and DIN flares, de-burring tools, pipe cutting tool and pipe bending tool. It's also the hand held version so if I ever need to make flares again on the car I've got the right tool for the job.
The picture below shows the flares that the tool can make:

I used the SAE flares. A single flare for the male connectors and double flare for female connectors.

I used 3/16inch pipe and M10 brake unions. I opted for cunifer pipe as opposed to normal copper pipe as apparently this is harder and less likely to work harden. It's also a lot harder to work with compared to copper pipe but with a bit of patience I managed to get the pipe run and looking reasonably tidy.

To fix the pipe I used 5mm stainless P-clips from carbuilder solutions. I drilled and tapped the chassis and used M6 set bolts to fix, with an M6 rubber washer in-between the clip and chassis to help avoid water ingress.

Having never run brake lines or used a flare tool before I tested the lines by rigging up the pedal box, master cylinder and servo. All lines and connections tested fine with no leaks. However, when I came and checked the next day I could see that the drivers side rear banjo fitting had leaked slightly - looks like the face of the caliper needs machining flat. Job for another day!