Hi All
Well, long time since I posted an update and in reality a long time since I did any work on the car. Reasons were mainly down to all change at home. We decided in 2017 to move house i.e. downsize and I was going to reduce my hours of paid for work (I work for myself) and was spending a fair amount of time getting into road cycling as well. We moved house eventually back end of 2018 which entailed not only a house move, but moving all my Beta spares and garage contents to my parents house, putting all my work computer stock into a large rental container (we bought and sold second user computer gear). Then we started making the mods to the new house which has taken just over a year. Part of this means I have sorted out the new (double) garage to be reasonably draft proof via a roller shutter door which makes winter work most acceptable especially with a small space heater, changed all the strip lights to LEDs ones, which was a great result, reduced the doubles to singles for essentially the same light output as the old fluorescents and sealed the concrete floor to reduce the dust.
The Beta was moved across early in 2019 and has been just covered up until recently.
Middle of the year I had to do a large service on the Saab which was due including usual oil change etc, but also included the cam belt, brake fluid and auto gearbox oil replacement, none of which I had done before on it, so big learning curve especially the cam belt which involves a fair amount of parts to be removed. It would have been easier if I could have moved the Beta outside, so pretty cramped. Eventually all sorted and the Saab is now outside under a protective cover when not in use which is most of the time.....
So around November last year I managed top start work on the Beta. I still have the water pipework to finish, but decided to start on the last big job underneath which is the rear suspension. So there followed several days of trying and eventually succeeding in removing the rear hubs, brakes and struts. The retaining bolts between the struts and the hub proved to be very hard work, some taking a good hour or more to remove with liberal application of easing fluid and a pry bar etc. The end result was everything was removed except the rear suspension arms which attach to the centre of the car. On inspection the bushes appear good and replacing one of the bushes in these arms was an absolute pain, so they will remain as is. The other item which was not really worn, just old, was the rear disks, which were just rusty, but no obvious wear, unlike the fronts.
The rest of the items including dampers (original replaceable type fortunately), hub bearings, callipers, spring top metal plates and hub retaining rings are to be replaced/resealed. I was fortunate to have a couple of the rear callipers which did not have the bleed nipples sealed and look ok. I also have a new seal kit for them.
One item I almost left alone was the rear brake balancer fixed to the rear anti roll bar. This adjusts the effort to the rear brakes when the car 'lifts' at the back. I decided to remove it and very pleased I did. There is a plunger in the unit operated vi a bar from the anti roll bar and covered with a rubber boot. Under this boot I guess it should be filled with grease, but on mine after 40 years, this was just powder and the plunger was completely stuck. I was considering referring the unit with new seals, but failing to be able to open it up and then finding these are still available new and only costing £14 from a seller on Ebay, I just bought a new one. These are used on some Citroen cars apparently as well as Fiats.
I have spent the last 3 months therefore removing, cleaning and repainting where necessary the rear suspension. A few still to do and I still have to clean and paint in the wings, especially the top of the turrets which are not too bad, but need some protection before I reassemble the whole thing.
I will post some photos of the parts as I have them now when I get chance to line them up!
Peter
