Lotus RH suspension mostly done

Last week was the UH Manoa Gamelan concert so no time to work on cars. On balance, Dave Bean shipped my shock and anti-roll bar bushings, so today I had all the big stuff. I still only had three hours today, so if I want the car on the ground in time for All British Car Day I need to take a few days off from work.

Recently I bought new grease to pack the hub bearings, but I still needed gear oil for the trunnions and new zerk fittings, so I stopped at Redline. They had the oil, but no zerk fittings. Why is it always little things are what hold you up?

The guys on the Europa mailing list recommended liquid dish detergent to lube the bushings, so I brought along some. Hard to find plain dish soap! I expected a battle but they went together easily. I gently clamped the bar in the vise and used the jaws to backup the bushing.

While working on the bushings I noticed the angle of the bend at each end was different. Not the little bend, the big one. Probably a side effect of the crash impact. I won't be able to set it straight until the shocks are in place, because I need to know the distance between the bottoms of the shocks where the bar attaches.

I finished assembling the RH upright -- the steering link and backing plate. Greased up the hub bearings and added the hub. Couldn't do the tie-rod because I still don't have the steering rack bellows.

Since I got the new shock I thought I'd spend what little time remained getting out my home-made spring compressor. Made an interesting discovery. I have to compress the spring to even get the top mount point even with the top of the spring, but the nylon strap will not fit between the spring and the mount. Catch-22. That will take some thought.

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