It's Saturday and I love Saturday.  In the garage after a small egg on toast and a few cups of coffee, heater on and bikes out side getting cold.

I decided that I will work on the drivers side suspension.

First job is to strip it down, great fun.  I notice that this side doesn't have a cap to hold the grease in in the hub so that is something I need to get ordered.  Some of the bolts are a little difficult to get un done and strip or  damage their threads; this is odd as the lot is somewhat less corroded than the other side.

I enjoyed the strip down.  Next job was to remove the bushes from the stub axel which went well.  Then I started to clean the pieces up with the angle grinder and a wire brush, great fun.

Having finished the clean up of the shock I painted it today with POR15 matte black paint.

Needed to get on with some work on the cycles so unable to do any more today.

Spent the last day of the Christmas holidays in the garage doing very little but liking it a lot.  I got the sandblast cabinet out and blasted the shock that I had previously worked on but it didn't work very well so all I actually did was make a lot of noise and dust and very little else.  Still, I was happy enough.

I established that the side of the car that I have exposed is not the same as the side whose front suspension I have renovated, rather typically.  So I need to turn the car round which means taking it our of the garage and that is not easy in January when it is raining, oh well.

A little bit of rubbing down and painting today on a few more of the steering components, lazy day.

I visited John yesterday and borrowed his reamers along with gaining a new backplate, phew.  Reaming the bushes was an enjoyable activity although not a fast one.  The kingpin now fits well and so I proceeded to give the suspension components another clean before coating them in metal ready and painting them with POR15.  An enjoyable day.

In-between coats of paint I got out the bearings for the hub and realise that they are not symmetrical meaning they need to go in a certain way, naturally I don't know which way.  The annoying thing is that I could have asked John had I realised before today, oh well.  Edit: having just read the manual I realise that the bearings are marked; must read the manual, must read the manual, must re,......

I discovered that I had been over zealous in my strip down of the back plate by removing the snail shaped brake shoe adjusters.  They were locked solid so I thought nothing of doing it but when I went to order the parts I realised that they are part of the backplate and not sold separately which means I need a new plate, damn.  Fortunately John has one, phew.  I'll be a little more careful with the other side.  The slave cylinders were knackered and need replacing with is a shame as that is about £120 instead of a £10 repair kit, oh well.

I turned my attention to the flange on the bottom, or rear of the overdrive.  It had been under pressure from the puller for a week but was not moving so I got the oxy-actylene out and it gave way.  A quick clean up and the new seal went in.  I am worried that it may have gone in too far though and it certainly sits much deeper that the original.  Part of my thinks it'll be alright and part of me is thinking that when oil starts dripping from the rear of the gearbox I'll be really annoyed at the job of removing the gearbox jet to change it.  I may change it later on but for now I have dispelled negative thoughts from my mind.

Having finished the overdrive I set about connecting it back to the gearbox which was fiddly but did eventually work.

The unit all back together and waiting patiently for the engine,...

Next up was the replacement of the bushes.  I took advice off another Healey owner and placed the bushes in the freezer overnight but by the time I actually got it lined up and calmed I suspect that the bush had warmed up.  Anyway it went in, yippee.

Having got the bushes in I turned to the hub and striped out the bearings and bushes before giving it a clean up.

Been somewhat tardy on updating the blog but I have been in the garage.  We had a few days of heavy snow two weeks ago and the bikes that had to be stored outside so that I can move around looked a little sad.

I started work on the stub axel and created an elaborate puller using an 8mm threaded bar and some suitably sized sockets.

However, all I achieved was a stripped bar and sore hands so I reverted to more basic methods using a hacksaw and a big hammer and punch.  This was much more effective.

With the bushes removed I turned my attention to cleaning up some of the components.  Before and after: