Sourcing the rest Sourcing the rest
While I was purchasing the diff I also purchased the drive shafts, hubs and front uprights. These needed stripping down, cleaning and then the front uprights and drive shafts send for modifying by the factory. I still need to get a handbrake and steering column as these also needs to be modified, but these are very cheap and plentiful so will collect one from a local breaker before deliver of the kit.
Escort MKII uprights
Take care when when buying these from a breaker as the prices varied significantly. I had one breaker ask over 110 quid for a pair. In the end I got them for 50 quid including delivery, but even then I suspect I could have paid less if I had continued to search.
You need to strip the brakes calipers off (2 simple bolts) and then take the hub/brake disk unit off. This is very easy and requires the removing of a dust cap with a screwdriver and then removing a single nut that's secured with a split pin. Remove the nut which is little more than hand tight (thus the split pin) and the hub simply lifts off. I removed the disks (4 simple bolts) and put the hubs to one side for cleaning and painting. The remaining upright needs to be prepared for passing to Fisher for modification.
To do this I clamped the remaining upright in my workbench and placed a plastic bowl underneath the upright to catch the oil. I then set about cutting the upright directly below the spring platform. As the shock part is full of oil then this will pour out when the shock is cut. I used an angle grinder to cut it - not very subtle but very effective.
The image shows the cut I have made just below the spring platform and the oil draining out into the plastic bowl below. Having left the oil to drain for a few minutes I proceeded to cut the upright. It is important to note that you only want to cut through the FIRST layer of metal as there are 3. Once you have cut through the first layer of metal, simply pull the two parts of the upright and the shock absorber will slide out leaving the upright.
The above image shows the upright ready for modification by Fisher. Just to show you how small the actual hub part of the upright is, I have shown a bottle of threadlock next to it for size comparison. This should be quite a lot lighter than the Sierra unit.
Driveshafts & Hubs
The driveshafts are removed from the hubs by removing the 41mm nut on the end of the driveshaft that's attached to the hub. These are torqued on to 250 ft/lbs and are very, very tight. The best thing to do is remove these nuts using a socket and a breaker bar while they are still attached to the car, using the car to push against. Unfortunately, my driveshafts are already off the car so that isn't an option. My method was to use an angle grinder to carefully grind a thick groove into the hub nut, stopping just before you hit the thread of the drive shaft. I then hit the edge of the slot I had just created in the nut with a hammer to undo it. It was actually very easy but took about 30 minutes each to grind and recheck depths. Still, much better than trying to undo the nut while holding the driveshaft in a workmate! Don't forget, one nut is right handed and the other left so in effect one unscrews backwards.
The complete driveshaft units are then exchanged for brand new shiny ones as part of the kit.