BE 646

[Aceca289]

Thanks David for taking the time to create the new INDEX on the first page of this thread! Give it up to the new guy! (See Peter's post just prior to this post on page 22 of this thread for more info)

AND

Thank You Peter for all your hard work over the years to take and post all those pics. What a great resource for all us Aceca owners to have an INDEX to find pics and descriptions of your many years of hard work restoring your Aceca. It's so great to be able to see under the skin of an Aceca to know what one might be getting into prior to embarking on the journey. Thanks to David, now we can scroll to the page with the pictures we want to find easier.

John
AEX521

[dkp_cobra]

The front disc brakes have some kind of dust cover.

My plan was to clean these plates and to powder coating them. But after cleaning I had to determined that they reached the end of there life.


I made new plates from stainless steal and used the chance to revise the asymetry of the old plates:

The new plates and the old one:

looks better in mounting position:

[James Eastwood]

Stunning. I always enjoy your updates, thank you and press on!

[dkp_cobra]

These are the panels below the A-column.

They have a lot of holes and I can't imagine that I will use all of them. So, new panels must be made.

Checking their fitment


The next task is the front leaf spring. Since the car will be fitted with the heavier Ford 2.6 Zephyr engine the front leaf spring must be strengthened.
The original leaf spring:


I bought a leaf spring made for the 2.6 engine but the quality is quite poor.

Some of the leafs are of unequal length, i.e. the length from the middle (measured from the hole in the middle) to the left is different from the length to the right. I think this is not good if you want a symmetric springing behaviour. The difference is 1 cm.


But the worst is that the lowest leaf containing the bush is wider than the original spring. This leads to positive camber.
The original spring:

the new one:

So, my plan is to use the old leaf spring and combine it with two leafs of the new leaf spring. Building the correct leaf spring is only possible when the car is finished. I don't want to have this look for the Aceca:

[dkp_cobra]

Time to say "goodbye"?

[dkp_cobra]

This picture was taken at the beginning of summer. The plan was to sand blast and paint the frame. Unfortunately, the sand blast machine cracked and it took some time to get an replacement. But last weekend it came back.

I directly started to mount some panels and the doors so the next step can be started: a professional panel maker should bring the body back on the car and the door skins must be renewed. Today it started this journey.

[TTM]

Very nice... did you have the chassis powder-coated?

[dkp_cobra]

Very nice... did you have the chassis powder-coated?

No, it is not powder coated. A special chassis 2-component paint was used.

[dkp_cobra]

Together with the frame the leaf springs were sand blasted and painted. The original rear spring

and the modified front spring. After I brought the tips into shape you cannot see a difference between the new and the old leafs.

Since two leafs were added new mounting brackets were needed.

At the end they were assembled with a lot of grease between them and wrapped with grease tape. Really a funny work. Everything stick to your hand after that work  :o

[Norman]

Many years ago I weighed my 2.6 Ace on an industrial weighbridge which I believe was pretty accurate. It came out at exactly 18cwt (0.9t). The spec at the time was iron head, walking-stick manifold, 3 HS6 SUs, standard width 16 inch wheels, factory detachable roll bar, standard steel fuel tank.

I haven't weighed it recently but it's probably a bit heavier now as the body and chassis have been strengthened at the rear. Also the wheels are heavier, 5.5 inch wide, 15 inch diameter but with more spokes than original. And I have added an overdrive. On the other hand, head and tank are now alloy and the roll bar is not fitted.

Hope that provides some food for thought.

[dkp_cobra]

A deep look inside the differential case after sand blasting the case.





I used new bushes. Now it is ready for painting.

[dkp_cobra]

New index and table of contents on the first page. Thank you David.

[dkp_cobra]

I found a webpage of a little company here in Germany which promised to make paper sealings. You only have to send a Autocad drawing or something similar. So I spent some hours to make a Autocad drawing for the main sealing of the differential house and the one for the output shafts. I sent the drawings to the company to find out that there were not reachable neither by e-mail nor by telephone  >:( . Hard to make business like that.

So, I did it by hand today.





After that I called the transmission guy to ask him for assembling the differential and overhauling the type 9 transmission. The answer was: not this year. Call me beginning of next year.
I guess I am on a roll today.

[nikbj68]

Wow.
People keep building walls, but you keep smashing through them!
So pleasing to see your progress, and a pile of bits starting to look like an Aceca again!

[dkp_cobra]

Currently, I am disassembling the front and rear axle. The front is so easy every child can do this,

but the rear hubs are a complete different story. I have a nice hub puller but I had to use a hydraulic press to remove the hub. I was able to remove one hub but the driveshaft is corroded

On the other side I wasn't able to remove the hub. I changed to a bigger press (16 tons)



but still wasn't able to remove the hub. Finally I cut the hub with the driveshaft into two pieces.




The rest of the hub has around 10 mm contact with the draftshaft. With a normal puller I still wasn't able to remove the rest of the hub. After cutting the rest of the key (ca. 5 mm) the puller removed the hub.




Also this driveshaft was corroded in the lower section


but the upper part had a perfect match with the hub. No sign of corrosion.

I guess the reason why I couldn't remove the hub was that the hub had started to turn on the driveshaft and the key twisted. The top of the driveshaft does't fit the hub with key anymore.

Anyway, the "AC Ace/Aceca Rear Hub Tapered Spline Conversion Kit" from Triple M on its was to me. Look here: https://www.triplembyjswl.com/stock-parts/ac-ace-aceca-rear-hub-tapered-spline-conversion-kit-new-product-_15.shtml