One of the things I noticed was that the wheels were pointing every which way so I had to fix that. To align the wheels I simple used a pair of saw horses, high tech house bricks and some brickies line. Before I did anything, I centered the steering wheel by turning it full lock to one side then counting the turns to the opposite lock. I then turned the wheel half way back and that is centre. I took the steering wheel off and recentered it so I could see if anything moved. As the pic below shows, the rear wheel was significantly out of alignment.
To set the string line in the correct position, it is just a matter of clamping something to hold the line taught while the checks are made. I used the saw horses because it gave me the right height and the string went under the flare on the front and rear guard, I still had the car in the trestles. The reason I used bricks is because it gave weight and the line wont slide around a brick but anything can be used as long as it holds the line tight. With the bricks, I just wrapped the line around the bricks then jammed it underneath.
When setting the line, I positioned it 1mm from any point of contact to avoid distorting the line. That is 1mm from the front and rear tyres. As I adjusted the toe in/toe out, I continually tapped the the line closer to the tyre as I went. If I was working on the back tyre, I would get the tyre parallel to the string and maintain the 1mm gap then do the same to the front tyre until I had it right then locked up the adjusting rods. It is a very simple way af aligning the wheels but is by no means a substitute for a proper alignment, purely a means of being able to drive the car without scrubbing tyres.
After the alignment, the car was lowered to the ground. I had initially set the push rods with the rod ends making full penetration into the push rods making sure that both ends were firmly seated. The reason for this is that the push rod has a right hand thread on one end and a left hand thread on the other. By starting with the push rod in it's shortest state allows for maximum adjustment and both rod ends still remain equal distance on both ends. Also with the push rods in the short configuration. it is easy to wind the rod ends out which extends the push rod length and raises the car.
The down side to all this is the car came to rest on the jack which is a low profile unit so I had to block up the wheels with a piece 50mm timber. Once the jack was out I just jacked under the side on the recommended jacking points and pulled the blocks out and sat the car on the ground.
With the Cobra on the ground and a few minutes admiring the way it looked, I went around the car measuring from the floor to the lip on the mud guard and calculating the adjustments that needed to be made, I raised the car and made the predetermined pushrod adjustments. When adjusting the rods to lift the height of the car, the rods are easily turned by hand, not so easy to lower the car so hence winding the rod ends right in to start with. Don't forgt the lock nuts.
With my limited space in the garage, I put the Cobra on a set of car dolly's so I can move it around at will and also get my own car in the garage as well.
The upholstery is currently being done so when the dash comes back, we are off to the electrician again for final wiring and hopefully an engine start.
Until something else happens
Cheers
Russell
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