Mk6 Transit Restoration

[dieselhead123]

Got a few pictures of the drive flange mods required to get the D3 drive flanges to fit the Transit front wheel bearings.

Couple of pics of the drive flanges with the wheel bearings still in place, Transit one on the left'


Note the similar fixing method, bearing housing to swivel.

Now, the outer part of the D3 bearing housing is too large to fit in the Transit swivel and the bolt pattern is wrong, so the simplest method is to remove the D3 wheel bearing and housing and fit a Transit bearing to it. Couple of pics of both the drive flanges with the bearings removed for comparison, Transit on the left;



Now here is the first 'problem';

The D3 drive flange has a raised lip on the end, (highlighted in RED)this needs to be carfully machined off to enable the Transit wheel bearing assembly to be fitted, watch this space!

TIM

[winterheating]

This is definitely far more inspiring than watching that funny dude restorerestore on YouTube.

[karl]

VERY interesting to see how this is going to look

[dieselhead123]

Pic of the 'altered' D3 drive flange;


Now install the bearing in the same way as you would if it were a Transit drive flange;



Now, we need an access hole to get to the bearing housing securing bolts, we constucted a simple drill jig to achieve this, here you see the result;

NOTE You only need one access hole, just rotate the flange to access each fitting in turn.

Here is a picture of the 360mm disc fitted to the assembled unit;


For comparison purposes, here is a pic of the two assembled drive flanges, D3 with disc fitted on the left;

As you can see, the D3 assembly does place the wheel mounting face a bit further out, but only by about 3mm. Had we used the wider Mk7 wheel bearings then this would have increased a bit but the resulting offset suits our chosen wheels.

Now assemble the unit to the swivel, we are using Mk7 swivels on our van;

Not having the disc in place does make it a lot easier to see what you are doing as opposed to fiddling in a dark hole as would be necessary with the stock Transit set up!

A pic of the assembly in place on the van'


Now fit the disc on the outside of the drive flange using the stock D3 retaining fixing.

Callipers and calliper mounting brackets next.

TIM

[dieselhead123]

Now we need an outer CV joint, or a 'dummy shaft' if the van is to be RWD.

Unfortunately, although the spline count on the D3 drive flange is the same as the Transit outer CV, the shaft diameter is different

So it looks like we will have to use the D3 outer CV and manufacture hybrid drive shafts, since our van is FWD

This is how the CV was modified to work.

Placing the D3 CV in the rear of the drive flange, it was clear that the D3 ABS ring would interfere with the swivel;


Since the ABS ring is in the wrong place for a Transit we removed it, (just hit it off with a hammer and a chisel). This is what we have now;


Now we try again;


Still some interference here;


So, we need to turn some material off the end of the CV, a 45 degree taper will do, shown by the two RED lines;

Back to the lathe again for this lads.

While the part was in the lathe, we sorted out fitting the Transit ABS ring. The ABS ring will knock off the Transit CV, (hammer and chisel again), but the internal bore of the ring meant that it was not a tight fit on the D3 CV so could not be correctly located.

We produced a neat little ABS ring spacer;


So, while we had the D3 CV in the lathe, we cleaned up the outer face and fitted the adapter ring. Then we dressed up the outer face of the adapter ring and fitted the Transit ABS ring, here is the result;

But will it fit......

TIM

[spudmab]

Love seeing the updates, are you planning on making a conversion kit that we could buy.

Its cool that someone is really trying to push the limits of transit. Keep up the good work

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[dieselhead123]

Love seeing the updates, are you planning on making a conversion kit that we could buy.

Its cool that someone is really trying to push the limits of transit. Keep up the good work

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Once we have sorted this out, and the big brakes, for all four corners then we would be happy to supply copies of the modified parts for others to fit.
Most of the conversion parts used for the front brake/hubs are off the shelf parts, all readily available and affordable.

Stock Transit wheel bearing,
D4/RRS front discs
Will be using D4 Brembos
Slight mod to the D3 drive flange
Modded D3 outer CV, cheap for a new one if you want new
New calliper bracket
The hybrid drive shaft is only needed because our van is FWD

I'll start on the calliper brackets once the Brembos are delivered, drive shafts will only be a couple of weeks.

Still not done anything to the rear beam yet, but it looks like I will be retaining the Mk6 beam and converting it to discs. Vauxhall Insignia rear bearing/hub assemblies and D3 325mm front discs on the rear, but that could all change when we get started on that end

I'll get some more pics of the bonnet now it is all in primer.

TIM

[dieselhead123]

Still waiting on some parts for the hybrid hubs so we spent a bit of time on the front end panels. Bit of base coat on bonnet, wings and pillar trims;

Left hand front wing here, a small part of a Mk6 front bumper end has been added to extend the Mk8 bumper;


Right hand head lamp in place, still needing one for the left hand side in anyone has a spare;


Image showing the bonnet, when we fit the front grill it will look a lot better;


Another view of the bonnet. Given the amount of work it has taken to make one bonnet from two, I do hope the bonnet vents fit OK;


Close up view of the bonnet from the right hand side during paint application;


Looking down at the bonnet, picture taken standing on the work bench, it looks pretty symmetrical to me!


Looking down the right hand side towards the rear of the van, just to show that it is actually a Mk6;


This last picture shows a close up of the pillar trim where it meets the top of the front wing. Because the Mk8 bonnet is slightly wider at the top it was necessary to pull the top of the front wing out slightly, this meant that the A pillar trims did not fit correctly despite the top flange on the wing being Mk7. The pillar trims were made wider by bonding the lower part of a second trim onto another complete trim. Since the part is plastic we were happy to use plastic filler to achieve the desired shape. These trims can be unclipped as you would on a Mk7 to enable windscreen replacement.

[Jay2018]

WOW. This is what I was talking about in my first ever post in the Welcome section. Feats of engineering. Really fantastic and unique thread.

[Gates]

This is a pretty impressive project tbf!

[dieselhead123]

Thanks for the kind words chaps.

Not much to update at the moment, not had chance to get to the machine shop and collect the drive shafts this week

A few pictures of the modified outer CV assembled to the hub, it all fits!

Here you see a view from the front, we are using the D3/4 drive shaft nut which will be torqued down to the correct spec to suit the Transit wheel bearing, the absence of a split pin hole in the CV end means we will 'peen' the nut to lock it in place as you would for a D3/4 once the assembly is fitted to the van.

Here you see a rear view of the assembly, fitted to a spare Mk6 swivel;

This CV is a D3 one rescued from the scrap bin with the 'innards' removed. Only suitable to use as a 'dummy' shaft for a RWD vehicle but suitable for testing. We will copy the process on a pair of complete CVs for our own van.

A third view of the ABS sensor fitting hole, as you can see the ABS ring should line up nicely with the sensor;


Hopefully there will be another update next weekend.

TIM

[paul2012]

Hybrid hey

Nice work m8

[dieselhead123]

Thanks for the kind words Paul2012, we do our best.

Despite being super busy we did manage to get some work done on the hybrid drive shafts.

We need to join the inner part of the Transit shaft to the outer part of the D3 one so we can use the D3 outer CVs in out modified D3 drive flanges.

After measuring where we needed to cut the shafts we turned them down between centres to ensure they remained concentric. This is what they looked like when turned down to 20mm diameter;


Once turned we cut off the unwanted part leaving a shaft with a reduced end, shown in RED;

We now need to join the shaft together.

The simplest way for us to achieve this was to manufacture a joining piece, this can be seen in the next picture together with the two shafts;


The next picture shows a close up of the joiner;


The assembly method will require the shafts to be placed in the freezer for 24hrs, the joiner will then be heated and the three parts pressed together. Once the parts have 'relaxed' they will be held together securely in the same way that a starter motor ring gear is secured to a flywheel.

The joiner has been drilled at four points and plug welds will be applied to those four points, the countersinking of the joiner where the holes are located will enable the weld to be 'focussed' on the shaft. The ends of the joiner will also be welded to the shaft. Once complete the new shaft can then be spun up between centres and any resultant unbalance can be corrected by removing small amounts of material from the joiner in the appropriate places.

Well, that's the theory anyway

In other news, we have managed to secure the other headlamp and one Brembo calliper for the front brake conversion, so we should be able to design our new calliper brackets soon.

TIM

[dieselhead123]

A little picture of the Brembo against the stock Mk6 calliper that was previously fitted;


It might just be big enough

TIM

[Blue_Courier]

Nice project! Congratulations

You have a nice brake system. You have pictures of the proces to install?