Before fitting the propshaft, I attempted to fit the speedo cable. However, it soon became clear that the cable would have to bend very sharply as it exited the gearbox, due to the narrowness of the transmission tunnel. I wasn't too happy with this, as I couldn't imagine the inner cable lasting very long running at such an angle. I mentioned this to the ever-helpful Glyn at Quantum, who said that all kits now come with a right-angle speedo drive unit, with a suitably modified speedo cable. He asked me to send the old cable back and he would send me a new drive unit and cable, free of charge. These duly arrived and are a great improvement over the original set up.
In the manual, Quantum suggest bolting the propshaft to the rear diff, before fitting them both to the car as one unit. This seemed a rather cumbersome way of doing things, especially for one person, so I slid the propshaft fully into the rear of the gearbox, then lifted the diff on a trolley jack and tried bolting it into place. One of the four diff mounting bushes was very slightly out of alignment, but with a bit of assistance from a prybar, I was able to get the last bolt in. I then slid the prop back to meet the diff flange and bolted them together in situ.
The rear wishbones and shock absorbers were then attached to the chassis. Then, as I had already fitted all the new brake components to the backplates, I simply had to sandwich the backplates between the drive shaft flanges and the new suspension uprights, just as they had been on the Sierra. These assemblies were then bolted to the shock absorbers and wishbones. Everything lined up first time, making this a relatively quick job. Next, I fitted the handbrake cables and flexible brake hoses, then carefully shaped the short metal pipes that fit between the wheel cylinders and the ends of the brake hoses. I didn’t bleed the brakes at this time, as I wasn't sure if the location of the non-standard exhaust system would mean rerouting or even replacing one of the front brake pipes from the master cylinder.
As the sun was shining, I fitted the old Sierra wheels, lowered the car to the ground and pushed it outside for a photo session. I then managed to run over my own foot, when a sudden heavy shower prompted a hasty retreat to the garage!
