Modifying and fitting the handbrake
The handbrake lever from the donor car is bolted to the top of the transmission tunnel as close to the rear bulkhead as possible to try and keep it out the way of the drivers elbow. The Sierra lever is fairly bulky and may need to be changed for something smaller, but it's free for now! A new handbrake cable assembly was sourced from the local motorfactors as the donor one was knackered (I wrecked it when stripping the Sierra). The Indy chassis comes with metal guide tubes welded into the chassis, which makes fitting the cable very easy. These tubes pass through a chassis rail at the back of the transmission tunnel and guide the cable up and over the differential unit. From there the cables have to curl round in an 'S' shape to allow it to pass through the backplates of the rear drum brakes. The nipples on the end of the inner cables locate in the operating levers in the trailing brake shoes, which allows the cables to pull the shoes into contact with the drums. The natural path of the cables between the guide tubes and the brake backplates leaves the cables very close to the driveshafts, which isn't ideal so I fitted to steel 'P' clips to the chassis to secure the cable away from harm.
The standard the cable is too long as the Indy is much shorter than the Sierra. To get round this I cut a section out of the inner cable where it attaches to the handbrake lever and rejoined the cable with a drilled nut and bolt. The handbrake lever features a horshoe type balance mechanism to allow the cable to pull equally on both sides of the car.
Overhauling the driveshafts
The donor driveshafts and rear wheel bearings were serviceable, but the various oil seals and rubber gaiters were perished and split, so a complete overhaul was required. The wheel bearings were repacked with fresh grease and the seals were easy to change, but the driveshafts were a pain in the arse to do. The CV joints have to be completely dismantled so you can get the new rubber gaiters over the shaft. Then replacement metal joint covers have to be fitted and swaged closed to finish the job - I nearly gave in and bought exchange driveshafts - time will tell how well I did the job.
