416 replies to this topic

[KTS]

Yep - first oil change. Good idea on the filter; I'll pull it apart and see what's in there..

 
Any updates Mate?
 
Did you find the source of the aluminium particles?

Nope - too cold in the garage at the moment

I'm pretty confident timmy850 is right that it's bearing material - question is which bearing(s) ?

[timmy850]

All of them will wear in to a certain extent during the break in process. You can send away the oil for analysis to check what metal is present in the oil

There’s also probably a bit of assembly lube, and potentially a very small amount of material from machining and assembly that comes out in the first oil change

[KTS]

good point about oil analysis, but as i've got to split the engine to address the oil leak around the half moon seal and block/gearbox flange anyway it'll be a simple job to inspect the main & big end bearings. if they're ok then it'll point to cam bearings i guess...

[KTS]

so, pulled the engine and took it apart to see if i could figure out the problem....

 

fine deposits in the sump....

 

 

big ends :  far from perfect, but not enough material gone to explain the issue

 

 

likewise the main bearings...

 

 

camshaft bearings are similar, so again didn't look like that was the issue.

 

The slurry in the bottom of the gearbox got me thinking , that perhaps the (new) pot joints have leaked cv grease into the gearbox, so put a bit of CV grease into a jar with some solvent, mixed it together and there's the very fine metallic sheen that was in the oil

 

 

 

 

.

[timmy850]

That does look like it’s all wearing in really nicely! Can you test the pot joints to see if they are leaking through the centre?

I’d love to whip mine out and do a condition check on how it’s been running but I haven’t had the space or time recently

[KTS]

That does look like it’s all wearing in really nicely! Can you test the pot joints to see if they are leaking through the centre?

I’d love to whip mine out and do a condition check on how it’s been running but I haven’t had the space or time recently

 

OK - that's encouraging; i wasn't entirely sure what to make of the wear patterns.  

 

i guess i could also fill the shafts with paraffin and leave them upright and see if the levels drop, but I think if the pot joints are leaking then i'd expect to find engine oil in them when i take the boots off

[KTS]

time for a progress (!) update...

 

pulled the pot joints apart and they were fine; no oil in them and the plugs are solid.  cleaned them out filled them with paraffin and no leaks, so sent an oil sample off for analysis, which as you'll see didn't flag anything 

 

 

so, put it all back together again and refitted it..

 

 

the observant may notice that the clutch master cylinder is missing.  that's because it was leaking.  obviously not a good thing, and entirely unexpected given that it was only fitted a few months ago and has had bugger all use.

 

pulled it apart and shoved some blue roll up it to clean it out to discover it's corroded, with a nice tide mark around where the lower seal was resting.

 

 

A quick trip over to potters bar to pick up a new one, and this time i thought i'd better strip it and inspect it before fitting.  just as well really, as this one has a rusty patch at the top of the cylinder as well, so that'll have to go back again.  i'll take my circlip pliers with me next time so i can inspect it at the shop....

 

 

on a slightly more positive note; after breaking one of the screen wash jets trying to get the hose on it i thought i'd try and reinforce it with a bit of 1/8" brass tubing

 

 

and as my scuttle has the wrong holes for these jets, i had to cut a little notch in the body so once inserted they could be rotated into position

 

[KTS]

after putting the engine back in and increasing the engine steady lengths to improve the angle of the exhaust collector, i thought i'd better refit the bonnet to make sure there was clearance to the top of the carburettor and the modified heater tap.

 

the good news was that nothing fouled, the bad news was that the bonnet wouldn't latch.  What should have been a 5minute job adjust the bonnet pin turned out to be another saga as i could only get a half turn or so off the pin before it locked solid. 

 

First thought was that paint overspray was causing it to bind, so spent some time trying to clean up the threads as best i could.  having cleaned off the paint as best i could, it still wouldnt undo.  Winding the pin in as far as it would go revealed enough of the thread to show that it had hit with the welder when the boss was welded in 

 

 

a couple of minutes with the dremel and a very fine grinding disc meant i could remove enough material to get the pin out.  Once i get another pin i should be able to finish off.

 

another couple of minor jobs ticked off - refitted the starter motor, but before doing so cut a slot in the end of the lower bolt so i could wind most of the bolt in with a screwdriver, and just tighten up with a spanner.

 

 

the other job was to replace the throttle cable fitting at the carb end with an angled ferrule to reduce the bend on the cable as it attaches at that end, so i now have a nice smooth curve all the way from the carb to the bulkhead.  the one downside to the current routing is that i'll need to disconnect the cable to take the rocker cover off

 

[wingnut]

I love this, your attention to detail is fantastic.When do you think it will be on the road, this year?

[KTS]

Thanks

I am hoping to have it back on the road this year, although I said the same last year!

[KTS]

i seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment 

 

mounting for the ECU sorted and dash liner refitted after sorting out the cutouts for the demister hoses.  Lots of head scratching about how to get the upper liners to fit properly, but i think I have a plan...

 

 

Fitted the replacement clutch master cylinder with the usual struggle to get the pedal clevis pin fitted.  Bleeding the clutch is a doddle with the stahlbus bleed valves.  worth every penny IMO

 

refiitted the exhaust, put some oil in the engine and span it over on the starter with the plugs out to get the oil pressure up.  Swapped the needle for a BBA, put some fresh fuel in the tank and started it up.  Initial running was a bit rough as the fuel mixture was all over the place due to the needle swap, and an electrical gremlin meant the AFR gauge and fuel pump relays weren't powering up when oil pressure came up.  Sensibly i'd included a 'prime' switch so i had fuel.

 

The problem resolved to a connector block that wasn't fully seated, so once that was fixed, the idle mixture could be tweaked and the engine run to let it come up to normal operating temperature.

 

Still needs a lot more fettling to get it running properly, so will have to get it booked into a rolling road somewhere hopefully not too far away for that, but the good news is it's running, not overheating, and not leaking oil.  Result

 

https://i.imgur.com/rbKVgaZ.mp4

[KTS]

i thought i'd finished having to make brackets for this thing, but apparently not, so out with the 2mm ally sheet, drills, files hammer and vice to make this

 

 

..which meant i could fit this.  not the best quality item as it's under reading, but hopefully it'll be good enough to let me know if there's a problem, and maybe the USB ports might even be able to charge a phone if necessary

 

the plain aluminium stands out a bit, so i think i'll put some crinkle finish paint on that to finish it off

 

 

The engine has been run through a couple of heat cycles so drained the coolant, retorqued the cylinder head and reset the valve clearances

 

 

Having established that i didn't need to take the engine out again to fix any leaks etc, next job on the list was to refit the front suspension, and as is customary, resolve a few issues.

 

First issue was that i discovered that the replacement wheel studs i'd fitted have a different profile to the standard ones and were fouling on the brake calipers

 

 

..couple of minutes with an angle grinder sorted that issue out 

 

 

Second issue, was that the nearside hub was binding on the inside of the brake disc, so out came the millenicut file and away went the paint and all the crud that was underneath it.

 

 

some primer and a couple of coats of paint to refinish and it's now not binding.

 

stupidly i've refitted one of the discs so the studs line up with the drilling in the nose of the cv joint, so can't get a clevis pin in.  lesson learned 

[timmy850]

Lining up the CV split pin hole with a stud is a mistake I think most of us have done! Hopefully you noticed it before torquing up the nut

[KTS]

a few more jobs ticked off the list.

 

First up was trying to get to the bottom of a bit of play in the offside radius arm - both arms have been rebuilt with new bearings and pins so a bit surprised to find an issue with just one side, but in the process of diagnosing the problem i did learn two things:

 

First is that refitting the grease tubes the wrong way round is a bad idea as any grease pumped into the radius arm disappears into the void rather than packing out the inner bearing which results in a bit of play.

 

Second is that if one of the bearings is an easy fit into the radius arm and you decide to use some retaining compound to make sure it's solid, it's possibly better not to use high strength compound as you'll probably end up having to cut the bearing out.

 

this is what happened when i used a puller..

 

 

after removing the bearings i could then refit the grease tubes the right way round, reassemble and refit the arms, grease them up and now have no play.  Another valuable lesson learned...

 

Next up was replacing the rear wheel cylinders.  Initially fitted with 11/16" items a recent post highlighted that with 7.5" discs, rear wheel lockup was a real possibility, so decided to step down to 5/8" instead.

 

a blind grommet stuck in a brake union makes a handy stopper for the rear flexi pipe

 

 

Swapping the cylinders should have been a simple job, but as usual wasn't, as the roll pins on the new cylinders didn't align with the holes in the back plates.  Rather than file the holes out to fit, i re-drilled the wheel cylinders to use the alternate set of holes in the back plate instead

 

 

..and because life is too short to be mucking about trying to refit the retaining clips, i splashed out on the install tool, which makes the job so much easier

 

 

..my only criticism is that the cone part could do with relieving on the underside to avoid the clip getting caught if there's a step 

 

 

Another critical job ticked off was getting the wheels sorted out; Ultralite S rims refinished in gunmetal looking very nice indeed

 

 

to adjust the hi-lo's i needed a 32mm and 26mm spanner, and rather than fork out on proper ones i picked up a pair of 32mm/24mm compression fitting spanners from screwfix for £6 to do the job

 

[KTS]

3 years and nine months after getting the car back, it's finally back on its wheels again !!

 

it would be nice if they weren't all pointing in different directions, but i guess you can't have everything