Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Delved inside the gearbox of little Dodge today, more anon.

RJ
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[Vulgalour]

20180721-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180721-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180721-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180721-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Changed the waterpump on the Princess and gave the timing belt a fresh coat of paint that matches the colour scheme of the car better.

[badhuis]

After some horror stories on the Jag forum, decided to take off the plastic cover sills from my X-type to check. And yes, lots of rust to be seen.
I got lucky. The rust was not too severe. I used an angle grinder with a wire disc to remove paint and fly rust. Then coated it with a good old, now forbidden zinc paint. Will do the same on the other side tomorrow. In the mean time, bought a set of new plastic sill fasteners on Ebay. Will have to run around without cover sills for a few days.

Amazing how much rust there is on a 14 year old car. Mind you, the body itself looks terrific but the underside is another story. I saw the rear subframe covered in rust, and the underside of the body just above the frame also started to rust. To get a grip on the rust the subframe should be removed. That is not something to look forward to. The subframe metal is quite thick and will not cause the yearly inspection to fail. Also the exhaust looks like it can disintegrate any day. On the other hand it possibly still is the original so I cannot complain really.

The main thing is that I do not like to spend time on things like this on my "modern". There is always enough work to do on the classics! Maybe the best to try to trade it in for a better. I quite like a XK8 coupe....
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[Rootes75]

Another few hours on the Commer brakes, finally some fluid being pushed through the pipes. Its a start, now the bleeding of the system can start.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Rootes75]

Another Sunday comes and down the yard we went. This time though we actually started to bleed the Commer brakes, finally we are properly getting somewhere with it.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[MikeEdwards]

Yesterday I thought I'd run the car for half an hour, as it hasn't run since the start of the month. It wouldn't start. I traced this down to it not pulling fuel down from the tank, but it's a new pump and it's been fine so far. I swapped the pump for another (of a different type) that I've recently put a rebuild kit in, and that didn't work.

I then removed the fuel filter, one of these cheap in-line plastic things, and a-ha! Blowing through it (in the flow direction) revealed it to be quite restrictive. So I stuck a length of pipe in to replace it, turned the key, and - nothing. Last attempt was to temporarily put a long pipe in place, disconnect the input to the mechanical pump and connect it to an electric one. This pulled fuel down without any problems, so I'll re-connect the mechanical one later and see if priming it allows it to start.

But it does bring up a few questions. First, what caused this? Is it the very warm weather just evaporating the fuel in the line, even though the car hasn't been running, just sitting in the shed? And if it was that, why doesn't the pump bring some more from the tank? It did that perfectly well when it was first run, and when I had the sender / supply unit out to replace it, when presumably the fuel line would empty. And why doesn't the car start from the fuel that (presumably) is sitting in the Stromberg carburettor bowls?

[Rick]

[Ray White]

Wouldn't the cap vent deal with pressure in the tank?

[MikeEdwards]

There's a breather outlet on the tank, a short hose up into a shepherds-crook pipe in the rear wheelarch, so a pressure problem in either direction shouldn't be an issue. I did release the fuel cap - even though it's not vented - and didn't get any kind of pressure release or change in (lack of) operation. And still strange that it won't even try to start from the fuel (that should be) in the carbs.

I've just ordered a one-way valve off eBay, and will see if that makes any difference. I don't really want to convert to an electric pump - the Firenza has run perfectly well on a mechanical one, and these days it's a struggle to know you're buying a decent one and not a "fake".

[MikeEdwards]

I've swapped it (again) for the rebuilt fuel pump, and now it's working. I tried that pump on a spare engine block that still has the pump drive in it, and saw that it would pump water from a jug onto the floor, so I swapped it onto the car.

I can't explain why that same pump didn't work yesterday. However, it has the advantage of a glass bowl on the top and I'll be able to see if it's retaining fuel from one week to the next. So I might need to fit the non-return valve anyway. It also has a gauze filter that can be removed and cleaned, so I can do away with the plastic one that I never really liked.

I can also confirm that the engine doesn't run that well if I fail to clean out all the water I was using to test the pump.

I tested the pump I took off on the spare block, and that doesn't seem to pump anything. I stripped it down as far as I could and it seems clean, the valves aren't stuck, and looks like the new pump that it is. A mystery.

[badhuis]

This week I have a holiday which in my case usually means working a bit on cars. Last weekend I stripped the brake master cylinder of the TR4. It had been leaking a little for months and I kept delaying this, hating to have to bleed the brakes.

When I removed the MC, I also removed the clutch MC (clutch lines still attached) from the master cylinders bracket which is placed on the bulkhead. As the BMC had been leaking the paint on the bracket was gone and also around the bracket. Cleaned and painted the bracket and surroundings.
I fitted it all again and got my daughter at the pedal and me underneath. After a pretty short time we got it working again, not the trouble I feared.

I also fitted a new top radiator hose. The old one was cloth lined at the outside, as per original. It looked good but it leaked! The rubber was split. Someone from the TR club had new ones made exactly specced as original, and he was so kind to send me a prototype example to test. Fitment is better and it looks more sturdy than the old one.

Took off the timing cover in order to replace the crankshaft seal. As usual this was a lot of work because I took the chance to clean the surrounding area, and painted the timing cover.

Yesterday put in new oil and oil filter. Glued in a bit of carpet which had become loose.

Cleaned the car inside and out. Ready for the big trip tomorrow - ferry to Hull. Then onto in the area of Leeds where a few days later we will meet more Triumph owners. A tour to Kelso and back to York. Ferry Monday night to the Netherlands again. Weather forecast looks good!
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[MikeEdwards]

While messing around with the fuel pump yesterday, I pulled the connector off the end of the oil pressure warning light wire, so I wanted to fix that before anything else. I released the connectors on various engine parts to give me room, only to find that as well as the connector coming off, the insulation and wire was cracked in two places, one very close to where it exits the loom tape. So there was nothing else for it but to remove the engine wiring loom, cut the tape back and splice a new piece of wire in.

Once I had it on the bench and removed a bit of tape, it was easy to do but it was also clear that two other wires had suffered a similar fate. Strictly speaking they wouldn't have caused a problem (one is the starter by-pass for the ballast resistor which isn't used on my car, and the other is the rev counter feed wire) but it seemed silly not to take the chance to change them, so I did just that. I've fed the loom back in to place and connected everything up, but ran out of time to actually see if the car still runs.

There's still fuel in the glass bowl on the fuel pump, though, so that's a good sign. And I have a note that at some point, I really should replace these wires in their entirety, I just couldn't face untaping and re-taping the entire loom. So for now, a soldered join with heatshrink tubing and loom tape should hopefully hold everything in place.

[Vulgalour]

Today I spent time rebuilding the top of the Princess' waxstat housing, but that's rather boring. Instead, I shall share the other recent job which is my very first attempt at re-veneering a dashboard. I used a paper-backed wood veneer and satin varnish to give it the smart, 70s style I wanted. The interior is now completed with the exception of a proper clean to eliminate the dust.





I've removed the original radio and aerial and fitted a blanking plate behind which I shall install an MP3 decoder that routes through a separate hidden amplifier. I've found I don't enjoy listening to the radio these days and prefer to listen to my own music and this way I get to keep the dashboard looking clean and uncluttered.

[Rootes75]

In the nice weather I decided to start the 47 Minx this afternoon, its the firat time she has been started for a long time. She needed to be jumped but was ok.
The throttle was still sticking badly so I investigated and after an hour or two found the fault and reset the pedal and short throttle cable. Its much more responsive now and doesn't stick.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[kevin2306]

We had a day out yesturday at the LLangollen 1960s festival.
It was quiet but enjoyable plus got a free train ride up and down the line.
Singer was a bit reluctant to start when heading for home, I suspect a bit of vapour lock going on in the heat.
Whilst at the show, I had a good chat and a sit in another enthusiasts series 2 XJC, I have an itch for a classic Jag so the Singer may be making way for a new classic.

Kev