What i've done to my Car this week!

[Smith]

1 minute ago, Nick Jones said:

I hope he got yours right…… mine he left the bearing stop land in the middle a bit too big so the CV caught on it when the hub nut was tightened and locked everything up. Wasn’t too hard to fix, but irritating. 
 

Good to see another set going together.

Dunno, never had to do it. I think they are part of the body so will have to be cut off and ground smooth with an angle grinder. Go steady and don’t overheat the CV body. They are locally hardened.

Thanks, Nick. Once the bearing is in, I'll know if the stop is in the right place. On second thoughts, I will measure it first. 

 

Thanks, yes, I've been collecting parts for a while now. 

 

Okay, if the ABS ring doesn't catch, I may leave it on. 

 

Thanks for your help. 

[Smith]

10 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

I hope he got yours right…… mine he left the bearing stop land in the middle a bit too big so the CV caught on it when the hub nut was tightened and locked everything up. Wasn’t too hard to fix, but irritating. 
 

Good to see another set going together.

Dunno, never had to do it. I think they are part of the body so will have to be cut off and ground smooth with an angle grinder. Go steady and don’t overheat the CV body. They are locally hardened.

The machined depth for the bearing does seem to be 38.5mm as per the dimension drawings, so hopefully good. 

[Nick Jones]

It was the width of the step left at the inner end of the bearing that was the problem for me….

I did let him know, so hopefully not repeated in yours!

[Martin]

ABS Ring was too big in my case, but it was easy to remove. Hacksaw, chisel, gone.

[JohnD]

Not the Vitesse,, but the TRansit, had work done this PM.    I have to say, I'm rather pleased with my diagnostic skills!

On the way back from Oulton, I had noticed a slight scraping noise on light braking.     I went to have a look at the front brakes, and, having taken off the wheel, was concerned to see that the magnetic wheel speed sensor had a coating of iron filings!  And that the inner pad was worn less than the outer.    It was a bit more than that though:

On one side, there was little wear, a good  8mm of pad left.  But on the other the wear was grossly asymmetric!  Worse, one end of the outer pad was worn right down to the metal backing plate!

You can see the bright wear patch, from plate to disc contact!  No wonder there were filings on the sensor!

At first, I thought, seized piston - the TRansit has floating calipers, but with two pistons, so if one was acting....    But pushing the pistons back to accommodate new pads was easy.   So I took out the guide pins, and found the answer - dry as a bone!    Cleaned them all up, light smear of copperease, and we're back on the road!   Glad  to find a straight forward solution - and a local factor with the right pads in stock!

This job had to have priority over removing the VItesse's dead gearbox, as I'm due to be at the Duxford meet of the Herts& Beds TSSC Area art the weekend, demonstrating crank pulley damper  testing, and I need the TRansit for that.   See you there?

JOhn

[Smith]

13 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

It was the width of the step left at the inner end of the bearing that was the problem for me….

I did let him know, so hopefully not repeated in yours!

Great stuff, thanks Nick. Yep, hopefully good. Wheel bearings arrived today. Links in wet paint almost ready for bearings. 

[Smith]

9 hours ago, Martin said:

ABS Ring was too big in my case, but it was easy to remove. Hacksaw, chisel, gone.

Thanks mate. Might be the way to go for me too. Thanks. 

[zetecspit]

Rear of my spitfire has always been lopsided, so a week before the 10CR I decided to do more checks. 

Popped the rear cockpit panel and diff/spring cover off. I have a "hybrid" spring based on a rotoflex GT6 spring.

Clambered under the car with my little digital box level. Zeroed it on the rear chassis crossmember.

On teh bottom of the subaru diff at the back, it read 0.05deg. And the front of the diff the same. Good enough I thought.

On the top of the spring plate, 3.6 degrees. Which is a lot. Rechecked, with same results. Revoved the spring, being thankful to the CV gods.

Next, I measured the height of the "inverted U bracket" (stolen pic gives you the idea)

Not easy, but after a bit of yoga and emplying an assistant, it was clear that each side was the same height within 1mm (best resolution I could get)

To get the spring plate level it needed about 6mm shim on the drivers side. I duly made 4 shims in descending thicknesses, popped onto the plate under the spring. And now the car sits level.

However, I am still questioning my sanity, having checked another spare diff. The top plate SHOULD be parallel to the bottom of the diff. When I welded the bracket up everything was measured, checked, rechecked. 

Still, all looks better now. Just need to do a basic alignement check. And see if I can fix the light clonk, which may, just may be, the spring clamps not holding the leaves together tightly, and being a hybrid spring, the leaf profiles vary a little. I have swpped shocks, had the radius arm off and checked everything. But still there. Clutching at straws now.

 

 

 

 

[Smith]

28 minutes ago, zetecspit said:

Rear of my spitfire has always been lopsided, so a week before the 10CR I decided to do more checks. 

Popped the rear cockpit panel and diff/spring cover off. I have a "hybrid" spring based on a rotoflex GT6 spring.

Clambered under the car with my little digital box level. Zeroed it on the rear chassis crossmember.

On teh bottom of the subaru diff at the back, it read 0.05deg. And the front of the diff the same. Good enough I thought.

On the top of the spring plate, 3.6 degrees. Which is a lot. Rechecked, with same results. Revoved the spring, being thankful to the CV gods.

Next, I measured the height of the "inverted U bracket" (stolen pic gives you the idea)

Not easy, but after a bit of yoga and emplying an assistant, it was clear that each side was the same height within 1mm (best resolution I could get)

To get the spring plate level it needed about 6mm shim on the drivers side. I duly made 4 shims in descending thicknesses, popped onto the plate under the spring. And now the car sits level.

However, I am still questioning my sanity, having checked another spare diff. The top plate SHOULD be parallel to the bottom of the diff. When I welded the bracket up everything was measured, checked, rechecked. 

Still, all looks better now. Just need to do a basic alignement check. And see if I can fix the light clonk, which may, just may be, the spring clamps not holding the leaves together tightly, and being a hybrid spring, the leaf profiles vary a little. I have swpped shocks, had the radius arm off and checked everything. But still there. Clutching at straws now.

 

 

 

 

Well done for sorting so close to the 10CR starting. It's always annoying when a car doesn't sit straight. 

 

Any chance the leaf spring could be sagged slightly one side? 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

50 minutes ago, Smith said:

Any chance the leaf spring could be sagged slightly one side? 

Very much so. Although swing spring cars are worse.

The other thing that causes the 'list' is twist in the anti roll bar. I have never found an old one that is flat. Easy to check. Just lay it on a flat surface and the whole thing should lay flat.

[zetecspit]

I had swapped to another spring at one point, same thing. Played wit the front too. 

I will probably have another look at a later date and more time. 

[PeteStupps]

Not actually done anything to the car, but have just taken delivery of this impressive looking set of pipes for my troublesome 1300fwd. The dolomite club had a few of these made and for some reason put the price down to get rid of them.

Am expecting it to be a pig to fit... time will tell.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Oooh. Very impressive looking. 

[Nick Jones]

 I suspect that the subset of FWD owners who are also tuners…. Is quite small.

Interesting proportions. Long primaries, short secondaries. Probably mainly packaging driven.  Think it might behave more like a 4-1 than 4-2-1. I await your trials with interest.  (The technical trials that is, not the ball-ache of fitting )

Probaby said it before, but I always thought the 1300FWD is a nice little car deserved of a better power train. I did contemplate this around 1990 when I owned a very sound example with a number of irritating mechanical foibles. Didn’t come up with much as the similarly packaged Saab units are large and the width of the engine bay means transverse install is probably out unless any of the modern 3 pot power-trains are narrow enough….

Or maybe EV…. Anyone got a decent car with a broken engine they want shot of? 

 

[PeteStupps]

1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

a number of irritating mechanical foibles

I suspect this applies to every one of them! The FWD facebook group is mostly people saying "my car stopped moving, what can I do?". Then a month later "how much do you think I could get for my 1300fwd?". So you might find a candidate for that EV project of yours! But of course, the ones with decent bodywork are asking for 2 or 3 grand. To be honest if mine breaks another clutch I'll probably give it away, or roll it into the Thames.

I'm hoping the long primaries will result in a bit of low-rpm pep. Apparently the design is based on something SAH did back in the old days. 

[Sprint95m]

4 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

 Probaby said it before, but I always thought the 1300FWD is a nice little car deserved of a better power train. I did contemplate this around 1990 when I owned a very sound example with a number of irritating mechanical foibles. Didn’t come up with much as the similarly packaged Saab units are large and the width of the engine bay means transverse install is probably out unless any of the modern 3 pot power-trains are narrow enough….

Or maybe EV…. Anyone got a decent car with a broken engine they want shot of? 

 

About a decade ago, there was a Dolomite Club forum user from NE England whose cousin had fitted a Saab 99/900
engine and box into a Triumph 1500 fwd...however this was aborted as there were various technical issues that
couldn't be overcome.
I understand that someone put a (later type) Saab engine mated to a VX Omega gearbox  into a Dolomite
but again don't think this was ever finished, indeed there are quite a few abandoned conversions out there.
Successful ones are usually VX (red top), MX5 or Nissan turbo.

How about a 1300 EV four wheel drive....
Canley Classics have the necessary transfer boxes and a T2000 mark one back axle fit a 1300 

 

 

Ian

Edited September 4, 2022 by Sprint95m
spelling

[Nick Jones]

2 hours ago, Sprint95m said:

a T2000 mark one back axle fit a 1300 

Does it now…… didn’t know that….. interesting.

4 hours ago, PeteStupps said:

if mine breaks another clutch I'll probably give it away, or roll it into the Thames.

Give me a shout before you roll it into the Thames…. 

[mpbarrett]

What did I do last week? Took the Herald, with my wife (Jane) and far too many spares, around a lot of high alpine passes during the CT 10CR.

Had a great time but it didn’t start well. 15 miles down the road horrid rattling noise from the engine above 3000 rpm. Stopped, convinced myself it was the rocker gear and turned round and carefully drove home. Realised the car was running fine even though it was making a horrible noise. Once home open the bonnet again and realised that a side plate I have on my plenum chamber had lost have the fixing screws. Replaced and all quite again. Its been on the car since 2018 and that has never happened before.. Caught a later ferry and finally got to the hotel (in a castle) at about 8:30.

The car was good over the passes, the barometric correction seemed to work (tested over the Timmelsjoch pass) but made it a bit lean so I adjusted the setting.  Mistake…
The brakes started to fade coming down but we got down safely. Didn’t mention to Jane that the brakes were iffy as it was here first 10CR and didn’t want to put her off the next one…

Luckily the hotel we were in had an underground parking and I was able to adjust the rear shoes (3 clicks each side, new shoes just before we came away) and this really improved the brakes and didn’t have any more trouble down the passes.

Lots of very heavy rain shower very glad I had put on a new set of Rainmaster tyres and fitted the hardtop to the car…. Also decent door mirrors with convex lenses were great for the motorways.

The next passes were fine until we got to about 2400 metres and then it would start to flick between very rich and very lean, not much time to stop and play with the barometric correction settings so just drove thru it, once below 2400m it was fine again. Need to look at it and work out what I have done wrong…

The car has a 3 rail gearbox J type OD and GT6 ratios and a 3.63 diff. Good combination for motorway cruising not so good for mountain passes. First was a bit high so needed more revs than I would like and by the end of the trip the clutch was getting a bit smelly.
It could also do with OD on second as there is still a large gap between first and second.
Jane did a lot of navigating, old school with the maps and we didn’t do all of the route, some days there were 9 hours driving so we were selective about which bits we did.
But lots of great road, scenery and banter with other owners,  a great trip. 

[Nick Jones]

Car looks good and it sounds like the trip mostly went very well. Pity the weather seems to have been a bit below normal 10CR standards in the mountains. I have so many great memories of joining round the mountains under clear blue skies.

Brakes…. New shoes do need bedding in and readjustment I find…… may depend on how lipped your drums are.

Vitesse/GT6 front brakes would be a good upgrade. I put those on my 1500 Herald because I keep fading the standard ones.

1500 motor iirc, so presumably 1500 clutch? 2L 1st gear + 3.63 is a fairly big ask.  Some of the pics I’ve see show the minor passes which can be very steep.

Thanks for posting the pics 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Congratulations on your successful circumnavigation and what a very nice looking Herald.

As Nick says, that's quite a big first gear for a Herald and 1500. The 1500 clutch was never the most robust. A skim of the flywheel and conversion to an Escort type might be more appropriate. Although a fully laden Herald with the 4 cylinder engine will always need a bit of revs on those passes.

And always interesting to see how ridiculously big moderns have become compared to our cars when you see them parked together like that.

 

[mpbarrett]

9 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Car looks good and it sounds like the trip mostly went very well. Pity the weather seems to have been a bit below normal 10CR standards in the mountains. I have so many great memories of joining round the mountains under clear blue skies.

Brakes…. New shoes do need bedding in and readjustment I find…… may depend on how lipped your drums are.

Vitesse/GT6 front brakes would be a good upgrade. I put those on my 1500 Herald because I keep fading the standard ones.

1500 motor iirc, so presumably 1500 clutch? 2L 1st gear + 3.63 is a fairly big ask.  Some of the pics I’ve see show the minor passes which can be very steep.

Thanks for posting the pics 

the weather was very wet, I have a 2 speed and interrupt wiper on the car and it was very well used.
Yes should have replaced shoes earlier so they had time to bed in. Mintex pads on the front so most of the time they are fine. Dont have any steep hills in East Anglia so taking the car to the alps was a bit of a shock for it...

yes 1500 and I should have left the 3.89 diff in.... might change the gearbox/and/or diff if we do it again in 2 years time. Some of the hair pins turns were very steep and full of motorcyclists and bike riders both seem to need a lot of room!

mike

[Nick Jones]

4 hours ago, mpbarrett said:

Some of the hair pins turns were very steep and full of motorcyclists and bike riders both seem to need a lot of room!

Yeah….. on the 2011 my co-driver was getting frustrated with arrogant bikers somewhere in the Dolomites (Pordoi possibly) and we chased a pair of them on big sports bikes up a flight of hair pins. Surprisingly we could keep up because although they could get away on the straights, the straights were short, so we’d be on them again by mid corner. This really wound them up….. the wheelies suggested they were trying. Eventually we caught other traffic that they could pass and we couldn’t, so that stopped the game.  Shortly before that we’d had to negotiate massed ranks of youth on scooters, most two-up weaving slowly up the road, more or less oblivious to other traffic.

Few years later the Stelvio was totally ruined by massed ranks of push bikes. Traffic jam all the way up.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

10 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Some of the hair pins turns were very steep and full of motorcyclists and bike riders both seem to need a lot of room!

I have chased and occasionally passed motorbikes on roads like that in the Spitfire. Difficult as they try and block you and you need very particular type of corner to get by.

11 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Few years later the Stelvio was totally ruined by massed ranks of push bikes. Traffic jam all the way up.

yeah, had that too. Pick the wrong day and its a bugger. On the other hand I have had pushbike descents ruined by cars and motorbikes so I guess it all evens out

[Escadrille Ecosse]

4 hours ago, mpbarrett said:

the weather was very wet, I have a 2 speed and interrupt wiper on the car and it was very well used.

What switch arrangement do you use for this?

[mpbarrett]

11 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

What switch arrangement do you use for this?

it uses a modified TR6 switch body that I have added a wafer switch to the back and has 5 positions, off, 30 sec interrupt, 10 sec interrupt, slow speed, fast speed. It also has a micro switch on it to switch on the washer pump when the knob is pressed.
It uses a Arduino Nano, some relays, and a GT6 wiper motor. Seems to work well but the Arduino sometimes crashes, they seem susceptible to power line noise.   BTW you cant use the Arduino Nano and the boot loader and the watchdog timer due to a bug in the bootloader code. Its one of the winter projects to rebuild it and rewrite the software and remove the bootloader and program it directly.

When I built it, and looked at the original Lucas circuits, I wondered why they shorted the motor. If you dont, the motor free wheels and doesnt park the wipers in the correct place, by shorting the motor it stops almost immediately 
My Herald has become a platform for me to develop different electronics projects, one of my hobbies. Making reliable electronics that work in a car environment is actually quite difficult. BTW no one would ever want to to buy it, not that I plan to sell it, with all the undocumented bits of electronics on it! 

mike