Scimitar mission creep

[PeteStupps]

Good stuff! Bar the niggles. Hope it sails through the MOT

[Escadrille Ecosse]

It passed the MOT fine.

With the exception of needing on indicator bulb that actually failed on the way to the garage!

Just sort the interference at to the gearlever and a slight tweek on the track rod ends as the steering wheel is fractionally off centre and it bugs me.

[Nick Jones]

2 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

With the exception of needing on indicator bulb that actually failed on the way to the garage!

Bah! Had this with a sidelight bulb on the Fiesta, and Chris’ Skoda did it a couple of weeks back too. Taking the piss it is….

2 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

a slight tweek on the track rod ends as the steering wheel is fractionally off centre and it bugs me.

I feel your pain! Easy fix though.

Good news that it’s a working, legal car again! 

Trust it’s grateful for the love and returns the favour!

[Escadrille Ecosse]

On 1/31/2023 at 1:52 PM, Nick Jones said:

Chris’ Skoda did it a couple of weeks back too. Taking the piss it is….

Quite. 

On 1/31/2023 at 1:52 PM, Nick Jones said:

Trust it’s grateful for the love and returns the favour!

Well.....

Adjusted the tracking and wheel dead ahead now. Tres bon.

Took the car for a drive. Still ever so slightly tappety and obviously still running it in but the engine behaves very nicely. 

Gearchange still to be sorted but thinking I can probably do that  e moving the rear of the gearbox a little to the right rather than cutting more of the now virtually irreplaceable centre console.

That's the good news.

Bad news is that after I put it away in the garage I  noticed rather a lot of oil on the driveway. 

Looked like it was coming from low at the front of the engine and my suspicion was the crankshaft oil seal.

Getting at it meant taking out the radiator.

Bollocks.

With that out of the way I could see the oil seal and that's not where the leak is.

Difficult to see but I think it may be leaking out round one of the timing cover bolts. But getting at this will require me to get the crank pulley out of the way first anyway.

Bollocks squared.

[Nick Jones]

3 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Bollocks squared.

 Yeah……

[PeteStupps]

Noooo... major pain in the arse

[RedRooster]

That's shite, if it's any consolation I've cured all my gearbox and OD leaks, you just have to keep going at it. 

RR

[Escadrille Ecosse]

On 2/2/2023 at 5:54 PM, RedRooster said:

That's shite

Fair assessment that

On 2/2/2023 at 5:54 PM, RedRooster said:

I've cured all my gearbox and OD leaks, you just have to keep going at it. 

That is definitely a victory.

So I was pretty sure that the leak was coming from one of the screws holding the timing cover on. Behind the crank pulley.

With the radiator now out in meant that all I had to do (!) was remove the strut brace (which meant removing the water pump pulley) and then getting the steering rack out of the way. Which meant disconnecting the column and removing the rack mounting brackets so it could come forward and down.

Could then get a socket on the pulley bolt and undo with the aid of my 'universal tool for holding stuff and stopping it turning while undoing other stuff'.

Then the pully slides off the crank. With exactly the right amount of room. Amillimtre or so longer and it wasn't goint to get past the rack!

Found the culprit. Refitted with a good smear of Hylomar on the threads and cleaned up the rest of the oil slick.

Then while I had it in bits I decided to fit this....

Can you spot it?

A bit of prep for the next project on the car...

Getting the rack back in was a bit of a trial as I had to fight the caster on the front wheels at the same time as trying to line up the column splines. But got it back in eventually by which time I was ready for my tea.

 

[Nick Jones]

Trigger wheel….. 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

10 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Trigger wheel….. 

[Nick Jones]

Ignition only or the whole hog? The existence of factory FI hardware would be a serious temptation to me.

My boss has a mid 80s Defender 90 which was born a V8 (3.5 on Strombergs) but now has a TVR 4.0 on Megasquirt.  It’s a complete, tyre-shredding beast, but the power delivery is somewhat unsuited to off-road work.  He complains of single digit fuel consumption….. it’s maybe needing some map refinement, but driving style and weight play a big part. As proven by a series of driveline failures….

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Well when I did the conversion I thought I would be happy with the twin SUs.

But then I got offered the 4 barrel manifold and a cheap S/H Weber 500 to fit. And was completely happy with that.

Until... I was getting issues that turned out to be the old distributor. So replaced that and modified the advance curve while I was at it. Much better but not perfect. 

But that got me thinking about ignition control. Hence the Megajolt idea.

And now.....

I am being led astray once more.

However. For the time being I am going to concentrate on getting the Spitfire driveable. On the Webers and then full efi for that.

Or maybe easier to do the Scimitar first and learn on that?

See, see what you're doing?????

[Nick Jones]

6 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

I am being led astray once more.

6 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

See, see what you're doing?????

me??

[Escadrille Ecosse]

You have previous 

Back together and apparently leak free.

All fine except that I had forgotten to tefit the water pump pulley so had to drop the strut brace.

And realised I had also forgotten to fit the timing pointer. Which is adjustable  to allow the power steering belt to come off.

Have a go at the gearbox mounting tomorrow maybe 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Escadrille Ecosse

[Hamish]

I admire your work ethic. 
I have “plans” to fit my axle brace and whilst under the back lower the chassis height with spacer blocks ( hoping a mk1 escort kit will do the job) but can’t face the cold evenings after work 

[PeteStupps]

2 hours ago, Hamish said:

can’t face the cold evenings after work 

You need one of these new-fangled diesel heaters!

[Escadrille Ecosse]

4 hours ago, PeteStupps said:

You need one of these new-fangled diesel heaters!

Someone here on Sideways was saying they're really good

Fitted the modifed gearbox mounting plate which move the back on the gearbox over about 10mm. Took it out today and it seems to have done the trick so, yay!

On the other hand moving the rack to get the pulley off the steering wheel is no longer central. I suspect if I losen the rack bolts and push the rack over with the wheels off the ground that will sort it. So not a big issue.

On the (third?) hand. I've found another oil leak. Back of the engine at the corner where the valley gasket, block and cylinder head all meet.

Difficult bit to seal and Rover recognised this with a specially shaped rubber seal to fit under the valley gasket and into a notch in the block. Unfortunately the pattern seals available now are thicker and harder than the originals and when you add in any facing of the heads and block they just don't fit properly. So the agreed fix is to fit without and fill the (smaller) notch with sealer. However it seems that when I was sorting the air leak I didn't get this one quite right. It is of course the most awkward to get at, behind cylinder no.8.

Another wee job. Hey ho....

[Nick Jones]

 She’s making you suffer. I would have thought gratitude was more deserved….

Or maybe wanting to stay in the garage until the weather’s better and the salt gone…..

[Escadrille Ecosse]

16 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

 She’s making you suffer. I would have thought gratitude was more deserved….

Bloody right.

Although at least now I have sorted the inlet manifold bolt seating when I take it off AGAIN, it should go back down OK.

Otherwise the engine running very nicely.

[Nick Jones]

3 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Otherwise the engine running very nicely.

Pleased to hear that!

Never did like the valley gasket arrangement much. Though at least it’s not the lunatic “hot V” (with turbos) arrangement as has become fashionable in certain German prestige marques. Those design engineers truly hate mechanics…..

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Effing gaskets....

The update. As I left this I had sorted the air leak but had an oil leak from the back of the engine.

And that is a long way back.

And with the amount of oil leaked out very difficult to see where it had actually come from. So...

Drain down coolant from the block, take the bonnet off (just makes access so much easier), dist cap and plug leads off, vac hose off, fuel hose off, throttle cable off, choke cable off, carb off, heater hoses off (mop up), rocker covers off (they get in the way of the manifold), manifold off, cack from the gasket and sealant off and carefully clean everything up.

Sealant on, gasket on and lightly bolted down, manifold on, manifold bolts in, tap everything down level and bolt down in many stages, refit hoses, refill cooling system, refit rocker covers, refit carb and cables, whip off distributor and prime the oil pump, refit same along with cap and leads.

Fire up.

Check for leaks...

Nothing from the front or back. However bollocks. The new gasket appears to be porous as oil is seeping through it.

Really! Why are you doing this to me..........

Wait for replacement gasket from supplier.

Repeat ALL the above.

Fire up and check for leaks...

Oil leak from the back of the gasket

Order another gasket and go on holiday to calm down.

Back from holiday and investigate. Lights, mirrors, ladders and headstands.

I had seen the leak and stopped the engine almost as soon as I had started it so it was relatively easy to find the exact source. Turned out that the blind hole for the bolt that holds the curved clamp plate had got some dried cack from a previous gasket adventure which stopped the bolt going propely home (very short bolts into alloy so no rumping them down) so there was a small area of the gasket under the clamp that wasn't in contact with the block.

So went through the whole bloody process yet again and this time, at last, I seem to have managed to get the thing oil tight.

Halle-bloody-lulja

[Nick Jones]

Still making you work for it….. the ungrateful bastard. (Might still be wanting to avoid slushy salty roads)

Fingers crossed you’ve got it this time!

 

[Hamish]

Jeez you must have the patience of a saint !!!!!!

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Always been looked after well so why has the damn car taken the huff with me?

Out on Tuesday. Did about 80 miles and all good. 

Tonight it was to be three miles there and back to the velodrome. 

And it throws a shoe about a mile (and a million lights) from the house.

Slight knocking starts and getting worse. Have a poke around and nothing obvious but it mostly goes away on braking or turning left.

Hmm. Bad sign suspect a dodgy wheel bearing. Turn round and head for home as the thumping from the front right gets worse.

Fortunately the road back is unusually quiet so I don't hold folk up as I go slower and slower as the noises and vibration get ever worse. Along with the smell from the brakes as I'm using the to try and keep things in place. 

Home OK in the end but really. Stop it.

[rogerguzzi]

2 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Home OK in the end but really. Stop it.

Hello

         It;s the Joy? of running old cars!

I must admit we have one once but only with the Essex engine but overdrive and a full webasto roof.

The engine was knackered when we bought it but it limped on!

But then I wash a service engineer for a car wash firm and I usd to service a car wash at a Ford dealers in Liecester and when I was getting my sheet signed I said you would not happen to have a 3litre V6 engine would you and the store man said yes and it was long out of prodution  and a recon unit(probably a transit van lump !) but it was cheap(much cheaper than me rebuilding the old one!

So I bought it and backed the Hiace vave up and the loaded it but the snag was I had to return the old one within 4 weeks!!!!! (why they were never going to rebuild it!)

So I booked a few days off and by god it's a Big Heavy lump with the cast iron gearbox and overdrive haging off the back!

But it ran as sweet as a nut and get her onto the motor way and in top overdrive it was quite economical(around the town rubbish)

I do miss it at times but it is a big car?

The German engine was probaly much nicer? Spit Spit

Roger

ps I have just bought this lot not sure how to tell the Memsahib anybody got a flack jacket?