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Posted
11 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

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

Jealous of all the time you've been spending on the Spitfire maybe? Hope it turns out to be a simple diagnosis and fix.

Posted
17 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

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

Disappointing….. seems like an odd thing to go downhill so quick. Not something daft like loose wheel nuts or brake caliper bolts? (Not wishing to be disrespectful, I have previous for these :ninja:)

Can relate though. The bloody PI, which had months of my time lavished on it, was constantly disrepairing itself and generally playing me up. Some of it was crappy quality parts, the rest (it seemed to me), sheer cussedness.  When I finally gave up on it, the new owner used to email me from time to time to tell me how wonderful it was…. I guess it was just me it didn’t like :sad:

Posted
1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

Disappointing….. seems like an odd thing to go downhill so quick. Not something daft like loose wheel nuts or brake caliper bolts? (Not wishing to be disrespectful, I have previous for these :ninja:)

Glad I'm not the only one on here :blush:

Posted
15 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Disappointing….. seems like an odd thing to go downhill so quick. Not something daft like loose wheel nuts or brake caliper bolts? (Not wishing to be disrespectful, I have previous for these :ninja:)

When the issue started I did stop to have a look to check. Which was challenging as it was absolutly hosing it down at the time, absolute monsoon and bending down on the offside of the car is not a great place to be on a busy road. Was a very slight knock on the offending wheel but otherwise nothing obvious (the nuts were there but I did'nt check for tightness) hence the bearing assumption.

Got it home, shoved it in the garage and got a lift to the velodrome.

Have had a look and yes Nick it was loose wheel nuts. Unfortunately one of them has escaped along with its matching stud and a second was close to doing the same thing. That hub always had two slightly loose studs (wear in the hub) and it appears that these were the culprits - along with the numpty who didn't have them quite tight enough it seems. :sad:

15 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

When I finally gave up on it, the new owner used to email me from time to time to tell me how wonderful it was…. I guess it was just me it didn’t like :sad:

One again the innate hostility of inanimate objects...

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

The blighter had (hopefully) one last trick up its sleeve.

It started with a leak :wallbash:.

Water this time from the hose connection to the heater at the back of the inlet manifold. It had always been a bit manky and pitted but would take up with an extra turn on the jubilee clip when the rubber got warm.

However with all the to-ing and fro-ing with the inlet manifold that trick stopped working. As a result I had to bite the bullet and buy another fitting. And at 35 quid not cheap as it's a Rover part. I also needed a gasket and a new hose as the old one had glued itself to the heater pipe. A Disco 5tdi heater hose is the one that fits.

Old vs new.

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And an absolute swine to fit. Had to take off the bonnet again and move various hoses and cables.

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Refilled and getting everything warmed up to check all was good and no drips from the back of the manifold. All seemed fine.

A wee check under the car and I noticed a small drip under the radiator. Spilled some water filling up? No.

A look around eventually identified the otter switch for the electric fan. The switch is held in by the clip, the clip is held in by the rubber seal and the rubber seal is held in by the switch. And all located where it is JUST possible to reach.

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However the clip wasn't doing its job and was only holding one side.

I was just about to turn off the engine and open the radiator cap to release the pressure in the system when the switch made its bid for freedom and dumped rather a lot of coolant onto the garage floor.

Anyway....

 

Posted
46 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

I was just about to turn off the engine and open the radiator cap to release the pressure in the system when the switch made its bid for freedom and dumped rather a lot of coolant onto the garage floor.

Anyway....

:pinch:The gods are definitely taking the piss with that. Though better the garage floor than lane 3 of the m-way.

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, JohnD said:

I've found that for sealing joints between hose and sometimes rough-cast or corroded connectors, silicone based self-fusing tape is excellent.  EG (many examples online, this is a random selection) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133008081583

Thanks John. I had wondered if there was anything that might do the job but then felt that as it involved draining down the engine yet again I would just cut to the chase as it was becoming wearying.

All however appears sound now though.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

477 miles done so I took the car out this morning for a short spin to warm it up before draining the running in oil.

That was Penrite 20/50 with some ZDDP on top. From completely cold the oil pressure took a few seconds to come up to max which is about 40 psi on the V8. And if the car had been sitting for a while, ie more than 12 hours or so the hydraulic lifters seem to take their own sweet time to pump back up so it can be a bit tappety for the first few minutes.

Other than that all seemed good. It appears to be oil tight now and there didn't appear to be any significant consumption. Oil was pretty dark but the cam lube was probably the main culprit for that.

There is a endless and often rather acrimonious debate about the best oil for the 3.5/3.9 versions of the V8. Just as there is for the most appropriate oil for the 5-speed gearbox.

I have used a variety over the years. On this occasion I refilled the thing with 10/40 semi-synthetic and a dose of the ZDDP additive I got from Clive along with a new filter.

Ran it briefly to get the oil circulating and avoid the Rover problem of the pump not priming and seemed fine. Interesting to see if the oil affects the speed at which the lifters pump up.

Next job is having a go at the distributor timing and advance curve as it's been a while since I looked at that. And there are options there too.

Edited by Escadrille Ecosse
  • 7 months later...
Posted

Been doing some 'stuff' on the Scimitar recently. The wheels went away to get refurbished as the lacquer was starting to spider in places on the diamond cut and I wanted to catch it before is got out of hand.

The lads at Scuffed in Hillingdon did a good job. Very enthusiastic about their work and cars in general. The Scimitar was a popular visitor.

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When I came to fit them I found a couple of the studs on the front OS were a bit loose so out with the MIG and applied a couple of tacks on each.

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Then a couple of other jobs that I have been avoiding for a while. Both door latches have been annoyingly awkward for quite some time now. Drivers side the inner handle was pretty much at it's limit before releasing and the passenger side key lock and handle were stiff.

Bit of a pain removing the door trims but turned out both sides just needed lubricating and spray grease did the job nicely. I also refitted the rain curtain that had fallen off the passenger side window. Not the prettiest bit of work with the duct tape but did the job in a bloody awkward location with almost zero access. And I managed to only drop one washer into the door doing it all.

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And finally, the cruise to light acceleration transition on the car was always a bit lumpy/hesitant and since the rebuild of the engine is more noticeable. So got the carb off and tweeked the jet - rod(needle) - step-up spring settings. Slightly ritcher on cruse a bit richer still on the step up. Also dropped the acceleration pump stroke a little as I think that was causing a slight rich cut hesitation when stomping on the gas at speed.

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Not a difficult job but a lot easier off the car and a lot less chance of dropping something small and vital.

Engine sounded a lot sweeter just at idle while it was warming up to let me adjust the idle mixture. Didn't get a chance to drive it today so need to see how it feels.

  • Like 1
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
Posted

Over the winter the hydraulic lifters at the back of the block have occasionally been taking a rather long time to fill up and stop rattling. Seems to depend a bit on how long the engine has been sitting and how hot/cold it's been, and perhaps what position the engine stopped in, ie which lifters were in compression on the open cam.

At idle this seems interminable but once the car is moving and there's been a bit of revs and warmed a little all is good again.

Idle oil pressure is good for RV8 standards, at about 30psi, rising to about 55psi max when hot.

Because of the restricted space under the front of the engine due to a chassis crossmember and the steering rack there isn't enough room for the normal filter housing which is part of the oil pump cover. So I have an MGBV8 pump cover and remote filter.

My suspicion is that it is this that is restricting flow to the lifter galleries when cold - the RV8 relies on volume more than pressure. The oil pressure tapping is at the pump outlet, before the filter.

Filter has a 3/4" fitting as std but the hoses are 1/2" ID. So on this basis I've ordered replacement 5/8" fitting and hoses. Would have gone 3/4" but space is limited. Still should give a 160% increase in cross section and hopefully resolve things.

  • Like 1
  • 9 months later...
Posted

MOT due shortly. So while I have been buggering about with dodgy switches I have also been cheecking over the rest of the car.

Did the basic service, oils, filters, trunions (TR6 based front suspension), etc. Reliant specify grease for the trunions rather than oil like the small Triumphs. Although like both small and big Triumph forums there is a bit of a debate as to the 'best' approach, gear oil, LM grease or CV grease. I tend to alternate oil and grease. Not tried CV yet.

Grease this time but it had been under pressure in the gun for a while and separated so the back end was full of the oil component which all poured out when I picked the thing up. Bit of a mess to clean up!

Other than the lights and switches everything else seemed OK bar the handbrake which had developed a ratehr long travel even with the adjusters well in.

Took the drums off to check but the shoes were in good nick so cleaned everything up and gave the friction surface of the drum a bit of a rub with 400 grit to clear off some glazing.

Next most likely issue then is where brake cable loops around a pulley wheel that is attached to the handbrake lever. A bit like the Spitfire/Herald except that the cable is in a Bowden sleeve. It has previous...

Having jacked up the car it was unfortunatly the case and the cable had slipped off one side of the pulley. It's mounted up on the side of the runnel above the propshaft.

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A bugger to get at, but losening off all the adjusters meant I could pop the cable back into the pulley and the readjust everything. At least the barrel adjuster on the handbrake end works fine owing to many years of splash lubrication.

Only other issue is a coolant weep. Annoyingly both of the block drain plugs have developed a slight weep. Tightening mankes no odds to the only solution is to remove and refit with some thread sealant. As this involves dumping the coolant I can live with the odd drip for now.

  • Like 1
  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

The gas struts on the rear window of the Scimitar were getting a bit past their prime.

Access into the back is limited anyway by the high sill, low roof and limited opening of the rear window. Add in some cold weather and less than perky struts and it was getting to be a real pain.

Originals are NLA however by the wonders of t'Internet and fleabay as pair of 500/300 100N struts arrived the other day.

Going to change them over I realised that due to the spacing on the window and body the struts still have nearly an inch of travel unused in the closed position.

Soo, agin from ebay I acquired a couple of 20mm long M6 threaded sleeves to put between the end of the strut and the ball fitting.

Voila, hatch now opens fully to the limit of travel on the hinges which with the new and perky struts has lifted the back endge of the window almost 3 inches from where it did before.

It will now catch me on the nose rather than throat...

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The struts also serve (rather poorly) as the electrical circuit for the heated rear window.

And the photos also highlight that a. the car needs a wash and b. I need to polish out the marks where the rear wiper was rubbing on the paint.

Edited by Escadrille Ecosse
  • Like 1

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