Ever felt foolish ?

I had a little time tonight so I went out to the estate to remove the seatbelts which are going back to the supplier, who will reimburse me - and has agreed to refund my carriage costs too, which I am more than happy with, no argument whatsoever.

I have the seatbelt issue in hand though, I have some NOS Britax units, which didn't come with a binnacle, but I have now located a nice one which is in the post to me, so by the weekend the belts will be fixed.

Anyway, while I was in the garage I thought I would check the ignition timing, static was fine, the bulb lit up at about 14deg btdc, so whats the problem.

Finger trouble I am afraid, I forgot my timing gun had a manual advance on the rear, and guess what it wasn't set to 0 - doh! worry and concern for nothing. I won't forget that again.

The V is dry

All stripped down, and repaired water pump fitted.

Here's the old one

You can just see the ring of rust where the seal bears on it

Anyway after reassembly, I now have an engine that's dry in the V, and the water system attains pressure. No leaks anywhere.

It needs the carbs setting up now, and slightly worryingly the ignition timing appears to have moved quite a few degrees, I am puzzled why as I didn't touch the distributor. First thing to do is check tdc and see if the crank pulley marks align, if not its the rubber mounted timing pulley moving. If the TDC marks are correct I am very puzzled - may be the distributor vacuum advance, but the whole engine is too hot to check today,  after letting it run to temperature to check for leaks. I'll have a look tomorrow night.

No lead loading today, the water pump replacement took all day, but there are 2 more weekends and a long bank holiday before the MOT

The jobs list is very small now

Part done - 9). Fit remainder of exterior brightwork (rear window surrounds)

13). Fit seat belts

16) Fit front and rear bumpers – part done

39). Rust proof box sections with Dinotrol

41). Complete bonnet lead loading and paint somehow and fit

42). MOT

Part done - 43). Get old registration back – part done

44). Cure slow airleak in 2 tyres

45). Run and test!

Hours now worked 1003

Money spent now £20991

More jobs on the way to to its MOT

I had fun and games this week trying to get the estate insured for road use, I tried all my existing Classic Car insurers without success - all turned it down because of the FF system - "might make it unsafe - might make it slow - any old excuse" anyway Adrian Flux came up with the goods so as soon as its MOT'ed it'll be on the road.

Back to the car, first job was to swap out the NOS alternator, for a recon one, this works so I now have a battery that charges - the old one has gone back for repair - although I have had it sat on the shelf for 2 years or so my Motor factor is repairing it under warranty - thank you.

Back to the car, finished the driver's door door seal (the last one) then fitted the driver's parcel shelf, this was a pig, the revised brake pedal caught on the shelf when in the correct position, so I ended up mounting it forward a little from the original design position

The it was time for some bling - fitted the stainless steel strips under the estate windows

followed by the door mirrors, and thanks to the diagram provided by Andy Roberts, the quarter lights open without catching on the mirrors.

next seat belts, the old ones were u/s so I purchased some from a well known parts supplier. The belts were supposed to be for a 2000, and I guess they do fit, but unless you have the seat fully back and have less than a 20" waist, you aren't going to sit in the seat with a seat belt on. More Cr*p from a supplier - they go back Monday and I am not paying the postage - they are not of merchantable quality or fit for purpose.

After a visit from MOE (and Chris Allen) that was my day done, so tomorrow its the water pump repair, and if its a little bit colder some more leadloading

MOT's booked for just over 2 weeks time so got to get a move on

Water Pump Modifications

If I am going to pull out and replace the manifold in TV8 I am only doing it once - Old Stag water pumps can be a PITA.

So how to fix it, firstly I dismantled my old pump to reclaim the impeller (the drive shaft was u/s with corrosion in the lower block bearing area at the foot of the shaft), however the impeller and cage were good. The main fault is that the graphite water seal faces onto the underside of the cast impeller on a machined flat face on the cast iron. Imperfections or rust here result in leaks - as I have found out, and not just on this TV8 engine. This is despite using a nos Unipart pump.

So off to my local machining shop where they turned the seal face down to fit the white ceramic seal from a Perkins Diesel engine water pump - you just "glue" these in place with some rtv sealant. The rest of the seal, the graphite bearing which is spring loaded and its housing are within a few thou in dimensions to the original TV8 unit so fortunately fit in place of the Stag one. This should fix this pump until the bearings or gears fail!

At the weekend, its manifold out, strip nos pump and replace impeller and seal, and reverse the process - if it leaks then I shall cry!

My replacement alternator arrives tomorrow too, the old one then goes for repair, which will give me a spare for the RBRR.

I bought some bling for the car today too. I couldn't find the bonnet prop, so nothing else for it, but a shiny chrome one off the bay.

The slowly leaking tyres will be fixed too - I have finally purchased inner tubes, as nothing else seems to seal these rims. I know they are not ideal, but my Stag with wire wheels has run them for 7 years now and 25k without issues.

Andy Roberts has kindly sent me the Unipart instructions to enable me to fit my wing mirrors in the correct location - ensuring a) you can see the road behind you, and b) still open the quarter lights!

Seat belts arrive soon too, so it will be a busy weekend, with a bit more lead loading to complete.

MOT soon.

Loading the Bulge

First things first, I replaced the Tacho with a another reconditioned one, and this one works !

At the same time I replaced the bi-metal voltage regulator with a solid state unit, that I fitted in the old regulator casing - keeps it original, and the wiring unmodified. Now the instruments run correctly, and the engine fan does work, it wasn't getting hot enough before to operate the thermostat, but now the temp gauge reads correctly I was happy to let the engine warm up and see when the fan came on - which was a little over mid reading on the gauge.

Next item was the rear screen trim, now fitted, although I need a trim finisher - the little whitish dots are the wax from the original seal, which was painted in the mold to ensure the seal could be released.

Now on to the lead loading.


here's the bonnet partially loaded, showing the puddles of lead and a "filed back" area,

on and on, and its still not finished, but getting there, another day or two to complete this I think.

and typically when I started the car to put it back in the garage the alternator light stayed on. Probably a faulty alternator, it was new old stock from my motor factor - that hasn't lasted long! - I'll have a quick look at the wiring tomorrow and check the drive belt, but it has all the indications of a duff unit.

I had ordered a custom speedo cable from Speedograph (the FF box means it needs to be 20" inches longer than standard - despite repeated promises and chasing telephone calls it hasn't arrived - I don't think they are interested, so I have found another supplier, I am hoping for a better response from them