More Sprint Work

I had a good two day session on the Sprint this weekend, and its still not finished !

First job was to remove the thermostat housing and helicoil the bolt holes in the manifold

That done, it was time to refit the newly painted wiper motor.

and now in place.

I then started work on the headlamps, the bowls are normally held in place by pop rivets (like the 2000s), but the self tappers fitted by the PO had made the holes too large, so I fitted rivnuts - at least I can remove the fittings now without having to drill out rivets

Both sides done, and headlamp bowls fitted on rubber gaskets.

I then finished my relay panel and fitted the new halogen headlamps. When I get these aligned I'll post pictures

My next job was to replace the rack mounting bushes as the rack had a LOT of play. When I started this job I found that the offside engine mount had been incorrectly assembled so that the engine was resting (via the oil pump) on the offside rack mount.

After jacking the engine up, I replaced the rack mounts and fitted a solid steering UJ (from Chris Witor) in place of the joint that employs rubber rings, and always ends up with lots of play. The new joint is longer than the original, so 10mm needed cutting off the intermediate shaft to get it to fit.

The engine mount was then replaced with a NOS rubber and all the bolts refitted with locking washers.  I have noticed that if there isn't a nyloc fitted, then the nuts don't have lockwashers fitted, so thats another little job, inspect the nuts and remove and replace if no lock washers - thats going to take a little time.

That done, I removed the steeering column, and replaced the wiper switch - as you cannot remove the wiring without the column out. So column replaced (and the self cancelling indicator actuator centred in the middle of the indicator switch) I thought I'd have no play in the steering. Not so, the wheel bearings were badly adjusted so that the drivers road wheel had about 10mm of rock, and the passenger one nearly as much.

I replaced the front wheel bearings then with some nice new Timken ones - as usual the supplied felt seals were too deep (probably why the bearings were incorrectly adjusted in the first place), so I cut these down.

After this I really had no steering play and I hoped the reduced pad knock off would fix the brakes.

Next item was to remove the gear leaver surround and fit the rubber gaiter and fixing ring.

Then under the car and fit proper bolts and nylocks to the propshaft, and a gearbox angle drive.

Test drive time. Its a lot quieter, not as good as it should be, but getting there. The steering is fine, but the brake pedal travel is still a little too much - I did notice that the pedal is affixed to the servo push rod with a nut and bolt - not a clevis pin - so there could be play there. But I now have parking wipers, headlamps that work and good steering.

I still need to fix the choke cable switch, and the warning lamp cluster (its got no high beam indication and thats an MOT fail) - also the rear end "kick" over bumps is more pronounced so I must change the dampers.

The exhaust is now rattling a bit too - thats because the angle of the engine has changed, and the front carb keeps leaking petrol from the overflow, so I have ordered some of the new ball valves for that.

But good progress another 2 or 3 days should see it sorted - I hope