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

Bits and Pieces

Just a few small jobs dealt with on the estate today.

I had a look at the new electric fan, and this works fine from the override switch, so I needed to look else where for the reasons why it appeared too hot and the fan wasn't coming on. The fuel gauge was also reading high, so the first suspect was the instrument voltage regulator. Simple - this, although a nos unit, wasn't functioning, 12v in and 12v out, so I am going to fit a solid state unit internally inside it, retaining appearance but giving an accurate 10v out. This will fix the fuel gauge, and also make the temperature gauge read correctly, so perhaps the electronic fan wasn't coming on because the engine wasn't hot enough - too much paranoia on my part!

The tacho fault is another issue, it has a 12v supply and gnd, and the coil pulses are certainly reaching it, so despite the rebuild it must be faulty - I have ordered a replacement.

The engine still starts first time, but the water pump still leaks - I am not going to mess with this, and have simply ordered one of the new ceramic water seals from LDParts. The impeller needs machining to fit this, and of course the inlet manifold needs removal and refitting, but worth while I think for peace of mind, so those will be next weekend's jobs.

That's it for today, once those items are attended to, and I know that the engine will not overheat, I'll get it tuned up, carbs and timing accurately set.

So the next job while that work is pending is to do the lead loading on the bonnet

It Lives, its Alive Again

The estate was reborn at about 12.40 this morning. Started first turn of the key after a few small issues.

I started the day by fitting the top hose air bleed and then filled with coolant.

I went to the garage for a couple of gallons of petrol and tipped it into the estate tank. The poor electric petrol pump still didn't deliver petrol so after investigation in the tank area I found that there was not enough petrol in the tank to cover the pick up pipe so back to the garage to get another 2 gallons. I got some very strange looks there as I went in my electric car.

Anyway petrol in, the pump picked up petrol and filled the carbs.

The big moment, it fired and ran first turn of the key, a little smoke from the manifolds. First job top up the power steering pump as that had run dry filling the rack. That done full and easy power steering.

Topped the coolant up then, engine still running.

Then filled the rest of the autobox with ATF fluid as the level had dropped with the torque converter filling.

Downsides, no rev counter so that needs investigation, but coolant in the V from the water pump. Bugger, that might have to come out again. It was a NOS unit with new seals so why it leaks is a mystery.

The engine cooling fan doesn't come on either, so I need to look at that.

But it drives, it goes forwards and backward under its own power. No nasty transmission noises. Could only check first (drive) and reverse as my drive isn't long enough to get it up to speed. Servo seems to work too, no idea about the ABS yet.

But it lives, and the engine sounds so nice - I haven't even played with the carbs yet, or mixture, just left everything set at the factory default.

Oil pressure good too. Engine really quiet and no vibration, you could balance a coin on it when it runs.

I am so so pleased, hard to describe really but a very happy moment in my life.

Anyway I have put it away in the garage for now, while we open the champagne and celebrate.

I'll attend to the small glitches next week, they are not much in the scheme and size of the rebuild. the worst is the water pump, which may fix itself, they do sometimes leak and then stop. if not its no big deal to take it out and replace the seal, although I may get one of those new ceramic seals fitted.

I did take a little video on my iphone, if its any good i'll put it on youtube. But I was so excited my hands were shaking!

First video on youtube at  http://youtu.be/qI5_Z3BgCP8
(sorry about the shaky picture - I was soo excited)  
second video http://youtu.be/BGkbFKjgevk

It was a fantastic moment after all these hours of work