could you use small kitchen cupboard style hinges to lift the lid of the storage boxes up and out of the way?
I thought about that but considered them rather bulky. The part that screws on a cupboard alone is easily 6mm high. But now you make me think of this again...it would be possible to mount the hinge lower under the panel instead of on the surface and having the orther end go through a slot and be level with the cubby surface when closed. Working with thin wood, this would mean adding a little more structure, but should be possible. But the complete cover is only about 6cm wide, so any hinge should not need much more room.
Hm, I might have to play with how those hinges move a little more. Good call! You've made me rethink this on a different level.
The rear light cluster looks right at home in your car, as others have written, it doesn't look out of place even it is from a newer car. Light will, as you know, spread out in all directions, even through the headlining. I think this is a minor issue, the most important thing is that it works well. The original lamp also let light shine above the headlining, so nothing new there. Building interior bits reveal all sorts of small problems and niggles. I never thought that the hinge could be a problem, but of course you need some that keeps the lid from hitting the interior trim panels. I tried to google hinges but could mainly find the piano-type or bulky ones. The cupboard type hinge could fit if you cut away the section that is protruding into the cupboard door. That bit is manly there to stabilize and hold the door. you don't need that on your small lids. If you bond them in place with strong glue it might work.
As yesterday I said that confidence in the car has been a little low, I thought I'd best get a handle on that first. So to do so, me, the wife and the dog took it for a drive and photo-op at my favorite location.
So the cover came off, the engine roared to life and I backed out of the garage. Did a little walk around video... Yes, I know it's nothing like grenade's stuff but hey. I want to do a decent video soon now there's no wires sticking out and bare stuff anywhere.
After that we quickly set off on a few miles of city roads. I didn't want to venture too far from "home base" with the wife and dog in the car and in my nice office clothes... Anyway the car ran fine. I do really notice the difference in differentials. For one he car is now silent up to 120km/h then it begins to become slightly audible. There's still no clunking of any kind. The only SLIGHT noise is from engaging drive or reverse from neutral, like the drivetrain is taking up slack, which I guess is exactly it. Shifts between gears are now smooth and silent both up and down. And finally the wind down whining noise when slowing to a stop that was there before is now completely gone as well, so that must have always been the diff from day one!
I do notice the 3.45 diff versus the original 3.64 diff means the car is slower in acceleration. But it also means revs are down a little at highway speeds. I think I prefer the 3.64's fast acceleration to the economy of the 3.45 one. So I've got a line out for a decent 3.64 diff. I'll have a spare then as well. If it all comes together some time in the future, I'll do the same to that 3.64 as I did to the current 3.45 before fitting: new seals, new connecting bush and new oil and possibly gluing the pieces for added strength or compensation of wear in the splines. But this is a no rush deal. So may well be months before this happens.
My wife did a little video of us having fun driving...
And then I decided to chance being sent off the premises of my favourite building by driving up to it and onto the plateau beneath it just for some picturs as long ago I had a professional shoot there. Ok, this is just a few quick snaps with a phone, no camera, no powered lights and no editing (!!) etc.
And for comparison (I hope to recreate these one day with my nice EOS stuff)
So the car behaved well and although the engine is experienced, it does seem to run well. The only thing the engine does is chatter for the first seconds of startup as the chain tensioners get pumped up. I guess that is why I feel like the engine might blow up at any time, lol. But in all fairness, those are exchangeable so maybe that is a clever thing to do at some point.
As far as fuel issues, none this time, but the car has been standing. So any debris will have probably settled a lot more then right after filling up. I will be sealing the tank in the near future so this wil be no concern ever again. I just can't seem to decide on the product. The POR-15 stuff seems nicer leaving a visible good looking coating, the frost stuff seems less convincing applied based on pictures and product description. But the Por stuff costs twice as much. Something to consider....
At the moment I feel the car is doing what it should and doing so rather nicely. The faults I've run into have little to do with the car or it's build quality. I should have more faith. And for now I'll check the filter but I'd like to make another long journey sometime soon...
On the hinges, the pages offered by the collective have not yet yielded something I feel is suitable, but I'm exploring these new avenues.
And top marks for sneaking in to somewhere for photos
Something I noticed the other day when looking through this thread, is that the exhaust system has a pipe either side that goes over the the rear subframe. Is that a standard mk1 coupe system from the downpipes back? As that would explain the hump in the floor of the mk2 saloon on the right hand side as they only ever had one pipe from the two middle boxes back
And top marks for sneaking in to somewhere for photos
Something I noticed the other day when looking through this thread, is that the exhaust system has a pipe either side that goes over the the rear subframe. Is that a standard mk1 coupe system from the downpipes back? As that would explain the hump in the floor of the mk2 saloon on the right hand side as they only ever had one pipe from the two middle boxes back
Thanks!
Yes, there are differences in exhaust from Mk1 to Mk2. The Mk1 V6 engines (I believe on both coupe and sedan) had seperate pipes from the exhaust manifolds back to the rear axle. From the rear axle backwards was one single box that had pipes to go over the rear drive shafts on each side. So it was a 5 piece system: left and right downpipe, left and right centre piece with mufflers and the end box with its awkward pipework to go over the rear drive shafts. They slot together over the drive shafts. The estate had it's own configuration but I'm not so familiar with that.
So my exhaust was standard, and the only change now is that my centre sections are a combination of straight pipe replacements attached to the rear half of the original centre sections so mating to the standard exhaust was easy.
Later model V6's (including the Mk2) had the same downpipes, but a different centre section. It still had two mufflers but behind them the two pipes would become one. It has a bit more of a Y shape. So from there there was a back box with one pipe going over the drive shaft on one side.
Nice update! Good to see the car in use, as it should be. Restoring the confidence in the car after several unfortunate breakdowns and near breakdowns takes its time. I am sure you will get there. I am not a big fan of hydraulic lifters and tensioners as they tend to make a bit of noise on startup. My old Fords never had such modern features, I am old fashioned that way.
I really enjoyed your photos, your car looks right at home there. What is that building? A hidden UFO?
Nice update! Good to see the car in use, as it should be. Restoring the confidence in the car after several unfortunate breakdowns and near breakdowns takes its time. I am sure you will get there. I am not a big fan of hydraulic lifters and tensioners as they tend to make a bit of noise on startup. My old Fords never had such modern features, I am old fashioned that way.
I really enjoyed your photos, your car looks right at home there. What is that building? A hidden UFO?
Thans Gess,
I'm sure confidence will be restored especially once the tank has been coated. But until that time there is nothing wrong with improving confidence by use. I just have to remember to monitor the fuel filter at the back.
These Cosworth BOB engines have a weakness in the timing chains and their guides (BOA even with a different design is also susceptible). But I've learned that getting the chains to be silent even upon startup is near impossible. And to be honest it's only a matter of two seconds before it all quietens down. Apparrently the engines can go on for a long time doing so. The general consensus is drive them till they break and then just put another one in.
The building is the "evoluon", it's a building from the mid sixties. It was built by Philips (the large consumer and lighting company of times past) and donated to the city of Eindhoven (Philips home base). It was designed as a UFO saucer shaped thing and would have looked great in Men in Black 4 or 5!! The building started out as a sort of science playground museum. It featured all sorts of technical exhibitions. I remember going there as a kid, being awed by all that technology. It all was very interactive and you could basically touch most stuff and really experience it. It was like that up to 1989 when the building was repurposed as I guess visitor numbers were down. I guess although its hayday were the seventies it had a bit more of a fifties feel in some ways. I'd compare it to the awe people had in the fifties for new tech/design as it went through a boom in for instance cars or consumer electronics. By the early nineties, the exhibition just couldn't keep up and people were so much more used to tech that the wow factor just wasn't the same anymore. It had been non profitable for years at that point. So it was turned into a convention centre by adding some dull buildings which to me detract from the original and make it impossible to get a great shot of it. But still, it's just a wonderfully mad thing to see and brings a smile to my face everytime I drive by. It's also the sign I'm almost home. But I can look at the building for hours and when in the evening the windows are lighting up (in patterns) it's almost makes me feel like the engine is about to start and the thing will take to the sky.
In the sixties:
A little later I think:
It's also featured in a video by "Kraftwerk" who loved the buildings shape and history so much they chose it for 4 special concerts (at around 4:12m).
So this week I took Friday morning off. As I said before, tackling the dash gauge feeds issues for me was a job I needed to start fresh, not after having worked half a day and done a couple of other small bits.
So with enough space and plenty of good weather I picked up the car to tackle just that: the dash. Jobs to do were find out if possible why the fuel and temp gauge read over and hooking up the carkit for the phone permanently.
I started by taking out the radio as it needs to come out for the dash insert to come out. I took the steering wheel covers partially off for acces as well. Then I unscrewed the binnacle and took it out-ish as I needed to do some measurements. But alas, my measurements weren't (at least to me) the hoped for smoking gun. Instead I had a steady 11.89 volts on the pin for the gauge power. The resistance of the signal wire was 20.8 Ohm. The weird thing to me is that that 11.89 is cycling between 0-11.89v. But the gauges show as a steady reading.My knowledge of vehicle electronics is not enough to fix this issue myself. I have eliminated that my LED's are the problem as they are fed from the original 12v source for lights and the culster itself is fed from the original 12c source as well. Ground is good, no wires damaged or anything. I unplugged some BOB stuff like the speedo etc. but whatever I did: no-change.
On this subject I'm now at the point of just saying I don't know the cause, let's just adjust the signals so the readings mean something.
After that I turned to the hands free car kit for the iPhone. I installed and hooked up the microphone as a last component and plugged in all the right connectors to the control unit. I drilled holes in the lower dash panel for a switch bracket, but the weird size nut to hold the switch in was missing and I have no clue where to find one. With all that completed I assembled the dash in reverse order. Cluster to go in, steering covers attached, dash insert in place and then the radio. I even fitted the surrounding cover for a finishing touch as that had a fitment issue before which I now took care of. I undid the cd-changer to plug in the forgotten signal wire and it was time for a systems test.
Radio came on, tuner works, cs works, cd-changer works, aux works (but requires the switch to be set to the right source for aux). Flip the switch and the carkit came on loud and clear although sound quality seems somewhat down from what I'm used to in my daily. But hey we can stream music from the phone so that's great. It all works as it's supposed to.
Next I did a last simple thing: I put a bulb in the dash glove compartment light. As looking for the nut for the switch I found that did not work. No bulb is a good reason for it not working.
So It took me about two hours to do all this which is way less than I had expected. Taking it all apart was easier than I had thought as well. Anyway, I'm now officially asking SamJ for his help on the gauge thing. I have a spare binnacle, a spare fuel sender and a good power source so I will try and setup a bench test first and see what a disconnected gauge cluster with only those wires attached will do on the gauge. But I'm not going to be figuring this out by myself. I've exhausted my knowledge and ideas.
My Rover has a 10V voltage regulator fitted in the binacles and thats were the fuel gauge takes it s power from. My MG also has this voltage regulator. If your car originally has this regulator and it has been removed, then the gauges will show a too high value.
My Rover has a 10V voltage regulator fitted in the binacles and thats were the fuel gauge takes it s power from. My MG also has this voltage regulator. If your car originally has this regulator and it has been removed, then the gauges will show a too high value.
Just a thought
Peter
Peter, you are correct, my binnacle has that as well. It is in place. Power past that was measured at 11,89 volts. On the side it said 11.72 so I figured 11,89 is pretty close.
I just made a bench test and with my 13,54 volt power source and the float bottomed out the gauge should read empty but it reads half full. With the float maxed it smoked the gauge maxing out the needle. Strangely power at the gauge was 13.5 volts. So how is this possible after the regulator? So maybe my two regulators are toast??
I opened one up but I don't understand its workings. I'll upload the pictures tomorrow morning.
It sounds like the old fashioned bi-metalic regulator basically a coil heats up a bi-metalic strip which breaks a contact then cools down until it re-makes the contact and the cycle starts all over again, basically giving a crude alternating current with a mean voltage of around 10V, as your gauge is very heavily damped this sees it as something like 10V dc.
Your symptoms would fit with the regulator, you could try using a 9v battery as a power supply to test it, you can now get solid state regulators which give a regulated true 10V DC from ebay.
Do you have the wiring diagrams for the dash? Does sound like you have too high voltage at the gauges. Send me a PM / whatsapp, let's try and make a time for me to come over.
