vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Dec 11, 2017 16:36:06 GMT
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Poor little Austin under its blanket of snow! Looking forward to getting started on this again next year, shan't have any time to do anything with it this year now.  20171211-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Seeing the snow on the hubcaps really emphasises the ridiculous offset on the front wheels.  20171211-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr |
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Smiler
Posted a lot
I no longer own anything FWD! Or with less than 6 cylinders, or 2.5ltrs! :)
Posts: 2,492
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Dec 14, 2017 12:43:31 GMT
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Something about that Austin is really appealing to me right now.
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www.Auto-tat.co.uk'96 Range Rover P38 DSE (daily driver) '71 Reliant Scimitar SE5 GTE 3.0ltr Jag V6 Conversion '79 Reliant Scimitar SE6A 3.0ltr 24valve Omega Conversion '85 Escort Cabrio 2.0 Zetec - Sold '91 BMW 525i - Sold '82 Cortina 2.9i Ghia Cosworth - Sold '72 VW Campervan - Sold '65 LandRover 88" - Sold
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Dec 15, 2017 15:00:24 GMT
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The snow is hiding all the horrible looking bits, that's probably what it is  --- As tradition dictates, my daily driver is now littered with tinsel.  20171215-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The new thing is me trying to use the camera for updates a bit more, so this here is a microblog from the Potatocam where you can hear and watch me prattle on aimlessly. Apart from the fogging up, the camera doesn't seem willing to pick up the other two issues which are a judder on the return sweep of the wipers which appears to be worn mechanism rather than a wiper issue, and the top of the driver's door frame which doesn't sit flush with the rear door and has wind noise at higher speeds. I suspect the fogging up and door alignment are related, even though the inside of the car is never damp to the touch. |
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Dec 15, 2017 17:18:51 GMT
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If the drivers door lines up further down on the body and just sits proud at the top of the frame - it just wants "tweaking" a bit. With the window all the way down (to stop the toughened glass possibly exploding), grasp the lower part of the open door with your left hand and with your right hand give the top corner a push to bend it in the required amount. If it's a bit resistant put a small block of wood on the striker plate and gently shut the door against it, making sure youre not going to mark any paint and give the corner a firm, gentle push with both hands. Sometimes a bit of trial and error is required to get it flush with the neighbouring door frame. If you go too far pull it back a bit.
The wipers also sound like a bit of tweaking is required. If they only judder in one direction, its usually because the blade isnt sitting at right angles to the glass. Twisting the wiper arm gently to correct it usually does the trick assuming the blades themselves aren't worn out.
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Last Edit: Dec 15, 2017 17:20:26 GMT by Deleted
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Dec 15, 2017 19:15:27 GMT
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It's just the black part of the door frame that's not lining up rather than the whole door, the rest of it is actually pretty good. I've not been too keen on trying to bend it back but I do have a spare door if it does go wrong on the attempt.
These are known for issues with the wiper mechanism, usually when they're worn they catch on the bonnet when you open it and mine does that too on the same arm that's juddering. They don't judder until they've done a few passes then one side gets progressively worse until it sounds like something is a little loose, almost like it's wobbling a bit on a worn bush, if that makes sense? I wish the camera had picked it up better, it's barely noticeable in the video.
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Dec 15, 2017 19:51:23 GMT
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Door frame will bend fairly easily - follow directions above - you wont mess it up.
Wipers probably have a bush on the pin of each wiper are - they wear oval and allow 'chatter' if you can replace them it will fix it.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Dec 17, 2017 18:05:11 GMT
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Just back from the first very long drive in a while, 300ish mile round trip to Lincolnshire. Before I set off I did what I could with the driver's door frame and have improved the fit a little, needs more effort yet, but there's much less wind noise at speed. The heaters are insanely hot once you've been on the motorway for a few miles, I wished it had been colder outside to compensate! The new cat is very definitely a big improvement on noise in the cabin, anything over 55mph was really tiring before, now the car will happily bomb along at 65-70mph and you aren't being driven made by a droning exhaust.
Handling-wise, now that it is happier at higher speeds, I found it has the same trait as my Mk2 Polo at 70mph and above in that it goes extremely light on the front end which isn't a pleasant experience. I rarely drive that fast anyway so I'll deal with it by just sticking to the comfortable zone of 60-65mph where the car is most settled and the various at-speed noises the least bothersome. I imagine some sort of splitter on the front would help keep it planted a bit better. Economy-wise it returned almost 42mpg over the 300ish miles without me trying to eco-drive which is very respectable. Economy is another reason for sticking under 70mph, once you get up there you can watch it drinking fuel.
The friend I was visiting may have a spare power steering pump that can be rebuilt if needed to replace my tired one which would deal with that minor intermittent niggle of the steering weight varying sometimes. Other than that the car is using no fluids and seems in really fine fettle. I was a little stiff getting out of the car after a 2.5 hour drive without a break (that's quite a long drive for me), but didn't have any of the back pain other cars have given me and a quick stretch was all I needed to feel comfortable again. It is a very easy car to live with for the most part, I'm very happy with it at the moment.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Dec 17, 2017 20:32:25 GMT
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A picture from earlier today of my car with it's successor, sort of, in the form of my friend's blue MG ZS which he's had for a few years now and really enjoys zooming about in.  20171217-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The red car and the blue car did not have a race, the blue car would have won because my friend is a racing driver and the blue car is a good bit faster. |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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It's been a month since the last update and about the same since the Princess last moved, mainly because of spending a few weeks down south again for the festive period. Rover performed the drive there and back easily and in comfort, frugally sipping fuel at a rate of around 43 miles per gallon. Now I'm back and have been able to get in the garage I can crack on with the next round of jobs on the Princess, none of which are serious. Dug out the clutch kit, old air box, a few bits and bobs and one of the new oil seals I need. The other oil seal is, I think, in the glovebox of the Princess and I didn't think to check until I got back home without it. Even though it's been sat idle for a month, it started no bother and the suspension was where I'd left it, so that was reassuring. Tootled over to the unit with Mike in tow so I could get the jobs I needed to do done later in the week. The Princess really has to be in fine fettle this year because there's a house move happening and the areas I'm looking at moving to are between 120 and 350 miles away, which the Princess will ideally need to make without the assistance of a trailer. Temperature was below freezing today but the Princess was fine on the amble to the unit and waited patiently outside while space was made inside. Looked glamourous in a 1970s sort of way with the low winter sun and spray from the car wash... just a shame the photo doesn't capture it so well.  20180108-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr At the moment the Princess is keeping one of the older generation company in the form of a Wolseley Six with a flat battery. I'm sure they'll get along famously.  20180108-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr More updates once work begins. Fingers crossed it doesn't end up in the usual chaos other jobs on this car has, hopefully nobody has been in to bodge up these items! In other fleet news, the Rover got new wiper blades after the old ones were rendered useless after the snow (they had lasted way longer than expected) and the 1100 is just waiting on unit time and space so I can get cracking with the welding. |
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Last Edit: Jan 8, 2018 16:43:00 GMT by vulgalour
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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I've been talking to Mike about the future of the 1100 since getting back home. Trouble is, the driving position in the 1100 is offset in a way that hurts my back and no amount of adjusting the seat will fix it. This is quite a disappointment, I know from experience I could only drive it about 30 miles without being in pain so I need to find a new home for it somehow but I'm not ready to sell it just yet.
So I made a silly swap suggestion to Mike for one of his (ever growing) collection to which he's agreed. I have to get the 1100 welded up and MoT worthy first and then it'll be a straight swap for something... unexpected. February is the month I plan to start work on the 1100 as I should have the Princess sorted by then. Hopefully the welding on the 1100 will only take me until April or May, leaving time aside still for other duties and house move planning. Nothing is set in stone yet, you know how plans can change, but at least I know the 1100 would be going to a sensible home once I've had my fun putting it all right again.
I *really* want to tell you what I'm swapping the 1100 for, but I want to wait until it actually happens which won't be for a couple of months. I reckon you'll like it though, it's quite exciting.
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Adjusting the seat in to an entirely different seat isn't an option? Will a Princess seat fit?  Would give more movement options, especially if you have to make bracketry for it. |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Needs more side-to-side movement. Can't really do that, the 1100 isn't wide enough, or I'm not narrow enough. Or I could move the steering column and pedals to line up with the seat, if I wanted that level of engineering work, which I don't. Same problem with the Rolls Royce Camargue, as it happens, which was a bit of a disappointment to discover when I got to sit in one because the rest of the car is just amazing.
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Jan 10, 2018 14:44:44 GMT
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mk2 astras are like that (steering wheel no centred on the drivers seat)
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Jan 10, 2018 17:25:30 GMT
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I like Mk2 Astras, it's a shame I shall never own one. Same is true of pretty much every Fiat. It's very sad. --- Today was the day the clutch work could start on the Princess. First job, move the Wolseley Six out of the way so the Princess can hog the lift... but first, family photo time! Grandad fell asleep so the Princess needed to give him a short sharp shock.  20180110-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The Six has an earth issue in the driver's headlight area and a dead battery, you never really know how long it's going to hold charge as a result. Mike's going to be taking that corner apart, cleaning it all and fitting a new battery, which should sort it all out. Once everyone had stopped pulling silly faces, we had another go at that family photo.  20180110-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Good. Right. Let's get back inside and crack on with this clutch removal. The manual is a bit strange on this one, the instructions are scattered over several sections rather than being clumped together *but* I'd had advice from folks that have done this job before to help me along so the first thing to do was strip off everything connected to and/or obscuring the clutch housing (for want of a better description). Starter motor removal is really easy, just four bolts. I made sure to label the wires so I knew where they went back.  20180110-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Battery, battery tray/bracket, expansion bottle, coil, and clutch slave cylinder removed. Earth strap, carb overflow pipe, and wiring loom disconnected. Bags of access now. No horns to remove as they're fitted to the other side since I'm not running the factory ones.  20180110-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180110-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The inside of the clutch slave cylinder is a bit grotty so we'll be making sure that's cleaned up and okay once the clutch has been changed. Contrary to how rusty it looks in the picture, it's actually more like a combination of old copper grease and regular grease with some black paint flakes mixed in for good measure.  20180110-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Next job was to remove the bolts holding the clutch housing to the sandwich plate. The engine mounts weren't unbolted at this stage.  20180110-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr With that done, the engine was supported with a brace and the engine mount bolts unfastened. This, I'm told, is the way to do it without removing the entire engine and I should (because it's the 4 cylinder, not the 6 cylinder) be able to wiggle the clutch housing out to change the clutch components.  20180110-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Unfortunately, I ran out of time to get much further. I've got to be pretty strict about my work:play ratio hours this month. The thing Mike and I couldn't get to free was the clutch housing itself. It's free enough that it's started to move but it won't yet come off. It may also not be on its original clutch as there's signs someone previously has been in and nibbled away some of the edges of the join.  20180110-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr I'll be going in tomorrow to have another go at freeing off this clutch housing tomorrow with Mike. Is there a particular knack to it? Since everything is cast alloy I don't want to smack or lever any of it too brutally for fear of accidentally breaking chunks off. Once the housing is off it looks like a fairly straightforward clutch swap and rebuild at least so here's hoping it's done by the end of the week. |
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Jan 11, 2018 11:29:59 GMT
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what became of the renault, have you heard any recent news
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Jan 11, 2018 12:17:15 GMT
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what became of the renault, have you heard any recent news Ah that little thing hopefully its getting some TLC somewhere  |
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Last Edit: Jan 11, 2018 12:18:50 GMT by Deleted
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Jan 11, 2018 12:31:43 GMT
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All quiet on the Renault front. Hopefully it's getting some love and not languishing in a forgotten corner.
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,881
Club RR Member Number: 15
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Jan 11, 2018 12:58:41 GMT
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Dog, this brought back some memories as I once had a 1300GT and my dad, at various times, had both a Landcrab and a Princess. Thanks for the pics but I shall now go to a quiet corner and weep for my lost youth. |
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Jan 11, 2018 16:56:59 GMT
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Not lost, merely experienced. --- Part two of the clutch change. This isn't a difficult job, per se, just a frustrating one. It would be easier if I could devote a full day to the job really, rather than having to steal occasional hours. Decided it was sensible to drain the oil. Again, the manual was a little vague on this front and suggested "a quantity" would come out once the end housing was removed. Glad I did drain the oil, it's a bit sludgy and will benefit from a change. Thanks to suggestions from folks on the threads I keep on various fora, going was much easier today because Mike and I actually knew what to attack. Before long, the drive gear cover was removed fairly easily, revealing the strange remote gear drive thing.  20170111-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Worryingly, the large lower nut looked a bit chewed. As expected, the monkeys have been in here too. Everywhere I go on this car some moron has been in with bodge and danger.  20170111-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr With the cover off it was possible to see the monkeys had been chewing on the bearing slot too. Urgh. You can just see the nibbling of a chisel or screwdriver next to the bearing above the oil blob.  20170111-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Oh well! Next was undoing the big chewed up nut which proved problematic because it's enormous, a Whitworth 1 (1" 11/16ths from memory). Luckily, Mike's dad is a bit of a hoarder and there was an enormous Whitworth 1 ring spanner on the rack which allowed us to undo the nut once it had been cracked off with a comedically oversized pipe wrench that needed two hands to weild. Finally we could test the knowledge I'd been given that you can wiggle the housing out without removing the engine from the car. First remove the gears you need to. There's also one nut in a deep recess that we nearly missed because it wasn't where expected one to be.  20170111-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Then a bit of a wiggle and HOORAY the housing is free.  20170111-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Unfortunately, I was misled. You cannot simply wiggle it free and those that told me some time ago that you could were mistaken. It's close, no doubt about that, but not close enough.  20170111-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr It should come out without removing the engine and disconnecting absolutely everything though . If we undo the other two engine mounts and remove the oil filter (I need to put a new filter on anyway, so this isn't a problem) we should be able to drop the engine far enough without having to disconnect everything.  20170111-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Having a look underneath highlighted what I presume to be antiroll bar that needed unfastening so the gear selector rods didn't get stuck on it when the engine is dropped.  20170111-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Also had to disconnect the middle exhaust brackets which are already cracking even though they were new last April. This should allow the exhaust enough free movement so that I don't need to faff about with the manifold clamps.  20170111-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr That was as far as I could go as my alarm beeped meaning my time was up for today. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get in and undo the two engine mounts and lower the engine a few inches so the chassis leg isn't stopping the bellhousing coming off. After that the actual clutch change is probably going to be really easy and it will just take a while to get all the bits put back on where they live again. |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,271
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Jan 12, 2018 18:14:21 GMT
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Clutch Change Part Three. Mr B put it best when he said "I did this job years ago and I found it to be a right shitehawk." He was not wrong. The first time you do a job always takes the longest because you're learning how to do it, in the future I'm pretty sure I could shave a couple of hours off the time spent simply because I know what needs coming out now and what to expect. So, to recap, to do the clutch on the Princess you have to drain the oil and the coolant first. No really. The engine has to come out whatever you do so you might as well do these jobs now because it's unavoidable. Then you unfasten everything that joins the engine to the car with the exception of the driveshafts, those you can leave alone happily. Princess is due a proper oil change anyway and even though the coolant was done less than a year ago, it too was looking ready for a refresh and now is as good a time as any to do it. Here's the oil that came out, all 6 litres or so of it.  20180112-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Because Mike and I were still learning, we thought there was a chance we could get enough movement by removing one engine mount and bracket that was fouling the clutch housing, so we did that first.  20180112-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr It didn't help enough and we wasted time faffing about with engine angles before giving that up as a bad job. Really frustratingly close though!  20180112-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180112-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Instead we admitted defeat and resigned ourselves to having to pull the engine. That meant disconnecting the coolant hoses and draining the coolant, disconnecting the rest of the exhaust, unbolting the remote gear selector box, the vacuum line for the servo, removing the carburettor and air cleaner from the manifold and disconnecting the speedo cable. We also removed the radiator, normally you wouldn't have to but I have a Rover fan fitted on the opposite side to standard and the motor was catching on the oil fill pipe and distributor. I've got a spare original fan I'm going to test and if it's good, I'll fit that in the stock location because it's tidier and should be perfectly effective enough, my last original one was until it got all out of shape and ate its own fan blades. There's enough articulation in the driveshafts to safely and carefully lower the engine on the jack without disconnecting the driveshafts so we did that. We were concerned we'd have to remove the driveshafts too, which is even more work that seems excessive just for a clutch change.  20180112-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180112-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr With all that dropped down I can get to a lot of the greasy bits of the engine bay I couldn't before and get those cleaned up properly. I can also get the bits of the engine degreased that I couldn't previously get to so that will also cut down on the amount of unpleasant road grime and oil sludge that's on the outside of the engine in places. Discovered that one of the leaks looks to be the oil pressure sender so I'm going to remove and reseal that to hopefully get rid of the messiest leak the car has. The distributor O ring is leaking again too, which is really annoying because it's a chore to replace and I can't find the new gear selector seals I bought so I'm going to have to order another set, at which point the set I bought will undoubtedly turn up. Happily, dropping the engine out the bottom like this meant the clutch housing came off really easily and there's plenty of access to get at the clutch and fixings so it shouldn't be a nightmare to bolt back together again.  20180112-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180112-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Then my alarm beeped so it was time-up for today. I'm hoping to get in on the weekend and give things a thorough clean and degrease and potentially get everything back together Monday/Tuesday since a lot of it is really a job for two people if you want to do it safely and in some cases it's just easier when there's two pairs of hands, particularly for things like the engine mounts which are a bit awkward to get at. Until the next update, here's where we leave things.  20180112-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr |
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