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With diy, household chores and work no time for the cars, did trot along to the post office with my mot exemption and reg doc for the TR and get it changed to historic tax class, ever so easy and £26 a month extra to spend on whatever I like.
Other good news is all thd biopsies they took during the operation on the mrs came back clear so the cancer was totally contained to the area they removed, given what they did (basically peel the skin off high enough to remove lymph nodes from armpit, reshape the breasts then stitch it all back together) she is recovering very well, still gets sore if she overdoes it but able to walk 3 or 4 miles a day etc OK.
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Great news on Mrs. kevins!
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eurogranada
Europe
To tinker or not to tinker, that is the question...
Posts: 2,556
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Great news on the misses! Happy for her and you as a family!
I'm sure you know, but keep an eye out on edema in the arms. Start treatment soon if that happens.
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Yeah she's got loads of advice from the doc. Because of her op she has declared the TR is too uncomfortable while she is still healing (to be fair it is pretty harsh) so today I took it round the lock up and got the mazda, in true Japanese style it started and drove like it had been parked yesterday not 4 months ago.  Might even give ìt a wash and polish over the weekend Also got some time to make a cover for where the mx5 gearbox has been cut to clear the Minor rack.  Plan is to hold it with a m5 screw loctited in every 20mm or so, hopefully restoring some of the strength. I will need to make something similar for the starter as well and then a concentric slave mounting plate. |
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Last Edit: Apr 9, 2021 20:24:50 GMT by kevins
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Apr 10, 2021 22:01:02 GMT
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Not much on the car today spent most of the day making cupboard doors, did get a chance to drill the rest of the fixing holes and paint the gearbox cover.  Just need to drill and tap the rest of the holes now. |
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Apr 12, 2021 20:25:30 GMT
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Still spending most of my time on the bathroom, but did get to finish the top cover for the gearbox, I think there are enough screws!.  |
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Apr 16, 2021 20:37:38 GMT
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Gave the mazda a wash and polish,  It looks pretty good from 6 feet away but get close and it has quite a few dints and scratches plus some less than perfect previous paintwork, no serious rust though (just a little surface on the wing behind the front wheel). Suits us as it is we can take it anywhere and not be too worried about it. Andrew picked up the machined parts for the minor engine today, all looks good, need to do some work on the ports and combustion chambers plus get the remains of the bypass tube out (should have asked the machine shop) |
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Apr 24, 2021 20:51:46 GMT
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Been going through the parts to rebuild the minor engine, head needs some work on the ports, some of the inlet valve guides extend 3mm into the port.   Had to drill out an re-tap the bypass tube.  Block looks fine, he's faced the deck just enough to get perfect surfaces where the gasket rests, nice new bores  Also weighed the con rods, 3 weigh 721 grams 1 723 grams, so that will need a bit of lightening. Need a few more parts then we can start putting it together. |
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Apr 28, 2021 20:01:36 GMT
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A mate bought me this to see if I could get it running, it was his dad's and he died at least 10 years ago.  engine is a Briggs and stratton 3hp, it had stinking old fuel in out, but wouldn't go even on fresh fuel, eventually got it going with carb cleaner but still not running right, stripped the carb and found this.  one of the flaps which acts as a one way valve in the fuel pump which is driven off the inlet pulses had torn, £2.18 for a new one and it starts and runs fine. on the car front the last of the parts for the minor engine re-build arrived today.  looking through them one thing I'm confused by is the piston rings, 2 and 3 are stepped which I believe is a Napier ring and the step should be at the bottom, I can't find a top mark on the rings to confirm though, might have a closer look with the reading glasses tomorrow to see if there is something very feint.  Also still fiddling with the mx5 gearbox conversion, while we had the standard gearbox out to make measurements off I made a bracket to mount it on a minor crossmember.  In a couple of weeks we are going to Norfolk for a few days, this is straight after my wife finishes her radiotherapy, apparently the range rover is the most comfortable vehicle for her so we are going in that, need to give it a going over this weekend, mostly check the axle oil levels which I have been meaning to do for ages, check all the other fluids, change the dodgy looking alternator belt and clean it up a bit, If I get the time I will also fit the new oil pump housing to see if I can improve the hot idle oil pressure. Mind you I also have an area of block paving to lay round the in-laws and 2 new windows to fit in the conservatory too, can't wait to get back to work on Tuesday for a rest! |
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Last Edit: Apr 28, 2021 20:04:37 GMT by kevins
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Getting my glasses and a strong light out confirmed there is an etched dot on the top of the middle 2 rings and the step goes to the bottom,
from the Hastings(supplier of the rings) web site this what they are:
Wiper Napier
This reverse twist ring along with a taper-machined ring face duplicates the OD bottom side scraping edge of a positive twist torsional ring. Reverse twist promotes side sealing that prevents oil from being forced under and behind the ring resulting in better oil economy—a very common second ring profile in modern gas engines."
A new one on me be interesting to see how they work.
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checked all the rings in the bores using one of the old pistons to set them square, all had between 0.4 and 0.45 mm, a bit over the specified 12 thou (0.3mm) but I can' see this being a problem, so they can all go on the pistons now, next step is to get the con rods balanced then they can go on the pistons. ready for assembly. I carried on checking all the other non standard components, the oil pump will need a hole drilling and tapping in the block, sods law says I have 1/4" BSF and 1/4" unc taps but this is 1/4"unf so I will have to wait for one of those to arrive before we can go any further. Yesterday the Range rover earned it's keep, I am extending our conservatory and needed to lay some block paving round the in-laws, so I had 40 bags of sand and 6 of cement delivered to theirs with the intent of bringing the left overs home, turns out I only used 10 round there so 30 25kg bags of sand, 5 of cement and the mixer had to be moved in the back of the range rover, did it in 3 trips, car seemed to survive it better than I did lifting it all in and out, I can hardly walk today!   Today it got some tlc, checked all the oils (all fine) then changed the oil pump housing, well in the end I didn't, on close inspection the housing I had cleaned up had a badly scores relief valve bore, so I ended up flatting the scores out of the original one which has a tadpole relief valve fitted already and putting it back on, then changed the alternator belt which was beginning to crack, gave the rest of it a look over, some of the areas I repaired 4 years ago are beginning to lose their paint and have surface corrosion but that was about all I could find that needs some attention this year   |
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Last Edit: May 2, 2021 22:00:22 GMT by kevins
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been trial assembling the minor engine, first problem was the oil pump, we had bought a 1275 cam and matching oil pump, but it turns out the 1275 block is a few mm longer so you need a spacer to go under the oil pump, these used to widely available but not anymore, anyway one turned up on ebay and it then all fitted. also needed to drill and tap a new mounting hole for the pump, needed a 1/4" unf tap but once that arrived it all went easily enough.  only issue was why supply a bottom tap with a point in the end? easily enough to grind off though. polished up the crank journals with some oiled 1500 wet and dry and the strip off the edge of an old towel to spin it  only few strokes to clean the discolouration off the surface where it had been stored for years with damp oil.  then assembled it with new shells and some plastigauge.  only issue is this relates to 3 thou which for a 1.75" journal is a bit on the big side, strange thing is it's exactly the same at 90 degrees, I wonder is someone has had it lightly ground in the past, for £130 including the shells we might just fit a reground crank, also thinking about adding a centre main strap for good measure. |
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Checked the crank with both my micrometer and mitutoyo calipers, it comes out a 44.45mm or 1.75" in all directions which is virtually unworn, then I checked the inner diameter of the bearing with the callipers which is also spot on, so the only conclusion I can make is the plastigauge isn't that accurate, perhaps something to do with the relatively small diameter of these journals etc.
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Dad, I've got a puncture!  |
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,921 
Club RR Member Number: 40
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curse word !
Did you have wheels in the shed to fit ?
James
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Yes fortunately last time she smashed a wheel up I bought a set of 4 for £80, tyres are ancient and cracked but got me the 8 miles home driving carefully in the dry, just ordered 3 new tyres so she will have 4 matching Avons before it's driven again. (it had 2 brand new Avons on the rear and some relatively unworn cheapies on the front)
Good news is nothing else seems damaged, it drives fine even with the ropey old tyres, she got pushed to the edge 0f the road by a van coming round the corner on the wrong side of the road and hit a massive pot hole with about a 4" deep sharp edge to the exit.
If she does this again it's getting 14" steels and off road 80 profile tyres!
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,921
Club RR Member Number: 40
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I didn’t have that much luck when my wife hit an odd bit of Curb avoiding an errant camper van. I’d been oh so cleaver with a set of cheap OZ Evo 4 wheels for the daily but no way was I going to find another one.
Put them into the auction of tat at the weekender - wonder where they ended up...
With you on matching good tyres- first thing to check on a s/h motor, cheap mismatched tyres is a red flag.
Have a bill in the file for £300 ish for one wheel and tyre (previous owner) so relatively speaking you and the bairn got away easy.
Meh life though.
James
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May 12, 2021 12:03:46 GMT
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The street ka has always had decent tyres after I spun it at about 10mph on the mixed set of ditchfinders it came with, 3 new avons to give it a matching set arrived today and are currently being mounted on the wheels. With my wife undergoing radio therapy and Andrew sitting his end of year uni exams progress on the minor has been slow, what we have been doing is going through a slow build to see what else we need an d what else needs modifying. with the cam and crank sorted out, we needed a 6mm spacer behind the oil pump, fortunately the pump cover still fitted. next up was balancing the con rods, they were balanced fro total mass and end to end.   used a flapwheel to gently remove the mass.  after that we put a piston on the check how it sat relative to the deck height.  it turns out it is pretty much flush to the block, aroun 1 thou low. with all this in mind I set to calculating the Compression ratio.  |
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May 13, 2021 19:32:10 GMT
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spent my lunch hour on the minor head today, decided to open out the areas the valves were shrouded to see how much this affects compression ratio, result was this.  vs a standard one like this  close on twice the gap between the valve and side of the combustion chamber, the result was an increase in chamber volume of 1.5cc which gives a compression ratio of 9:1, with the relatively mild cam (piper 255) I'm happy with that, just need to make the other 3 match now. Also had a bit of a go at the exhaust ports, nothing major, just open up around the valve guide to give a roughly constant X section, will do the same to the inlet when I get round to turning up a punch to knock the valve guides out / in. Plan is to make a tractable fast engine that produces decent power up to around 6000rpm hopefully something like 65hp up from the standard 45 (standard engine runs out of puff at around 4000rpm) |
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May 20, 2021 19:36:45 GMT
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Been away for the last 5 days in the Range Rover, usually we would take the mx5 but my wife finds the Rangie more comfortable post Radiotherapy. (We do have a new Fiesta but no1 son needs that get to work since he broke the Minor) went to Norfolk, 1 night with the in laws at Downham market then 3 just outside Cromer. Did a fair bit of walking and driving, 430 miles in total with no issues (didn't even open the Bonnet). Car at Blakney.  Today we even went to something Car related, Caister castle Collection, a lot more there than the last time I went 30 odd years ago, some very nice condition cars but I find the as found / donated ones more interesting, can't be many tatty gullwing Mercs left.  Quite a few donated relatively modern cars as well, probably the same age as many of the ancient exhibits were when I last visited. Not cheap at £17 each but still worthwhile. Inevitably after driving the car more in 5 days than the last 18 months a few things come to light I'd forgotten the front fag lighter doesen't work and one of the drivers door hinge bolts is loose. One front wheel bearing also seems a bit noisy and the brakes judder so I will change the bearings and discs both sides on the front. The biggest issue though is the fuel injection, its dead smooth on LPG and drives fine on petrol, but it's pretty clear its not running evenly on all 8 at idle and light loads, this is even more evident now the torque converter actually locks up, my prime suspect is the injectors, so they will have to come off and be checked. Just need to finish the minor, and re-build a conservatory first though...... |
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Last Edit: May 20, 2021 21:04:40 GMT by kevins
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