1973 DAF 44

Hi mate yes I can help you. If you speak to Danny in Holland he can provide most parts. The website is and it is in both english and dutch.

dafhobby.nl/pages/44pag.html

On the front of the manifold most British 2 cylinder DAFs have that problem. Is the fault with 2 small pipes one goes to the exhaust main silencer and the other too the left hand heat exchanger. If these are the problem. Slightly retard the timing and blank of the pipes. The car will run without them but will have a flat spot when pulling away and use a bit more fuel.

Being a 1966 model makes it a Mk1 so be sure to mention that as some parts are different to the later models. That also makes it a very rare car. I know of only one in the UK.

A few things to check does it have script daf badges mounted on the bonnet. A 2 spoke steering wheel, Small headlights concave not convex, and is it 6V. If its all of these things it likely is a mK 1. The reason I say this is because the 44 model was introduced in 1967, and their is a common misconseption about the 1966 on the chassis plate. This actually confirms that the car complies with the 1966 British seat belt standard.

Also have a look here

dafcars.proboards.com
that is the daf owners club forum which is fairly active and has a good knowledge base.

Lastly can we see some pictures please ;D

Paul

It is a rare part with hot spot pipes we do not have any up in derbyshire, plenty without hot spot pipes though. None of our cars have hot spot pipes.

Gladys now has 2 shiny new brake cylinders fitted. The system has been thourighly bled and I am pleased to report that the pedal is good and firm, although has a bit more travel than I would like.

A few things noted that will need attention and a couple of new parts needed.

1. Passenger side rear drum is a bit scored and as a result I would quite like to change it before the next lot of shoes.

2. Passenger side rear backplate has a seized adjuster that just wont free up no matter how hard I try. This produced much swearing when trying to refit the lower spring of the shoes, as I couldn't fully back off one adjuster. I think its gonna need a new one.

3. Drivers side front adjuster have seized and the head of the lower adjuster has sheared. I have some reccon front back plated that I will fit to solve that problem Tomorrow.

The above I think explains the long pedal travel. It does however stop perfectly adequoutely and straight and true . Brake efficiency is back within MOT requirements and at long last I now have a driveable car.

Can anybody help me with rear back plate and brake drum, both of which I can collect at the essex extravaganza if so desired or the RR Gathering

Well looky what ive been doing.

Ive taken the engine out seriously cleaned it. Replaced the flywheel and clutch main housing bearings. Its now turns lovely and smoothly. Then I stripped the front and replaced the crankcase oil seal. Whilst the engine was out I set the valve clearances and generally tidied her up.

Gladys is now back together again and drove home. The new clutch bearing has made a world of difference it no longer groans at idle is noticably smoother on the road and feels like it has more power. One slight side as I pulled away the oil pressure light came on. Only because I forgot to connect it and it has a distinctive jingling at certain revs so something must be loose.

Oh and did I say locating the engine and doing up that big bar at the front is a right pain in the !! and takes a lot of carefull jacking to align.


it aint easy to connect it on a 44 . But having a 2 post lift 4 people and a ten ton engine crane does help

I had to align the prop it engaged but didn't go all the way up the splines. as the spring at the back was compressed. The way to solve it was stick it up in the air, use a rubber mallet and then start her up and run her with the wheels off the ground that sorted it. Oh I also noticed my belt dimensions.

Left hand 36mm right hand 31mm me thinks its time to put those new ones on. Thats next weeks job then

Have a picture of a poorly Gladys sorry its the only one I remembered to take and is how she looked first thing this morning


one last thing refitting a forward hinged bonnet singlehandidly is somewhat difficult ;D

Sounds a LOT like ignition to me - especially with the backfiring, and stalling at junctions.

IMO, your ignition timing is too retarded - by maybe 5 degrees.

Was there any improvement last time you set the timing, followed by a deterioration? If so, it seems likely that the points are closing up.

Start by setting the points - preferably use a dwell meter rather than feeler guages, but feelers will work if you don't have a dwell meter.

Then turn the engine to the position where no.1 cylinder should be firing. If the static timing is, say, 5 degrees before top dead centre, turn the engine to 5 degrees BTDC. Connect a spark plug to no.1 plug lead, and let it rest on the cylinder block. Loosen the dizzy clamp. Turn the ignition on. Turn the dizzy in the direction of rotation to make sure the points are closed, and then turn it against the direction of rotation until the plug fires. Tighten the dizzy clamp. Test drive.

It might, possibly, be fuelling - it could be something like a blocked idle jet - but change ONE thing at a time, so that you know what the effect of changin that thing is. That way, if you do get it right, you can replicate that setting fairly easily.

Been tinkering today. Replaced a brake drum back plate and did a simple adjustment

So in proper Spunkymonkey of the DAF forum fashion here is a detailed how to.

First remove the hubcap for this a flat head screwdriver with a decent length shaft is ideal then slacken off the wheel nuts with a suitable breaker bar

Now jack the car up. I have used the factory jacking point as I know its strong. If you are not sure use the subframe.

Now remove the wheel completly. I like to use a half inch ratchet to quickly wind the nuts off

For safety it is a good idea to use an axle stand. Where mine is put is a good strong location and the stand is unlikely to slip under heavy torques

Now thats is done. Place a 17mm socket onto the adjuster nut, a 3/8 drive is ideal for this. Turn the adjuster untill the hub locks and back it off so that the hub just starts too turn. Repeat this for the other adjuster

Thats your brakes adjusted. Refit the wheel and do the nuts up finger tight. This is done so that the wheel goes on squarely.

Lower the car back to the ground and tighten the wheel nuts properly. This being a 3 stud wheel it doesn't really matter which order you torque up. On most wheels remember to torque across the wheel.

Then refit the hubcap and move on to the next wheel.



If like me you find that the adjusters wont turn on the next wheel you may need to follow these steps.

first remove the little circlip and withdraw the grease cap. Use a 24mm socket to undo the nut that holds the wheel on.

Now withdraw the brake drum be carefull not to lose the bearing and retainer or to get them dirty. They will pop out as you remove the drum. This is the front wheel bearing which you may as well inspect and replace if worn.


With the drum off you now need to disconnect the brake line. Undo this union and remove the flexi from the back of the cylinder. If you just try to undo the flexi you will collapse the pipe as it twists.

Now you need to dissasemble the brakes. So that it goes from this

to this

The 4 bolts in the centre need to be undone and then the back plate can be removed. There is a nut on the back that you need to hold otherwise your bolt will just spin. Once your done it should look like this. I cleaned that up as I don't like rust!

If like me your nuts wont turn despite copious ammounts of penertrating fluid and heat you may need to use one of these on the nut. You place it around the nut with the blade in the middle of a flat face and then tighten till the nut splits in half. Of course you will now need new nuts and bolts.

Now that the back plate is off you need to swap the slave cylinder onto the new plate. There are 2 10mm bolts holding it on.

Now bolt the new plate onto the hub.

You now need to reassemble the brakes and fit the drum. This is where taking a photo of how it looked before is handy if you are unsure. don't forget to smear the stub shaft with plenty of grease.

Now take the bearing and retainer and press them in. It must go in the right way around or the wheel will lock! This photo shows what it will look like if its the wrong way around

With the bearing the right way around it will press in flush with the drum. Then screw the 24mm hub nut back on tight but not too tight.

tap in the grease cap and refit the circlip. Now you can adjust the brakes up as before

Now refit the wheel as before and bleed the brakes and enjoy having a nice firm pedal again.

Hope you liked the report

Paul

Dipsticks often have a felt washer to stop oil leaks. More modern cars use an o-ring, but the dipstick and tube need to be designed for it.

How's the crankcase breather? If it's blocked that will make otherwise small oil leaks much worse.

The o-ring will need to be in constant compression, ideally radially (in other words a tight fit in a tube). If the dipstick is anyhing like the thin, bendy metal things fitted to old british cars you'd be better off with a felt 'seal' that only needs a light pressure due to it's natrual springy-ness.

That breather's odd. If it a one-way valve? And does it vent into the inlet somewhere?

The breather is a carter valve yes a one way and is designed to keep an even crankcase pressure. As this is a boxer twin. i.e. both pistons move together at the same time the crankcase volume is in constant flux. I have sorted the problem and it was related to the carter valve which had dislocated blocking the breather outlet to the air filter.

This pic shows the fitting. The valve again had dislocated resulting that time in blue smoke.

The black pipe is connected to the air box.

Oh and this may give an idea of just how much oil it was chucking out