Last Post of 2012

Well, Its been a while since I posted and I have been feeling guilty.

Its not that I haven't done anything, its just that, well, I haven't actually finished anything!

Having got the diff. and the gearbox done, thoughts naturally turned to the engine.

As you can see, its in a bit of a crappy state, however, I was assured when I bought the car, that the engine had been rebuilt (come on, he was a nice guy and I believed him OK?). It might look a bit crappy, but closer inspection suggests that the carbs might have been rebuilt.

No, really look its got new gaskets and the linkages look like they were repainted

Anyway, I knew it was at least going to need stripping to the point I could confirm whether or not it had been rebuilt. And I had to paint it so, off we go. Ancillaries (well most) stripped:

Now, was good excuse to buy two pieces of kit I have always fancied. An engine stand and an engine crane.  Sad, yes, maybe but you try working on a bloody great Cross flow lump without them! Flywheel came off pretty easily and surprisingly cleaned up really well with a grinder mounted twisted wire brush. These things are the dogs. They really shift rust!

So, armed with two new toys, I managed to get the engine onto the stand (don't ask, believe me, there IS and easy way, it just took me about half an hour to find it).

So I put the brush to work cleaning the outside of the engine block before dismantling it.

Comes up well. 

This picture also shows that the engine has new core plugs; another reason to believe that it was rebuilt.

Here is another later picture showing how well the casting comes up with the wire brush

So, great, the block cleans up well. But rewind a moment. Taking the head off I got a bit of a surprise. The bores were nicely honed and unused, but, the waterways were filled with flaking rust and as soon as I pulled the head off, all the rust in the head fell out into the bores. Bugger.

So I was satisfied that the engine had been rebuilt, but I was going to have to strip it anyway!

Anyway, I pulled out the pistons and cleaned everything up. I gave the waterways a good poke out. Then I painted the block with one coat of POR-15 and two coats of black engine enamel and put new core plugs in.

So there we are:

I painted up the front and rear oil seal carriers and replaced the oil seals, just in case. Then I put the bottom end all back together with new water pump. I even got the ancillaries powder coated and replaced them, along with a new(ish) fan. But, and here is the really embarrassing bit, when I stood back and looked at it..............





I didn't like the colour.




Yes, well, its not that it doesn't go with the curtains or anything, its just that, well, I really didn't want to open my bonnet and have everything under there black.

So there I am. Bottom end cleaned and painted, ready to clean up and paint the head and I am bloody well going to take all the paint off and do it again in Light Admiralty Grey. Anyway, I was beginning to worry that I hadn't stripped it right down, checked the oil ways and everything and verified what cam was used (yes, that looked brand new too).

So Christmas holidays, I have a pot of Light Admiralty Grey sitting in my kitchen, staying warm. I have a new compressor in the garage waiting to be tried out and I am just waiting for the POR-15 grey to turn up so I can get on with it.

Just to finish on a positive note, here are the nicely powder coated ancillaries

 

Happy Christmas

Gearbox

So, I decided to leave sorting out the top diff mount until the engine and gearbox were in. That way I can be sure everything is aligned properly.

The next logical step was the gear box, but first a very quick diversion by way of the prop shaft, which I did months ago, whilst waiting to get around to something else. It was pretty rusty, but I cleaned it in petrol and then dismantled the U/Js and threw them all away. I am not going to keep anything like that, whether or not it looks OK. The de-rusting was quite satisfying as it eventually came up very well. I used DeOx-C gel, as I don't have anything big enough to soak the whole shaft in. Once the whole thing was painted with gel, I covered it in Cling Film and left it overnight. In the morning I washed it off and scrubbed it clean, rinse and repeat a few time and hey presto! no rust. A couple of coats of POR15, and install new UJs and that's it .

So, gearbox....

What's to say. The box was in a filthy state, but cleaned up well with a wire brush on the grinder. With all the surface rust gone I set about dismantling the box for inspection. I was a bit nervous it, but I read through the Haynes manual and jumped in. I had decided to renew the oil seals and bearings whether they looked OK or not, since the box has been hanging around for at least the last 13 years, and I've really no idea of its history. However, the more I took it apart, the more I realised that this box had hardly been used. I think it must have been rebuilt shortly before the car was taken off the road.

I did find some oddities: One of the gear selectors appears to have been replaced the wrong way around

According to the Haynes manual and pictures of the box I found on the web, only the reverse selector boss faces forwards. 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th selectors face backwards. What the effect of this is I don't know. Also,  the 1st/2nd gear selector was badly worn. I couldn't find any reason why this might be, so I can only imagine that it was not replaced at the rebuild.

The casing was full of sludge though!

In the end the only other wear I found was some chipped teeth on the reverse gear.  After scratching around I eventually found someone who stocked them. The price was a bit of a shock. £80 argh!, still,  in for a penny as they say, so I ordered one. After getting the box back together one came up on E-bay for £15.

On examining the lay shaft I found that it was poorly machined:

There appears to have been a fault in the steel before machining. This fault would sit immediately under the roller bearings at the rear of the lay shaft so it had to be replaced. New one on top.

There was a silver lining  to this minor cloud. Re-assembly of the lay shaft requires that you re-assemble the shaft and needle bearings on a short, dummy, shaft to stop the rollers falling out, then drop the shaft into the box and push the real shaft through from the outside, thus pushing the dummy shaft out the other end and keeping all the rollers in place. I now had a dummy shaft for the lay shaft re assembly. I just needed to grind off one end to size!

Anyhow, I replaced the bearings and the front and rear oil seals and reassembled following the manual, and it all seems fine.

Finally Back on her Wheels

OK, two posts in one day but I really wanted to give this a post all of its own.

After a lot of thought I finally decided to get new wheels for the car. I had the old ones checked out and they were a) completely shot and b) all different off sets!!

I opted for silver painted wires, 15 X 5 (although originally the car was fitted with 4.5Js). These are available with the correct TVR Vixen offset from MWS. so here she is on her wheels for the first time since about 1999

A small update to the above post. Having to get the car out of the garage to get some work done on the house, so I took the opportunity to trial fit the body:

This is the most complete NPY11F has been since about 2000!

More on Diffs

So, when last I wrote, I just had to find the right bushes for the diff and then get it in. That was in 2 months ago. In that time I have tried two sets of bushes and still not too sure I have the correct ones. They are Triumph TR6 rear inner suspension mounts. The picture below shows how the old ones protrude slightly front and rear:

The ones I removed were 1" diameter and 1 3/4" long. The first set I got were slightly too short and fitted front to back exactly. I took those out again and fitted slightly larger ones, which have the correct tube length, but once installed the rubber protrudes a little more that he originals.

On top of this, looking at a few images on the web (- unbelievable I know but I know of 3 or 4 images on the web of Series one diffs!!) some of them have the bushes not protruding at all....anyway. I am leaving it as is for the moment. More later.

So, I got the diff mounts all sorted and installed the diff, which is not at all an easy job!

Its not immediately obvious from the picture, but the diff is tilted. It took a fair bit of giggling to get it to fit at all. Looking at the top mount you can see that fitting the diff in place causes it to bow:

In fact the top mount of the diff casting is about 3/8" below where it needs to be to fit properly:

And what's more the top mount appears to have been cut way off centre in the factory:

Which drags the diff over to the side when the top mount is bolted up. Solution.....

Make a new top mounting bracket, and use some alloy spacers, which is where I am at the moment.

I did make progress in other areas in the last two months.

The drive shafts were a bit odd. One was completed rusted and not savable, although one of the flanges was fine, so I had to saw that off. Interestingly the universal joint cups had been brazed into place. I wonder why? Paranoia?

The other drive shaft was fine, or at least so I thought. I bought 1 new drive shaft and a new drive flange and then set about sorting out new U.J.s.

First drive shaft went together fine, but the original shaft appeared to be different to the other. It had a more robust collar and the arms were farther apart. To cut a long story short, it took me an age to find U.J.s that fitted this shaft. They were a special size that was difficult to find and cost a fortune. Ultimately it worked out only slightly more expensive to buy a complete new shaft, new U.J.s and two new flanges (yes, the flanges were a different size too) than to buy and ship the UJs. So, now I have a complete set of new shafts. The only part remaining from the old set up is one flange!!.

In which we almost complete the diff. and get hold of some seats

This has been a frustrating few months on the TVR front. I managed to get the diff back together after getting the internals inspected. What should have seen a a simple strip down and renovation of the output shafts turned into a bit of a saga. The castellated nut wouldn't come off, so having spent days soaking them in WD40, I gave up and went back to the engineers. I felt like a bit of a plonker presenting them with two nuts to undo, but pride was swallowed and here we are:

The bearing came off easily with a three legged puller

The new bearing is a relatively common size of snap ring bearing, and was simple to track down, but the leather seal in the aluminium casting took me weeks to find. The suppliers had two left! so I took both

The seals have to be soaked in oil over night to swell the leather, then it can all go back together. The flanges were cleaned up, treated with Deox-C gel, wrapped in cling film and left over night. Two cycles of this and the rust was completely gone. Then they were painted with POR15.

It only remains to find the correct size bushings and the whole thing can go back on the car.

The major success of the last few weeks, though, has been tracking down a pair of genuine TVR Vixen S1 seats:

They need a bit of work, but I am really pleased with them.

Ouch

I remembered that I posted a list of what I replaced on the front suspesion, so heres a very quick post to summarise what I replaced on the rear:


1 replacement (second hand) upright
New bearings both sides
New oil seals both sides
One new drive shaft flange
New pivot bar both sides
New Shocks and springs X4
New polymer bushes on upright and rear track arm
Replacement backplates X2
New brakes, springs, adjusters and slave cylenders both sides
New brake drums X2.

Fortunately the diff has a clean bill of health, but wll need new bushes and oil seals all round, so thats the next job.

Brakes, Wheels and Diffs

Spring is in the air and, since the garage is now somewhat clearer after I winched the tub up on beams, I feel more inclined to get on with the car, so, a quick round up of the the last couple of weeks tinkering.

I managed to finally get the drivers side rear upright and brakes sorted out:

and so then I was able to pull the handbrake on, fit the wire wheel adaptors:

(yes, I know the spacers on back to front!)

Then, I could offer up the (rather tatty) wire wheels that came with the car. ...............

Yes, well....the splines on every single one of them were shagged, which was a bit of a blow, and means I have to re think the wheel strategy. I was going to get the original wheels refurbed, but since the splines have had it, it isn't worth it, its cheaper to buy a new set of painted wires. But its cheaper still, to switch to period Minilites or Compomotive MLs, but that would mean changing all the wheel bolts.....can't decide.

In the mean time I am going to investigate the diff. Here it is:

The front end is MGB

The back is a TVR special casting. Note the 3 mounting bushes. The drain plug refused to come out, so I draied it via the fill plug. The output shafts, complete with flange, oil seal, bearing and oil seal carrier comes off first, after undoing the 4 nuts on the oil seal carrier and then gently tapping the shaft free. Before you do this you must mark up the left and right parts. The shafts are slightly different lengths and they have to go back the right way around:

This is the output shaft with the bearing, seal and carrier and flange attached. Finally the nuts surrounding the rim are undone and off it comes. All but two of the studs came out with the nuts seized on, so will proably have to be replaced.  

The diff appeared to only have a small amount of play and when stripped, it looked like the innards had been rebuilt before; some parts of the casting had gouge marks in, but the gears and bearings looked fine. No bits missing, so I think these marks may have come from previous damage and rebuild. Also some of the flanges were sealed with red sealing compound and some with gasket paper. I will have to get it inspected to make sure nothing needs doing.

Odds and Sods

Just a few bits and bobs that I have got done in the last month or so.

I rebuilt the second rear upright as per the first. The only point of note is that, on this upright the splines on the drive flange was worn and so had to be replaced. The suggested part is a TR4 gearbox overdrive flange part number 58948. These are apparently no longer available, but re-conditioned ones are. Having ordered the re-conditioned one it turned out to be in fact, brand new, but of a slightly different design. The outside diameter was slightly larger and the depth of the female splines was slightly less. This meant that an althernative seal had to be sourced and a modified washer used as a shim under the castellated nut to clear the ends of the male splines on the quill shaft. It will be some time before I find out whether the new set up is properly grease sealed and so on, but it looks OK. In this spicture you can just see the slightly different design. New one on top.

The upright is now attached to the car, so I now have more or less got a suspension unit in each corner. There is still some tinkering to go, but it won't be long now till I can get my hands on the diff and drive shafts and get them installed.

Having got the tub lifted, I could now get at the handbrake fittings and fit the handbrake and cables and then attach the brakes and new drum.

I think I will probably get that drum powder coated.

Next step is to get the other side complete and then add drive shafts and diff. I am held up because part of the brake adjuster has fallen out and disappeard, so I have to order a new one! I know I will need to replace one drive shaft as its rusted beyond rescue and seized. The flanges are fine though. The other needed only surface rust cleaned off and a lick of paint.

A Bit of Space to Work

I havn't posted for a while, because progress has been non existant since Christmas.

Getting at the suspension fittings and so on, under the tub, is difficult in my small garage; space is limited. Several people had suggested raising the tub up on beams to be able to work easily underneath; a neat idea, but the roof space of my garage is quite low, and hides some really horrid wiring. So I took the opportunity to rewire the garage, and then lift the tub. It took me about 4 weekends in total but here are the results:

I am not 100% happy with it yet and I think I may need an extra beam at the rear but it gives me much better access to sort out suspension, brakes, diff and so on, which is the next step......