More 10CR preparations

In my last post I mentioned a stiff gear change and a "not-yet-life-threatening-oil-leak" from somewhere. Let's start with the gear change. Initial thought was that the spring clip on top of the gear box extension needed some adjustment. But it turned out to be fine, with the gear lever aligning perfectly in the 3rd and 4th gear plain. Only the pivot points needed a good clean and some fresh lubrication. And of course the gear lever knob needed tightening up. All rather straight forward! And far too easy, so to appease my mind I checked underneath the gearbox for any leaks. And indeed there again were some traces of oil. But with the cross member removed the plug in the oil galley was completely dry. But the M12 mounting bolt was completely covered in oil, including the thread. Strange to say the least! Only explanation I can come up with is that the hole for this bolt is machined to deep as a result of which oil can enter from the top? Decided not to take any chances and after a good clean everything was refitted with some sealant between all part, just to be sure!

The "not-yet-life-threatening-oil-leak" turned out to be coming from the front of the engine. The front pulley oil seal to be precise. And it was worse than expected. So it needed addressing sooner rather than later!

I had some doubts about this job, prompted by the fact that due to the custom fan shroud the working space is a bit restricted. But I needn't have worried! The pulley's mounting bolt came of at the third attempt with my trusty 38mm ring spanner. And the pulley itself could be removed by hand!

With the pulley of the engine the oil leak immediately became clear. There was a very pronounced groove worn into the pulley's mating surface by the oil seal;

I could have put in a new seal at this stage and hope for the best! But that would probably mean doing the same job again after the 10CR! And as I do have some spares stacked away at various places I decided to replace it with one of my new spare pulleys;

Left me with removing the old seal (easy with a large screwdriver) and fit a new one. This turned out to be less easy as space is limited to use a hammer properly. But after some 15 minutes of gently tapping, the seal was in place;

And with the front of the car on stands again I took the opportunity to check the font bearings. They were fine, no funny noises and no play at all. Final check point was the alternator. During the last drive I thought it was becoming noisy, pointing to worn bearings. But with the fan belt removed, the alternator spun freely without any noises and no play at all on the bearings. Another item I needn't worry about for the time being (knock on wood!).

Preparations for the 10 Countries Run

At last I started in earnest with preparing the DHC for this year's edition of Club Triumph's 10 Countries run. I did some general maintenance in the previous months and also very important, took her out on a more regular basis, to see what needed rectifying. As mentioned earlier there had been some traces of coolant leaking from the infamous slot underneath the waterpump. But as the miles went by that seemed to become less and less. But to make sure everything was fine or find out what needed addressing before the 10CR, I took the car for a longer trip into Germany two weeks ago. Which was very pleasant;

But the main reason of course was to determine whether I needed to address the water pump or not. If so that work could be combined with fitting the refurbished SU carburettors. But when I got back from this 450 kilometre round trip the waterpump was leak free. But also the carburettors had behaved in such a manner that I won't touch them till after I return from the 10CR. Due to worn spindles the idle speed sometimes is a bit high. But that is their only fault at the moment. Blipping the throttle lightly will settle the engine at a fairly steady 900rpm.

All good then? Not really! After stopping a few times I heard a not very familiar sound of a spinning gear trying to engage a stationary gear when starting the engine. Clearly something wrong with the starter motor. Nothing to worry about as I did have a spare high torque unit stacked away as a spare somewhere. But to this day I still haven't found it. But predicting  I would find it  as soon as I ordered a new one, that is what I did! And I have to say it arrived from  England within a few days. So yesterday the spanners came out to change the starter motor. All very straight forward and with the old unit removed from the car, I put it alongside the new. At first glance they are identical;

But they are not! Where the old (Wosp) unit on the right needs the original spacer (UKC 6163) fitted, the new unit doesn't.

Another item that needed addressing was the clip for the map-reading-light, which is mounted to the passenger door. The original plastic clip broke of somewhere during the previous (2015) edition of the 10CR. But as I had hardly driven the car since, I had forgotten about it. I had noticed it earlier in the year but on shorter trips it wasn't very annoying, and the replacement clips I had in mind were impossible to purchase locally.

So after returning home from Germany I immediately fired up the computer for a search of the world wide web. And sure enough within minutes I had ordered the correct items. But it took the clips almost two weeks to arrive! And judging from its appearance, the package went through quite an ordeal somewhere on its journey from England to The Netherlands!

Luckily the contents of the package were undamaged. On the left the broken Hella clip and on the right one of the steel clips. Exchanging the clips was only a few minutes work, despite the fact that I had to partially remove the door card to gain access to a spring clip I fitted to the back of it, to give a better mounting point.

The final "problems" I encountered during the last trip was a slightly stiff gear change. As the oil level is correct I'll have a look at the gear-box' extension. Also the (wooden aftermarket) knob on the gear lever had come loose. And there is an (engine) oil leak somewhere. Not life threatening yet, but enough to deserve some attention. But these are for the coming two weeks!

FHC resto nr. 58; Heater rebuild Part 2

It's been rather quiet concerning the restoration of the '76 FHC. And as usual this was caused by other commitments that needed my time, attention or money! But that doesn't mean I have been completely idle to that respect. For instance I picked up some parts for the heater's rebuild last week, a new heater matrix. The fact that it was a month overdue was completely compensated by its looks:

As you can see it is made from aluminium, using an of the shelf matrix block and normal ø16mm pipe ends. As such the infamous original heater matrix seals will be replaced with normal heater hoses and clips. And the two alloy pipes in front of the matrix will be used to construct a new passage through the front bulkhead. But not completely certain how I will design that, more on that later! At least I can now start with assembling the heater, though that might have to wait till later in the year ...

But also been busy with searching and collecting ever more parts that need to be cleaned and galvanised;

The original plan for this was to drop all the parts of @ Habraken in Best to put them in the oven and have them shot blasted in preparation for the galvanising process. This was prompted by the fact that during the restoration of the DHC some parts were not cleaned well enough before galvanising, thus giving a rather poor surface finish.

But due to the fairly high temperatures used to strip paint, grease and road grime of in the oven (±425°C), there is a real chance that parts made from spring steel will get damaged by the heat. So a problem for the springs, clips and some of the parts containing springs. So I needed an alternative method to get the grease and grime of these parts. Enter the dishwasher! It won't come as a surprise that I had to wait some time before I had the house to myself long enough to use the dishwasher's most thorough program! But the result was pretty good;

But as with the heater, further progress here will have to wait till after my holidays!