Monday 8 July 2019

Various small jobs on the DHC

After the brakes and fittings were successfully sorted last week, it was time for some smaller servicing jobs. To start with the renewal of the fluid in the clutch system. Bearing in mind I had no assistance, I first emptied the reservoir on top of the clutch master cylinder with a large syringe and cleaned out all the rubber muck that had gathered there in the previous two years since I did this job. After that it was simply a case of topping up the reservoir and pump the clutch pedal till the reservoir was almost empty and then quickly close the bleed nipple. By the second time I did this, the fluid coming out was clean and without any air bubbles. Time to quickly close the bleed valve again and switch to another minor task in that same area. Check the oil filter for leaks.


During the renewal of the oil and the oil filter a few weeks ago, I encountered a small problem while removing the old filter. Trying to unscrew the filter resulted in the adapter plate turning too! Turned out that the filter seal was stronger than the adapter plate’s seal. Resulting in the plate turning underneath the mounting bolt. After unscrewing the filter less than a ¼ turn broke the seal between filter and plate. In theory this could have dislocated the seal between adapter plate and engine block. So just to be sure I fired up the engine and let it idle for a few minutes. An inspection afterwards revealed no leaks. Though the area could do with a proper clean to get rid of some older oil and road grime …
Next job was bleeding the brake system. As with the clutch system I had to perform this task without assistance. Though it is slightly more time consuming this way it all went pretty smoothly. Starting with the rear brakes, I filled the brake fluid reservoir, opened the bleeding nipple and pushed the brake pedal down  a few times to start the fluid flow. Keeping an eye on the fluid level in the reservoir, I continued until clean fluid without air bubbles was emerging from the bleed hose. The same procedure was successfully repeated with the front brakes, though I have to admit that lying alongside the car to keep an eye on the bleeding hose and pressing the clutch or brake pedal by hand is fairly hard work!


While working on my cars I usually store the various parts that are coming off in the boot. And that is when I noticed that one of the screws to fix the number plate light was missing.


Originally they are fitted using small plastic screws. As these were all badly damaged when I removed them in the context of the car’s restoration I decided to use small steel screws instead. But to prevent damage to the light armatures I didn’t tighten them down fully. In combination with a slightly worn spring clip meant one screw managed to escape. To prevent this from happening again I pinched the clips back together and decided to place small rubber O-rings under the screws’ head to prevent the armatures from cracking. Will see how it holds now.
Another fault that came to light while working on the brakes were the dust covers for the hand brake levers where they pass through the back plates.


As you can see from the picture above they were well passed their prime. Nothing to worrying were it not that these were renewed only last year. So another (be it small) job to grace the to-do-list. But not before finishing of the work by cleaning the wheels in order to get rid of some road and brake dust. Hopefully I’ll be able to take the car for a drive tomorrow!


No comments: