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!

To leak or not to leak

While putting the final touches to the DHC's engine bay already two months ago I also gave the water pump a quick look. And at the time there were clear traces of coolant from the infamous slot underneath the water pump. A tissue wedged in the slot would be soaked within 24 hours. But during a circa 300 kilometre tour over a month ago all was normal. When I set of in the morning there surely was a leak. With the tissue stuck in there again being completely soaked in coolant. But there was no significant drop in the coolant level in the header tank. So I decided to ignore the leak and enjoy the driving. And when I returned home some 5 hours later the slot in the engine block was completely dry. Even after the engine had cooled down there still were no traces of coolant in that area. So it looked like my initial thoughts on the problem were correct: due to the cars idleness the mating face of the water pump's seal had corroded slightly, thus causing the leak. And using the car more often should get rid of the corrosion and the leak.

But when I wanted to take the car for a spin last Friday evening, a quick inspection before I set of again showed a tiny trace of coolant from the slot. But more worryingly, the coolant level in the header tank had dropped considerably. But then I remembered that while changing the header tank recently, the hose between this tank and the radiator developed a leak (hose clip slightly loose). And since I hadn't topped up the coolant. So I did it now! After which it was time to enjoy a lovely evening of topless driving.

Of course I kept a keen eye on the temperature gauge. But I needn't have worried. The temperature remained rock steady in its usual position. And a close inspection of the complete coolant system carried out this afternoon showed no leaks and nothing wrong with the coolant level.

So hopefully there's no need to replace or recondition the water pump. But I have made a mental note to use the car on a more regular base in the time remaining for Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run in September. But before that event there are two essential items that will be replaced. They were dropped of at a friend's place for renovating, a few weeks ago because the ones currently fitted to the car have rather worn spindles. As a result of which they have become rather difficult to tune and synchronise. So time for a shiny new set ...

Photobucket P500

Almost a month ago, while reading through some online forums I noticed that all the pictures I posted there through Photobucket had been replaced with an image stating:

"3rd party Hosting has been temporarily disabled + to unlock your account visit: Photobucket.com/P500"

First thought was that one of my two accounts had exceeded its bandwidth again, so the pictures would reappear in a few days time. But they didn't. And both accounts were down. So after visiting their site and some searching on the internet I found out that they had changed their Terms of Service. As a result of which linking a picture from my Photobucket account to my weblog or a forum is not permitted anymore. Or in their words:

"Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. For example, using the tag to embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website such as a forum, auction listing, blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting"

But if I would be so kind as to pay an annual fee of $ 399,- for each account, I could continue with their services. Still wondering what business case PB was dreaming of when they came up with this change ...

But their services have been going downhill very rapidly over the years. With their site being very slow, and with ever more annoying and irrelevant pop up adverts. As a result of which linking pictures to my Blogger account had become quite an ordeal. I have been toying with the idea of changing to another photo host a few times in the past. But the fact that all pictures posted on various forums and on my weblog would be lost, kept me from doing this.

But now PB has been so kind to make that decision for me. As all pictures posted on forums are not visible anymore there's no way back.
Remains the time consuming task of restoring my Blogger account using Google Photos. Currently working back from the last post, and at the time of typing these words my weblog has been restored back till September 2012 and one of my two PB accounts has been cancelled. Added bonus of using Google is that linking pictures to my Blogger account is much easier and quicker. As is their site!

Edit: both my Photobucket accounts are now cancelled.