:: Diary - April 2004 ::

:: Saturday, April 10, 2004 ::

TVRs are bastards. Awkward, stupid, cantankerous, contrary bastards.

Permit me to illustrate.

1. Normal procedure to bleed a clutch:
(a) assemble some brake fluid, a small length of pipe, a small spanner and a small bottle.
(b) place car on ramps
(c) open bonnet and remove cap from clutch fuid reservoir. Top up reservoir.
(d) clamber under car and place pipe on bleed nipple on slave cylinder. Put other end in bottle with small amount of brake fluid in it.
(e) loosen nipple
(f) Have assistant pump pedal until all air bubbles are expelled.
(g) tighten nipple
(h) tidy stuff away.
Job Done! Total time 15 minutes.

Unless of course it's a sodding TVR, in which case the sequence is:
(a-minus) go to Halfords and spend £13.99 on a "one-man-bleeding-kit" that says you don't need an assistant! There's an investment!
(a) go home and assemble some brake fluid, a small spanner and a small bottle as above.
(b) place car on ramps.
(b1) Remember that the car doesn't fit on ramps because the front valance is too low. Get two big dids of wood to reduce the slope of the ramps.
(c) open bonnet and remove cap from clutch fluid reservoir. Top up reservoir.
(d) clamber under car and look for slave cylinder. Eventually locate it in a gnaecologically small space between the chassis and the gear box.
(d1) attempt to place pipe on bleed nipple on slave cylinder. After much fiddling at full fingertip extension I manage it. Put other end in bottle with small amount of brake fluid in it.
(e) loosen nipple. Supposedly.
(e1) stupid thing won't move, (1) because it's rusted too tight and (2) because the hydraulic pipe is in the way and I can't get a spanner on it, in the letter-box size space I have available.
(e2) go and find an old spanner the right size, but of much shorter length. After much hunting I find a 35-year-old multi-spanner I bought to fix my bike to do my paper round. It fits!
(e3) it still won't move - it's too tight for such a short spanner to get enough leverage.
(e4) I decide that only way to get the nipple loose is to remove the hydraulic pipe that's in the way, and get a bigger spanner on. After a bleeding age turning it by about 1/100th of a turn at a time, during which circulation to my lower arms stops completely, I get the pipe off. At which point the system empties all of the fluid I topped up with in step (c) above, all over me. Ah well at least it's flushed the old dirty fluid out!
(e4) whack a bigger spanner on and at last, loosen the bleed nipple.
(e5) encounter an enormous amount of difficulty getting the hydraulic pipe back on, and into the threads in the cylinder. Consider calling out AA. Or the local garage. Or a gnaecologist with a socket set. Or just an ambulance. After a series of gradual pipe-bending - try it - bend - try it - bend etc etc ad infinitum ad nauseam for over an hour, I get the bastard back together again.
(supplementary!) Attach up one-man-bleeding kit as per instructions. It won't seal properly. Footer about with seals and washers and caps and seals again - it still won't seal properly. Launch stupid bleeding kit into neighbour's tree. Back to Halfords for a bit of clear pipe and some more brake fluid. Then back to (c).
(c) top up clutch fluid reservoir.
(d) clamber back under car and place pipe on bleed nipple on slave cylinder. Put other end in bottle with small amount of brake fluid in it.
(e) loosen nipple
(f) Have assistant pump pedal until all air bubbles are expelled.
(g) tighten nipple
(h) tidy stuff away.
Job Done! Total time taken 3 and a half sodding hours. Bloody stupid sodding cars. They are obviously manufactured by hanging a heater matrix on a bit of rope and building the car around it using once-only snap-together fixings that don't ever come apart again (without breaking). A sodding nightmare.

I have a wee test drive. Wheeee! Brilliant! I love this car!

:: Sunday, April 11, 2004 ::

Weather v nice in morning, therefore a morning in memoriam of the famous Count Manfred von Hoon, patron saint of the pointless circular drive.!

After about 10 miles, I notice a funny smell - I recognise it as the smell of cooking Hammerite (from when I did my rocker covers). A brief wander around the car confirms that it's coming from the rear off side wheel. I touch the brake drum through the wheel spokes, only a tap to confirm that it is indeed bloody hot. My handbrake is sticking on, on one side. Oh dear.

While I am stopped (in a public car park) this bloke wanders over and asks me about the car. I show him around, start it up, always make sure I am closer to the keys than he is... he is genuinely interested though. While he is chatting another couple turn up and start wandering round... Then a family of 4... before I know it I am fielding questions about the car in an impromptu car show! I am quite happy with this (a) because I am enjoying their interest and (b) because it gives the brakes a chance to cool before I drive home.

I return home and jack the car up and take the offside wheel off and strip the brakes. Full details of the procedure are here.

I also found that the wheel cylinder was leaking so that has to be replaced as well.

By the time I got the brakes to bits it was after 6 pm so I was too late to go and buy the bits I needed. The saga will therefore be continued tomorrow!

:: Monday, April 12, 2004 ::

Start with a trip to Halfords, to buy one set of brake shoes and a wheel cylinder for a Sierra 2.3 Diesel. They have 2 different parts listed for wheel cylinders but they look exactly the same.

First putting the wheel cylinder back was a nightmare - the same pipe-in-thread hassle I had yesterday with the clutch. I got there though!

Putting it together was pretty routine, apart from pinging a spring over my shoulder and having to go to Halfords to buy a new one.

Again, full details are here. .

I found the other side even worse - the wheel cylinder was leaking really badly, and the pipe was rusted into the cylinder. I had to take the pipe off as well. Another wheel cylinder and a foot of brake pipe required.

Then the nightmare of bleeding the air out of both cylinders. I'm still not sure if I got it right - it seems to be drawing air in quicker than I can bleed it out...

A short drive to check, and it seems that the handbrake cable needs to be slackened off to compensate for the new thicker shoes.

Of more immediate importance, however, is the fact that the passenger window opened ok but now won't close. So I can't lock the car. Or keep the rain out. So I have to fix that too.

Door trim off, jiggle electrical connectors to motor, spray window channels with rubber and nylon lubricants and it works again!

Sometimes my genius astounds even me!

:: Saturday, April 17, 2004 ::

I finally got around to a job I have been planning for ages - I fitted the gas strut to the bonnet! I had to cut a tiny hole to get a nut on the back of the plate, using one of those mini-drills used by modellers. It works!

:: Sunday, April 25, 2004 ::

You might remember that on 20 December I mentioned casually in passing that the car collapsed in a cloud of steam, and the more avid readers may also have noticed occasional references since then, to changing pressure caps, bleeding cooling systems etc, in attempts to cure ongoing cooling problems. I haven't mentioned the number of times I have had to top up the water, every time I go anywhere.

So today it was a superb sunny day, so I blatted off to the TVR Club meeting, the long way. After a nice meeting and lunch, I headed home (another long way!) but forgot to check the water first. After a few miles the temperature needle started to climb so I pulled into a garage and had a cornetto while the car colled down, so I could put more water in. It took me 2 cornettos to get home, but not before I diagnosed that the water was pishing out the radiator.

Got home and removed the radiator, and found a nice impression of the plastic fan shroud, in the front of the radiator core, which has worn through the core and holed it. Bugger...

You can't just buy replacement radiators, they were specially built by TVR - so I need to find a specialist to rebuild this one.

:: Monday, April 26, 2004 ::

Off to work with the radiator in the boot of my car. A few phone calls and I find a wee bac street specialist about 10 minutes from work.

Drop off the radiator, he doubts if it can be repaired, so we agree on a recore.

:: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 ::

Pick up the radiator - an excellent job!

When I get home, I decide to refit the radiator, but first I realise that I need to move the fan, or else it's going to wear through this one as well. The fan is mounted on two rods, with very rusty bolts - I can't move them. I see that the rods are slightly bent, and to straighten them I need to get very dirty - a job to leave for another day.

I also notice that the radiator mounting frams (which is part of the chassis) needs a clean-up and repaint as it has surface rust coming through - again a job for another day.

I am in a dilemma - do I just repair the radiator and take it to bits later to clean and repaint the chassis, or do I do it now while I have it in bits? I decide to be sensible...