:: Diary - March 2010 ::

:: Saturday, March 6, 2010 ::

I've booked the Cerbera in for a service today, so it's up bright and early to take it down to Hexham.

And the car runs perfectly all the way there! To be fair, it does get a bit hot on hills, but seems to cool down when the engine goes faster (even in a lower gear) - I'm starting now to think water pump, but to be honest, it's impossible to say because the temperature is all over the place...

That's even allowing for the fact that the trunk road people have closed the A68 just north of the Scottish Border, and the diversion route goes along bloody miles of crappy wee roads. Even this early in the morning, progress is slowed, firstly by huge lorries lumbering along these roads, and secondly by the majority of drivers who seem never to have learned how to overtake, but follow on for mile after bloody mile, despite straights you could land a jumbo in. Eventually I blast past the whole sorry procession.

That makes me about half an hour later than I meant to be, so I miss the train I meant to get. I miss the next one too, because it leaves at a different time from what the web site says... Nevertheless, it still only takes me two and a half hours to get from Hexham to Edinburgh.

Only to find that I've just missed a bus - next one is in half an hour, so I decide to walk a bit just to pass the time.

Eventually the bus comes along and heads for home, at a speed that would have had my non-overtaking compatriots earlier, seething with impatience. Now I know buses aren't fast, but this one must have a rubber band instead of an engine - it's glacially slow. As a result, the last 15 miles take 2 hours in total - not much less than the first 120.

Then I go along to the farm to bring the S back to the house. Again, it starts first time and runs like a sewing machine. Back home and into the garage, ready for the club meeting tomorrow.

:: Sunday, March 7, 2010 ::

Well, I took the S to the local TVR Car Club meeting today. First time she's been driven since October - not because she's "laid up" for winter, but because the Cerbera has been occupying my time...

Anyway, the S started first turn of the key. If only everything in life was as reliable as a TVR S... Edged it out of the garage, gave it a quick wipe over with speed detailer, stand back and admire. Ok the wheels are a bit shabby-looking, the interior looks like it's been burgled, but still, very nice.

What was even more amazing, though, was that I had almost forgotten how good these cars are to drive. The meeting was 40 miles away, and even before I had finished the first 5 miles to meet up with Mike and Jim for our convoy, I had fallen in love with my little car all over again.

Ok, it's nowhere near as "point and shoot" fast as the Cerbera, not as comfy - but on the twisty roads we used to get there, the S was just fantastic! It handles like a go-kart, it sound great, and I don't have to look at the temperature gauge every 5 seconds!

These are brilliant little cars, don't let the "big boys" in their Cerbs and T-cars look down their noses at their older brethren - there is no doubt that the S and the wedge cars not only were exactly what TVR needed to be making at the time, but are still superb, enjoyable and fast cars in their own right!

The Cerbera is away being serviced (and cooling system diagnosis and repair, finally!). I am in no hurry to get it back anyway - I have a list of things to do to the S now, to make up for a neglected winter!

It's good to see Stewart along in his wedge...

and James in his S - another recruit for S-Club in the summer!

:: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 ::

Not the greatest day in my TVR ownership experience!

First I get a call from the Cerbera doctor. They are trying to track down the overheating problem. They've found a couple of tiny leaks from hose clips, tightened them up and filled it and bled it and it seems to be fine. Yeah well I've been there too, but it needs more of a test. Next step might be to replace the metal coolant pipes but that's likely to break the temp gauge so I'll need one of those as well. Or the radiator might be blocked... They are going to run it around and track the problem down.

To cheer myself up, I decide to get the S ready for servicing. I get it jacked up to a reasonable height, and take the front wheels off. It's too late tonight to start any serious servicing, so I start with visual inspection. Brake pads ok, no shock absorber leaks, but wait what's this?
Two of the front offside spring coils are touching - and a further check shows that the spring is broken. I've learned to spot broken springs: this is my fourth broken spring in the time I've owned the car! The break is clean, not rusty at all, so it looks like it just happened - probably on Sunday.
I also notice that the offside rocker cover is leaking slightly - I tighten it down, as the bolts are surprisingly loose.

The rest of my visual inspection for tonight, concentrates on the chassis, where all that work I did to the outriggers 3 years ago has been battered away by flying stones, and needs to be done again. The main chassis members are still protected by paint and waxoyl (which has attracted all sorts of muck to stick to it so it looks rubbish even although it's ok). I think Hammerite is too brittle for the outriggers, I need something more flexible...

:: Thursday, March 11, 2010 ::

Another call from the Cerbera doctor. He managed to replicate the overheating but hasn't tracked down the cause. He thinks it might be partial blockage of the radiator, which would make a lot of sense. It's the next thing to change - if it's not that, it gets really expensive...

:: Friday, March 12, 2010 ::

First thing for today is to order another pair of springs for the S. While they're not cheap, they are lot easier to pay for than the likely repair cost of the Cerbera.

Then it's on to the service, which starts, as all services should, with an oil change. Not a lot to comment on - pan underneath, sump bolt out, filter off, new filter on, sump plug back in then refill with oil. Dawdle.

Then change the spark plugs. At this point I discover that my ratchet isn't working properly, so I decide to repair that. Take off the wee circlip, pull out the mechanism, and find that the teeth are covered in grease and dirt, I clean up the teeth, spray grease the works, put it all together again and it works!

Right, back to the car, where was I - oh yes, spark plugs. Again pretty standard - plugs out, gap new plugs to 0.9mm, and install. I do notice that the old plug in cylinder 6 is a bit blacker that the others, but not too bad.

There's a big connector that links the engine wiring loom to the rest of the car. It sits under the coil in the left hand side, and carries all the signals from various sensors, back to the ecu. It gets grotty, and I was planning to cut it out and sokder the wires straight together, When I look at it, I think that if I cut the connector out, the remaining wires will be too short and won't reach far enough to connect together. Instead I take the connector apart, take the connectors out of the temperature sensor, and clean them all with electrical cleaner and leave them to dry.

Finally for today, I have a go at adjusting the bonnet, which isn't sitting right on the driver side. After loosening the hinges, jiggling it about, resetting the lock pin, it's no better. At least it opens more easily though - it was sticking badly before. Oh well...

:: Saturday, March 13, 2010 ::

Right - need to get the front shock absorbers off and take off the springs, ready for changing when the new ones arrive next week. The nuts come off the mounting bolts ok, but 3 of the 4 mounting bolts seem to be seized in the damper bushes. Someone (ahem...) mustn't have greased them enough when putting the dampers on... No amount of hammering will move them. I try heating them, I try penetrating oil, but they are not for moving. After an hour and a half of trying to save time, I give in and decide I'm going to have to cut them out.

So instead, I decide to polish a wheel. Yes, just one, but it takes me two hours, and I need to get to the shops for a cutting disk for my angle grinder. Bloody £1.98 it costs me - it's a rip-off. Not the most expensive problem I've faced this week though!

Then I start the engine just to circulate the new oil I put in yesterday, and notice that it sounds a wee bit clattery at the left hand rocker. Further examination shows that one of the exhaust manifold bolts is loose so I tighten it up. That's better!

Then I go in to check that I can get the right size of suspension bolts, before I cut up the old ones. I also have a look for bushes for AVO shock absorbers, but there's nothing on-line, I'll have to phone them on Monday.

:: Sunday, March 14, 2010 ::

After procrastinating for hours, I finally don the safety gear and get the angle grinder out. One of the damper bolts is out, so I have three to cut through - and each bolt will need 2 cuts, one each side of the damper eyelet.

I have to use a 4 inch disk to fit between various bits of suspension, which means there's only an inch of disk sticking out past the grinder body - and half of that is taken up by the stupid design of clip used to hold the disk guard on.

You have to be very careful to cut through the bush and the bolt, without grinding away either the damper eyelet or the mounting brackets on the car. Weaken a suspension mounting and you're truly buggered! You also have to be mindful of where the sparks are going to go (ie not all over yourself!). With those thoughts ringing in my head, added to the fact that I've never actually done this before, I start the first cut. Easy does it - more haste less speed, you have to get this dead right. Unfortunately, as I feared, the grinder itself hits the eyelet, before the cut is right through. Stop, turn the bolt, start again. After 3 or 4 turns and cuts, the first cut is through.

Now that I know it works, I make my way round the other bolts, until the dampers are off.
Then I use spring compressors to get the springs off - and there's yer actual broken spring.
Then I drive the bushes out of the eyelets, ready to install new ones, leaving this pile of chopped up rubbish. Even the bush that I didn't have to damage to get it off, has an elongated hole and is technically knackered, so I don't think these plastic bushes are particularly great. I'm told you can get spherical bearings to fit these dampers, so I'll ask about that when I phone them tomorrow,
The other option is to give up on these dampers and buy a new set, complete with springs - but the dampers work ok, there's nothing wrong with them, so I'll stick with these at least until I've paid off the loan I'm going to have to take out to pay for the Cerbers's service and repair!

:: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 ::

New springs, bushes and bolts all arrived today, so might as well fit them eh?

Getting the bushes into the eyelets is like getting a sumo wrestler into Woody Allen's wet suit. The idea is to cover them in grease and then press them in with a vice. The reality is that as soon as you start to squash them in the vice, they shoot out sideways at various random angles. After 6 attempts, resulting in the bush ricocheting around the inside of the garage, I finally get the first one in place.

Having got the knack of how to line them up, how much pressure to put on the vice, and how to "persuade" the lip through the eyelight with a blunt screwdriver, I get the other 3 in a lot easier.

Then push the metal inner sleeves through, and that's the bushes done.

Back out with the spring compressors and refit the springs to the dampers.

Don't have time to fit them to the car tonight though.

:: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 ::

The cerbera doctor phoned today. He's replaced the radiator, refilled and bled the system... and it overheated exactly as it did before. Next step is the water pump, for which the engine has to come out of the car. Which isn't cheap, but I have no choice, I need to sort it.

Better news is that I manage to refit the front springs / dampers to the S, remembering, of course, to grease the new bolts first. Lots of grease.

I need to polish the rest of the wheels, and finish the service, mainly changing the fuel filter and cleaning the air filter, plus visual inspection of the rear brakes etc.

:: Thursday, March 19, 2010 ::

Another call from the Cerbera doctor, who has prepared estimates of treatment costs. They range from "fuck's sake that's expensive" to "No sorry I was mistaken, NOW we're talking expensive" to "stop now before I need private health care myself".

We agree that the first step is to remove the engine and check if it's the water pump. If it is, then we'll replace that and put the engine back. The cost of that alone is scary though.

If the pump is ok, then the fault is in the engine somewhere: a crack, a head gasket, a displaced liner, something like that. I suspect myself that is more likely to be the problem, but we'll see. The cost of that (an engine rebuild) is a lot more. About double.

The other option is to admit defeat now, and replace the engine with something else - the Chevy LS3 engine fits (with a bit of chassis work, plus various other mods to just about everything else in the engine bay). The advantage is that you get a bullet-proof engine that does tens of thousands of miles between major services, and is also more powerful. The disadvantage is that it doesn't have the distinctive Cerbera flat-plane V8 sound, and isn't original so might affect resale value. The cost of that, would be more expensive than an engine rebuild, but less expensive, in the long term, than rebuilding the engine twice.

So the question is - do I intend to keep it? If it's a keeper, it might be worth spending more now. If not, then I need to get it running so that I can sell it.

There is another option, which is to put it back together and sell it as it is. The cooling system would certainly last through a test drive. But I just can't do that - many would, but I wouldn't like anybody to do that to me (although it's possible somebody already has...) so I am going to fix it first.

So - decision time!

:: Saturday, March 20, 2010 ::

Back to the relative sanity of the S, and wheel polishing therapy. At 2 hours a wheel, it's a lot of therapy!

I still have one to do, so I should finish that tomorrow. I hope to God it's not raining, because I need to have a drive!

:: Sunday, March 21, 2010 ::

Last wheel polished! I put them all back on the car and take it down off the stands. It looks like it's going to rain butI want to have time for a test drive.

The car is going well, but seems to be a wee bit "flat" as if it's misfiring slightly. When I get back to the garage, I change the distributor cap for one Kevin gave me 2 years ago (thanks Kev!). By this time the rain's a bit heavier so I'm not going out again.

I still have to change the fuel filter, so if thast's blocked, it won't be helping!

:: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 ::

Right, decision time on the Cerbera - repair or replace the engine?

Well, it needs a bit of work to find out what the problem is, so it could cost a small fortune before I even know what the final repair cost is! Also, I think I would prefer to keep the AJP engine in the car - if I decide to sell it, it will have cost me less, and might be worth motte as an original, because the AJP8 is the heart of the Cerb - the only car it was ever fitted to in production. If I decide to keep it, at least I'll get a bit of use (I hope) before I have to make the same decision again.

So I phone the garage and tell them to remove the engine and check the pump - if it's that, then fix it. If it's not, and they have to strip the engine further to investigate, then that's what we do. No yank motor (not yet anyway!).

:: Saturday, March 27, 2010 ::

Today I'm going to finish the service on the S.

First job is the fuel filter. Jack the car up, take the wheel off. Loosening the fuel connections needs a spanner on the end of the filter to stop it turning - and why oh why do they have to make the two connections different sizes? To stop the terminally thick from putting it on the wrong way around, I suppose.

Anyway, doesn't take long, then run the engine and check it isn't leaking. While the engine's running I notice that the exhaust is blowing from that old favourite, the joint under the sump. One of the two pipes is almost impossible to seal because it's been distorted by hitting the ground, and I couldn't get it round again. I'll need to buy some exhaust paste or another repair kit.

Then it's on to the air filter. Brush the dirt off then spray it with cleaner, leave it 5 minutes then hose the dirt out from inside, and hang it up in the sun to dry.