:: Tuesday, May 1, 2012 ::
I went out to the garage to fix the Cerbera's exhaust, but it's a bit chilly today so I think I'll leave it.
:: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 ::
I went out to the garage to fix the Cerbera's exhaust, but it's a bit windy today so I think I'll leave it.
:: Thursday, May 3, 2012 ::
I went out to the garage to fix the Cerbera's exhaust, but it's a bit warm today, and I have other things to do while it's warm, so I think I'll leave it.
:: Friday, May 4, 2012 ::
I planned to get out to the garage to fix the Cerbera's exhaust, but I had to wait in the house till a builder man appeared, several hours later than he said he would. No idea of time, some people. I hate when that happens. By the time he's gone, it's a bit late, so I think I'll leave it.
:: Saturday, May 5, 2012 ::
I went out to the garage to fix the Cerbera's exhaust, but it's absolutely roasting in there, so I think I'll leave it.
No, sod it, I can't put this off forever. I get the car's backside jacked up on to a couple of axle stands, and get underneath for a look. The rags-and-cable tie repair is falling to bits - as I expected it to, but it got us there and it got us back. Good job it was pishing rain the whole way too, otherwise the rag would probably have caught fire. I was aware of that at the time, and was keeping an eye on it during our stops.
Anyway, I cut through the cable ties and remove a slightly scorched rag.
And now the repair. I was thinking of cutting this extra welded brace off, but the two halves of the exhaust are really wobbly like that. I decide to weld the bar back together again. Access is very limited, without a four post ramp, but I get there.
Then I put a couple of jubilee clips round the rubber hangers at the rear of the exhausts, to stiffen them up.
Repair completed! Well temporarily at least.
Then I start the car up and move it out of the garage. The car club meeting is tomorrow, and I think I'll take the S for a change. I've also got a few things I want to tidy up before S club in July (thinking ahead, see, you can't just leave stuff till the last minute after all) and its MOT is due, so I'd be better with the S at the house, rather than in the rented garage at the farm. So I'm going to swap them.
At the last minute I remember to take the new road tax disc for the S, and we're off. When I get to the farm, I switch off the engine while I collect the garage key, and have a blether with the owner, who I haven't seen for 2 months. Then when I go to start the car, I realise - I've left the keys at the house when I rushed back in to get the tax disk. Good job I came straight here rather than stopped for fuel or something - at least from here, I can go home in the S to get the keys. Better than that though, I've left a spare key at the farm, so I borrow that, and swap the cars over.
Last weekend at Chatsworth was a constant series of "Where's ma phone, where's ma keys" episodes, and here I am at it again. I think I'm losing the plot...
Anyway, when I get home after putting fuel in the S, I give it a wash and dry, then I notice that the cloth roof section is manky, so I clean that and the two roof panels, and then re-waterproof them with an Autoglym "cabriolet roof cleaner" set.
It's a beautiful wee car, this.
:: Sunday, May 6, 2012 ::
You might have noticed that I didn't report anything about a local car club meeting last month. That was because I didn't go. That in turn was because the date was changed at the last minute because the hotel we usually meet at, had a wedding on, and didn't tell us until about 4 days before. The club rearranged a date, but that didn't suit me, so I didn't go.
This started up a bit of a stooshie on our club forum, and I was apparently a bad boy for being pissed off about it. Fair enough.
Anyway, in the spirit of forgive and forget, I kept all that to myself.
So this month we all turn up, to be told that we're not meeting today either, because there's a wedding on. We have 15 minutes to get our unwelcome noisy cars out of the car park before the wedding guests start to arrive.
So we know our place.
Now I have always been pretty good at taking a hint when I'm not welcome (I've got used to it!) but others seem to be more thick-skinned. We arrange to "get the hell outta town, and don't spare the horses" and meet up at a wee car park at the David Stirling memorial (he was the man who formed the SAS, they wouldn't have taken any shit about their reunions being cancelled, they would have just stormed the place, tie-wrapped the staff and set up camp in the restaurant. I like their style).
Some poor bloke in a Land Rover, who has gone up there for some peace to read his newspaper, suddenly finds himself surrounded by a sea of TVRs.
After a few inquiries by phone, we decide to meet up at a hotel down the road, who serve up some really big plates of tasty proper food (not pretentious "haute cuisine" pish) and don't even take very long about it, considering they didn't expect us till 30 minutes before.
It turns out our regular hotel also has a wedding next month, so we're out then, as well. Unprompted by me, a decision appears to be made that it's time to look for another venue. My only contribution is that, whatever the club decides, my decision is made - the hotel won't be getting a penny more of my money. My main critic last month remains remarkably quiet.
Anyway, to more important things. There are 5 S Series in attendance today, and 4 of us are going to S Club in July. I think there's at least another 2 who aren't here today, so it sounds like we'll have a healthy Scottish contingent. Dave and I have been researching hotels, so we agree that with the others, who can now make their own arrangements.
And what about the S, I hear you ask. Well, it's just bleeding brilliant. Despite the threat of rain (and the actual appearance of snow to some fellow travellers) we travel there and back roof-off, along some great wee twisty roads, where the S really comes into its own. It's a go-kart. It sounds brilliant. It's great fun.
I have one niggle. The driver's door is catching badly again. I think I have maybe bent the body while the car was on stands getting the carpets replaced - I was in and out all the time, and I wonder if my weight has folded it slightly.
Apart from that, though, this is an utterly superb wee car.
I also meet Tom (regulars might remember me helping him to fix his alternator a couple of years ago) who has sold his Cerbera and has a few spares, which he has brought along : a Red Top battery, a starter motor, and a brand new alternator. Those will go into my garage stock (although the starter motor needs a bit of a refurb first).
:: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 ::
I finally remember to extract the alternator, battery and starter from the boot. The starter's reduction gear is knackered, it almost falling apart. The teeth are also suspiciously littered with shards of metal off a flywheel. Not my flywheel, fortunately. I dismantle the gear from the motor (using my new found skills) and clean all the gunge out of the motor body. If I buy and fit a new reduction gear, I'll have 2 spare starters!
Meanwhile, the battery reads 4 volts. I'll give it a charge and then see how it goes then. The charger is along at the farm though.
I spoke to Dave yesterday about the door gap, and said that I thought that the gap had closed while I was working on the carpets etc. He suggested that I might want to try loosening and re-seating the body on the chassis. I think I'll leave it for a couple of days though - the car has its MOT tomorrow and I don't want to rush putting it together again.
:: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 ::
It's MOT day. I take it back to the same local garage that has done every MOT on it over the last 9 years - so this is their 10th!
It passes, of course. There is an advisory though - the lower UJ on the steering column link (into the rack pinion) has the tiniest amount of play. Brakes etc are all ok, so I'm happy.
I have to take the car home and then rush off for a work meeting. When I get home from that, I order the necessary steering universal joint, and then put the spare Cerbera battery on charge, just to see how well it takes and holds its charge.
:: Friday, May 11, 2012 ::
The bottom steering column universal joint, that I ordered on Wednesday, arrived in the post yesterday. Before I fit that, though, there's another wee job that requires more immediate attention.
When I took the car for its NOT, the rear foglights worked, but went off themselves during the test, before they were switched off. I couldn't get them to come on again. The nice MOT man pretended not to notice.
So today I had better fix them. They only come on when the side lights or dip beam are on, and the ignition has to be switched on as well. The first check is are they getting power? I can start with the switch or the fuse. I suspect the switch so we'll start there. The switch doesn"t just pull out of the dash, it's held in place with the wood trim panel. So the first step is to remove the radio and then remove the central console.
Now I can unplug the wiring from the switch, then with the lights and ignition on, my trusty voltmeter says there's a healthy 12 volt supply. So the next step is to bypass the switch with a little piece of wire bridging the terminals, and the fog lights come on. I try twisting and shaking the wires but the lights stay on. So it's the switch what's knackered then.
I connect up the meter to measure the resistance across the switch connections. That shows that the switch contact is intermittent. This confirms the initial diagnosis.
I remove the 4 nuts holding the front panel on, and remove the switch. The switch was originally Triumph TR7, and a quick check of Rimmer Brothers website confirms that it's not available any more.
Adopting my usual policy of "well it's not working, how much more broken can you make it", I use a little screwdriver to prise the switch apart. It's a simple wee mechanism, with a little springy contact that moves with the switch lever. It's corroded and manky, as yiou can see at the point of the arrow. I clean it up with some fine wet and dry paper and reassemble the switch. Another test with the meter and it seems to be fine!
I put the switch back in the car and test it, then reassemble the front panel and refit the radio and centre console. Sorted!
:: Sunday, May 13, 2012 ::
I decided to try re-seating the body on the chassis, to improve the door gap. First I lift the car with wood blocks under the front wheels and axle stands at the rear, so that I can get the back wheels off. Then I remove the seat belt reels, and loosen the body bolts under the reel, the ine behind the back seat beside the tunnel, and the two in each footwell. Then I remove the bolts through the boot floor and lift the body slightly, and remove one of the rubber pads on each side. Then I tighten the boot bolts back down again, and that does seem to help the door gap, quite a lot. Unfortunately, when I tighten down the other bolts, it closes up a bit again, but it's still better than it was.
That took 5 minutes to write, and probably less to read, but it was a couple of hours of graft!
The bad news is that while I am doing that, I find a wee rust hole in the bottom of one of the arms of the petrol tank cradle. It would be easy to weld, but not with the petrol tank sitting on top of it!
Coincidentally, just as I write this, the Williams garage at the Spanish Grand Prix has just burts into flames. Despite my apparent "gung-ho" attitude on here, I am very cautious about fire. You can deal with all sorts of accidents, but by the time something catches fire, it's usually too late to do anything about it, unless you have a serious extinguisher.
As an aside, we were talking at the TVR meeting last Sunday about lifting cars, and I said that I fancy a two-post lift - or maybe one of those scissor lifts you can buy - I'm getting tired jacking cars up one corner at a time. Somebody suggested that I might be better digging a pit - and while that would be a lot cheaper, I have a concern, after what happened to somebody I knew at school (it happened many years later, but I knew him from school). He was working on a car in a pit - he had gone in the pit and then pulled the car over, and put blocks at the wheels. His overalls caught fire - they think it was static in his overalls setting off fumes that had accummulated in this pit. Whatever started it, he was burnt to a crisp before anybody could push the car back and get him out. I don't like pits.
Back to the petrol tank cradle. It's only a little hole in the bottom, and the tank is still held in place by the sides and top of the square section tube, which still seems to be ok. I'll have to fix it, obviously, but not just now.
Right. Next job, the steering column UJ.
First I jack up the offside front, and remove the wheel and the rear bit of the wheelarch.
Then, because I am turning into a forgetful old git, I photograph how it all sits when the steering wheel is at straight ahead. This is the top UJ, with the gaiter pulled back (there's no point recording its position with the gaiter covering it, is there?)
And this is the bottom UJ, which is in slightly poorer nick (as far as I know it's the original).
I also note that the slots in the two UJs are in line with each other - so the UJ yokes on each end of the connecting rod are "in phase". Apparently, if you get them "out of phase" (for example by putting the bottom one 90 degrees out on the splines) then the steering isn't smooth, as the connecting rod moves as the UJs turn. So I'm told.
With the steering straight ahead, though, you can't get to the clamp bolt on the top UJ, so I turn the wheel half a turn and lock the ignition. Then I undo the clamp bolt and disconnect the top UJ from the column.
Then after a lot of straining, I get the bottom UJ pinch bolts out on the rack pinion side. Then I remove the top UJ, pull off the gaiter, then refit the top UJ so that I can batter it with a hammer to get the whole thing off the rack splines. From there, it's pretty simple to remove the remaining pincj bolts, and knock the two UJs off their splines.
Before I fit the new UJ, I decide to tidy up the shaft, which I painted once but is now just a line of rust. So I get out the trusty angle grinder and wire brush, and batter all the old paint and rust off it.
A wee spray of grey primer and it looks a lot better. When that's dried, I spray it with satin black.
And once again, being a messy git, the garage floor is cluttered with stuff. I'm really not very good at putting stuff back while I'm working.
You've probably noticed, in a few of those photos, that the front of the chassis needs stripped and repainting. So does most of the rest. The car is now 22 years old (this week as it happens), and is fast approaching that stage where it's going to need to be taken to bits and rebuilt. If only I could get that done for myself... Anyway, I'm really not sure that I've got the patience (or the physical durability) to do it. For the first time, I am sitting here in the garage contemplating selling it while it's still going. I've only entertained that thought once before, and that was a good few years ago and I can't remember why that was - it wasn't during the chassis welding, or during any of the other major things I've done, it was some stupid wee thing that put me off.
But what can you replace it with? I could get one that's already had all the work done, but then what? I'd be worried every time I drove it. And what do I end up with? Mine is a bit grotty but mechanically perfect - everything works as it should, it just doesn't look nice. I know of others that look superb but half of the switches don't work, or they don't run properly, or something...
No, I think I'll stick with it a bit longer.
And finally, this month's Classic Car Mart magazine has a buying guide feature on the S Series, with a handy reference of things to look for if you're thinking of buying. Wonder where they got all that info?
:: Monday, May 14, 2012 ::
Painted bits all dry, so let's get to putting the steering back together.
First job is to try the two joints on the end of the shaft - and they are tight as an Aberdonian's wallet. I get a cold chisel and hammer it into all the slots to open them up just a shade, and that's much better.
So first I put a joint on each end of the shaft, making sure that I line up the slots so that they face each other along the shaft, as the ones I took off did. That lets me test fit the whole lot to the car to get and mark the orientation of the bottom joint on to the steering rack pinion. Unfortunately I can't hammer it on while the shaft is fitted, so I take the joint back off, knock it onto the steering rack, and then reassemble the shaft (again aligning the slots) and fit the top joint to the steering column, without moving either the rack or the column. Then it's a matter of putting in all the clamp bolts and tightening them up.
Here's the top joint refitted. I didn't put the gaiter back on because - well I forgot ok? I did notice that the gaiter had a tiny bit of water inside it when I took it off - it's almost impossible to seal the top end (against the bulkhead) because of the shape of the joint casting.
And this is the new bottom UJ. I realise that the position of both joints is different from the photos I took yesterday, but that's because yesterday's photos were before I turned the wheel a half-turn to get at the top pinch bolt.
And yes I know the chassis looks pants in those photos - it's not as bad as it looks, there's a lot of muck (and Hammerite ground off the suspensions arms!) sticking to the waxoyl. There are quite a few bare or flaking areas though, so that's a task I'll add to the list.
Everything seems to line up and the steering work smoothly through its full range.
So I refit the inner wheel arch, and then the front wheel.
A wee test drive confirms that everything is fine. I'm happy again! Panic over - it's only 7 weeks until S-Club and you don't want to be rushing things at the last minute, do you? That would be silly.
That reminds me - I saw a T-shirt down at the shops yesterday - the logo on the front said "where's ma keys? - where's ma phone?" Perfect for those rainy days at Chatsworth.
:: Saturday, May 19, 2012 ::
I discovered the last time I used the car (to go to the re-located car club meeting 2 weeks ago) that the passenger door won't lock, from the inside or the outside. The driver's door doesn't lock from the outside either (and it's been like that for a while), so my jelly babies are insecure. This of course makes the car completely impractical for jelly-baby-fuelled longer runs such as S Club.
So I need to fix it. I think the door lock mechanism probably just needs lubricating.
So the first step is to remove the door trim. This was described on Pistonheads as a "nightmare job" but it seems to me to fit more at the "piece of piss" end of the difficulty spectrum. Yoy remove one screw at the rear edge of the door, and then 4 screws holding the speaker on. Then you stick your hand through the speaker hole and remove one fiddly nut from the rear of the armrest. This is the only fiddly bit, but it doesn't take long. Then you pull the trim off its push-in clips, disengage the inside door handle wire, and the trim's off.
A quick check confirms that right enough, the mechanism is as dry as a bone. I spray on some spray grease (because it's dead runny but then sets in place, unlike WD40 or something that penetrates but then dries out). I also spray some ptfe lubricant into the keyhole. After some working of all the levers, the lock is freed up and seems to be working as new. Shut door, open door, shut door, lock from outside, lock from inside - all ok.
While I've got the trim off, I lubricate the window runners with rubber lubricant, and then lubricate the winder mechanism itself with ordinary grease. The window seems to be working a bit more freely.
Then it's a matter of putting it all back together again, checking that all the internal and external locks and handles still work, and it's on to the other side.
Once I've got the drivers side trim off, it's dinner time, so that's enough for today. I need to get a bit of wire to repair the internal door release properly - the wire broke ages ago and I replaced it "temporarily" with a bit of coathanger. It works fine but it sticks in the "open" position so you have to make sure you push the inside door handle back in, before you get out. I need a thinner wire - my welding wire isn't strong enough, I need a bit of bike brake cable or something.
:: Sunday, May 20, 2012 ::
It's a cracking day, so I'm out early to get on with fixing the drivers door. I haven'y got a bit of wire for the door handle though, but in the meantime, I remove the 4 tiny nuts holding the armrest onto the trim, that lets me get behind the armrest and disconnect the door operating cable from the handle.
Then I start lubricating the drivers door lock, and like the other side, after a bit of spray grease and some working of the locks and levers, I've got everything working again - well, the door locking from the outside is a bit intermittent, but it's been like that for ages.
I measured my bit of coathanger with a vernier and it's 2.3 mm diameter, then I have a drive to Halfords and then to B&Q for a bit of thinner wire to work the inner door release. No joy. So when I get home again I dig out the thinnest puniest wire coathanger I can find (2.1mm( and then cut the curly bits off and straighten it out, then rub along it with rough sandpaper till it's closer to 2mm. A bit of lubrication and it fits into the cable outer much better.
Then I bend the ends to make hooks for the door handle and the lever at the lock, making sure they are the right distance apart (15 inches on the old cable).
Refit the cable to the inner handle, then refit the armrest to the trim panel, after cleaning everything up properly.
Refit the cable to the lock lever, hook the trim over the top of the door (putting the window down helps), guide the wee door lock button through the hole in the door card, then knock all the pop-in connectors into the door and refit the screw at the rear edge. Then refit the nut on the rear of the armrest, through the speaker holes, and refit the speaker.
Check again that everything still works. Sorted!
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