Tuesday 22 May 2012

Wiring electric fan

Hi
Last day home today so not a whole lot done as other jobs on but still managed to get some of the smaller jobs out of the way including a couple of mods suggested by Terry B.
First job was to get the fan wired up so a trip to Halfords to get a roll of 17amp wire and the other parts I needed for today's jobs. The instructions are pretty straight forward although I had a Electrician friend have a look at it with me and its only 2 wires so pretty easy. There is an option of either running the power directly from the battery terminal so when the ignition is switched off the fan stays on until the engine cools and the other option is to wire it in after the ignition so it is on and off with the ignition. I chose the battery option as I have been told that a lot of heat is generated by these engines and I shall be using this as a holiday car and am hoping for sunny hot days all the way. 
The fan can be used to suck or to blow by either having it before the radiator or after in the engine bay, if a sucker as I have it the live goes into the bottom terminal and for a blower then into the top terminal and this reverses the rotation of the fan so it is important to get it right. To test that it was sucking I put a piece of paper onto the front of the radiator and connected the fan switch to the battery then used the thermostat as a switch.
You can see the paper being sucked onto the radiator and even standing to the side like I was you can really feel the air blowing.
Once happy I made up a bracket and wired the switch up to the battery.

While at Halfords I also picked up 3mts of 15mm radiator hose and started removing the old hoses, it was a bit difficult getting to the worm clips under the dash section but I used a socket with an extension and a wobble end. The new hoses look good and I have slightly altered the run to bring them a little bit more away from the rocker covers.
The other jobs I managed to get done where the mods suggested by Terry, the first was to add an extra earthing cable from the body to the battery earth wire so as not to rely on the earth going directly through the body.
I ordered 2 meters of heavy gauge cable and this was more than enough to go around to the battery cable, the connectors came from a local car electric supplier for a few penny's. I decided to solder the connections on instead of crimping and tie wrapped neatly all around.
The earth is at the bottom of the shot in the loop of the brake pipe, not the best shot as a bit dark down there.
The other job was a mod to the drive shaft, the mod is to fit grease nipples to the couplings to stop them running dry, I had a few grease nipples in my bits and bobs gathered over the years but didn't expect them to fit but they went straight in. The threads aren't metric but look to be about 1/4" BSW, I don't have a grease gun at present so was unable to grease but will acquire one next time home.
Well back in two weeks and hope to have the carb fitted and see what to do with the exhaust.

see ya Paul

Monday 21 May 2012

Fitting Engine & Gear.box

Hi
Well the engine and gearbox are finally in place and mated together, unfortunately the plans I had for getting the gearbox fitted did not go according to plan. 
I had already fitted the engine and had the gearbox mounted ready to fit to the engine but because I'm a bit weedy I could not do it by myself, so I had arranged for a friend to come round this morning to assist in lifting one side of the gearbox while I had the other side.
You can see in this photo just how close the bell housing is to the clutch plate, should have been easy.
Unfortunately my assistant did not turn up and at 1030 I gave him a call and woke him up, all I can say is it must have been a hell of a party. So I had no assistant and had to change my plans.
My new plan was to remove the engine and gearbox and mount them together on the work bench then lift the car and roll it under, easy.
I started removing the wiring I had fitted then took the weight and removed the mounts then lifted the engine into the air. The gearbox was on the trolley and was rolled forward to where the chassis rises to give room to roll it out. The car was then rolled out of the garage and the engine dropped onto the work bench
The gearbox was put in position on the workbench but again I couldn't hold it in position so I had to dismantle the hoist and re-assemble around the other end of the bench to take the weight of the gearbox.
Once the weight was taken it was a simple job then of mating the two and with the bolts in just drawing the two together.
I looked in the Haynes manual for the correct torque for the bell housing but could not find a specific so it got a Paul torque, very tight.
While I had it on the bench I thought it would be a lot easier to fit the starter motor on the bench, only 2 bolts and 5 minutes to fit.
I had to support the gearbox with another strop to keep it level and prevent the oil draining out of the back end, I have had to top the oil up as I lost a bit when getting it up and down under the car.
While I was in the middle of this the postman arrived with my new resilient mounts, these are from eBay and are for a Landrover. They are a lot better quality than the one's I had bought before and also a lot harder, they are around a mil in height smaller than the originals. I don't know if this will affect anything but I shall make some shims at work and if I find a problem I can always fit them.
Now time to attempt the fit.
I covered my trolley in a piece of ply to take the weight and lowered the engine gearbox onto it, I don't think the wheels liked it but it did move with a bit of effort. The work bench was dismantled and the car rolled in and it was time to lift. I was a bit dubious about this but I really didn't have any option and there was no way I was going to lower the whole assembly down from the top and try to wiggle it into position.
The first problem I had was that the trolley had to be between the legs of the hoist which meant the hook of the hoist would not reach the lifting point because of the length of the engine/gearbox, so the gearbox would have to go under the front of the car as far as possible first. The front of the car had to be jacked as far as my jack would lift then the axle stands were put under the side frame and the jack removed. Once the gearbox was slide under the front the hook was attached and the front of the car lifted.
The engine was then pushed under and centered before lowering very carefully down.
I didn't take it all the way down as I still needed to get underneath to the gearbox, so the stands where put to there highest settings and the front lowered onto them, once down I then raised the rear and set the stands under the side frame to raise the whole car.
Now to lift and position the engine, the engine and gearbox had to come up together so the jack was put under the back of the gearbox and then a little lift on the hoist then a lift on the jack and I kept going like this until in position.

I then fitted the new rubber mounts to the engine mounts and both side's where bolted into position, then the gearbox mount was bolted on and that was it. No mistakes and no damage just slow and careful.
I now (again) started fitting the ancillaries, the starter motor and alternator got wired up, the radiator hoses got fitted, fuel pipes and I moved the heater hoses into position so I could measure them up and get some tomorrow from Halfords.
The gearbox reverse switch and the speedo cable went in, typically I could not find the circlip for the speedo so I have measured it, 25mm and will have to get a hold of a new one.
I managed to get more than a few scratches on the gearbox during all of this movement so the tin of stonechip came out again and I gave everything a good spraying.

Well a lot done today but still a number of jobs to do before this section of the re-build is finished.
The mystery of where part of my wiring loom has been solved, it is sitting in a box with the old carb as it was the carb loom that attaches to the temp pickup and alternator and is not required now so no need to fit now. (Thanks Terry)

See ya Paul

Friday 18 May 2012

Gearbox Extension

Hi
Very pleased to get the engine fitted but now the work begins of getting all of the ancillaries fitted and finding them.
I also got an email from Terry B saying that the Land Rover engine mounts fit quite well, so I got straight on and ordered a set, will just have to wait for them and get them fitted.
Its strange but I have searched every wire in the engine bay and just can't find the part of the loom that fits to the thermostatic sensor which also contains the earth for the alternator, I have it in a photo of it with a label on each wire but I still can't find it, very strange, will sleep on it an look again tomorrow.
I have made a bracket for the fan controller, I had bought a tee connection to fit the thermostat into instead of slipping it into the hose and risking a leak.
I have also fitted the bottom hose and a number of the electrical connections including the engine earth, I sanded down to bare steel and when fitted coated with silicone grease for protection.

The gearbox extension arrived this morning and it fits great, there was no instructions with it but it didn't take long to figure it out.
First was to remove the plastic sleeve that fits in the selector housing and to knock out the tin cover on the back of the housing.
A pair of pliers and it lifts straight out, this is then fitted to the same section but on the extension.
The rear cover can be left off but I wanted a little more protection from the weather so I have modified it to fit over the rod and into its original hole.


You can see in this photo the extension fitted with the gear lever in position but without the modified cap fitted (just above the output shaft), you can see the reason for modifying it as the whole area is open to the weather and would soon gunge up so I shall grease all of the exposed areas and keep them that way.
The extension has brought the stick 5" 125mm nearer to the driver and freed up a lot of space in front of the radio, I shall cut the new hole and weld or rivet a patch over the old hole next time home.
This is it fitted, I have sealed the join with silicon and thread locked the bolts and used spring washers as the last thing I want is it coming off while driving.
I was a bit worried about the freedom of movement in the selection of gears but as you can see in the video it nice and easy.
Just a reminder of what came out.

I also fitted the fork and the new release bearing that came with the clutch kit and yesterday gave it a coat of stonechip.
I have the gearbox under the car now and up in position, I used a jacking strap through the gearbox hole and lifted the gearbox until I could fit the car jack into the center and lifted and pushed it into position. I now have it sitting on stands as I quickly realised how foolish I was to try fitting it alone as I could damage the input shaft if it was to fall. So I have text a friend and hopefully he'll be round on Monday to help.

Well that's all for the weekend as I am off to my nephews wedding tomorrow and I am expecting a hangover on Sunday so no work on the car.

see ya Paul

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Fitting Clutch Plate

Hi
Well another day and another mistake, yesterday that is.
I received an email from Terry B and the reason the clutch cable was different from fitted was, as many of you reading this will all ready know, is that the Kallista does not use a Ford cable. Silly of me thinking that it would be that easy, anyway I am putting in an order with Bruno for other parts next month and will order one to fit. The reason for changing is that the proper one just slides out of the flange and is easier to replace as I have been told that they are prone to breaking.

Today was engine fitting day and this was not without its own problems.
Luckily it was a nice and sunny day again so the car went outside, the crane hoist was rebuilt and I got the engine off the stand again. First job was to top up the sump with oil and so far so good no drips to be seen.
I first needed to fit the sandwich plate onto the engine, to hold it in place the gearbox locating dowels need to be fitted unfortunately these were still in the bell housing and were so tight I could not remove them with out damaging them so I left them in the housing. For the time being I have held it in place by fitting two of the bell housing bolts but will tie it in position so as to remove the bolts before fitting the gearbox.
Next came the flywheel, I had marked the position it was originally in so as the balance drilling's would be in the same place. The torque for the flywheel is as stated in the Haynes manual around 69Nm, tightening to this takes some doing when the engine wants to turn with you.
I went round evenly and alternately to fit it nice and square.
The clutch was next in line and the pressure plate and flywheel got a good clean with brake cleaner to remove any grease or oily fingerprints. The friction plate was put into position with the alignment tool keeping it central.
I had forgotten to buy new stainless bolts so I cleaned up of the old one's and used these, the pressure plate was positioned and the bolts tightened evenly and diagonally to a torque of 20Nm as stated in the Haynes manual.
Now it was ready to go in.
Just a reminder of what came out.
I centralized the hoist and raised the engine then pushed the car into position under the hoist as best I could get.
Then slowly and carefully lowered it down, I soon realised that with the engine mounts in position it was going to be to wide so I removed these and lowered away. Surprisingly I got it into position with only a bit of paint scrapped from the radiator; amazing.
This is where the problems started, firstly the drivers side rubber mount was lowered into its hole in the mounting bracket then I tried to do the same on the pass side, unfortunately because of the angle of the brackets in relation to the fitment on the engine this is not possible so the mount had to be unbolted again. I first fitted the rubber mount then re-bolted the bracket to the engine, lowered a little until in the correct position and tightened it all up. Great I thought all done; until I took some off the weight from the hoist and surprisingly the new rubber mounting fell to pieces.
The mounts I bought were made by QH and looked very good quality but the molding of the bolt was only surface deep.

I have been in contact with the supplier who wants me to return it so he can contact QH as he says this item is one of his best sellers and he wants to find out what the problem is.
Luckily the whole of the car was in the garage so I was able to get out and find new mounts, no joy, the only manufacture of these mounts is QH, the guy at my local auto shop went through every spares book he had and searched on his computer but could only find the QH mounts I already had so I was a bit stuck.
So I decided the only option I had was to re-use my old ones, but as I had to cut one of them out to remove it I had a bit of a problem, so I decided to drill right through and fit a new stainless bolt.
I cleaned up all the rust and replaced both sides as I did not trust the other QH mount even though it may have just the one that was dodgy.
Well that's the engine fitted, I have the jack underneath to hold it in position until the gearbox is attached, next I shall re-position the crane to the flywheel end to position the clutch into the correct position for sliding in the gearbox input shaft.
Unfortunately I have been told that I have to go clothes shopping tomorrow as we are off to my nephews wedding on Saturday and I'm not allowed to go in jeans and tee shirt. Hopefully I'll get some work in during the afternoon.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Fitting non Panther clutch cable & Sump Pan

Hi
I have been waiting in all day for the sump pan to arrive and got on with some of the little jobs while I was waiting.
A few jobs on the back bulkhead needed finishing off, the fire boards that had the damaged holes came first. I had ordered a box of over 500 stainless steel self tapping screws and they were all to small for the 4mm holes drilled for the rivet so I tapped out the holes 5mm and used stainless bolts with penny washes to secure the boards.
I had also ordered a clutch cable from Burton Power which cost around £15, I ordered this when I was away and was unsure about the length although I new the one fitted was so excessively long that even if I ordered one to short it would still be ok. Not only was it short by 100mm but also the end that fits to the pedal mechanism was different, the one I ordered was for a Mk2 Granada but instead of a button on the end it had a ring which was to big for the connection. I have looked on eBay at cables for a Capri, Granada and Cortina and these all have the ring ends, so unless you know exactly which one to order you may also end up with a different cable than fitted.
It really wasn't a problem all I had to do was to modify the holder on the cable and file out the hole on the clip..
The original cable had some damage to the exterior, whether or not the inside was damaged was a chance I didn't want to take so it was on the list of replacement parts from the beginning.
Just in case anyone is in the same boat I have taken a few photos of what I did
As you can see the ends have different stoppers fitted.
The flange ends also need to be altered, to remove the black tube end I used a small hacksaw to cut around the end and pulled it off.
The steel washer flange on the original needs to be re-fitted, this is for strength and also for the holes to be drilled through to match the holes in the bulkhead.
To remove the old one is a simple matter of drilling out the pop rivets and removing the clip, this can be done either by removing the screws from the fuse box plate and lifting for access or squeezing into the footwell and pulling the clip.
The rivets are drilled out.

You can see that the ring of the new cable is larger than the hole in the clip.
A little bit of work with the file and it will just slip in nicely.
The cable can now be slipped through the hole, the clip can be connected to the ring and the pin positioned. The flange is attached to the bulkhead, I have used self tapping screws to do this instead of rivets for the easy removal and changing in the future.
And that's about it
The sump arrived at around 1345 which is excellent service from Tickover as I only phoned around 1100 yesterday and here it is.
As you can imagine a sump pan from a 30 plus year old Capri would be in a bit of a state, it had a number of dings and dints from speed bumps and was very dirty inside, Clive at Tickover had bashed these dints out and carried out a water test, he assures me that it is water tight, soon see.
First job was in the blasting cabinet and it came out a different sump, a little sanding on the rough parts and then a test fit.
This is the early sump pan and is supposed to be fitted using a cork gasket set but as I have paid a lot for the later rubber gasket I am going to give it a chance. The reason for not fitting the rubber to these pans is that they don't have the buttons on the sump flange that fit into the gasket to prevent it squeezing out so I have used most of a tube of Hylomar on the flanges just to make sure. Before fitting I gave it a coat of etch primer then 2 coats of stone chip, I used a heat gun between coats as I am still hopefull of fitting the engine tomorrow or Thursday or Friday etc etc.
I bolted the pan down nice and evenly, I have also used the support flanges that were fitted to the original sump in the hope that it will spread the torque evenly and prevent to much squishing of the rubber gasket.
It only squeezed out a little so fingers crossed, Once all tight I have given it a coat of gloss black to match up with the other parts and a little more protection.

Well I'll see how far I get tomorrow.

see ya Paul

Monday 14 May 2012

Bonnet catch & Pilot bearing removal

Well nobody said it was going to be easy.
I think the only thing that went well these last few days was the bonnet catch
It was rusty and rather oily but overnight in a strong solution of Bilt Hamber and the rust and dirt just lifted off, all I needed to do was to run it under the tap and rub with a scouring pad.
I then gave it a spray of primer then hand painted and it looks as good as new.
The rocker covers on the other hand were a disaster, they were rubbed down and primed then rubbed down again then sprayed with red hammerite but no matter how light I sprayed it still ran, so I spent most of Saturday sand blasting it off. Maybe it was the primer I don't know but its a trip to the powder coater to get them done.
Sunday was a no work day although I had good intentions of getting some work done but I bought a new ipad and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to work it and of course watched the Grand Prix.

Today started a bit better, the plan was to get the engine of its stand, fit the pilot bearing, fit the flywheel, fit the clutch and finally fit the engine.
I got the car pushed out and decided to align the wheels a bit better, I had a long section of steel bar and set it up on stands to adjust the fronts.
I have managed to align both sides without a problem, this is just to get me to a garage to to have it done professionally.
With some room in the garage I dragged the engine crane out from behind the shed and got it built up, I had bought new strops for a safer lift and looped these around the manifolds before bolting them to the engine. The engine lifted easily and I turned the crane to get the engine onto the bench when I noticed the drips of oil on the garage floor. I had noticed oil on the sump pan the other day and thought it was from the sump plug which I forgot to fully tighten and just cleaned it of. Unfortunately it was not the plug that was leaking, I'm afraid the shot blaster at the powder coaters got a little carried away and blew a hole through the sump which I never noticed.
You can see in this photo the oil dripping.
And in this one the internal hole.
I suppose I could have welded a patch on the outside or even better the inside but instead I gave Tickover a ring and they had a sump pan on the shelf for £24 plus p+p which should be here tomorrow. I don't know what condition it is in but it ain't going back to the powder coaters shot blaster I'll paint it myself. The only problem I foresee is that it is the old style using a cork gasket, I have a new cork gasket & bearing seals but will look at why you need a cork one and not re-use the rubber one I have fitted already. After all it was around £24 for that gasket.

The next problem was the fitting of the pilot bearing, I have watched lots of videos on the removal of the bearing which looks relatively easy
The idea is to use the hydraulic pressure of the grease being slammed behind the bearing pushing it  forward and out.

This is the original bearing in position, just in front of the rollers you may notice a black plastic ring, this keeps the rollers in position.

I have packed the inside with grease and used the pilot bearing locator from the clutch alignment tool to compress the grease. On the first hit the plastic roller location ring broke up into a half dozen pieces and squeezed out with the grease, so it really had to come out now. After around 30 mins of bashing the grease it still had not budged, I used around 3 different tools to hit the grease all perfectly fitting without any movement to show for the effort.
I was going to resort to a chisel but thought better of it so I got my dremmel out and with a long grinding bit I ground out one area until I was through. I did this with a great deal of care and only had a few scratches internally, it was then just a matter of cleaning out the grease and grinding swarf and popping in the new one.
I have knocked the bearing in to same position as the original (after photo taken) and shall grease it before fitting the gearbox.
The engine is once again mounted on the stand and all of the sealant cleaned of the block and gaskets at the ready, just have to await my new sump pan.
So all my plans have gone to nothing but I still hope to have the engine fitted this time home.

see ya Paul