Project The Austin 2dr 1100 story - Part IV - Now in sharleys hands

[SiC]

I have read that methylated spirits work quite well for flushing through.

[sharley17194]

Dont worry about the pressure its the ride height that is measured with the engine in, there can be pressure differences left to right. As for the bulging thats normal. You are doing a cracking job keep up the good work!!!"

If you take one of these:

£28 delivered next day. Search water pressure tester on eBay/Amazon. I ordered this one in particular as I could have it delivered to a local Amazon locker guaranteed next day for the same as the red ones that have no set date to be delivered.

And one of these:

Schrader 556 - cheapest in the UK I found here: https://www.lasaero.com/products/article/N04HO75SL
£38 delivered. Usually used for coupling to aircraft tyres to inflate them. Made by the actual company who invented Schrader valves.

Finally, not one of these:

This is a 1/4" BSPT to 1/8" NPT. However the end is tapered. The cheap Chinese hose appears to be BSPP which is straight thread. I bodged it for now by adding extra fibre washers and tightened up really tight. For replacement I've ordered this: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F131438350522
£3 delivered.


Screw it all together.

You get this:



Which can do this! Quite comical when it's deflated. Looks like some low-riding yank tank.



Fluid started coming out clean. Oily/dark looking water suddenly started being ejected and mixing.


Then it went a bit disgusting near the end.


It can also pump it back up again. Right now with water as my new fluid is at work.


Might have put too much in this side as the top of the hydrolastic strut is looking a bit bulging out. Both sides read 100psi originally. Not sure how true that is as the gauges are known to lie. But there is also no engine weighting it down either and increasing pressure. Didn't take too many pumps to bring it back up either. I pumped that side up to 200psi indicated as it seemed lower at that level than the other. I remembered then that the drivers tyre was flat. So I pumped that back up to resume correct height!

I think I have read that Hydrolastic can operate around 400psi or so. If that is the case them I'm not too worried about the pressure being a bit higher for now. Plus tomorrow I can bring the proper fluid home to drain and refill this. At least this gives it all a bit of a flush through.

Whole lot all in was about £70. You can buy them ready made here - which influenced my design (i.e. I copied):
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352405947560

A fair bit more expensive but everyone needs to make a living and it's ready to go as a unit. I'm just too cheap to do that though.

Only thing it doesn't do is vacuum the system out. However apparently you can get away with just slightly over inflating it, leaving it and then letting some out. I reckon though another pump could have its input modified to act as a vacuum pump.

However its alright as it is for now. A very useful tool to have. If necessary it can get me to a local garage safely for a full hydrolastic service.

[sharley17194]

With the valve, the middle bit is same as a car tyre, try swapping that rather than the full valve. If you balls it you i have a spare displacer and pipe... hahah

 

As for flushing, I've honestly never bothered, if had both units on the floor flushed and within 2 months there is shit floating round in them again.

[SiC]

I was hoping that someone would say that! So I should be able to swap out the valve core with a standard valve core remover tool?

 

I'm really hoping that draining the system has flushed out any crap that was in the system and allowing it to seal properly. I'll find out tonight if the small bit of kitchen roll over the valve has absorbed any fluid.

 

I really want to avoid trying to undo that coupling between the cylinder and connecting pipe. I think any more stress on that pipe will shear and snap the pipe. Part of this cars charm for me is the hydrolastic suspension. There is a fascination of a old technology that isn't used any more but that is still capable of extremely good results. For me the simplicity & cheapness of a Hydrolastic system both in manufacturing and operation intrigues. Hence I don't want to convert it into individual cylinders and I really want to retain the interlinking, so I can properly experience how/what it is like.

 

If I loose that, I'll loose a good part of the reason why I need to be doing all this work on the car.

[SiC]

 

Valve appeared to have some minor drippage but nothing serious. So drained and refilled the suspension with proper fluid. It now drips out fluid quite prefusly. I'm hoping that replacing the valve core will fix it. Also hoping it's not the valve seat that's buggered, just the rubber seal.

 

Also quite a possibility that the valve core will be siezed in too.

[SiC]

Have I ever said I hate brake fluid and hydraulic brakes? If I haven't, I'm saying now. Messy stuff and another fluid I'm fearful of spilling leading to my cat licking it up and poisoning herself.

 

Anyway these pictures show roughly what I've removed. Mostly here for me as future reference on their routing. Pretty sure I'm going to replace most of the pipework as a matter of course. Well I need to replace the solid line to the nearside anyway, as it fractured at the join when undoing it.

 

 

With all that out of the way, it give me a good chance to clean up pick at this bit.

[SiC]

Last of the jobs to do before welding now. Remaining ones won't take long to do.

 

Progress from now will halt a bit as 1) I still need to put torch to metal and learn to weld, 2) I am going to buy a proper replacement ado16 front floor panel.

 

First I'm hoping to have a friend around soon to give me a crash course. My (well Mrs SiC) main concern is how to do it all safely without setting fire to the garage/putting holes in the neighbors fence/blinding the cat or giving her arc-eye.

 

Second has to wait for payday. Still need to pay this months holiday off. A holiday to keep me in the other halfs good books. Especially as the attention I give this car tests her patience at times.

[Geep]

You're no doubt aware of it but in case not, and if others aren't:

 

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

Some helpful videos on there as well as discussions on forum part of site.

[vulgalour]

You got through that list fast!  You're making great progress on this.

[SiC]

Like you said earlier on this thread, this car is a breeze to work on. Fasteners are easily got to and not rusted up either. The subframe mount bolt were pretty crusty but I could easily get the impact wrench in to wizz them off. Access to most parts is way better than the MGB.

 

Getting really itchy to start welding as if I don't I'll get held up not doing it. Especially with this good weather at the moment.

[SiC]

My wife always moans at me that I make a mess where ever I go. I always say that it's just her cleaning standards are too high. However every so often, I step back and have to agree with her premise.

 

With it raining for the first time in ages, I decided to start a few jobs that can be done indoors. As the tank was sitting outside, I thought it prudent to have a look at it.

 

As stated earlier in this thread, it's in pretty good nick. On top were some Hessian type pads that I assume isolate the tank from the body. These were glued down and in removing them, took the paint off.

 

The paint on the sides and bottom are what need the most attention.

 

On the bottom is what looks to be underseal. Using a poundland scraper fitted with Stanley blades, I spent a good hour cleaning it off.

 

I also had to remove the old fuel pickup connection. The pipe is completely had it and didn't take much to cut off. Then a 15mm socket fitted snuggly onto the connection and removed without too much effort required.

 

I had no idea what state the fuel sender was in so I took it out. Handily it appears the sender mounting ring and seal are identical to an MGB, so I have spares on the shelf to replace them. With the sender out it gave another good chance to have a look inside.

 

Nothing too tragic in there. Especially as the bottom outside has the most rust. I pretty certain its all just surface rust.

 

The sender itself was siezed solid. Also the thin connecting wire had snapped too. There was no hope of this working as it was.

 

There doesn't seem to be any identical sender's that I can replace this with. Others of similar vintage look the same but are not. I was hoping to be able to buy a new one and use the new resistive wire section with the old arm. However nothing I can find comes close.

 

For now, I decided to give this a chance by repairing it.

 

Pulling it apart and spraying liberal amounts of GT85 freed up the arm.

 

The wire was more troublesome. Despite plenty of heat, flux and solder, the resitive wire was resisting all attempts at being soldered together. I think this is because resitive wire is nichrome or something and regular solder won't do a thing. So instead I extracted a turn of wire from the windings and used a pair of thin pliers to twist the wire together. Then squeezed it tight to hopefully make a good connection.

 

It only bloody worked.

[Video]

 

I hope it stays fixed as the sender is on the top of the tank. So to get back at it would require removing the exhaust and dropping the tank again.

 

Hopefully this weekend I'll get a chance to finish stripping the old underseal and clean the rust off. After that, give it a fresh lick of paint to protect the exterior metal.

[vulgalour]

Brilliant repair there.  I thought there was an access panel in the boot floor above the sender, to the driver's side somewhere and black if memory serves.

[sharley17194]

your drippy suspension will be caused by shiet under the valve seat. take the core out using a cheap tool that you can get for tyres mine was from the £1 shop. clean and fit a new valve core. I predict your drippy drip drio with stop. Don't fret about splitting the pipes I've done hundreds with a good success rate. if you do fluff the pipe up I cam advise how to replace it. I assume you are taking both subframes off anyway? you'd be mental not to as you are this far and it will help with welding repairs.

[SiC]

I've got a valve core tool coming from eBay. Hopefully will be here by Monday.

 

Dropping the subframes could be a right pain on my drive due to access. I want to get the floor all sorted and welded in before I do consider dropping them. Would be nice to get behind at the minimum and give it a good clean and degrease. If I do drop them, I probably won't be able to do both together due to access.

 

Access to the sender wise, there are two rubber bungs on top. These however I think are just for access to the rear hydrolastic pipe couplers. The other access panel that's on the side is access to disconnect the flex petrol pipe from the rigid and where an optional electronic fuel pump can go. I don't think there is any other access up on top.

[vulgalour]

My memory was tricking me, I had a look back at photos after reading your description.  I was thinking of the panel to the bottom right here, which is completely the wrong place for accessing the fuel sender.

 

[SiC]

Yeah the solid line from the tank joins up there and it goes into a short flexy to a solid line to the front. Also the sender wire goes out there. Looking at other ado16, those that are less poverty spec have an electric fuel pump sticking out there instead.

[DeeJay]

If the sender is a bit iffy it might be helpful in the long run to cut an access hole in the floor now.

[SiC]

That's the only metal panel on the car that isn't holed thru rust though!

[Eddie Honda]

Looking at other ado16, those that are less poverty spec older have an electric fuel pump sticking out there instead.

FTFY

[DeeJay]

That's the only metal panel on the car that isn't holed thru rust though!

 

That's a shame, could've used a screwdriver instead of a grinder.

[Guest Hooli]

That's the only metal panel on the car that isn't holed thru rust though!

 

Paint the edges brown so it matches then.

[sharley17194]

I've taken the boot from from another car and made a bolt in access panel before. That is the only part of the car that doesn't normally rot, if you ever find rot above the tank on an 1100 the rest will be in a terrible way! 

 

I understand what you are saying re dropping the subframes, Ive always dropped them just to get access to paint and ive always worked in the same environment you are. Infact i once restored a car in a field...

[SiC]

Work rate has slowed down on this a bit. Mostly because the fuel tank cleaning up has taken much longer than I expected.

 

First thing I did was give it a good clean out with our domestic steam cleaner. This had the side effect of making the metal really hot and much easier to scrape the underseal off.

 

After a crap load of sanding I got the tank half decent. I then painted the whole thing with krust. However after sanding again ready for painting, I wasn't happy that all the underseal and rust had come off.

 

So I spent an entire evening sanding it. Didn't progress very quickly at all until I remembered I had a paint removal disc.

 

Today I've been busy using it. Managed to do work that took me 2 days in around an hour. Expensive discs but very effective.

 

Pretty clogged up and I'll have to get a new one to do the other side.

 

I'm just hoping it isn't too aggressive that the metal has thinned out enough to start causing the tank to leak! Might have to fill again with water after painting to make sure.

[SiC]

Next up tonight was looking at this suspension again. I've now got a tyre valve core tool to remove the existing one.

 

I had a spare core supplied by Vulgalour. Seal on the base of it isn't too bad but not that great though. Will probably replace it again longer term. Cleaned it up with meth spirits ready.

 

Drained the system and the fluid came out clean. However removing the valve core became a bit more of an ordeal. I couldn't get the valve core tool in and looking up the valve it appeared something was jammed in.

 

After poking with a pick I managed to get most of it out.

 

I'm pretty sure that is the remains of a fibre washer. God knows how it got in there. Maybe as pumped by a pump that is falling apart internally?

 

The leaking from the valve I am fairly sure is detritus in the system. Awfully tempted to remove the valve core entirely again and pump up & deflate a couple of times to flush any more stuff through.

 

Fingers crossed it's stopped dripping now. I'll check tomorrow and see how it's holding up.

[vulgalour]

Those discs are great for removing stuff that clogs wire wheels and sandpaper.  They don't seem to get the panel anywhere near as hot as other abrasives and they don't seem to cut through the metal either.  Very much worth their money and even when they look clogged, you can keep going and they'll keep removing stuff.  I found they were the only thing that would touch the orange paint on the Princess spares I've got, everything else just sort of smooshed the paint around and/or clogged really quickly.

 

EDIT:  would be very interested to know what is in that core.  I dug out what was definitely fibreglass resin because you couldn't actually push the core in at all to pump it up, so I've no idea what someone's done in there.

[SiC]

I think someone pumped up the system with dirty fluid at some point in its life. Either from old crap in the pump reservoir or the pump falling apart into the fluid. The substance felt and looked very much like either cork or a fibre gasket all mushed up. It's not the only bit of detritus I've had come out of there either. First time there was a bit of black wood flake material and other stuff came out. I reckon that fibreglass material wasn't deliberately put in there, just was pumped up with contaminated fluid. Especially as I'm still getting other crap through.

 

Maybe a used displacer has been put on but wasn't looked after properly? I.e. lived on the floor of someone's garage/garden/shed and shit fell into and got into the hose.

 

That cork material was sufficient to actually gum up the valve core completely. The low loss Schrader fitting seems great at getting through all that crap and allowing most of it to pass through. I have found when it's deflating it can slow right down and you have to cycle the valve pusher a bit to get it going. Must be because things are jamming in there that is causing the issue.

 

What fitting does the Churchill pump have on its hose as standard? Is it in anyway effective at allowing particles to flow back through it?

[vulgalour]

I can't remember what the Churchill fitting is exactly, thread wise, but I do know it's got a twiddly bit so you can release all the air before pumping up with fluid, which is really useful.  It does let some detritus through, it sort of has to when you've clearing the system out, but we never had anything as big as what's coming out of that valve come through into the pump. I reckon someone has gummed that valve up with Stuff at some point to try and cure a leak after pumping it up, I can't think of any other reason for anything to be in there.

[SiC]

I'm slowly plodding away with this. Checked the suspension valve first. When it's been leaking the valve cap cover (a dice) has been filled with fluid.

 

This time it looks clean and dry.

 

Valve itself looked good too.

 

So I think it's fixed! Horrar! Hopefully.

 

Carried on cleaning down the tank. Mostly there now, leaving rusted pitted marks and a few areas I can't get to. Steel is starting to rust back over with the rain we've been having, so I'll need to get some paint back on here asap. Reassuring that it looks good with the paint removed.

 

Took the alternator off as I kept catching my leg on it as I passed it. Definitely not original.

 

I know Vulgalour wondered in his thread if it should have been a dynamo originally. The other thing was the belt is a bit on the short side. Despite the alternator fully pushed in, the belt wouldn't come off. Had to take the alternator belt off to remove it completely.

 

The water pump bearings have a slight grumble to them and not entirely smooth. Probably going to be worth changing the water pump out while its here?

 

As the coolant circuit was a bit gunked up when I drained it, I decided to inspect the thermostat. Unfortunately the thermostat housing is well and truly stuck on the head. Percussion maintenance with a mallet and penetrating fluid yielded nothing. I've left it with some more fluid soaking on it and I'll give another go another day.

[SiC]

As the joblist board is almost complete, I decided to refresh it with some new jobs.

[Squire_Dawson]

The thermostat/water outlet gets stuck on all these engines as the different metals react and bond together over the years. You just have to be patient and keep tapping it with a rubber mallet. Some people have had to carefully apply heat in order to free it. Do not hit the top hose outlet as these can break, but around the studs you can clobber it. The correct cork gaskets are £1 each, or make your own, and liberally coat the studs in copper grease before re-assembling.

 

In extreme cases people have had to destroy the part - obviously undesirable but evidently a last resort.