Mosley Street, the first street in the world to be lit by electric street lights (absolutely nothing to do with Edison who DID NOT invent the electric light bulb), NuT, September 29th 1970.
Been a lot of hits and misses this weekend. First up, trying to torque the camshaft cap studs was a pain, 15nm was simply not happening, even with the two nuts tight against each other, it was still turning down the shaft when close to 15nm. Tried adding a third nut to see if that would help matters, but ended up stripping the threads on the nut. In the end, I went for 10nm. It'll be fine, I hope. Fitted the cam, and new front cam seal before I torqued down the caps (minus one nut).
Then it came to the camshaft pulley. Following the torque figure, I didn't even get close to the Haynes figure before disaster struck.
That was....not ideal. I messaged Phill on a blind panic asking for advice, and he suggested drilling a 3mm hole in the bolt shank and hammering a torx socket into the hole to extract it. There were almost tears of joy when this came out.
Then joy turned into anger when I decided to check the figures in my Autodata technical data book. Haynes (stated 80nm) for the sprocket bolt.
Autodata?
So the bolt failure was caused by a massive overtorque. Arse biscuits. To try and take my mind off it, I tackled some of the minor jobs, first job was removing and re-sealing the body seams around the bootlid hinge. Forgot to get any photos, but I scraped the old, dry seam sealer with a plastic scraper, masked the area off with tape and applied a healthy layer or Pureaflex40 to the joins. Whilst I was in the area, I managed to push the split section of the wiring rubber grommet into the hole, so it'll be a much better seal than the empty space that was there before! I continued the minor jobs, treating screen rust spots before they become sinister,
Swapping out the rocker cover gasket:
And getting this dirty bottle cleaned up as much as possible.
Which cleaned up alright, but had highlighted how big the crack in the side of the tank was:
As it was the rarely-used rear washer tank, I elected to try and repair it rather than replace. I used an old soldering iron to re-melt the plastic along the crack. It's not pretty, but it's sealed up and shouldn't leak so that's a win.
The bottoms of these bottles have a sharp lip around their manufacturing joins which has been suggested aids corrosion by chafing through the paint - these were sanded down prior to install. The scuttle area had already been heavily lanoguarded about six weeks ago so all should be well there. Unrelated to the BX, but a mate followed me on the commute to work and told me one of the Rovers brake lights wasn't coming on every time. Luckily, I have spare bulbs, but it was quite interesting to see the where the filament had broken loose, flapped around a bit until it made the circuit and 'tacked' itself back on. Herman has had a front fog light doing that for years, so the build-up there must be spectacular.
Eventually, I decided to carry on with assembling the 3 pistons and liners, I'm still awaiting parts to assemble the final cylinder but this is a good start. Turns out I needed to order another set of piston rings too, thanks to my ill-fated attempt to fit them last time:
Annoyingly, this was a pain in the arse. Autodoc did them at a reasonable price, but the delivery time takes the piss at around a fortnight. I found some on eBay with a two day delivery, so I placed the order on Sunday. I then sent the seller my details, and they cancelled the order! Apparently they weren't compatible. I've told them I want the rings and will assume the risk - the manufacturers of the piston rings list the set as compatible for every 1.6 XU engine except the XU52C. I can't see what difference there would be though, so I guess we'll find out in a couple of days. Anyway, the ring gaps were checked prior to fitment, they were all bang on at around 0.50mm.
With the new set of plier-style piston ring compressors, I was STILL having issues with the rings. I asked Phill for advice, and he very gently pointed out I was being a bit of a fuckwit and assembling the oil control ring at the bottom incorrectly, which in turn meant the ring wasn't compressing properly. With the correct advice dispensed, and a slight tweak to the piston ring compressor, we were finally making progress! A fresh seal was fitted to the base of the cylinder liner before slotting it into place.
Eventually, I got all three complete assemblies in.
And clamped the liners down.
Then I nipped back to the house for a pee, and noticed that Mini had snuck into MrsH's car whilst she was unloading, and got himself locked in. Tit.
I decided to crack on with bolting in some external components, so the oil pressure switch, water pump and timing belt tensioner pulley went on (the old one was really rather grumbly and rattly) The pump came from Autodoc and was their own brand (RIDEX) and it seemed pretty well made.
Next up, the crank bearing seats were cleaned, new shells were fitted, and the crank lowered into place. This was a pain in the arse with the liners and pistons fitted as the conrods were in the way, this was aided with some steel wire to hold them in the middle position.
The crank bearing caps had fresh shells and an oiling before being loosely assembled.
I'm still awaiting the seals for No.1 bearing cap so I've not fitted that yet. After that, it was applying the last coat of lacquer to the windscreen frame rust spots. The paint colour match is pretty poor, but it won't rust and that's what matters. I spent the remainder of the evening googling part numbers, dimensions and specs of the cam cap nut. The Citroen parts catalogue specified a nut and washer assembly, the Peugeot catalogue specified a flange nut. Seeing as this was what was fitted, I went with that, got the size and thread pitch and started searching. I eventually got three part numbers, and the phone numbers for potential dealerships that could have the nut I need in stock. A bit of phoning around yesterday morning ensued. The Peugeot dealership said they could source the nuts, but they wouldn't be here till Wednesday and were £1.25 each. My second dealership took the part number, said 'Yep, we've got 14 in stock here, and they're 63p each+VAT'. Didn't bother ringing the third. The dealership?
Yep, I went in my Rover that's really a Honda, to a BMW dealership to pick up some nuts for my Citroen, which was sourced using specs from a Peugeot parts catalogue.
The parts fella that came out was very friendly, and couldn't believe what vehicle the nuts were for I ended up having a chat with him about the Rover parked outside and he was really enthusiastic. Ended up buying 10 nuts as it makes sense to replace the entire set. Got home and checked the nut - it's a good fit, a bit taller and with a wider flange than the originals, it feels much more substantial. The nut is originally used to hold inlet manifolds onto various BMWs. I started checking valve clearances but this ended up being a pain to rotate the camshaft without the sprocket bolted in. I checked the first 4 and found them to be juuuuust within limits, I'll check the other 4 later when I've got the camshaft bolt and torqued it in. Boring stuff, but prepping for when it gets reassembled, the fuel pump gaskets were changed, thedistributor oil seal was replaced:
And the inlet manifold gasket was tackled.
This took an absolute eternity - it was properly on there! The mating faces were eventually cleaned with a scotchbrite pad and WD40 to get a smoother mating face.
Today, I'm into my two days off that was pencilled in for engine building - not much bloody use of I've not got all the parts together! I'll be working on various other little jobs instead. Cheers.
On the way we spotted this rather sorry looking truck, just short of Collingham station.
The station house at Collingham is a grade 2 listed building built in 1848, featuring Gault brick, Welsh slate roofs and currently, Merseyside windows.
So I then made a couple of holes in it! Just so I could inject some cavity wax into it, as it's far easier to do it from above - and it also is so penetrative, it highlights any pinholes in the welding.
I've hacked up my new panel, and sat it in the correct position...
...before beginning the slow process of trimming to match what I've cut feom the van.
Quick conclusion to recommissioning the Daimler's ventilation . . .
^ Silly little-too-short screws and 3/8" square nuts hold the baffle plate in place. In the first photo you can see the scuttle vent cover's brackets are not evenly adjusted (height or angle). They are bolted to the recirculating-air / bulkhead flap and needed adjustment for the lid to close level. I managed that (with a hammer !) which slide the RH bracket down a bit. next time i do it I'll know to adjust those more precisely before I put the baffle plate on. I'll also find some longer screws.
^ Looks like it was meant to be like this !
^ all the screws were reassembled with CopaSlip and the right washers. I've slotted the mesh so that when the screws are just loosened - the mesh can be dropped down for easier access to the cover's nuts. The vent now works as it should, open or closes with a clunk. and the recirculating flap closes against its seal when the scuttle vent is opened. Yeah (..delighted by the prospect that this car's ventilation might now actually work !)
Well almost . . .
^ with the heater's control cover removed, you can see the hot/cold control cable tightly bent routing ..and why it wasn't working very well. There's also a plain washer missing where the end of the cable connector joins to the lever. Without that the cable's pivot doesn't work very well.
Part of the issue was the bowden cable's routing, and part of its problem was that the back end of the radio wasn't supported, so everything was being twisted more than it should have been.
^ It's amazing that it actually worked at all. I made a bracket to support the back end of the radio, an inch higher, and dropped the bowden cable out from under the trim to ease its tight curvature. after straightening the inner wire, I liberally oiled it so it now works.
^ The other side (footwell or screen demist control cable) had lost its nut, so the lever wasn't connected to the cable. And odd size and very tiny nut took me ages to search for and find.
I tried to clean the leather of the monstrously big and heavy cover, but to no avail. The black is staining that wouldn't wash off.
^ definitely in need of restoration, but that'll wait. The live feed to the radio was just dangling, just waiting to short out, but with power to the radio - it did hum ...but nothing more.
I've now put it back together, and took the car to the shops and then around the block to warm its engine. Hey ho, the heater works. The heater (hot/cold) control works. the heat to car / to screen demist works well too ! Who knows perhaps this car will both be warm in winter, cool in summer, and demist when it's needed ! ? All very useful rectifications. I still need to replace the squirrel fan for one which isn't bent and out of balance. but we're very close to.. Job done.
^ Of course for all that effort ; an onlooker, or even a buyer would notice nothing but the scruffy interior. Indeed even as I drive the car ..now the weather has suddenly turned warmer, I have the heater control set to cold !
. . . yes, the speaker grille is original. It's big and bold, but there's only one.. for mono Radio 1 of the 1960's.
I do look forward to a thoroughly good clean of the leather and trim, to re-lacquer the timber, and to replacing the carpets. but that'll happen after the car's resprayed.
Bidding you all a good weekend, with sunshine and happy pottering around.
Pete
