Project Korean Cortina - MOT day

[Bucketeer]

I didn't think those previous wheels looked too bad, but with the originals back on it looks DA BOMB.

[Ratdat]

Looks top notch with the original wheels. I have some proper heat shield material you might be able to use to protect that UJ. It's really good stuff. It's like a crinkly aluminium composite sheet.

[mat_the_cat]

Cheers, when our paths cross I may very well swap you a few drinks for some if that sounds fair. It's probably not a desperate issue, as I'm not going to do massive mileage in it. Although there is a disconcerting burning smell coming from somewhere, smells a bit rubbery but there's no sign of it when I stop. (I've been running it around a little on the forest track behind the house, and trying to avoid drifting on the gravel!) There's a great big hole where the speedo cable went through, so that will exaggerate any whiffs I may not otherwise have noticed.

 

After another 15 minutes or so there's very little drippage from the gearbox, so unsure whether the leak is no more or simply it's lost so much oil that the level is below where any leak is! To be continued I think...

[Bucketeer]

Two questions Mat.

Did you sort the leaky wheel issue?

Does it still have the bullet wound (as shown below)?

 

[Partridge]

Got my first insurance quote...£480!!!

That's cheap!

[mat_the_cat]

Two questions Mat.

 

Yes to both. I dread to think how much filler is covering that panel, so I'm not looking forwards to removing it. It was unrusted though, when it flaked off, so I'm expecting damage rather than rot behind it.

The leaky wheel My fault! I'd put the initial coats of paint on the rims, and then got the tyres fitted but not inflated so I could give the sealing face more coats. After I'd painted I just blew up the tyres to seat them, but apparently it's best to do that with tyre soap freshly applied as that helps to seal. The others had lost a couple of psi in a week, so he re-did the lot.

[mat_the_cat]

Whilst going through some old photos, I found this

 

 

Taken on a holiday to North Wales (not too far from here) probably around 15 years ago. I think a re-enactment is called for, that is if I can persuade Lana to lay across the bonnet again!

[mat_the_cat]

MOT test is now booked for tomorrow afternoon. I don't know why, but I'm already nervous about it...deep down I know it doesn't matter if it fails as at least then I'll know what's needed. But can't help worrying! Main unknowns are rear brakes, as I think they may still need to bed in a bit more; emissions, as I haven't set up the carbs at all and can't find my timing light to do the ignition timing; and front dampers seem a bit soft, even though they are new.

 

But I've only driven it a couple of miles in total and most of those have been off road, so it's difficult to form an impression. We shall see... In any case, I have over a month to get it legal before the August BH weekend, so plenty of time!

[Bucketeer]

GLWTMOTMAT.

 

[KruJoe]

Yes, what the excessively fingered Alex said.

 

Thinking more about your front brake / wheel clearance issues... Are the calipers "floating"? I mean, do they move sideways slightly as the pads wear?

If so, any implications for you?

[mat_the_cat]

No floaters here! They're fixed 4 pot calipers, so the only thing I have to worry about (at least in that department) is stones flicking up and jamming. Which could be fun*.

 

I had some longer wheel studs arrive, so need to fit those as although there still seems to be plenty of thread engagement in the nuts, it is obviously less than previously. And they are brass nuts so will be softer than normal. A bit strange - never come across anything other than nuts of steel before.

[mat_the_cat]

Well, it's never gone straight through an MOT before in all the years I've had it, and it hasn't this time. Fairly minor stuff, so I'll try and be pleased with that. Off to collect it now so will post up the failure sheet later...

[mat_the_cat]

 

Not too bad I guess. First one is because the bolt wasn't fully through the nylock part of the nut...I do vaguely remember that from years back and thinking I must change it Then I have obviously forgotten to tighten up the front dampers, and lost a nut somewhere.

 

Handbrake cable just needs a clamp loosening and rotating to give a smooth cable run, as the outer is being pulled away from the backplate by the angle of the cable. And lastly, just need to swap a couple of wheels around - I didn't even notice they were directional tyres!

 

So the common factor in all the failure points is me...

[Skizzer]

That's basically a pass then! Brilliant news.

 

I have spontaneously given you a round of applause. This has made some of the other people in the restaurant look at me strangely. (If this wasn't London, I reckon they'd have joined in.)

[mat_the_cat]

Not *quite* as simple as I thought - I've sorted everything bar the short bolt (will get it on ramps later this evening) and the missing nut on the damper. The reason it's missing is because I never put it on in the first place, because the thread is mullered. It's a stud welded on the suspension arm, so no easy option of just changing the bolt. And I can't get a die on it as it's recessed. Still, everything is fixable so the first attempt will be to try a die nut which I can turn with a socket. Then it'll be a case of taking the arm off, drilling it out and welding a new stud in place, but then the alignment will need re-doing so a real last resort.

[KruJoe]

Ooh, that's a pain. I hope your die nut works.

[twosmoke300]

Die nut die !

[mat_the_cat]

Of course, the bodge 'solution' would be to thread a loosely fitting nut over the damaged thread, and leave it at that...but no, that won't do.

 

That's the only job left now; the short bolt was a bit of a pain as I had to undo the rear damper from the axle, jack up the shell and remove the spring so I could slide the bolt out, but at least it didn't cost anything to sort. I'm away for a few days, but hopefully will get it sorted by the weekend.

[mat_the_cat]

No real update; more of a moan really. In the absence of any engineering suppliers locally, I ordered the die nut online from an eBay seller, choosing one where the delivery was via 24 hour courier. I was a bit annoyed when I got an email on Wednesday saying it had been despatched by second class post! We still haven't had any post today, so it may yet arrive but I doubt it, as I suspect our postman only delivers to our house when there is enough post to make it worthwhile, and we had quite a few letters yesterday

 

So that makes it unlikely to be MOT'd until next week - not that it really matters as I wasn't going to tax it until August, but it'd have been nice to celebrate the pass!

 

The electronic speedo drive converter has arrived in the country at least, and I've been hit with the £55.80 import charges. Ouch! That should arrive early next week too, but then I've got to get a cable to suit it.

[mat_the_cat]

I feel absolutely sick. I have an MOT pass, but on the way back suffered from (I think) fuel vaporisation problems while passing a line of parked cars. That was bad enough, but after pushing it out of the way so traffic could get past and re-routing a fuel line, I lost all oil pressure as I got to the house. Engine sounds very rattly, and all I've been able to establish is that oil IS getting to the oil pump from the remote filter, but no pressure. Gutted

[trigger]

Fuck sake, you're not having much luck.

[Bren]

Stuck relief valve?

 

A clean may sort it, hope the rattling is nothing terminal - may just be the hydraulic lifters and lack of decent pressure.

[mat_the_cat]

Fuck sake, you're not having much luck.

 

It felt like that, especially after smashing my laptop screen at the weekend! At least a day of enjoying the MOT pass would have been nice, before the next thing to fix! But I don't tend to stay down for long, it is just a car after all, whatever is wrong, it CAN be fixed. Plus someone I know has just had their BX (which they've had for 20 years or so) smashed up, only a couple of weeks after spending well into 4 figures on major rust repairs. Now *that* would be worse.

 

Stuck relief valve?

 

A clean may sort it, hope the rattling is nothing terminal - may just be the hydraulic lifters and lack of decent pressure.

 

That was my first thought (after my initial panic!) for something which would cause it to suddenly lose oil pressure, and sure enough, once I'd taken a look it was stuck in the bore. Access not too bad for a change!

 

 

Valve quite scored, so I'll probably replace it

 

 

Once back together and primed, the oil pressure light did go out, but the/a rattling remained. I think/hope it is a sticky lifter which I had intermittently before - certainly the roughness which accompanied the earlier rattle stopped when the oil light when out. Feeling slightly more upbeat, but not enough to crack open a celebratory drink yet.

 

A few photos from earlier today:

 

 

My first view of the new exhaust!

 

 

Last MOT...

 

 

...and the new one. Only 8k miles since the last MOT!

 

[Bucketeer]

Feeling slightly more upbeat, but not enough to crack open a celebratory drink yet.

 

I'll have one for you Mat, and then if any fate-tempting occurs you can blame me.

 

The underside looks almost as lovely as the overside by the way.

[mat_the_cat]

Oh, go on then, I'll have a drink too. But just the one glass.

 

 

I've been back out to have another look at it, and after listening to it again from under the bonnet rather than in the car, it does sound like a top end noise i.e. valve lifter(s). I have some Forte flush to try, and as soon as the right oil arrives I'll give that a try. The pre-76 oil pumps are a bit weak anyway, so I may rebuild the pump with uprated parts as well as a new pressure relief valve. More money though, but at least I can then be confident that the pump is going to be as strong as it's ever going to be.

[trigger]

That's the spirit!

[mat_the_cat]

My speedo drive converter has now arrived from the States, so I knocked up a simple bracket and mounted it in the engine bay

 

 

Behind the dash was an option, but space was tight and the cable would have had to go through a tight angle after it left the speedo head. It is waterproof so my only concern is the heat. But hopefully the position will be cool enough not to be an issue. I'll send off the original cable tomorrow to be modified to fit, and in the meantime I will be building a simple frequency generator circuit so I can put a few miles on the clock.

 

Reason being the original cable broke back in 2001 when we were down in Cornwall for the eclipse, and it would be nice to amend the mileage to be correct again! How sad am I...?

 

 

[mat_the_cat]

I gave the engine a flush today, and changed the oil from 15w40 to 15w50. The tapping went away for a while while I was idling with the flush added, but then returned. I then filled with new oil, leaving the 2 month old filter in place but started it and no oil pressure again It was probably within a minute of draining the old stuff, yet it still wouldn't prime itself. I disconnected the remote oil filter and tied priming with an oil can, but no joy.

 

So I whipped off the distributor, and made up a crude tool to spin the oil pump. On the early engines the oil pump drive is a female slot in the end of the shaft, and so could be turned with a screwdriver. Difficult to spin like that though, so after I'd mounted an old screwdriver shaft in a drill, I slid a couple of lengths of hose over the shaft so that the larger one of the two would sit over the oil pump shaft and so help with securing it.

 

 

Worked a treat, and the light went out straight away. But I still have a tapping, and something obviously isn't right for me to need to prime it after a very quick oil change. Oil pressure at hot idle is around 15 psi, but doesn't go over 20 psi with a quick blip to ~3k rpm. Not disastrously bad, but not great either. Given the difficulty priming, and the fact the early pumps are notoriously weak, it makes sense in my mind to upgrade the pump as a first step. So that's the next job.

 

I'll probably think about a top end rebuild over the winter, but hopefully I can at least do a few hundred rattly miles for now (if the extra flow/pressure from a rebuilt pump doesn't help) without too much harm. I'm happy that the bottom end is at least quiet.

[mat_the_cat]

Next thing to fail is the alternator! I just started it up to set the ignition timing, and the charge warning light is on and the voltmeter only showing battery voltage. Still, at least it failed now and not out on the road. Plus, a Lucas ACR is a piece of cake to rebuild, and I can get all the bits including bearings for £22.

 

Oil pressure still OK, but I've ordered the uprated pump internals and a new pressure relief valve & spring. When looking at the timing it appeared it wasn't advancing with revs - no surprise, as the advance weights are missing in the distributor! I've found a company who can recondition it for a reasonable price (I got a discount seeing as I don't need new points/condenser/cap & rotor arm) so that will be sent off tomorrow. I'm not going to tax it until next month anyway, so a small wait isn't a big deal.

 

In the meantime I can tackle a few of the non-structural welding jobs, first one being a small patch in the nearside rear wheel arch:

 

 

Rust cut out, patch in place and a first coat of Zinga:

 

 

The wheel arch lips themselves will need a bit of work, but that can wait for now - at least I've stopped road spray from getting into the box section and running down into the sill.

[mat_the_cat]

The alternator rebuild kit arrived today, so as I'd taken the day off to collect some tyres I had a play this afternoon. New regulator and brushes:

 

 

Slip ring was absolutely fine, as were the bearings so I left those as they were:

 

New rectifier soldered in:

 

The uprated oil pump also arrived:

 

So I took the cover off...

 

...to find a lot of scoring on the face the gears sit against

 

That was completely flat when I put the engine in, as I took out any scoring with one of the polishing machines where I used to work. With hindsight, I think the surface was previously hard anodised, so I've made it hugely more susceptible to wear - it's run for less than an hour since then! I do have another cover, but annoyingly it's a different thread for the oil filter take-off plate. Doubly annoyingly, it's 3/4" UNF, which is the exact same thread that the take-off plate *used* to be before I tapped it to 13/16" UNF. So not only have I wasted my money on an obscure sized tap I'll probably never need again, I need to buy another take-off plate anyway!