Project Coalnotdole's Scimitar - Machining work: Speedometer Drive Unit 12/4/19

[Jim Bell]

Cheers! Every day's a school day.

[somewhatfoolish]

Not seen one of them; that's still shite but less shite than the two other kinds of wobbly joint. Exhausts are hateful; whenever I have to do exhausts I fantasise about owning electric cars.

[coalnotdole]

Is it not Finished Yet? - Tailgate Glass / ALternator...

The heated rear window has never worked in the time I've had the car... (well two of the rows worked briefy, in 2011.) There was power getting to it but the element seemed to have too many breaks to actually demist. I'd bought an replacement tailgate glass at the same time as my front screen and it spent quite a few months sat in its box before I finally got round to fitting it to the frame.



Its horrible messy process as the new screen needs to be bonded in on sealant as well as located in the frame with a rubber strip.

I've been very dissapointed with the standard of fit on the rear screen it seems to be too narrow and its not a good fit in the chome frame. allowing a worrying about of flex between the frame and the glass. It looks like the manufacturer has allowed far too much room for the fish plates that hold the two halves of frame together. Also there really should be no need for the copper strip to kink inwards as it does.



Heres a photo showing how little glass is actually in the frame at the joint. I'm concerned this will leak.



As I'd come this far the screen was now bonded to the frame all I could really do was fit it to the car.



I then got the car out of the garage for the first time in about a year, This was my first chance to look at it from a distance.









A few days later and the alternator upgrade was finally finished too, A strandard alternator braket had the front mount cut off. a new aluminuim section was milled to sit on the rib, this was trial fitted and adusted to get the pulleys in line.





I then got a local fabricator to TIG it up.



Heres a comparison shot with a standard bracket.



Final job before fitting was to trim the origonal rear lug off.



Really pleased with the alignment on the front pully which require no shims behind the pulley in the end. Its putting out about 14.7 volts at idle which seems very healthy.



Theres a bit of a video of the alternator here:

Jobs wise theres not a huge amount more needed to get it in for an MOT, Number plates, and a few engine bay parts to refit.

Cheers

 

Joe

[mk2_craig]

Great updates - love all the care and attention going into such a variety of areas. Shame about the glass, that sort of thing would always weigh on my mind as beIng imperfect. Are the screens unique to the Scimitar?

[coalnotdole]

Great updates - love all the care and attention going into such a variety of areas. Shame about the glass, that sort of thing would always weigh on my mind as beIng imperfect. Are the screens unique to the Scimitar?

 

Front screen on a se5 / 5a is shared with the Scimitar GT and consul capri,

 

All the other glass is unique the the se5/ 5a models. I've enquired about getting a replacement made thats a better fit. But pilkington have shut down the fractory that made custom screens to order in the UK and the number of off the shelf screens they do seems to have been paired right back.

 

I was told there would be a £500 charge to model a new glass based on a sample. plus a minmum order of 10 tailgates. ( they did say they were prepared to keep 5 as stock themselves. )  The glass would have been around £180. All told If 5 other owners wanted a glass that fitted it could be done for £280 ish per screen.

[dozeydustman]

That 3litre sounds pretty sweet. Such a more growly, gruff sound than the later cologne engine. Your car will be awesome when finally back on the road, Joe.

[coalnotdole]

That 3litre sounds pretty sweet. Such a more growly, gruff sound than the later cologne engine. Your car will be awesome when finally back on the road, Joe.

Cheers, i think the reprofiled camshaft contribues to it being a bit lumpier at idle than a standard essex. I’m glad its much less lairy than my straight 6 scimitar.

 

Which sounds amazing but is virging on antisocial for noise!

[DeeJay]

That 3litre sounds pretty sweet. Such a more growly, gruff sound than the later cologne engine. Your car will be awesome when finally back on the road, Joe.

It's awesome now.

[dozeydustman]

It's awesome now.

 

 

It'll be more awesome!

 

 

I’m glad its much less lairy than my straight 6 scimitar. Which sounds amazing but is virging on antisocial for noise!

 

 

A Zephyr straight 6 is a perfectly socially acceptable sound in any state of tune. Then again, any straight 6 is. I'd hope to meet one of these beasts at another gathering of shite!

 

If you need a hand tinkering one weekend, drop me a line. Seem to remember you're quite local to me talking at the Whiteways meet in August.

[coalnotdole]

It'll be more awesome!

 

 

 

 

A Zephyr straight 6 is a perfectly socially acceptable sound in any state of tune. Then again, any straight 6 is. I'd hope to meet one of these beasts at another gathering of shite!

 

If you need a hand tinkering one weekend, drop me a line. Seem to remember you're quite local to me talking at the Whiteways meet in August.

 

Hard to belive it was as long ago as August that we had our south coast meet up... It feels much more recent.

 

Cheers for the offer of help I'm rubbish at forward planning of my projects so any public outcry of help will not doubt be a bit short of notice.

 

Regretably I've got one more post of good news to come before this shit all goes horibly wrong...

[mk2_craig]

That sounds ominous. Can we have the bad news first?

[coalnotdole]

That sounds ominous. Can we have the bad news first?

 

Imagine something very expensive, that I thought was fixed. Going spectacularly wrong...

[Felly Magic]

This thread is bringing back memories of my mate Kev Pitchford's mum's red GTE auto, it replaced a Simca 1100 van, and she used to rag that 3.0 Essex powered plastic rocket, this was when I was about 4, which means a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago

[coalnotdole]

MOT TIme:

 

I'm having a slow day after a busy Christmas yesterday. So it seems like a decent opportunity to try and update this thread, its still lagging by a couple of months and I'd really like it to be more up to date!

 

By the end of October I was finally ready for an MOT, Nothing that exciting to report but its an excuse to post a few more pictures...

 

 

Another view of the the front spoiler, tester seemed pleased anyway! Headlight surrounds off as I'd been setting the beam alignment.

 

 

 

Result. a nice clean pass sheet.

 

 

A couple of days later and I fitted a set of wing mirrors. I struggled to find a brochure correct set of Wingard mirrors so have ended up with a set of NOS Desmo mirrors instead. I had some of these mirrors with the parts I got with the car in 2011, its Slightly unclear if they were ever a factory or dealer option on the 5a. I think they suit the car quite well and offer a good angle of vision with wide angle glass.

 

 

 

I started using the car again on local trips, I was a bit concerned by the rough Idle and was frustrated by a ticking that could be heard in the passenger side exhaust. I'd thought this was caused by the blowing exhaust, but a temporary bandage repair stopped the leak not the noise. I resolved to carry on using it and keep investigating.

 

Looking pretty good anyway...

 

 

Then the tailgate glass broke, after only the 3rd time using it.

 

 

I'm really disappointed with the quality of this rear window. The glass I was supplied was quite simply too small for the frame. the size difference has caused it to crack after only very light use. I have no idea If i've been unlucky and have got the one bad one in the batch.

 

 I've no Idea what to do about replacing it. The only source seems to be the owners club and to buy another exactly the same which feels like a waste of money.

 

I've emailed Tiplex, they no longer seem to hold the patterns for any of the GTE glass. Even the front screen is NLA which came as a surprise as its shared with the Consul Capri.

 

As It turned out a broken rear screen was going to turn out to be the least of my problems....

[plasticvandan]

Surely with the huge number of these that seem to be "breaking 4 spares" there must be plenty of original ones?

[coalnotdole]

I've had no luck finding a 45 year old heated rear window that works....

 

The whole idea or replacing old non functioning parts now is that I get a good long period of use out of them on the road. That was the theory anyway...

[DeeJay]

Liked for the pass not the glass.

[DSdriver]

That rear screen should have been toughened, not laminated which cracks if there is any chance of it flexing. Which is why Lloyds won't give A1 to yachts with lam. There is a company who work out of the same megashed that Pilkingtons use/d on the Isle of Sheppey who will make you a one off from a rigid template for reasonable money. I doubt it would have the heating elements though there used to be a chap in Essex who put new elements on DS back screens, not sure if he is still doing it.

[coalnotdole]

Sadly Pilkingtons / triplex packed up the Queenborough site a couple of years ago. I think some of their jig's / moulds never made the move when production was outsourced to Belgium.

 

They did say they could remake a custom tailgate glass based on a sample (my old one would do.) There was a £500 CAD setup charge, and a minimum order of 10 rear screens. there would then be the cost of the screens at around £250 each... Scimitar owners are quite tight so my chances of finding 10 of them prepared to pay over and above the price of the existing chinese reproduction glass seems slim.

 

Short term It will probably get another secondhand hatch fitted, I'm pretty sure I've got at least one spare in a lockup garage.

[DeeJay]

The door mirrors look the part.

The whole car looks better than new.

Very jealous. 

[coalnotdole]

Its Broken...

Over the first few road miles I noticed that the overdrive (refurbished at the start of 2015) wasn’t working, It didd'nt work when the car went off the road in 2017. I'd hoped that an oil change and an alternative (tested solenoid) would be enough to cure it but it clearly needs something more. The oil that came out was not nice, thick almost coffee like which seems a bit ominous.

More generally apart from the ticking noise the engine appeared to be running really well, above idle it was pretty smooth and it felt psychologically at least more responsive and less restricted. The running temperatures seemed much better though at this time of year its hard to get a good comparison.

While looking at the overdrive problem I noticed a drip on the garage floor. Drivers side and damp around the edge of the sump. Joy!



Turned out to be coolant rather than oil... From a suspect looking core plug:



Hidden nicely behind the exhaust manifold and the wheel arch liner. Some zippy disking later and access wast improved a bit.



I was just about able to get in there without taking the manifold off.





This is now the 3rd core plug I've changed on this engine in the 2 years I've owned It. I massively regret not doing them all when I bought the engine and had it sat on the stand. They all seem to have suffered from the engine having been stood while at least partially full of water.



I've gone for a Stainless Steel replacement, a bit more expensive but hopefully less hassle in the future.



While nipping up the radiator drain the plug sheered off which I thought would be a nightmare to sort.





However it came out very easily with a Torx bit hammered into a drilled pilot hole. It appears that aluminium drain plugs are probably not intended for repeated reuse.





I then repaired the wheel-arch liner, its since been painted black and you cant really tell its been off.



I had the rocker covers off to recheck the valve clearances, I wasn’t sure what cam was fitted and was a bit unsure if using the standard valve clearances was a factor in my mystery ticking noise.

While the rockers were off I cut some custom cork gaskets to suit my alloy rocker covers. Fitting these would help rule out the mystery ticking noise being the roller rockers making contact with the top of the pressurised rocker covers or possibly oil hitting them.





These are largely going to be obscured by a bracket with coil packs on it when I change the ignition to a sequential setup. The bracket for the coil packs will sit on custom made studs these should give a bit of an air gap between rocker and coils.

Dave made the studs to my design a while ago and I'd been due an opportunity to trial fit them.



They just fit, theres a loose plan to get the coil pack bracket laser cut once I finalise the design. I'm suffering a little bit here with a lack of experience in any CAD application. I can draw out what I want with templates, tracing paper and card but struggle to transfer that onto the computer.

Heres a few pictures:





I've bought and fitted another new part in this photo too...



Finally heres another running video. Is there a fault? Am I being paranoid? worrying over nothing? ...

[Guest Hooli]

Bugger! about the window, that must be really annoying. The car looks bloody good though.

[Felly Magic]

Arsecrisps about that rear window glass crackling like that, I would still be swearing now if that happened to me

[coalnotdole]

The problems with the glass have sadly been overshadowed by engine issues...

The day after I shot the video in my last post I went out to do a bit more diagnosis on the engine. As soon as I started it up I was greeted with this death rattle...

Turning it over on the starter without plugs in and rockers off suggested valve springs, rockers, and pushrods were ok, or at least moving as they should.

But a compression test revealed no compression on number 4 cylinder at all... Rechecking the valve clearances revealed that No 8. Exhaust vavle's clearance was well out of spec compared to the day before.... The inital theory is its probably a dropped valve seat...

 

In Short:

 

[Christine]

Mmmm , now sporting a billet thermostat housing.. 

[320touring]

Fuuuuuxk that sounds like a fair amount of work

[Guest Hooli]

There is a large amount of 'FFS lets just burn it' about that last video.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

aaahhhh FUCK!

[somewhatfoolish]

A proper friday engine that one's turning out to be; I'd be getting it out and tearing it right down after that, I just wouldn't trust any of it.

[DeeJay]

How much time/work is involved in getting this sorted?