richardthestag Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 "four" wheels on my wagon at last I managed to get the chassis into a rolling state again. milestone has been turned Despite having two extra pairs of hands it was easier to lift the front of the chassis on the engine crane, then I could manipulate the radius arms into the chassis. then the lads positioned the front springs as I lowered the chassis weight onto them back axle, rested back of chassis on a work mate, built up radius arm and springs on the floor, then lowered the chassis by hand while helping hands located the radius arms into the chassis. then jacked up the back axle and installed the wheels. celebrated in the usual "topping out" style. David celebrated using photogramtwer or some other crap social media fad that I cannot get my head around Hard work done on a Sunday Bench has been in place for 24hours and looks like it has been there a decade today had to use a ratshit strap to pull the nearside axle closer to the off side chassis rail so I could fit the panhard rod. it stops the axle wobbling from side to side cleaned up the gearbox cross member, pleased with this because it was quite ratty. disapointished that chassis has narrowed slightly - "they all do that sir". will need some sort of spreader in order that I can get the cross member back in. we are only talking a couple of mm hauled the power steering box off the shelf cleaned it, tested and fit for purpose. just need to swap the ball joint in the drop arm finished up by painting it. I hope that the seals are intact because the drop arm often needs dynamite to remove. the way my luck is I might have a go at shifting it tomorrow Skizzer, J4mes, TagoraSX and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthecapriman Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Nice work, your rolling chassis looks superb! richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hooli Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Damn fantastic, it's a shame to cover it up with a body shell. With the swivels, do they need the oil/grease/one shot snot in before you preload them? I'd have assumed all that around the CV would make a noticeable difference in drag on the spring balance. richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 Damn fantastic, it's a shame to cover it up with a body shell. With the swivels, do they need the oil/grease/one shot snot in before you preload them? I'd have assumed all that around the CV would make a noticeable difference in drag on the spring balance. the body frame is the next big job (fnarr) on the list. tiding welds rust proofing and fitting back onto chassis. still need to weld up the rear goal posts for the swivels you need to release the sweep seal before doing it so the ep80 oil will be drained first. I dont think the one stop would put up that much resistance on a side to side pull. the balance needs 2.5 - 3lb force once resistance to start moving is overcome. When the sweep seal is fitted the load goes up significantly. I think the trick is that the swivels are not so loose that death wobble happens but not so tight that the steering and swivel bearings wear out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hooli Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 Ta it's been years since I set one up, I couldn't recall the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 day of doing odds and sods today. Have ordered rust converter and bits from rustbuster. that should arrive tomorrow then I hope to crack on with prepping the bulkhead for paint. this is the steering drag link that connects the steering box to the nearside hub, the remains of the steering box ball joint are still in the end. I wanted to unscrew the ends so it can be prepped for paint etc this end is reverse threaded so that the drag link can be accurately set up to ensure a straight ahead steering wheel. once the clamp was removed it simply wound out. most unusual! the balljoint also simply unscrewed!! here it all is ready for a quick refresh. new balljoint is needed buoyed by my good fortune with the drag link I attempted to remove the two ends and adjuster from the track rod that connects nearside and offside hubs. no fucking chance! Heated up to glowing and levered with a pair of stilsons with foot long handled. as all two joints were seized solid I will replace the fucking lot with new. The ball joint that did come off was dead. switched my attention to the steering shaft that goes between the steering column and steering box. it cleaned up nicely, both UJs are in good shape and will be reused Next I replaced the steering ball joint on the steering box. I had to cut through the old one because is was fucked and stuck in the drag arm. the ball joint is held in with a circlip on the bottom of the arm. the balljoint and packers etc can just just be knocked through the arm with a drift. there is a cup which forms the upper part of the balljoint, the old one needs pressing out. bit of threaded rod and a few sockets had it out. The old cup is just to the left of the big phat whasher here are the old and new bits. the old joint was rusted new cup was easily pulled into place using a socket, threaded rod and washers the ball joint is held in place by a disc and circlip, a fat spring provides some pressure to take up any slack. makes assembly a bit of a bastard. I haven't removed the bottom arm from the steering box due to a shortage of dynamite. after messing about with g clamps and stuff I positioned the steering box besides the vice, rotated the box input to move the arm into the right sort of place and then pressed the lot together and fitted the circlip. caused a bit of swearing box is now fitted to the chassis. yay shelf space is freeing up stripped front prop down, one uj was dead one ok but wouldnt survive a strip down and rebuild so will be replaced anyway. quite a lot of grease and shit on this propshaft. not unusual as it sits under the gearbox and engine parts washer and a brief going over with a wire twist disc on the angle grinder had it 2/3 ready for paint and rebuild TagoraSX, Skizzer, brickwall and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 catch up on the last three days shenanigans. all my stress and most of my depression have gone this week. lets see if it stays that way! pressed new bushes into the a-frame press made light work of pushing them in done! next new steering joints, reasonable qulitay but almost as dry as a witches tit remove rubber cup, lube, replace, fit, dont worry for years. knocked down the rear prop, no idea how old it is nor history, each joint had a slight tight spot so replaced the UJs remove the splines and found blue grease. = repro = cheap parts so replacing UJs is the best option Squirrel2, johngarty, Banger Kenny and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 Another job to do was set up the front swivel preload. too tight and steering feel will be impacted, too loose and steering wobble of death happens. In a nutshell, the swivel bearings are tapered. the bottom swivel pin is fixed. the top swivel pin is designed to take shims, less shims will increase the load, more shims will reduce the load. load is measured using a spring balance on the steering arm, bit of a faff though because the top pin has to be removed to fit the shims and then torqued down to 60ft lbs to check load to start with I fit enough shims so that the hub will stay in position when it is rotated. if gravity causes it to move then shims need to be removed to increase the load shims come in 0.030, 0.010, 0.005 and 0.003 thou micrometer helps identify the thickness of the shims trusty old spring balance, load is between 2.5 and 3lb. I verified my spring balance using a 4lb weight and it was good. o/s hub needed 0.030 thou shim, n/s here needed 0.082 thou still need to fit the brake back plate and flexi hose support but other than that the front hubs are done. yay johngarty, Tickman, TagoraSX and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 in other news yesterday I stripped down the £50 ebay engine. on the whole it didnt look too bad, low comp pistons, very little bore wear. It has been waiting patiently here on the right. The engine on the left is higher compression SD1 engine that came out of the project car and is a runner Happily all the timing cover bolts came out without any snappage, bit of black death inside but see a lot worse. worryingly the oil pump was dry. New water pump - yay fitted engine to the stand for strip down, heads I already did last year camshaft is worn, all lobes are still there but the profiles have worn, will be replaced along with the hydraulic lifters so no worries The timing chain was very baggy, again not unusual. These engines put up with a lot of shit and still run sump off next and it is very sticky, gloopy and black, smelt pretty bad too. after a while I sussed out that it had axle oil in it !!!! #2 piston out and oh fuck! that isnt good, looking to replace all the bearings anyway but the crank will need a grind. Not as bad as the stag crank but still a bit too far for a polish and replacement of the shells. Sigmund Fraud, Tickman, johngarty and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 this big end shell from piston #7 didnt even fit into the conrod or cap, showed signs that it had spun. likely that the engine had seized on this piston and then forced the shell to rotate along with the crank, the cap and conrod look ok, worst case I will replace the conrod to fix this. pistons all out, ready for clean and assessment, they are all showing serious bearing wear. conrods all appear to be ok, gudgeon pins have no noticeable wear. piston rings are fucked. all the pistons are standard size hepolite jobbies Main bearing caps next, this is #4 bearing and it also has spun! when removed a big lump of the bearing was also missing all stripped out, next steps are a deep clean and assess for bore wear, cam bearing wear and any sort of stress crack or slipped piston liner. Might yet be a Top Gear style table crank may just get away with a polish, seems to have been running standard shells so there is a chance for grind and oversize shells. not a disaster main bearing shells so I reckon that oil pressure was fucked because oil pump had run dry and was not primed again. this trashed all the crank bearings quickly, there is no sign of heat damage to the camshaft bearings so I think it was a mercifully quick death. axle oil was probably dumped in to see if oil pressure could be fixed. the fact that none of it was in the oil pump is pretty damning. the oil filter was also 1/4 full of engine oil, again no sign of axle oil. should be recoverable else it will be on the bay as a table or boat anchor etc coalnotdole, Coprolalia, johngarty and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 In other stuff wanted to assemble the rear axle a-frame but found that I had bought the wrong top link bracket - doesn't have the bit for the boge hydromat self levelling unit. doh new balljoints are a shit load cheaper than the whole link, pressing out means that you first have to cut the lugs off the sides of the ball joint with mr angle grinder. this joint is seized solid then just 10 tonnes and a bang that echoed down the valley it shifted here it is apart. engine assessment is ongoing, cam bearings are good, one main span up and I need to check that. All pistons are original factory 8:13 comp ratio jobbies on a standard bore. All the rings came out of the pistons easily. the gudgeon pins do not appear to have worn on the centre section. on Rover V8 the pin is fixed into the conrod and bushes are in the piston skirt. all seems very well the bores look original and doesnt have any ridge but I didnt have my bore gauge to check, I want to check as the piston rings I took out are a mile off. It is not beyond the stupidity of someone who runs an engine dry of oil to fit standard pistons back into an over sized bore. Chances are a set of piston rings and I can reuse rods and pistons. The crank is predictably less delightful. I need to give it a good clean and then get it assessed. Again all the trashed bearing shells are original spec vandervell bearings in standard size. best case is a polish and another set of standard bearings. I suspect I need to got 10thou undersided though. So far the rest of the block looks good Banger Kenny, Junkman, Coprolalia and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 I am back at home the last couple of weeks starting to sort brakes for the project. I already built the calipers but now need to fix the solid brake lines to the axles. I use Kunifer brake pipe which is easy to bend but doesnt have the negative impact of work hardening properties of copper which might cause a failure should the pipe not be 100% secured.... All pipe comes in rolls but straightening it out is a bugger to do nicely. I tried stuff like this but it is just fucking hard work then I found a vid on youtoob which showed a different type that I thought I would try and build. bought some nylon grooved pulleys on bearings from ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60MM-Round-U-Groove-Nylon-Pulley-w-Ball-Bearing-Wheels-Roller-for-Rope/253237867034?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=552356712545&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 box section too, though with hindsight a lump of 4x2 timber would have done just as wellhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-Rectangular-Square-Tube-Box-Section-size-60x20-200x100mm-up-to-1000mm/252552095271?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=551459676025&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 used a woodwork scribe to mark lines parallel to the edges of the box, drilled pilot holes and then stepped those holes out to m10 bolts found some washers to go under the pulleys so that they would spin nicely recycled nuts, bolts, washers etc all came from my box of bits the coach bolts go right through both blocks, are fixed to the block with three wheels. I then tighten the nearest nut to the pipe input so that the pipe just enters, and tighten the other nut so that the straight pipe exits straight. took about 30 seconds to figure it out an old roll of crinkled kunifer or maybe copper, it has been bent back and forth a few times so unlikely I will use it for anything other than very short runs shove it through my pipe straightner and it comes out dead straight after whizzing it back and forth a couple of times, will be even easier to use when clamped into a workmate result. youtube vid of my own coming up Honey Badger, Scruffy Bodger, Sigmund Fraud and 15 others 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 inspired a bit by Mr Wobblers fine and most amusing vlogs I thought I would give it a bash. only with more beer and swearing, sorry about that. here is an update on pretty much where I am with the rebuild. Sigmund Fraud, Cleon-Fonte, Banger Kenny and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 I have also fiddled around with some instructional vlogging these are me taking propshafts apart, dropping bits on the floor, making mistakes (on purpose of course) and getting them back together again disassembaledge reassembly in press and making a right hash of doing it in a vice johngarty, timolloyd, drum and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hooli Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Liking that pipe straightener. Bet that makes the job look a lot smarter afterwards. richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drum Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Great work Richard and excellent thread. richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 brake pipe straightener vid is online not the most professional job tbh but does show you have the thing works. Sigmund Fraud, Exiled_Tat_Gatherer and Banger Kenny 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiled_Tat_Gatherer Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Thanks a million for that........ excellent work - almost makes the cheaper RR's worth a proper* look at.One day...... one day......... Looks like a bit of a result on the 'bay engine too. Gotta be happy with that. Edit off to find rollers..... definitely need one of them in my life. richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 New 6 litre * ultrasonic tank review. bagged it for £84.99 on the bay UK seller Junkman and johngarty 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 updates in around Beast from the fuckin East and son of the beast etc. the shed has been cold. Did manage to acquire some old racking from a friend of a friend who is retiring. £10 each, shifting was a challenge but not impossible removed one BigDuuuuuugg rack from the shed which mean clearing all the crap off it found stuff I had forgotton I had. yay and installed the new racking Racking space is more organised, and occupies a smoller footprint on he floor which means more room for me Also bought this jack and the chain hoist for £20 and a bench Grinder for £15 ^ a very pleasing weekend. He may also have a gantry which I am holding out for. Sigmund Fraud, Scruffy Bodger, Coprolalia and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 work on the pistons and rods has been ongoing ultrasonic tank is too small but did the job, new tank now bought and tested see above this is just carbon from the top compression ring grove from one piston. nasty shit needs to be persuaded out else the new rings will not sit properly on the piston pleasing b4 and after ultrasonic cleaning and mild wipe over with steel wool used the red gudgeon pin removal tool on 5 pistons then it just fucked itself. the thin end has a reverse thread and fitting, the fitting is made from butter so couldnt cope with rover v8 pins that are very tight in the conrod. Removing them you should avoid heat because while it does allow the pin to shift slightly easier from the rod. it then expands tight into the piston skirt. If reusing the pistons you need to protect the piston skirt two more ganky ep80 soiled pistons and rods to clean the solution has a crust on it eughhh found that the pin removal tool uses an M12 thread, I found some M12 threaded rod and double locked a couple of nuts to replace the reverse thread shenanigans. I had to mash the thread to shop the nuts winding off the end. This worked just fine. using the red cup and another m12 nut I was able to pull the last 3 gudgeon pins out. Lots of heat to the rod end will be required to get them back in after measuring whgich is what I am upto now. All piston skirts are bang on, as are pin diameter. I may press the pins back in rather than use heat, again the trick is not to damage the skirt. Squirrel2, Banger Kenny, danthecapriman and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 updatez from my shed - courtesy of Flat Cap productions etc Anyway, news in, pistons are all useless. I will stick a video up but in a nutshell the rods are all good, the big end of all the rods is circular and the lengths are all within 0.0001th of each other. they even weigh the same but please dont tell Mrs thestag else she might put 2 and 2 together re her new digital kitchen scales. I know also from gudgeon pin removal that the pin fit into the small end of the rod is spot on. I used my micrometer to measure each gudgeon pin for wear. they are all perfick. so I have a complete set of rods and gudgeon pins that I can reuse. The pistons. gah ok starting with fine measurements of the top of the piston skirt. great, well within tolerance for standard low comp pistons however when checking the measurement from the top of the piston skirt (at right angles to the gudgeon pin) to the bottom of the skirt I found they were fatter at the bottom, uh oh, not only that bearing in mind the cylinder is 3.5" exactly, the fattest part of the piston skirt is just 0.002thou smoller. too tight So using the above measurement, I measured in line with the pin at the bottom of the skirt 0.015thou smoller and they were all the same. so pistons are all ovalised at the bottom and round at the top. Had it not been for that I might have gone to the engineering shop to get their advise. However the gudgeon pins are also a loose fit in each piston. the tollerance is 0.0003 - 0.0007 (yes that is 3 10,000ths of an inch) so if I can stick the pin in and feel movement then it be fucked. which it is. shortly to have a nice range of autoshite piston clocks, ashtrays and tooth brush holders Squirrel2, Sigmund Fraud, Coprolalia and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 so to cheer myself up. I rebuilt the SU carbs and manifold that came from the project car. I knew already that the engine (not that one ^^) was from a Rover SD1, as is the carbs it would seem. Range Rovers were generally fitted with Stromberg 175s that I am familiar with. I have a set that I rebuilt already for this car. The SUs I fancied having a go with so here it is. Maybe it will end of on a rebuilt engine to be sold as a project funder Not to pretty but they work grit blasted the manifold wafted aluminum HT paint over it and fitted some of the cleaned bits back on stripped the carbs down one at the time, so bits dont get mixed up and I also have a reference point if I dont understand what is going on New 6 5.1 litre ultrasonic tank made very short work of cleaning didnt even need the steel wool to wipe over the surface all loose assembled. I have ordered in gasket and o-ring kit to fully fit up before assembling on the manifold. only issues I encountered were deformed float chamber cover on both carbs, this is all that stops petrol from flooding the inlet manifold. warped due to over tightening ffs. anyway a straight edge and selective use of an "adjuster" had them fitting flush and a micro spring is missing from the needle on one of the carbs. I dont even have to worry about replacing the throttle butterly because someone has already cut the gubbins of the butterfly pollip piece of useless crap and soldered it in place. It is solid and isn't moving so can stay Ordered up the gaskets which should arrive tomorrow then I can finish this job Eddie Honda, johngarty, Tickman and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 Also done the distributor. this type I am happy to use on the V8 going back into the project. this is it done Fun job. got on order new condenser, points, rotor and cap from distributor doctor. fed up with cheap crap parts only issue that I find other than service items is that the oil pump drive is worn. new one is £30 and will not snap off and leave me with broken drive to oil pump here is a vid I knocked up on the whole shebang johngarty, Sigmund Fraud, Exiled_Tat_Gatherer and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hooli Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Liked the piston post for the engineering skill not the fucked pistons. Junkman, richardthestag and stephen01 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytwo Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Great thread and so very interesting. Good to see a real practical engineer at work. There used to be a company in London by the name of Ferrari's Piston Service. The pistons in my Chevrolet V8 also wore in the same pattern as your Rover V8 ones. Ferraris reworked them for me and also used special clips to expand the piston skirts back to factory spec. There must still be firms in existence that can do that. It did save me quite a bit of cash and it was a quick turn around. Junkman and richardthestag 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel2 Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 Liked the piston post for the engineering skill not the fucked pistons.Me too. Very helpful and interesting, Richard. Squirrel2 richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted April 15, 2018 Author Share Posted April 15, 2018 back up Devon, yay But furst carb gaskets are in and now built up and on the manifold. Just need to decide what I will do with them, most likely sell because do not suit Range Rover projects. Maybe I should buy an early SD1. Oh Lord do not tempt me. TagoraSX, Junkman and johngarty 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hooli Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 I had SUs on my V8 Lt/Wt but then it did have a RR V8 with the timing chain etc off a P6 so it was an odd mix. Seemed to run well on them. richardthestag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthestag Posted April 15, 2018 Author Share Posted April 15, 2018 Next onto the engine block that contained those fucked bearings and pistons. the one that had been seriously starved of oil flow. Timing cover responded well to the parts cleaner the engine block was treated so some heavy duty detergent two fucked blow guns because I drop them and stand on them etc. neither is compatible so I lob the pair into my "make one good unit out of 15" box more detergent and pressure washing. amused at how the front corner had no paint at all :/ crank cleaned and need a grind, no surprise there. probably get away with 10thou. crank is currently just shy of standard tollerance cleaned enough to get it to the machine shop. they will acid dip it. check out this fucking tide mark. engine sat with water in it and cylinder #7 - left of photo. so it will probably need a 10thou grind all core plugs out and messy inside but no surprises in summary... I bought this block for barely any money at all because it had and has no wear to the bore + I reckoned on it being original but not rebuilt. However I have found that main, bigend and probably cam bearings are ruined because of oil starvation. The sump was full of EP something foul smelling gear oil the crank needs work, the pistons cannot be reused so is this block to be reused or should it be a fancy wine rack on ebay......... johngarty, danthecapriman, Coprolalia and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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