project Broadsword's Fleet Thread

[The Moog]

Well bought.... Looking forward to the heralding of your progress on it.

[Broadsword]

Good news is that the Lupo has passed it's MOT without further incident. Bad news is there are some advisories that need attending to. MOT season is not quite over yet. The next one up is the XK8. In preparation for that I had a good prod around the usual rot spots, which are surprisingly solid. Plenty of welding has been done in the past on the sills and floors, but right now I have not managed to poke holes through it. I'm sure it will fail though, just not quite sure what it will be. Hopefully the exhaust won't fail. There is condensation in one of the front lights, I don't have time to fix it right now, but the pattern looks ok.

I needed to replace a front fog light bulb, which was a bit of a chore being you need to go in via the wheel arch, but  turned out to be easy enough. A bigger jobs was replacing the bonnet cables, which had at this point gone very stiff. Unfortunately, as is now the norm, the weather was totally against me. It took a couple of hours what with needing a break every 10 mins to dodge wind, rain and hail, but in the end it all got fixed. You need to remove the scuttle panel, which means wipers off, then the cables can be threaded out along the bulkhead. Fiddly but doable. Having a bonnet that opens and closes normally is so underrated!

Anyway with everything buttoned up we look forward to a very busy week. The XJR will be going to London and back, I'll be stopping for a very special test drive along the way. The car in question is a recent YouTube star. Then the Mazda will go off to it's new home and possibly the Triumph might arrive too!

[Cooper1]

Look forward to the progress, 

[Shirley Knott]

Very impressed that you're battling on with all of this despite the weather, although I suppose it's unavoidable for MOT's.  I've pretty much called a hiatus on anything that's not 100% essential until things warm up a bit!

[Broadsword]

MOT fail sheet for the XK8 below, but the MOT people loved the car so lots of advice was dispensed. The emissions they are certain is due to spark plugs being nuked from running on LPG. Will inspect then replace. Front brakes I knew about, discs are warped. Welding is an XK8 thing. They recommend a place in York to get it done properly at a decent price, that is being done tomorrow. You don’t really buy an XK8 without factoring these sorts of things in, but I think it can all be sorted for a moderate price. It’s only the welding I won’t do myself.

[The Moog]

Not too bad then if you can fix most. Is the Xk8 going to be a long term keeper? 

[Broadsword]

21 minutes ago, snagglepuss said:

Not too bad then if you can fix most. Is the Xk8 going to be a long term keeper? 

Yes, that’s the plan. It’s drop dead gorgeous.

Also I need to figure out spark plugs more suited to running on LPG. Suggestions are most welcome.

[dean36014]

NGK do proper log spark plugs. I stuck a set of four in my Merc and it ran much better. Bloody expensive though at fifty quid for 4! I always make them test emissions on lpg, last not was 0.01%

[Broadsword]

43 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

NGK do proper log spark plugs. I stuck a set of four in my Merc and it ran much better. Bloody expensive though at fifty quid for 4! I always make them test emissions on lpg, last not was 0.01%

They didn't want to fail it on emissions. They tried petrol and LPG and getting it as hot as possible. No dice. At that point they said that it could be the plugs based on past experiences. I'm away this weekend so no time to tinker, but I'll try and pull a spark plug tomorrow morning first thing. If the plug is burnt to a cinder as they suggest, it should be pretty obvious.

The car went to the coachworks which was recommended for the welding. They can do the job, looks like patches on the sills will suffice. Problem was that some previous repairs failed and the sill had filled up with silt. Maybe they welded a drain hole shut. One caveat to the job was that the guy looked at the fail sheet and said fix the emissions first, then come back. He was worried about putting money down the drain if the emissions never get sorted. I'm guessing he is thinking the catalytic converters have collapsed, but I'm hopeful the MOT shop are right and that I just need the spark plugs replacing. Other things I can do at the same time are service it.

So I will start by changing the spark plugs, then test the emissions separately. Then the brakes, then the welding and then retest. A bit of a task to get done in two weeks, but doable.

[Broadsword]

Currently thundering towards London in the XJR, might burn through quite a lot of fuel this weekend. Weather is diabolical. Pictures attached of what we are up against with the XK8.

[Broadsword]

Busy weekend down south over. 450 miles clocked up in the XJR6 (that equates to around £100 in fuel!). It was utterly flawless and handled some properly bad weather during the drive down from York to London on Friday. On the way back today the special test drive I was talking about occurred. Obviously It's another Jag...

Behold another manual XJR6. This time it's an automatic car that has been lovingly converted to manual by an extremely competent owner, Lee. He has also gone through the car with a fine toothcomb to get it mechanically spot on. We are talking all the important bits that make a 25 year old Jag fresh again. All the joints, suspension, bushes, the works have been done. It's probably as close in feel to a new X300 as you can get. IT IS GLORIOUS! Unlike the factory manual car I drove last year this one has a lovely light clutch and the gearbox is a delight to use. This is due to some small details that have been addressed and the fact that everything is just quite fresh. The drive was as good as I hoped. It has some beautiful exhasut headers, a brilliant sounding exhaust and some nice performance mods. On top it still looks like any XJ6, which is very cool. From the driver's perspective it's still a car you really have to drive and build a rapport with, but that is just the charm. I reckon you would need a week with it to truly understand its character, but the short test I got was thrilling. Many, many thanks to Lee for letting me have a drive of it.

As we were discussing today a manual XJR is really hard to define. Taking the auto box away means it's not quite the luxury cruiser it was, but it's not a sports car, nor a GT. It's nearly a super saloon, but it can't match the biggest Mercs and BMWs for outright grunt. It's perfect in a way, but also flawed and doesn't quite fit into a specific category. That's why I like it. You can never quite figure it out. If it's anything, I would call it an interceptor.

By the way if the car looks familiar, it's because a very good YouTube video was done on it about a week ago. Check it out. The reviewer is really good and understands what the car is about.

The point of the meet was for me to finally decide whether I want to convert my XJR to manual. After driving this converted car, the answer is a very clear yes. I've got no chance scoring a decent factory manual car, so converting my decent auto example is the way forward. It won't be easy to get the conversion done as the parts are so rare, but the people in the XJR6 scene are lovely and with luck I'll be in touch with the right contacts before long. The aim is to get the auto to manual conversion done this year.

The drive back to Yorkshire this afternoon was lovely on account of the good weather. One slight mishap occurred during the meet though. One of the inboard headlights decided to shatter. Cause unknown, presumably a rock got flicked up and hit it dead on. Not a big worry though. A replacement can be sourced for around a tenner.

Also the delivery of the Triumph didn't happen. Everything was arranged and I'd paid a deposit on the delivery, but the Shipley guy let me down. Quite annoying. The seller of the Triumph has been very helpful and understanding. I'm left needing to find alternative arrangements (suggestions welcome!)

Once home today it was time to say goodbye to the MX-5. It is staying in the fold and the owner will no doubt make himself know. Amazingly we managed to get the full set of spare wheels in. It made the long trip south without problems thankfully. It would have been nice to hold on to that one a bit longer, but the fleet is evolving and there are lots of things that need doing (i.e. the money is needed elsewhere), so it would have been neglected. I might try and get a very cheap one later on when I miss not being able to drop the roof. What happened to that roffle MX-5 from last autumn?

I made a final push as the sun was setting today to have a look at the XK8 with a mind to fixing the MOT problems. No. 1. the front discs are warped badly. New discs and pads have been ordered. Then I looked into the emissions problems. The air intake was quickly removed and oh dear.. A very dirty throttle body and shagged air filter. I should have looked earlier, but the messed up bonnet cables meant I didn't like opening the bonnet much till having replaced the bonnet cables last week. Oh well, easy to put right. Next on the MOT station's suggestion look at the spark plugs. They weren't wrong. The spark plugs are nearly non-extent. Burnt to a crisp and the gap is like 3 mm. How the car runs so well like this is bewildering. On the upside this is all easy to put right and surely once serviced the emission will be ok. The plan is to devote next Saturday to brakes and engine service. Then I'll take it to get the welding done.

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Lovely looking cars. I had that headlight thing happen once. Drove my fiesta van home from Birmingham to londres and when I arrived 99% of the o/s glass lens had vanished, not a mark anywhere else!

Good luck with the conversion, you got parts lined up yet?

Oh, and the big question, will ECP 'any part for any car' stock a clutch for it I wonder?

[Broadsword]

Thanks! Getting the parts for the conversion to manual will be part of the adventure. Any N/A X300 manual will do as a donor. From that you will need the gearbox, flywheel, pedal box, propshaft etc. Once fitted you need to fiddle with the wiring slightly to fool the car into thinking it's in park. Then it will start. I'm a regular in the XJR6 owners Facebook page and know a few people there. The best way to proceed will be via the same people who have converted the car I drove yesterday and another car that is about to be converted. I'm in touch with the guy having the next car converted. Word will be put out that I'm looking to be next. After making initial contact we can start to worry about getting the bits. It's been done before so I'm very much wanting to use that prior knowledge.

New Shipley quote was acquired today and I have been assured the Triumph will be collected tomorrow morning. Let's hope it comes good this time.

Had a word with the place where I wanted to get the XK8 welding done. Problem with them is that they will not narrow the price down at all to a ballpark figure. I know you can never say for sure, but I don't want to give them a blank cheque since I've never used them before. Will need to find an alternative.

[Broadsword]

The Triumph Herald has arrived to Broadsword central safely. For now it has been shifted into the shed, but before that I took all the assorted bits and pieces out to see if I have everything needed to put it back together. It looks like almost everything is there. The car looks a mess in the photos, but it's remarkably solid and a lot of important jobs have already been done. It was on the road recently as a daily before stripping the paint back. I would like to take the body off as much as possible for the purposes of tidying it up and then painting section by section. There is also a pushrod missing from the engine due to a bucket or something shattering. Looks an easy job to fix though.

More urgent today was fixing the XK8 MOT bits. I was ready to do the brakes when I realized it has locking wheel nuts and no key. I've had TERRIBLE trouble with locking wheel nuts in the past and I really have the fear now. The only option save hammering sockets on them is to find some keys in the scrapyard tomorrow morning. Once on a Saab we had a seized locking wheel nut. It took a mechanic two hours to extract it. I cannot emphasize how much I hate them. I really need the brakes fixed tomorrow so it could become stressy. Instead of brakes today I changed the spark plugs, air filter and cleaned the throttle body/intake in a bid to fix the high emissions. The job was reasonably simple and the engine really appreciated the work afterwards. Smoother, better pickup and noticeably faster (the old plugs were in a horrendous state). That boosted moral somewhat after the locking wheel nuts downer.  More tomorrow!

[Cooper1]

Regarding the XK8's plugs.. 

the NGK "LPG SPECIFIC" plugs are a waste of money, sparkers in an LPG equipped engine crap out after around 10k, one of the downsides of LPG

 

That herald looks like fun!

[Broadsword]

21 hours ago, Cooper1 said:

Regarding the XK8's plugs.. 

the NGK "LPG SPECIFIC" plugs are a waste of money, sparkers in an LPG equipped engine crap out after around 10k, one of the downsides of LPG

 

That herald looks like fun!

I came to the same conclusion so bought quite ordinary plugs, which will get replaced at every service instead.

The bits I can do on the XK8 for the MOT are now complete. I finished the replacing front discs and pads this morning. Everything went quite well. The upshot is that between the non-lethal brakes and the really smooth running engine, the car is a treat to drive now. I'm quite pleased. It will go in for welding and an MOT next Thursday provided garages are still open then. I'm a bit worried about the welding getting out of hand, lets hope not. The amount of mud I've been digging out of the sill is maddening. I can only conclude that when the previous repair was done, the guy just welded over a muddy sill. Why do this when a few minutes due diligence would save so much hassle? A stroke of luck intervened though. I've sold the number plate, which will help fund the MOT repairs just nicely. I'm not too disappointed about the venture really. The repairs have been pretty simple and have had a produced a big improvement in the driving experience, also the car itself was dead cheap.

The XK8 also will get a LPG service next week when the parts (dead cheap) arrive. It's a BRG system. Previously I thought LPG servicing was complex, but a bit of homework suggests it's no problem at all. It looks like the filters haven't been done for a few years so that might explain why the LPG system cuts out sometimes when driving particularly hard.

With the XK8 done, attention turned to the Herald. A new set of pushrods arrived so an attempt to put them in was made. It quickly transpired that the missing pushrod could not be replaced, as a new one would not go all the way down. Maybe now we are zeroing on the real reason the car was sold. About 20 mins later the head was off. Coolant in the oil and the cam follower is stuck and sitting too tall. It seems like the previous owner has tried to have a cam follower made, which clearly doesn't fit. He then hastily put the head back on and left a mess behind. At this point the head remains off while new cam follower arrive, then we can put the engine back together properly and hopefully get it running. It's certainly a very different experience working on something so old. I have A/F sockets, but an appropriate set of spanner would help. Watch this space!

[vulgalour]

Nice buy with the Herald, looks a very worthy project.  Couple of cans of Rustoleum and you're away on the repaint, chuck a bit of clear lacquer on too and you shouldn't even get any pogweaseling.

[Broadsword]

Tried to attack the cam follower on the Triumph again. It's really quite stuck in there. The PO has been very silly in my opinion. A visual inspection suggested it is slightly different from the other followers. Why would you go to all that effort to remove the head and then force the wrong follower in. I tried drilling a hole through to get some point where I could tug it out of the block. Unfortunately none of my drill bits could penetrate the bucket (it's quite hard and thick). The sides are rather brittle for some reason. I'm open to suggestions on how best to remove it without taking the engine out. More tools will be required anyway. I had a loot at the head, it's dead straight fortunately. Flicking through the paperwork suggests a large amount of monies have been spent on it on the owner before the last one. There is a receipt for the head being converted to unleaded petrol. I reckon the car looked quite nice until the PO tried his best to ruin it.

In other news a large portion of the XK8 interior has been removed ahead of welding. Poking a bore-scope in from the holes under the kick plates suggest the mud hasn't got very far in, and that the rest of the inner sill is clear. I'm still scratching my head as to where all that mud came from, but hey ho.

[Cooper1]

The part of the follower that bears on the cam is case hardened which is why it is a pain in the arse to drill into.. 

Cobalt drills might be able to get through.. 

 

Might be able to drill and tap the follower and use a slide hammer to pull the fooker oot!!

[Mr Pastry]

4 minutes ago, Cooper1 said:

The part of the follower that bears on the cam is case hardened which is why it is a pain in the arse to drill into.. 

Cobalt drills might be able to get through.. 

 

Might be able to drill and tap the follower and use a slide hammer to pull the fooker oot!!

Masonry drill might be worth a try, but if it is so hard I doubt whether a tap would make much impression.   It looks like it is high enough to be clear of the cam lobe, so with all the other followers out you could remove the camshaft and sump and knock it out from underneath.   But it wouldn't take much longer to take the engine out.  

[Mally]

Can't see drilling/tapping being possible if it's a bona fide cam follower.

It may be possible to weld a long threaded bar inside the follower, drill a hole in a thick plate, plate over bar, nut on bar and pull it out by tightening nut.

But follower may shatter. Need to use use good quality threaded bar, preferably with fine thread.

Worst case, engine out, cam out.

Can probably take sump off and cam out with engine in iirc.

It may well be that cam will not come out past the stuck follower.

[Broadsword]

Welding seems like an idea, but whether I can do it effectively in such a small space without damaging the engine is another question. I don’t think the follower is anywhere near the cam because the guy started the engine when I viewed the car. Surely if the stuck carrier were touching the cam, the engine would grenade?

[Isaac Hunt]

How about a squirt of ‘freezing spray’ and a tap with a punch, it might shatter.   Obs you will have to retrieve the bits from the sump

[Mrs6C]

Nice Herald 13/60! They are great cars, with bags of character. I still have three, all convertibles, albeit two are in bits and all need a lot of work. Six-cylinder has had a couple as well. I do like them.

Yours appears to have leather seat facings on the front seats; do I spy the same at the back as well? Leather seats were a rare option back in the day. I know there are modern replacement seat covers availeble in leather and the usual vinyl, but if these are the originals (whether from a 13/60 or a Vitesse) then they are quite special. The steering wheel on yours is off a Vitesse, as are the wooden door cappings and rear trims and the aluminium bumper finishers.

That tappet is a bit past its best, isn't it? There have been issues with the quality of new tappets over the past several years, with some having major failure early in service life. If there was a new set used in the recent engine work then the previous owner may just have been unlucky with that one. I hope it hasn't damaged the camlobe below.

The tappet (cam follower) should be able to move freely up and down and rotate around in its bore and obviously doesn't. If its dimensions weren't quite right, it is possible it came up the bore slightly out of true and got jammed up slightly on the diagonal. With suitable lubrication applied around the edges to lubricate between tappet and bore, Is it possible to put a long-ish bar of similar enough outside diameter to the tappet's inside diameter, down inside the tappet? If so, then you could try tapping that bar laterally sideways and round and round with a brass-faced mallet, to help 'wiggle' the tappet back into true again. If you can get it true in the bore, it should be able to move enough for you to be able to extract it.

If not, then at least taking the engine out isn't a big nor difficult job. You can leave the gearbox bellhousing behind, supported on a jack. All the nuts and bolts joining it to the engine backplate and the starter motor can be undone from within the car with a spanner and a socket, if you remove the gearbox tunnel cover first.

Good luck with it and I look forward to following its progress!

[Broadsword]

Thanks very much for that excellent information Mrs6C! The cam follower in the Triumph finally disintegrated after some heavy duty drilling. It was much thinker at the bottom than the other followers in there. Once the follower was out it became apparent that I’ve been had over and the engine is trashed. There is a sizeable portion of the cam lobe on the offending cylinder gone and the bore for the follower is damaged. Anyone know of a decent spare Triumph Herald 1300 engine?

[vulgalour]

Well that's a bum.  There's a couple of 1300 engines on eBay at the moment.

[Mrs6C]

What is the diameter of the damaged tappet? is there enough left of it to be able to measure?

The 948cc and early 1147cc cars had a smaller diameter tappet (0.687") and later 1147cc and the 1296cc cars had the wider diameter versions (0.800"). If the previous owner had used the smaller diameter version here in their engine rebuild, then it's feasible it could have been pushed up the tappet bore slightly off true and picked up in the bore. Worth checking the diameter of all of them, in fact.

May I suggest that if the engine is otherwise in good order, you may get a better outcome by stripping it down and rebuilding it? If the tappet bore can be honed or even sleeved, then you can replace the camshaft and give it a new set of (correct diameter) tappets. You will at least know then that it has been done properly, rather than buying into something unknown. Always nice to keep the original engine as well, if indeed it is. It has a reasonably early engine number, which would appear to match the early year of the car.

Have a gander at the camshafts on the Rimmer Bros site. They aren't expensive.
https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-GRID005165

[Broadsword]

My problem now with the engine is what else has the PO messed up or not mentioned? On that basis I would rather try another engine, get the car running/driving and then see what else could be wrong. There is currently this engine on eBay for £100. I’m ok putting that much into the car just so that I can size it up, but I don’t want it to turn into a money pit what with current events.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-Spitfire-MK4-Dolomite-1300-Engine/283749682839?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908131621%26meid%3D018ce90748d94bb5b441e54ee3590683%26pid%3D100678%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D392732685488%26itm%3D283749682839%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100678.m3607&_trkparms=pageci%3Ac57500b6-6a18-11ea-857b-74dbd180f2bf|parentrq%3Af44b017d1700aca4517f4971ffd10204|iid%3A1

[Mally]

Got to be worth £100 surely.

[Mrs6C]

Or this one, which is an earlier 13/60 Herald engine not so far along from yours. Oily and somewhat carbon-caked innards, but looks to be all there...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-early-Herald-1300-13-60-original-engine-Spitfire-Dolomite-Toledo-Bond/254539295742?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225669%26meid%3Dbfbaf77aecf2460eb587d631907449fc%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D283749682839%26itm%3D254539295742%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWithImageAndTitleNsfwFilters%26brand%3DTriumph&_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109