FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron ***Non-BX related content 17/4***

[fatharris]

Another day with no parts, so it was lots of small jobs to prep for reassembly.

First job was to source a new set of exhaust manifold studs. As I had a day off work, I went around all the local factors, including an exhaust specialist to get what I needed.

And I came back empty-handed. Luckily, I've found a company that does the specific studs and nuts for a BX for £11 delivered online, so that'll arrive at some point.

I also popped into @twosmoke300 who had a camshaft sprocket bolt, as well as lending me a set of engine head stands to check the valve clearances again. These turned out to be okay, only one was just out of limits and it wasn't enough to merit stripping down the head.

I also removed the fuel manifold pipelines to measure up the required lengths and diameters of pipelines to replace them. Whilst dismantled, I gave the unit a clean, and marked where the pipelines go.

I did get lucky at the exhaust place though, and got a manifold to downpipe fitting kit - I had to angle grind one of the bolts off during the engine removal.

The cup washers required a sustained twatting effort to remove, but they gave up the goods eventually and I fitted the new cup washers and the conical mesh gasket. One of the bolts had to be fitted with the washer as it cannot be fitted afterwards.

I gave the manifold mating faces a bit of a clean and scrub up too.

Next, I cracked on with the inlet manifold.

The carb had been replaced during my ownership by Dan, but I had a new set of carb gaskets and it seemed silly to let them go to waste.

Noticed a little bit of erosion damage on one of the chamfered edges, so I filed it down slightly.

Removed the old traces of gasket until the face was smooth.

Then I blanked the holes and got busy with some parts cleaner and a brush - the entirety of the engine bay is bloody filthy, and lagged in a thick coating of oil-based grime.

After a bit of time, I reassembled the inlet manifold. Looks much cleaner and nicer to handle!

I also fitted the inlet manifold studs back into the head, after wire brushing the threads, they went back

Finally, I decided to step away from engine and turn my attention to the next big component awaiting fitment. If the engine was considered dirty, this would be considered filthy.

Annoyingly, as I removed the clutch arm for access and a re-grease, the pivot bush disintegrated. Annoying, but better it happened now instead of when I put it all back together. £7 for a replacement bush on eBay and we'll cross fingers that it arrives soon.

The inner bellhousing did clean up nicely though.

The outside of the box is also taking a bit of time, but there is progress being made.

You can see the layer of grime I'm having to scrub off here, hopefully I'll finish this job tomorrow morning.

I'm still waiting for the piston rings and hockey stick seals for No.1 crank bearing to arrive, once they're here I can really get cracking with the rebuild, but I'm not holding out much hope for the NL trip now.

Not the end of the world as it's been a great target to strive for, but finding faults etc along the way adds extra time to the final date.

Cheers 😁

[fatharris]

Last day of leave from work and once again, no parts arrived. So, more cleaning and little jobs instead.

The remainder of the gearbox was sprayed with degreaser and left to work in for a bit.

First shitty job was the bonnet catch.

Absolutely caked in old sticky grease and grime from 30 years of spraying any old shite onto it.

Bit more degreaser and some aggressive scrubbing got it looking presentable again.

Whilst re-lubricating the latch and operating the mechanism, it was clear that something wasn't quite right. The big spring on the left hand dislodged and was gouging into the catch.

I held the spring in place with steel wire and twatted the top of the bracket to bend it over to retain the screw - job done.

Was going to adjust the cable as there was quite a lot of slack in the system.

Nice and simple, just one tiny screw to undo aaaaand...

Never mind, it works just fine, I was just being picky.

Next small job, the temperature sensor earth return terminal had came away from the cable - my old crimping tool was well past it. Annoyingly, I ran out of my tiny ring terminals, and with the clearance available, a generic one wouldn't work.

In the end, I drilled out a male spade terminal to match the screw thread size and it fits perfectly.

Anyway, with that done, I cracked on, and cleaned the rest of the gearbox up.

Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than what it was! Decided there was no better time to change the driveshaft seals. Old ones looked fine, but I had new ones so it made sense to change them!

Both sides were changed, and rubber grease syringed into the seal cavity.

I also greased up the gear change rod ball joints.

In all honesty, there's very little I can do now until the last of the engine parts get here, so I'm going to take a break.

LOL, as if.

Herman has been sat on the drive since November, and his MOT has lapsed. There's currently an ABS fault that I need to look into, but as it was the first dry day with no BX work in months, I decided to start small and fit some bits that I've had on the shelf.

For years and years, I've been told I need to change my throttle cable by Phill because it was corroded and the pedal felt stiff throughout the range of travel. I bought two replacement OE cables last year.

First up, the throttle pedal cable.

Surprisingly easy to strip and disconnect at the pedal box end, although the bulkhead clip was a bit of a twat to undo, due to the sound deadening. Brute force force got it out though. Followed the routing and it was adjusted and ready to go, resulting in a much smoother and lighter pedal.

Next one was even easier, this was for the traction control.

The actuator had to be unshipped for access to the other side of the cable. With a strong clip either side, I ended up taking it into the garage, clamping the free end of the cable in a vice, applying constant tension to the cable whilst simultaneously undoing both retaining clips.

But it worked just fine the was a pleasant job.

Sadly, whilst it needed changing, it wasn't the one I was intending to change, I was after the one for the cruise control actuator:

The cable in this one is also pretty shagged, and at £90 for a replacement one, I'll be trying my luck at the scrappies in due course. It does work for now so it's not urgent.

Whilst the airbox was out, I noticed some paint fretting and light corrosion on a contact surface. Treated it with Kurist, and applied some anti-chafing tape to the affected area.

Anyway, with that all done, it was a quick and easy reassembly.

Didn't start it up as the battery is still on conditioning charge in the garage.

Up close, you can see the replacements were required!

Anyway, I did decide to knock it on the head early for the night. I tidied the tools away and hoovered the garage floor, ready for the next evolution.

Tomorrow, I'm back to work and we have a torque wrench tester. Going to take mine in so I can see what I need to set the torque wrenches to, in order to get the 20 and 60nm figures required for the head bolt torquing.

Cheers!

 

 

[2flags]

How can they justify £90 for a cable? What is it made of? Would it be possible to salvage the ends and use something like a bicycle brake cable instead?

 

[fatharris]

2 minutes ago, 2flags said:

How can they justify £90 for a cable? What is it made of? Would it be possible to salvage the ends and use something like a bicycle brake cable instead?

 

Presumably made of 8 £10 notes tied together 😂 A mate has said there's 3 E39 BMWs in a local scrappy so I'm going to figure out what tools I need to take to dismantle it, and take a trip over

[2flags]

Hopefully the cables will be useable, and the owner of the scrappy will let them go for less than a kidney!!

 

[Rust Collector]

I've just binge read this thread - absolutely incredible work mate, it's not easy keeping momentum on these projects with work, shit weather and a young family but you're just smashing through everything that comes up. Keep up the good work!

[fatharris]

PARTS!

Still awaiting rings though so I'm leaving the block until then, the tracking says it should be with me tomorrow.

Still, whilst the sun was shining, it makes sense to look at one of the other pains in the ass.

I wanted to rejig the driveway and get the Beat out of Winter Corner, so first things first, the MX5 needed to be fired up and moved. Wasn't overly optimistic, as it turned out I had left the battery connected the entire time, but fair play, it was a slow crank, but the engine fired into life.

And immediately shut off because there was an awful screeching from the engine bay, and the battery light stayed on. I've encountered this one before on this car, 5 years ago so I knew the alternator had seized.

Back then, I replaced it, so it's happened again, luckily I remembered how to contort it out of the engine bay.

I got it in the vice and gave it a dousing of lubricant.

Initially it barely turned with a 24mm ring spanner on, but eventually it freed up, and I kept it spinning on the impact driver for a bit to ensure it was free to rotate.

The assembly free to rotate, it was a case of refitting the alternator and trying again.

Aaaaand it didn't work. Once again, the screeching was back and the alternator wasn't spinning, so this alternator is toast.

A quick browse of Facebook marketplace has located a new alternator for sale so I'm picking that up tomorrow, so I can at least get it moving again. The battery was placed on charge and probably won't be going back in, as it will be going back in the BX soon. 

At this point, MrsH came home with the boy and a very tired 2 year old girl who had a major case of the grumpies, so I knocked it on the head for the evening.

Lunchtime finish at work tomorrow so I should be able to get some work done before the afternoon school run and swimming lesson.

We shall see!