Project A Red Rebel Restoration - UPDATED: 14 months of (non)progress

[tooSavvy]

I watched a *fascinating Utoob of a guy refurbing S.U. carbs.

 

When he does the spindle bushing he DOES NOT go through the casting at the throat bore dia.. He stops a milli or so short either side and the two bushings go in 'behind' this shoulder >> he points out that a plain shoulder makes a massive air leak when not fully closed which ruins fine tuning.

 

[coalnotdole]

I think that's how I did it - Cant actually remember at the moment! I remember dicking about measuring the depth of the counterbore. Unlike the SU I also fitted a small welch plug to the non linkage side to blank off the end of the shaft bore and a tiny lip seal on the throttle side.

 

I didn't have any fancy piloted reamers or a tool post grinder to modify some so it was done with drills with the ends flatted off on the grinder and whatever standard reamers I had that fitted. Think the pockets for the bushes were done on the milling machine using an end mill after I'd centred things up using a drill bit stuck through the spindle holes.

 

Not a job I would have been happy doing on a customers carburettor but as this one was effectively scrap I figured I had very little to lose, same thought process as applied to boring the block out on my milling machine really!

 

Idle is certainly improved compared to before rebushing its just that it doesn't have as much acceleration as I had hoped.

Mind you it's a Solex B28 ZIC-2 which I think is effectively a pre-war carburettor. It doesn't have an acceleration pump or any fancy bits whatsoever.

[tooSavvy]

1 1/4 MiNi SU.... Transformed my IMP (well that + 'open em up to fit m8' rebore of the 875 to fit Talbot 930 pistons!)

 

 

This is a photojobbie of the adapter I had made... It took the mini carb and turned 90deg onto a 28/36 Weber manifold I found somewhere..

533KNX.. See C.C. size on Gov tax site

[coalnotdole]

The other silly little job I did was to fit the Alloy rocker cover that I've had kicking around for years.

For some reason the filler neck which is cast as an integral part of the cover is a size which doesn't fit any standard filler caps. The done thing is apparently to wrap some electrical tape around your old cap so it sort of fits...

 

Fair enough but it would be nice if the hole was actually round!

 

 

Setup on the bandsaw:

 

 

 

 

You can see just how off-centre and oval the original neck is:

 

 

 

 

Over to the mill and boring head setup:

 

 

 

 

New neck turned up out of aluminium bar and pressed in with loctite:

 

 

 

 

Inside view:

 

 

 

 

Finished job fitted with a standard ford filler cap:

 

 

 

Cheers

Dave

[320touring]

Fuck me, machining an oil cap/filler hole.

 

Top effort!

[stonedagain]

Excellent thread, keep up the good work!

[dollywobbler]

This is like the polar opposite of the Fox project. Great stuff.

[plasticvandan]

I think I used a transit filler in my ally cover,don't recall having to add any tape

[coalnotdole]

Not much has happened to the poor little rebel really, It sits in the carpark most of the time apart from the occasional brief trip to sainsbury's!

The supposedly "genuine aeroquip" hoses I had used for the full flow oil filter conversion had started to look decidedly dodgy after only eight months so those have now been replaced with ones from a more trusted supplier:

 

 

At some stage last year when I had moved into the new workshop but not yet filled it full of tat I stuck the rebel in for a few days and did some odd jobs;

 

I have modified a 750cc reliant inlet manifold to take a Weber carburettor intended for a fiat 500 which due to my limited understanding of the differences between two stroke and four stroke carburettor requirements has also cost me a small fortune in different jets and emulsion tubes! In hindsight I should probably have gone for one off a fiesta or something which has an acceleration pump but this one seems to have improved performance quite a bit compared to the austin sidevalve derived solex which was originally fitted.

 

Modified throttle lever to suit the rebels solid throttle linkage:

 

Beginnings of an adapter to take the standard rebel air filter:

 

And the finished article:

 

 

 

The tube nuts that hold down the alloy rocker cover were intended for a mini where they have a thick rubber grommet to seal them which didnt suit my application, fibre washers just seemed to weep oil so I have modified them to take an O ring which seems to have cured the issue:

 

 

 

 

I have also made some progress on stripping down the collection of around ten Girling mk2b brake servos, One of which will be fitted to the rebel, a couple are destined for Joes scimitars and the rest will be sold on to offset costs a bit,

First batch of shot blasted bodies and innards:

 

Plastic components after ultrasonic cleaning:

 

Ane internal parts which annoyingly the ultrasonic solution managed to strip the black anodising off of!:

 

First batch of vacuum body shells back from the electroplaters:

 

Some minor repairs to brackets which had been hacked about by previous owners:

 

 

 

Second batch of bodies and brackets ready to be electroplated:

 

I've modified the original welded clamp bands to be removable - The original girling service kits came with new bands to this design but they're £35 each to purchase just the band on its own nowadays:

 

 

These have all been electroplated now and I also have a large bag of new seal kits and gaskets ready for reassembly as soon as I get a chance to properly clean and hone the aluminium hydraulic bodies which have been sat in a box since they came out the ultrasonic cleaner over a year ago!

 

Not the most exciting of updates I'm afraid!

 

Dave