So why won't it run?

Along with my mate Paul Darbyshire (a big thanks to him) Saturday December 28th was the day when PMW was to fire up.

First off we replaced the split hose on the inlet manifoild (after breaking off part of the pipe in the manifold - oops). Refilled with water all OK - for now.

Then spotted that the vacuum pipe from the dizzy to the carbs was somewhat short so found the remainder and fitted that.

Now for the time to start the car.

Err - no, not turning over fast enough. So with 4 batteries all charged up in total we used jump leads from one of them to the battery on PMW and tried again. Not a great improvment and not even a sign of a "cough".

Next up - we used a battery pack which improved things a bit on the turning over front but no joy again.

Right, back to first principles. Is there a spark? So we placed a spare spark plug in number one lead and put that on the rocker cover. Yes there was a spark when we fired it up (Knew there would be from last time but worth checking again).

Next - get the timing sorted. Done with the aid of a didgital analyser.

No joy again.

Next - check that when it's at TDC  on the firing stroke for number 1 that the rotor arm is pointing at the right post in the dizzy cap for number 1. No it wasn't! No idea how that happened but we changed the spark plug leads round so that it was now 180 degrees from where they were and correctly aligned.

Well that made no difference either.

It was probably around this time I noticed water running down the side of the engine block.Probably a core plug, oh good. I should have replaced them as a matter of course but they all looked really good and I decided not to disturb things when I was rebuuilding the engine. Oh well another job for later but that can wait until I get the engine running.

Back to it. I have never been happy with the battery on the car which was a square post type instead of the correct round type and the fixings weren't great either. I had bought new round type battery clamps so we fitted these and substituted a known good battery of the correct type from BRP if I remember correctly.

Now with the battery pack connected the engine turned over noticeably quicker but still without any sign of even looking like a spark of interest.

We checked fuel delivery all the way to both carbs and that was fine. Even easy start didn't help.

OK, just in case our logic was wrong from earlier I put together a spare dizzy cap and leads fitted 180- degrees "out" and we fitted that for another try which resulted in absolutely no difference at all - the engine turning over but no sign of firing up at all.

Just for a bit of light relief we wandered over to the Rover SD1 VDP, fitted a battery and turned the key for the first tine in a year. And it started first time!!!! No, not really but it did sound like if we had begun the day with that one we would have had a car running by the end of it.

All out of ideas it was time to call it a day after 4 1/2 hours of puzzling over why the car won't start.

Any ideas out there?

PMW brake hoses

So another 3 hours on PMW.

First I have never fitted the air cleaner assembly with the back on as the air filters were too deep. Well I took another look and that's not actually true, it just needed more determination so now the assembly is as it should be, with the back on it and fitted up to the carbs.

Then I moved on to the heater hoses and the radiator hoses and refitted them. I used some new hoses here and there but one wouldn't fit without a kink in it so I kept the old one on instead.

Good to fill the radiator up with water as you hear the various noises the system makes as it refills, another sign of the car coming alive again. I prefer not to put antifreeze in straight away as you never know if there could yet be a problem so why risk wasting costly antifreeze?

My point was proven as water poured out from a hose hidden away under the heater hoses near the bulkhead. I had missed this one and it is rotten/split so will need a new one.

Moving on then to another area. I had bought months (years?) ago new braided brake hoses so I went to fit these to the front. The old one at the front nearside was a pig to get off but after the usual old tricks I was successful and refitted the new one. Thing is though, because I had dropped the suspension to change the engine I couldn't remember how it all  fixed to a plate and the coppper brake pipe that goes to the union inside the engine bay.

I even went to the trouble of taking photos so I could ask on the Club Triumph forum for guidance but in the end didn't need to as I worked it out - see the photo below.

No connection

Well I didn't have a connection to the starter motor on UNJ as it snapped off - see one of the previous blog entries.

So yesterday I lay under the car and carefully stripped the end off the wire, used a "proper" crimp connector with a "proper" crimping tool whilst remembering to put an insulating boot on the wire first. None of this being at all easy whilst lying on your back as opposed toin a lovely warm workshop and bench in said workshop preparing a new wiring loom.

Managed it tho - hurragh!

Blooming car won't start though - not even a hint of the starter motor responding :-(

Next then on this member of the fleet will be to tke the starter motor off and see if one of the  three spare second hand ones ---

a) fit
b) work

If none of the above I won't be a happy bunny.

Still, there's always PMW to go back to and see if I can have running by the end of the Christmas break.

Bolting bits on

Ever get the feeling you might be getting in the way?

That's PMW under the sheet with buses, a Land Rover and even a dump truck all round it!

Best get on so the car can come back home.

This afternoon though was all about bolting bits back on. The boot is getting emptier as bits come out of there and are either returned home or go on the car.

Like the air filter assembly, radiator and electric fan which took up 2 1/2 hours today (see pictures below).

I had charged up a battery off UNJ and took this over today too.

I stored it in the Rover and brought back a battery I had taken off BRP and JEA's battery too. I intend to charge these batteries up as well and then I'll have a total of 4 charged car batteries for when I next attempt to start PMW - will this be a Christmas present for me I wonder?

Upping the pressure

I got back to PMW and the quest to get it running again.

First though I got the car up on axle stands and got the clutch slave cylinder bolted on. It was much easier to work out where it went when I could see the bell housing etc.

Meanwhile, last week petrol had been pumping out of the front carb which seemed a bit of a worry. I thought a float valve was stuck so I took along a spare set of carbs with the intention of swapping  bits over but found the fuel pipe that links the two carbs in the boot!

No wonder, it's supoosed to do that with fuel being fed from the front carb to the rear one via the fuel pipe I had not attached - idiot!

So, back to spinning the engine over with the plugs out and even with a battery pack attached there was still no oil pressure. At Bryce's suggestion we fed oil into the oil pump by removing the oil pressure sender and pumping oil in.

Then when the engine was turned over eventually we got oil coming out of the hole where the oil pressure sender had been so we were making progress. Replacing the sender though then meant oil coming by the oil filter housing so making progress sort of as at least oil was finding leaks!

Taking the spin on oil filter housing off the engine I found that I had left the outer seal on the old engine; what a pillock. There was another seal too which looked none too  clever so we replaced this with a new o ring, fitted the outer seal and put it all back together.

This time no leaks and enough oil pressure to get the oil light to go out so good news.

On to the next stage. Although we had an oil light which went out now, there was no ignition light. I trraced this problem to one of the alternator wires not fitting correctly so that was put right.

This was followed by making sure the plug leads were on correctly, the wiring to the coil and distributor in place and the points cleaned and gapped.

Couldn't get the car to fire up though even though we had a spark at the plugs. The battery was really suffering by now and we need to sort out the timing. The car is in an old shed with no lighting and by now bad light really did stop play.

Not bad though, I think the happy day is getting closer.

Getting close with PMW

I suddenly realised that actually I keep bolting bits on to PMW and it can't be that far away from start up time (GULP).

So yesterday it was time to see how close I could get.

Fitted the fuel pipes to the fuel pump and carbs then primed the pump and a nice little morale booster to see petrol in the pump bowl.

Next up fitting the distributor - two to choose from, one of which slotted in fine pointing at mnumber 1 and the opther slotted in 180 degrees out. Hmm - the second one is a new old stock one though specific for this early Mk2 2000 so that was the one fitted and the leads will have to be changed round to suit.

Connected the battery and the interior lights came on when I opened the door as well as the oil light when turning the ignition - another little morale booster.

So now time to turn the engine over with plugs removed to let the oil pressure build up as it's a rebuilt engine.

Bad news - major fuel leak at the pump. Down to me cross threading the connection (what a pillock!) but thankfully that could be corrected.

Next fuel leak at the front carb bowl which couldn't be fixed there and then so it's on next week's job list.

This all meant we couldn't turn the engine over long enough for the oil light to go out but the plus point was that the engine wasn't tight (I had turned it over by hand before as well) and there were no horrible noises so at this early stage it doesn't seem like I made a complete cock up of assembling the bottom of the engine at least.

Meanwhile, in the photo those of you familiar with these cars will see the clutch slave cylinder resting on top of the wiper motor (at the end of the braided hose). At this minute I can't see where it bolts back on!

NNext week I'll have the car up on axle stands so should be able to work it out but if anyone can advise me or send me a photo of it fitted please do!

Time to start on UNJ

OK, after my roadtrip in September UNJ needs some TLC.

 

 The Viscous coupling (otherwise known as the viscious coupling!) started to fail, making all sorts of horrible noises high up in the Alps. It was possible to get hold of the fan blades (engine off of course) and rock them back and forward feeling the bearing on it's way out.

So, as a solution we took the fan blades off completely to reduce the load on the viscous coupling and drove the car all the way home. Who says these cars don't have good cooling and like to warp cylinder heads for fun?

Anyway, the picture shows the "stub" which I have now removed and will be replacing with an electric fan kit in due course.




Meanwhile, whilst turning round having missed a turn off overnight we made a slight misjudgement which resulted in us rolling backwards into a barrier - the result can be seen below. Not too bad and I have just touched it in quite heavily with paint to keep the evil rust away.

Next thing to comment on is that the starter motor failed towards the end of the trip meaning we had to jump start the car on and off the ferry! What I found having started to take it off was that actually the connections were loose and one of them has fallen off now!

This is what can be seen above - I am now pondering on how best to replace it.

Finally, the  instrument and rear lights failed which some very nice French policement pointed out to us! Ihaven't sorted this out yet either but there's no hurry as I won't be using the car until next year when another raid on Europe will be on the cards.

Still had a great trip though and loved the swim in the Med and storming the Stelvio