CAM COVERS

January nearly done and spring can't be far away so I am pressing on. Removing the cam covers was easy peasy, cleaning them up took a little longer. So out with my bench grinder, fitted with one of my cellular stripping wheels and I started work.

I finished off the job with a selection of wire brushes in my hand drill and fine emery paper to get right into the nooks and crannies. The next photo shows one cover with first coat of primer and the other scrubbed bare and awaiting primer,

Once again, to get a decent finish on these cold, but calm days, I used an old hairdryer to blow warmth into my cardboard spray booth and so far it seems to be working well. I also rubbed down with 2000 grade emery paper between each coat, thoroughly washed them with warm soapy water, before drying and spraying. I will reserve judgement until the final coat of silver paint is applied.

Well, I think the above photo show that my Heath Robinson spray booth works, I am very pleased with the final finish. Going to leave them indoors for another couple of days to harden, during which time I need to coax the cork gaskets back into shape as I had them hanging on a hook in the garage and they have stretched a little. I have taped one of them into the cover I sprayed yesterday and it appears to have worked, the other one I will do the same to tomorrow as I only sprayed that cover this morning. Apologises for the upside down 'TRIUMPH' logo.

While I was at it I decided to give the air filter cover another go. Plenty of gentle rubbing got rid of all the marks I missed the first time and two coats Ford Dove Grey have give it a high gloss finish, not that it shows up in this picture. I will post a before and after picture once all is back on the car.

TORQUED UP

I tightened the top ring of the ram, as instructed by the supplier of the new hydraulic ramps and also bled the hoses as recommended. The bearing/seal guide ring was indeed very loose and I was hopeful that all would be well now that I had carried out the necessary work and it was. Stella was raised to the ramps full height and the safety plates were flipped into place. Now that the front suspension was loaded I had plenty of room to get under with my torque wrench and tighten all the new nuts and bolts.

When it came to pumping the ramps up enough to flip back the safety plates, prior to lowering the ramps, I had the same problem as before. The left ramp raised and the right just spewed hydraulic oil and I had to bring my trolley jack back into service to get it up high enough to get the safety catch out of the way. I am now waiting for the supplier to respond, but at least, front suspension is now totally crossed off my job list. Cam covers next

RAMPED UP

Things were going so well, I drove the car out of the garage after putting the wheels back on and getting it off the axle stands, I drove to to and fro a few times to settle the suspension, when the engine really started to run extremely rough and the engine cut out as soon as I selected drive or reverse. I was just about able to push it back into the garage, when after a while I restarted it and it began to run a little better, but I decided not to try out my new ramps.

That evening I was checking out the torque settings for the front suspension when I realise that I had probably put the bushes back to front on the drag struts, a quick call to Russ confirmed this The next morning Stella started and ran perfectly. I hadn't fitted the bonnet and it was drizzling the previous day, so I suspect that whilst I was tooing and froing, the rain shorted out the high voltage to some of the spark plugs and once it was back under cover and the wiring dried out all was OK.

I got Stella positioned on the new ramps and started to pump, the left ramp, looking from the front, started to raise straight away, but the right one was a little slower to get started and a small puddle of fluid leaked out of the ram, however both raised to their full height and I placed axle stands under and lowered the left one onto the stand and removed the ramp. I flipped the safety catch into place on the right one. It was a bit of a struggle but I got the left drag arm off and turned the poly bushes the correct way round and got it all loosely bolted back up. When I went to raise the right ramp sufficient to flip back the safety catch much more fluid pumped out and the ramp was going nowhere.

I placed my trolley jack on wooden chocks to bridge the bottom rail of the ramp and I was able to raise the wheel platform of the ramp with the jack enough to get the safety catch out of the way. When I lowered my trolley jack the right side settled onto the axle stand and  I could then remove both jack and the now defunct ramp. The right side drag strut bushes were put back the correct way and all that remained was to get the car of the stands. By using my two trolley jacks I was able to lower the car in stages, but I still need to torque everything up properly.

The ramps suppliers have suggested that I tighten the bearing/seal guide ring and I have yet do this. If this doesn't work it will have to be a replacement ram.

PUMPED UP

I don't believe it, I have just made such hard work of installing the freshly painted Power Steering Pump. Fitting the oil cooler and anti roll bar was a doddle in comparison.

I thought the drive belt must have shrunk in the cold weather, with the pump bolted into place I just couldn't get the belt over the pump's pulley, I tried it this way and that, I put the belt over the pulley first and then tried to bolt the pump into place, but I wasn't even close to getting the bolt holes to line up. After a couple of hours struggling it was time for a cup of coffee and as is so often the case when I returned to Stella I straightaway saw that there are three pulleys side by side down at the crank, one for the alternator, the next one I suppose was for the air conditioning pump, not used now and a much smaller V pulley, obviously for the steering pump, once the belt was placed around that pulley, all the bolts lined up and the belt tensioned. At last.

At least with all the fumbling about the new paint hadn't got scratched. I had given the pump a very thorough rubbing down before I brought it in the house overnight to warm. When I took it outside and placed into the spray booth, a cut down cardboard box I used an old hair dryer to keep it warm and on went the first coat of primer. I brought the pump straight back inside to keep the paint warm and dry and the next day, I again lightly rubbed it down before another coat of primer. The same process for two coat of Halfords black gloss resulted in a final finish that I more than pleased with.

That shiny pump really shows up those tatty cam covers, they are definitely next up for a visit to my spray booth.

With everything back in place, but the car still on the axle stands, I filled up the steering pump with auto gearbox fluid, started the engine. it roared into life as soon as the fuel pump stopped clicking, I was so pleased as it has been two months since I last started the engine, proving that nowt much wrong with the engine and battery. I spun the steering wheel from lock to lock half a dozen time to bleed the system, I topped up the reservoir and went lock to lock a few more times, the fluid level dropped slightly and that was it, steering rack now bled and job done.

Just got to get the wheels back on and lower the car to the ground to settle the suspension, then I shall be able to, for the first time, use my recently delivered hydraulic ramps to again lift the car so I can correctly torque up all the nuts, bolts and bushes, Then it will be time to sort out Stella's back end.

ALL IN

A lot of wriggling about on my back, just the Anti Roll Bar and Oil Cooler still to be fitted, but the tricky stuff is done. Although I had spent some time cleaning up all the old nuts and bolts, I decided to start off with bright new ones.The main front suspension mount was straightforward, just four nuts and bolts each side and remember to clip in the traversing brake pipe. The steering rack took a bit of gentle persuading to take up the correct position and I had to shorten the bolts that attach the rack to its brackets by a 1/4 in.  I had read on the forum that somebody had stripped the thread on a rack by overtighening as the bolts had bottomed out before the rack was secured, so I was taking no chances.

 A local garage pressed in the main ball joints to the suspension arms, a same day service, great. and it all fitted into place with no trouble once I worked out the right order to bolt it all up. I needed to put a jack under those ball joints to push the taper home so that I could tighten the nuts, before I did that the lock nuts was just turning the whole ball joint in the socket.

The right hand side went in much quicker, that's usually the way. Oh, as well as the anti roll bar and the oil cooler, also the power steering pump needs to be fitted. That's in the process of being sprayed in my 'do it at home spray booth'. last coat  of black gloss to be sprayed tomorrow.

I'M BUSHED

All front suspension parts back from the sprayers now and new ball joints have been received. The delay in blogging is not because the spraying was delayed, on the contrary, Francis from Adept Finishers had all the bits ready as promised, finished in satin black, but we had been away in France for most of December and on return left immediately to join family for Christmas.

Not to get bored high up in the wilds of Southern France I built another three wheeler. A model of course, but painted up to look a little like my Marjorie, the car that lead me into the world of Classic Car restoration.

The last two days have been glorious, but cold, allowing me to get back to work on Stella. I started by pressing the new poly bushes in. Photos below show a big one going into one of the suspension arms and then the central steel tube being pushed home. Lower picture shows one of the four steering rack bushes going in.

I gave the steering rack a couple of coats black Hammerite, but before I could reinstall it, the advice given was that the steering rack should be given six or so squirts of grease via a grease nipple that needed to be screwed into a small hole in the top of the rack. I ordered a 1/8 BSP grease nipple, in fact I ordered a pack of 10, only £2.50, but they were far too big. I couldn't find any the right size, so I improvised, I warmed and stretched a short length of plastic tubing over the screw bit of the nipple and inserted a smaller diameter tube into the larger tube. With nipple in the grease gun and the end of small tube squeezed into the hole in steering rack I pumped in the required amount of grease, allowing for what stayed in the plastic tube.

The little red plug went back into the hole and now all is ready to refit the large front cross member and steering rack, I think wriggling the rack back into place and connecting it to the steering UJ will be tricky, so I left that to the next day. In the meantime I need to get the two new ball joints pushed into the steering arms, getting there.