TURN THE KEY

It was a bit of a struggle getting the pipe clips into place. Lying on my back under the car I had to resort to sticking the female parts of the clips onto the back of a short pry bar with BlueTack, so that I could get them into the right position up between the twin silencer boxes and the propshaft and push them into  the holes in the propshaft tunnel. I eventually got three new clips fitted and both the brake and fuel pipes pressed securely into them.

 With the car firmly back on the ground, It was with some trepidation that I turned the ignition key. I had previously turned the engine over via the crankshaft bolt and there wasn't a problem, but had I got the timing marks properly lined up when I changed the timing chains back in January. After the second turn it started, but with a loud hissing sound. I knew instantly what that was, I hadn't connected the hose from the servo to the inlet manifold, soon sorted and I left the engine running to warm up and she sounded fine.

Time to put the bonnet back on, I had intended to rub down and respray the underside of the bonnet, but I had run out of time. I did change the hinge arrangement so that I could just withdraw two 5mm R clips and the bonnet would come free wthout disturbing the alignment.of the hinges and this system worked well and now the whole of the engine bay looked really good, apart from the underside of the bonnet of course.

The first thing I noticed when she was up to temperature was that a squirt of water was leaking out of the joint that I thought I had soldered, nothing for it, it would have to come out and go to Aaron Radiators in Thornton Heath. Good thing now was that it was very easy to remove the bonnet. Two days later I collected the rad and reinstalled it and Stella started instantly. Unfortunately I then noticed that there was no red ignition light coming on and there also didn't appear to be a charge from the alternator.

Drain the radiator again, move power steering pump to one side, remove the stainless pipe that runs from top of engine to bottom of rad and then I could remove the alternator.The main wiring block was not fully pushed home onto the back of the alternator and I had not connected a single wire as I previously had not been able to see where it went. I could now, onto a spade connector recessed into the back of the alternator. Everything now properly connected, I again turned the key and the red ignition light glowed, good news. Stainless pipe, steering pump, all refitted, drive belts adjusted, radiator filled and now with the engine running the volt meter showed a healthy 14 volts, even better news.

Just got to check the tyre pressures and we are back on the road in time for Drive it Day on the 22nd.

BRAKE PIPES

Unfortunately all did not go as well as I had hoped. I first fitted the two pipes that run from the master cylinder to the PDA valve and they fitted very neatly, my bending was accurate enough. Sadly I had failed to notice that at the PDA end of the pipes the screw in connectors are different sizes and when I came to connect the pipes they just wouldn't connect. I tried to reroute them and did manage to get them correctly connected, but it looked really messy.

The old steel pipes were undamaged but scruffy and partially covered in black paint. I wire brushed the paint off and then using my bench grinder with polishing mops I got them to a presentable state and refitted them. They fitted well and looked good.

I went on to fit the pipes to each front wheel, the long pipe from the PDA valve on the nearside that ran underneath the car to the offside wheel fitted well and clipped neatly into place.

The short run, from the PDA to the nearside wheel again fitted well, but the connector to the flexible hose was wrong. After some head scratching I decided I would buy a cheap pipe flaring kit from EBay, I could rescue the correct fitting from the old pipe and awaited the kit to arrive.

For less than a tenner the kit worked well, it also included a pipe cutter, I checked out a couple of YouTube instructional videos and then had a couple of try out on my discarded pipes. When I was confident I cut off the flair and removed the incorrect connector from the actual pipe and slipped on the old  connector and thankfully got a good looking double flair onto the pipe and in no time at all it was fitted.

The difficult run was the one right to the back brakes. Crawling around under the car, I eventually managed to unclip the old pipe by mostly breaking the clips, which also hold the fuel line. Replacement pipe clips are on order, but I did manage to get the new pipe into place and connected at both end and ready to bleed.

Jacquie was convinced to climb up into the car and I instructed her how to press and release the brake pedal on my command. We started with one of the back brakes and all was going well, when I noticed a puddle on the floor under the front of the car. I dried the underside of the transmission from which the fluid was dripping from, but I could not see anywhere that the leak could have come from, all the joints were dry, so I decided to leave it for the day as I was tired and disheartened and thought that one of the pipes must have a pin prick hole in it.

The next morning Jacquie was back in the driving seat and I was underneath with my torch looking for a leak as Jacquie applied pressure to the brake pedal, nothing, nada, no leaks anywhere and I can only assume that when I jacked the car up, trapped water and degreaser from when I degreased the engine must have found a route down to the gound. The next three brakes where quickly bled and I was reasonable happy, but the pedal was a tad spongy. Jacquie agreed to help me once more and it didn't take long to whip each wheel of in turn and indeed a little bit of air was extracted and now a super hard pedal.

Just got to fit the new, dual pipe clips which have arrived, not looking forward to that job, but it is essential as I noticed that the fuel line is actually touching the front UJ of the propshaft.

EVERYTHING BACK IN

There were a few things that needed tarting up before I could start putting things back under the bonnet. Battery clamp, windscreen wiper motor and clamp all got several costs of smooth Hammerite.

The most difficult bit was reconnecting the two pipes from the auto gearbox to the oil cooler and I spent along time under the car getting them correctly positioned, got there in the end though.

Before I put the battery back in with its shiny clamp, I put it on charge and it only took a few hours before it was fully charged, so it is obviously in very good condition. The servo, master cylinder, alternator, header tank and wiper motor followed, plenty of room to adjust the belt tension on the alternator without the  radiator and power steering pump in the way.

The last thing to be fitted was the two, now polished ID plates, which I riveted back down in their correct location, just to the left of the bonnet hinge position.

I had had a tiny leak from the now redundant little pipe at the top of the radiator that originally went to the expansion tank. I set about sealing that with solder and blow torch and when done I put the radiator back in and connected up all the pipes, then the steering pump. The last thing in was the screen washer bottle. Next job is the brake pipes, we shall see then how accurate my pipe bending is.