A few more steps forward

After last weeks run, a few more issues with the GT6 identified themselves, no surprise really as I have never had this car running even semi-properly before.
The rear brake cylinders have now been replaced and bled through again. At the same time I had a look at the brake adjusters, just as well as both were seized, one had to be replaced, but the other was still serviceable, so these were reassembled, with a light smear of coppaslip on the moving adjuster faces and plenty on the main adjuster screw.

Looking back, I notice it was back in September 2006 when I first assembled the Jones/Bowler CV conversion on the GT6. Back then I was considering the clearance between the inner CV boot and the chassis and was hoping that when the rear spring settled it would give more clearance. Not surprisingly to me now, there was no great increase in clearance as the inner boot is not going to move that much as it's position is mainly fixed by the diff, which doesn't tend to move around that much either. To get round this, I ordered and fitted a pair of 'fast CV boots', much neater now.



I am finding it very useful at the moment to keep a note book with me whilst working on the GT6, this way I can make a note of problems or issues as they come up, with the moral boosting activity of being able to cross off jobs as they get done, though the list seems to be growing faster than I can cross them off at the moment.

It lives

I brought a can of petrol after work yesterday evening and got my GT6 started for it's first run after switching from domed to flat top pistons and having all the running gear semi useable.

At the moment the engine feels quite tight, hope this is just down to the new rings bedding in.

Although the braking system is all as new, one of the rear brakes is dragging quite a bit, must be something to do with not being used for at least three years, despite the fluid going in only last week

There are a few minor water leaks also, so I will need to sort those before going too wild.

But for the first time in my ownership, I have been able to drive it, well chuffed

The sound is really poor on my little camera, but it is proof it has run, idle is way to high at the moment.

Coming together

It's been another quite bust weekend, with the decision to finish building up the engine in the GT6. For now I am using a cylinder head I had reconditioned ready for the 2000 saloon, when I had the time, inclination and parts to do it.

One part which was always going to be a pain was the main exhaust pipe, the engine having been moved back six inches making extra problems of preventing it from hitting the chassis rails. When I brought this GT6 a couple of years or so ago, I was given a exhaust downpipe, believing it was for a GT6, but now in cutting it around to make it fit my car, I found it had a part number on it, TH125, which turns out to tell me it is for a MkII Vitesse, so it was never going to fit my car without modification anyway.

I have managed, I hope, to solve the problem with the errant flashing lights. This was traced down to two wires being soldered in the wrong position when I added the more modern combined hazard light switch and repeater.Most of the electrics, which I have connected so far, seem to work, but many of the exterior facing lights, indicators, side lights etc.. required a bit of wiggling around of the bulbs to get them to work, indicating poor electrical conducts, so I will need to go round and check them all out.

The fuel system has also been re-fitted, this time a mechanical pump being used, one which I had picked up on eBay a couple of weeks ago, the advantage being that it will also fit the saloon in a emergency should I need it.

If all goes to plan, I hope to get the GT6 started in the next few days, should be a good moral boost eh?

Fault finding & fluid fill.

Fortunately one of the electrical faults was easy to find, identifiable by the cracking noise of wires shorting. This came from the column dip/main beam light switch, it looks like a mixture of hot wires and abrasion has damaged the wires up by the switch. To remedy this, I have cut the wires, soldered them back together and sealed it off with heat shrink, though I shall keep an eye out for a replacement one for the future.



In preparation for getting the car drivable, the clutch and brake system has been filled and bled. As both systems are new or have had new seals fitted, eg. brake calipers, there should not be a problem with leaks or seals going, though for some reason I did have to replace one of the rear slave cylinders as it refused to pass fluid through it, not quite sure what was going on there.

GT6 tidy & hook up

Spent a fairly busy weekend on the GT6, cutting and fixing down to length the water lines going to the header tank. At the moment all the lines are in flexible pipe, giving me the option to re position as necessary, in the future I would like to replace much of it with aluminium tube for added protection, but it should do for now.
Much of the wiring around the engine bay has been chopped to length where required and connected up, meaning I should be able to leave a lot of that alone for now until the next round of improvements.

With the number of smaller jobs running down, I decided to try connecting the battery, not something which has been done since the re-wire. I hoped everything would work straight out of the box, but it seems I will have some fault finding to do.
The first and most noticeable problem is something to do with the one of the flasher units, at a guess it would be the hazard, as I have changed the switch and relocated the unit. With the battery connected, the flasher unit is causing the ignition and oil warning light to flash, but no sign of the proper light flashing, though this might be due to blown bulbs or bad contacts, I have not checked this yet.
Also noticeable is the variable nature of some of the light switches, needing a bit of working back and forth to get them to operate, hope I do not have to replace too many switches.

Looks like I might have quite a bit of fault finding to do yet and try to work out where I have gone wrong with my re-wiring.

Project lightweight

Down on the farm where I live/work, my boss has a series III lightweight Land Rover, which he plans to get back on the road after a number of years sat on one of the barns, but re-engining it with a slightly more modern 200 series 2.5tdi engine. Over the years the chassis has been patched and had parts replaced, but one of the reasons it has been laid up recently is due to chassis rot again, this time on the main chassis rail on the topside, under the floor panels.
There are at least two ways of gaining access to this area, removal of the rear body tub and, more simply, removal of the rear floor. Since we are not keen on making too much work for ourselves and the floor is corroding through in places, it was decided to lift the floor panel. This was done in an hour or so after drilling out all of the rivets and carefully prising the panel up. With this panel up the chassis can be cleaned up and decisions made on how much to repair it, just need to wait for some steel to be delivered before I start the welding.




















Meanwhile, the GT6 has been receiving a bit of attention, with some of the smaller jobs being finished off and tidied up. The wiring under the dash is now, hopefully, complete having added a momentary switch for the screen wash pump and connected the inertia switch to the two fuel pump switches.
In the engine bay, the coolant header tank has been sited in what was the battery box, the two lower connections going through holes cut in the bulkhead support panel and the whole lot given extra support with a small bracket underneath the tank.

Polished rocker

Been doing a bit of maintenance for the saloon and preparation for the GT6 by servicing up a couple of sets of rockers for the six cylinder engines. A problem I had been having with the saloon was accurately setting the valve clearances; this was in part due to a slightly worn rocker shaft, but largely due to the worn faces of the rockers.













New rockers are available, but seeing as I had the time and inclination, I decided to service the ones I had. First off the shaft was stripped down and the components left to soak on paraffin for a couple of hours before being scrubbed clean using a wire brush on a drill and any oil ways cleaned through. The ware face was then carefully polished using WD40 on 600 grade glass paper, taking good are to alter the polishing angle as I went along, to maintain the radius on the face.
The rocker assembly was then re-assembled with copious amounts oil on a new rocker shaft.















Back on the saloon after the clearances were set, the valve train sounds a lot quieter now, so a successful job then, which was then proven with a trip over to Carmarthen to have a look at a MkI GT6, the new owner of which has also started a blog.