Braking up....or I get a charge out of this?

Well heck, I don't have anything exciting to share today so I tried for the catchy title, oh well.

The Voltage regulator problem came back when Michelle and I drove her car to the gas station so today I thought I would open it up and clean the contacts and see if that fixed it.  Don't know yet but these VR's look like they have a pound of copper in them and look like they should survive a nuclear attack!  At any rate I cleaned the contacts with fine sand paper and electronic cleaner... I'll let you know.  The wipers were barely working on our test drive so I figured it was crusty grease and cleaned it out replaced it with white lithium and guess what, it has 2 speeds now.  For some reason I decided I had better re-check the lights and lo and behold the brake lights had stopped working, I'm sure they were working last December but not now.  I had a  new VW switch that reportedly works for the E Type and installed it today.  Brake lights! 

Inside of the VR, like I said it's robust.

That's it for now, centered the steering wheel and cleaned the turn signal mechanism but still need to finish the alignment.

Cheers,

3 hrs

Always an adventure...

Took RJ down to get the front end aligned which turned out to be problematic but after it successfully made it back home (with Jan on standby for towing) decided that it was time to gas up RJ.  I called Michelle up to see if she wanted to go into town with me.   Yesterday I had put 2.5 gallons in and thought we had plenty to get to the gas station,  well as you have likely assumed by this point, when we hit the last hill on the way into town RJ stalled out.  Well, I had been suspicious that RJ might pull such a trick so I packed another 2 gallons and after this unfortunate 'failure to progress' we made it to the gas station.  On the way back I 'forced' Michelle to drive RJ back, Michelle's Dad Pete, had made sure his kids knew how to drive LBC's and Michelle showed me up, flawless gear changes (moss box!) and here is a video of her driving.

Still a few things to work on, the amp meter pegged again, the idle is too fast and the windscreen wipers have one speed-SLOW.  But we are beginning to see the light....

Cheers,

Progress....

Made some progress this week, the oil leaks are 'better' with the new seals on the oil feed lines to the cams and new cam cover gaskets.  The idle speed is now under control, not the 1500 RPM that it was doing on Wed.  Since I was concerned about an air leak I took the brake booster system apart and cleaned it all up, checked and painted it.  Afterwards took it out again for a test drive and checked for leaks etc. Still has some issues like the turn signals but otherwise not to bad. I've uploaded a video of starting and running-enjoy!

Vacuum tank, checked it for leaks than decided it need paint to protect it

Another patch, sure wonder what they were doing?

Same patch job, different view #3

Start up and running, not perfect but making progress.

Cheers,

4Hours

Plugging leaks....

This afternoon was spent trying to reduce (it's British so will not use the word stop) leaks both oil and air.  I decided to tackle the the cam cover and related seals on the exhaust side.  The good news is that I didn't notice any cracks in the cam covers which is a notorious problem with these covers.  So after cleaning the surfaces, finding a new 'o' ring and cork seal for the end I resealed the cam covers (after cleaning).  Hopefully this will slow the leaks coming down onto the exhaust pipes.

One concern for today is the absence of tappet guide hold downs especially on the exhaust side.  It is not uncommon for the tappet guides to ride up with the resulting contact with the cam lobes causing significant damage to an XK engine.  There are several different types of hold downs available and I would definitely recommend that we make this modification on your car Michelle.

While I was trying to slow the idle yesterday and found that adjusting the idle speed screws made little difference in idle speed it dawned on me that there must be a vacuum leak most likely in the brake system.  After checking the various components it appears that the valve at the brake vacuum tank is the culprit.  Now need to figure out what to do about it, I will just cap off the line while I try to tune the carbs but will need to research this a bit more.

Valve covers off revealing the absence of a stake down kit

Cleaned cam cover reinstalled.

Back of cam cover where the 'O' ring and cork seal live, right hand at the end of the cover.

In this picture you can see the lock down plate, held in place by the two allen head screws

Cheers,

3 hours

Once more into the breach...

It's been awhile since I posted to the RJ blog primarily because I haven't done much to RJ over the winter,  A combination of cold weather, waiting for tires and family issues has kept me from getting much done.  The tires came in from Euro-tire day before yesterday and I took them down to Boise Tire Pro's to have them put them on.  The old tires were from before the turn of the century and while they had good tread were well past their 'use by date' by at least 20 years.   I picked up the tires yesterday and put them on RJ, afterwards I was going to do a test drive and before I had gone 5 blocks the amp meter was pegged on full charge....  Well I didn't smell any smoke so made a u turn and drove it back home to see what was going on.  I also noticed a trail of oil into my garage and was a bit down when I texted RJ's Mom and told her about the issues.  

Today was a much better day which I'm sure Michelle will be pleased to hear.  I had a voltage regulator from my wife's Triumph Spitfire so I cleaned it up and put it on the car, checked the TDC marks on the damper with a 'nifty' tool I made, and fixed or at least reduced the flow of oil from the cam oil feed line.

Here's RJ up in the air awaiting his 'shoes'

This is the tool I made from an old spark plug to make sure that the timing marks on the damper were correct, with all the other stuff I've found from PO's I had to make sure.

Same regulator used on 1966 Triumph Spitwad

Site of major leak, combination of leaking cam covers and amazingly poor work on the back of the engine.

These are the 'banjo' bolts that hold the cam oil feed lines.  They should have had a very thin crushable copper washer but someone had decide to use regular steel washers, very poor.

This is the cam feed line and shows another problem, someone has crimped the feed line!  Fortunately not completely flat and I was able to work it open a bit more by gently working, tapping on one side then the other.  I'll check with Michelle about replacing it with new washers.

Took the car out for a test drive after I did this work and was pleased, still needs more fettling and tuning but much improved, the amp meter worked as expected, the oil leak was less, although  I haven't checked the driveway today.  Progress, slow but steady Michelle.

Cheers,



9 hrs (Feb. 13th, 14th and 15th)