May 2013

Coopercraft

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One of the front hubs on my coupe has worn splines which make an annoying clunk on braking or acceleration. So I bought a new set of hubs a while back. I had also bought myself some upgraded front calipers from CooperCraft in the UK. I haven't got around to fitting either as it's a fiddle. Essentially you need to pull down the whole axle unit and rebuild it to replace the hubs.

Then, with all of the front suspension bits from the roadster sitting in the shed it occurred to me that as they are identical I could reassemble the whole axle unit and do a straight swap. I did the assembly today and they look lovely with the new discs, shiny zinc and Greenstuff pads.

All I need is a new set of bottom ball joints and I can drop the old ones off and bolt the new ones straight on. That's about an hour's work depending on how troublesome the ball joints are. The originals will go onto the roadster. I'll still have to strip them and reassemble them with new hubs but at least I can drive the coupe in the interim.

 

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Coupe update

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I've been sorting out a few irritating problems with the coupe.
First and formost has been poor tune, with a miss under load. This has been going on since the engine rebuild and I finally admitted defeat and took the car back to see John Hurley. The problem turned out to be that the piston in the middle carby was sticking because the jet wasn't centred. John sorted this out and tuned the car and it runs perfectly. I drove the coupe out to see Ross when I went there. It is now a joy to drive. I have also replaced the exhaust cam cover gasket and now no oil leak!

I fitted the 5" chrome wires that came with the 3.8 roadster to see whether the car handles differerently on them. Both sets of wheels are fitted with 205 70 tyres and to be honest there's really not much difference between them. The wheels have cleaned up a treat and have brand new Pirellis fitted.
In doing this though I noticed a loud knock had appeared in the front left suspension. On checking I found the sway bar link arm had pulled away from its bush; the washer I had used was too small. Easy mistake, but easy fix and no damage done.

 

Other things I've fixed are some rattles from the bash plates under the engine frames, and I have finally found the source of the petrol smell from the tank. Turns out the flexible filler pipe hose was too big and leaked. Replaced with some difficulty, it cured the petrol miasma. I still have too much exhaust smell in the cabin but that's a job for another day.

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Apologies and an update

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Apologies to my readers; there has been a bit of a hiatus over the last few months because while I am waiting until the roadster body is ready there's little I can do.

Current state of play:

Bonnet. I drove out to see Ross two days ago. There are 14 individual panels that make up the bonnet, held together by about 100 1/4" bolts and a lot of setscrews. It's been disassembled, paint stripped and grit blasted and all of the dents have been knocked out. The underside of the nose was pretty crumpled. otherwise the panels are pretty straight and rust free. Ross reckons he'll have the guards done this week and will then reassemble it with the newly replated bolts and screws.

 

 

 

Body. All of the metal work on the tub is complete, and Ross has filled it with fish oil and painted the underside with stoneguard. It is painted in primer and ready for blocking back once the bonnet is reassembled. The doors have new skins and are fitted up to the body shell.

Engine. I pulled the engine down 2 weeks ago. It looked to have been recently rebuilt; bores look good, +20 pistons that looked pretty new and pristine looking -10 crank journals. The head though does look to have some internal corrosion and the flywheel is quite scored and will need a serious face.

After a bit of thought I have put aside the temptation of just putting it back together and I'm sending the block off to be resleeved to standard bore with top hat liners. I'll get everything including the head checked and measured, and hopefully will be able to leave the crank as it it with just new bearing shells. I'll still get the block chemically cleaned, get the mains line bored if necessary and rebush the rods. Then balance everything and reassemble with new timing gear and a full head rebuild. Chris reckons he'll have the engine done by the time the body is ready to bring home to my place.

Other ancillaries: IRS complete. Suspension complete. Carbs complete. Cooling system complete. Brakes largely complete; trial assembly of the Kelsey Hayes looks encouraging. Heater box complete. Gearbox done and dusted. Wheels: cleaned, pumped up and trialled on my coupe, seem pretty much brand new.

 

 

Next big PITA job is getting all the chrome redone. Ross has still got the bonnet chromework to make sure it all fits, but I should be able to get that back soon. After my experiences with the last chromers I'm going to try someone different. Hopefull they'll be better.

Roll on End of July!

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