My 3500S Restoration Project

Hi there,
Loved your informative rant of refitting everything, and the wheels were the right choice...good wheels, good wife.:)
Quote:
There was one other job, as the service history is 32 years old and bears no resemblance to where the car is now i decided to try and re-set the mileage. Alarmingly this is very easy to do .

how did you do that? ;)

Peter
Basically, once the dial is removed and the guts exposed, i used a very fine jewellers screwdriver and wedged it between the reels which allows the reels to be rotated, its sounds risky but there is a lot of play in the reels allowing enough space to disengage the cogs to freely turn them to the desired reading.
 
Excellent work and a beautiful result. Congratulations and hope that sorting the clutch can be done in the way that Cobraboy suggested.
Well i thought i would give the brake cleaner a try, i drilled a 12mm hole in the top of the bell housing so that i could get the best coverage possible, i doused it with the clutch engaged and then disengaged and repeated again with the engine running until the can was empty. I cannot really be sure how effective it was at getting between the clutch plate and flywheel. I wedged the clutch pedal with a length of wood to allow it to dry out over night, and disappointingly when i rushed out this morning to test it there was no noticeable difference. I am going to have a cuppa and then start looking at pulling the engine out.
 
Well i thought i would give the brake cleaner a try, i drilled a 12mm hole in the top of the bell housing so that i could get the best coverage possible, i doused it with the clutch engaged and then disengaged and repeated again with the engine running until the can was empty. I cannot really be sure how effective it was at getting between the clutch plate and flywheel. I wedged the clutch pedal with a length of wood to allow it to dry out over night, and disappointingly when i rushed out this morning to test it there was no noticeable difference. I am going to have a cuppa and then start looking at pulling the engine out.

Bugger . Shame it didnt come off for you.
 
Engine out, looking at the flywheel and crankcase spigot bush and the amount of grease still evident in the housing it seems like i must have packed it with grease rather than just give it a wipe with grease. Having looked in the tin of grease that i used there is a layer of oil on the top and it would appear for some reason that the grease is turning back to a liquid state and then run back along the shaft and drained down between the clutch plate. Clearly a case of less is more. I am not going to risk cleaning and re-using the clutch plate.
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As the rear rope seal had an annoying drip i decided to strip the engine and get a rubber lip seal machined in to the crankcase and have the fly wheel re-surfaced at the same time. I got these done at OCS in Winchester, the machining for the oil seal cost £84 inc vat and the flywheel cost £72 inc vat. the oils seal comes as part of the sump gasket set from Rimmer's £15 inc vat.
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In the few days i was waiting for the crankcase to be machined i have also removed the power steering box to find out why it was leaking so badly. I can honestly say getting the engine out was easier than removing the power steering box. It turns out that the bottom oil seal had been sliced by a small ridge around the shaft where the spline stops, there is no reason for this ridge to be there so i will file it down before fitting a new seal. Fortunately the oil seal sits further up the shaft than where the pitting is.
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Engine out, looking at the flywheel and crankcase spigot bush and the amount of grease still evident in the housing it seems like i must have packed it with grease rather than just give it a wipe with grease. Having looked in the tin of grease that i used there is a layer of oil on the top and it would appear for some reason that the grease is turning back to a liquid state and then run back along the shaft and drained down between the clutch plate. Clearly a case of less is more. I am not going to risk cleaning and re-using the clutch plate.
View attachment 13039

As the rear rope seal had an annoying drip i decided to strip the engine and get a rubber lip seal machined in to the crankcase and have the fly wheel re-surfaced at the same time. I got these done at OCS in Winchester, the machining for the oil seal cost £84 inc vat and the flywheel cost £72 inc vat. the oils seal comes as part of the sump gasket set from Rimmer's £15 inc vat.
View attachment 13036
View attachment 13037


In the few days i was waiting for the crankcase to be machined i have also removed the power steering box to find out why it was leaking so badly. I can honestly say getting the engine out was easier than removing the power steering box. It turns out that the bottom oil seal had been sliced by a small ridge around the shaft where the spline stops, there is no reason for this ridge to be there so i will file it down before fitting a new seal. Fortunately the oil seal sits further up the shaft than where the pitting is.
View attachment 13038
Annoying after you have come so far, but at least you have identified the problem and it is a relatively simple fix:) I wish you every success once all is back together, and I hope you will have trouble free motoring and enjoy the fruits of your labour
 
Engine out, looking at the flywheel and crankcase spigot bush and the amount of grease still evident in the housing it seems like i must have packed it with grease rather than just give it a wipe with grease. Having looked in the tin of grease that i used there is a layer of oil on the top and it would appear for some reason that the grease is turning back to a liquid state and then run back along the shaft and drained down between the clutch plate. Clearly a case of less is more. I am not going to risk cleaning and re-using the clutch plate.
View attachment 13039
I have successfully cleaned a clutch worse than that before from an engine with a rear main seal failure.. Soak it in petrol and give it a good scrubbing with an old nail brush then take it out the container, give it a good shake to get most of the petrol off and burn the excess petrol off.
 
I have successfully cleaned a clutch worse than that before from an engine with a rear main seal failure.. Soak it in petrol and give it a good scrubbing with an old nail brush then take it out the container, give it a good shake to get most of the petrol off and burn the excess petrol off.
Hi John, as suggested, i gave this a try, and it actually looked very good. However, whilst assembling the engine i quite unintentionally left it on a window cill in the sun, after no more than 30 minutes i noticed a few oily looking blobs that were sweating out of the fibres. So decision made, its a new clutch plate as i just don't want to risk it.

I have now got the engine back in and in the process of re-connecting everything and hope to get it running in the next few days.
 
At last managed to get out and do a proper test drive earlier this week, the first time it has been on the road since July 1986.

Sadly things did not go as well as i had hoped, there was a dull knocking coming from the front, so straight back to my garage for a closer look.

The knocking turned out to be the shock absorber bushes, they have stretched into an oval shape, i don't really know how this happened as they were the ones supplied with the shocks, although they have been fitted to the car for a few years whilst the restoration continued.

I was really shocked however (no pun intended) to notice that both of the bottom ball joint rubber gaiters were severely perished, again these were new and had been fitted for a few years but never seen the light of day.

All the other ball joint rubbers and bushes seem OK.

Rubber gaiter is like this all round and really shows when fitted on the car
IMG_20190308_115150 1.jpg

Shock absorber bush, these are the poly bush type and have elongated allowing around 1.5mm of movement, as they are quite hard they really transmit the noise into the body.
IMG_20190308_115244 1.jpg
 
Apologies, I don’t wish to hijack the thread but how easy/difficult is changing the shock absorber bushes, I’ve got some new ones ready to be put on.
Mick
 
Apologies, I don’t wish to hijack the thread but how easy/difficult is changing the shock absorber bushes, I’ve got some new ones ready to be put on.
Mick

Hi Mick, Changing the rubber bushes is one of the easier jobs to do providing your bottom split pins or top nut has not rusted solid, it takes 20 to 30 minutes a side, Including jacking the car and removing the wheel. When i did mine in the first instance i gave the split pin and nut a good spray with WD40 and let it soak in over night. Mine had a nyloc nut on top which came off easily and was reusable, the split pins were quite rusty and the ends broke off when bending straight, fortunately they drove out easy enough with the blunt end of a drill bit.

Re-fitting is basically a reverse of removal, Its best to fit new split pins even if you managed to remove the old ones intact, i cannot remember if they are 3 or 4 mm. use some copperslip on the nut and split pin to ease any future removal, although you don't want to get this on the new rubbers. The new rubbers slide over the spigots easily. The top spigot has a shoulder at the end of the thread which allows you to tighten the nut and washer up too so that you know if you have tightened the nut enough.

The bottom split pin is a little more tricky to fit, in answer to "cobraboy's comment there are 2 holes in the bottom spigot, the first is vertical the second "inner" hole is horizontal and is the hole your split pin goes into. Use a 3 or 4mm drill bit in the first hole and wedge a screw driver between the drill bit and the washer so that you can compress the new rubbers to allow you to slide in the new split pin.
 
Regarding the perished rubber, I had a conversation with a chemist at Avon rubber and she advised that rubbers need exercising to keep them supple. Sitting stationary allows them to dry out and crack.
 
Now officially back on the road.

Had a safety check the tail end of last wk, the only thing i could not get checked was the wheel alignment, i will need to find someone who has the older equipment to get this done, otherwise no issues were picked up.

Not happy with the ride, i am getting quite a lot of play in the steering wheel before the wheels move and when the car hits a bad bump or rut the car sways around, i am not really sure what to expect.

We still managed our first outing on Sunday to the Port Solent car meet.

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the only thing i could not get checked was the wheel alignment, i am getting quite a lot of play in the steering wheel before the wheels move and when the car hits a bad bump or rut the car sways around,

You need to investigate and rectify the play in the steering before you set the FWA.
 
You need to investigate and rectify the play in the steering before you set the FWA.
Yes, but i am not sure what the normal play in the steering feels like, i have adjusted the sector shaft adjusting screw as tight as possible but it still does not reduce the play in the steering wheel which is around 1-1/2 inches (40mm) at the rim.
 
i have adjusted the sector shaft adjusting screw as tight as possible but it still does not reduce the play in the steering wheel which is around 1-1/2 inches (40mm) at the rim.

That could be play in the steering siderod or trackrod ball joints. Add to that worn top and bottom, and bottom link strut ball joints and there is plenty of scope for play. And don't forget the idler....
 
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