The big experiment - amateur 3B shenanigans

[Nj]

haha. aye giving a swingin engine a bit of sweet lovin will upset a granny or two.

i'll be sure to tell the locals that my father's father's father marched that way and they'll understand

oh yes - and this def means garage meets.

[Nj]

I haven't updated this for a while because I was distracted by a bit of work on my 16v. I managed to get down for a bit at the weekend though.
Got the prop shaft and drive shafts back on. These were off cos we took the gearbox out to get it married to the engine (damn dowel. grrr). What a pain to by myself, jacking the car up and down so the wheels on the ground would stop the prop spinning, then jamming the front wheels to stop the drive-shafts spinning. Offside drive shaft guard went back on again. I changed the cracked engine mount arm (cheers Sal) and replaced the engine mount nuts n bolts with new ones. Then in went the downpipe. I wish I had placed it in loosely before the engine was secured cos it was a mother funker to fit in. I ended up taking the drive shaft guard off again and applying a bit of ranting and swearing to the issue. It got there in the end so I went about attaching it. As discussed with Stevie when we took the downipe off the engine as it dangled from the crane... man is that last bolt a bassrd. Only way I found to reach it was lying under the car, legs out the front, left arm up the gap by the drive shaft and a spanner onto the sneaky buggr. You have to do this by feel cos with your arm in there you can't see much. There may be a clever way to do it from above but I couldn't find it. There's no way it is tightened as much as it should be but it's the best I could do with my arm on fire.

John (Newsh) has stepped in with a life saving aluminium breather T section. I couldn't use the mess of an old one and I can't wait any longer for the group buy I'm afraid so it's going in with a new pressure regulating valve on Saturday. Then I can get crackin on the other weird and wonderful gizmos that live in the area.

Because my old breather hose was in tatters the side of the engine was well oiled and is now pretty stinking. Should I use a degreaser and scrub it now or wait until I've put it all together and get it steam cleaned?

Photos will follow. I forgot the camera again on Saturday. doh!

[Azman]

Give it a clean now, with all the stuff back in you will be lucky to get to it properly...

[Nj]

cheers Az. That's what I was thinking. I have a spray can of Wynn's industrial cleaner. dunno if it's any good as yet. Or I could go for a bit of unleaded and a scrubbing brush?

[LHD_Kid]

man is that last bolt a bassrd. Only way I found to reach it was lying under the car, legs out the front, left arm up the gap by the drive shaft and a spanner onto the sneaky buggr. You have to do this by feel cos with your arm in there you can't see much. There may be a clever way to do it from above but I couldn't find it. There's no way it is tightened as much as it should be but it's the best I could do with my arm on fire.

just remove the starter motor, access standing and still with left arm, again by feel though, but much easier....

[Nj]

ahhhhh... I see. cheers mate

[Nj]

right.. house shopping took over my weekend and only managed to get the de-cat pipes and breather replacement in by torchlight this evening. Only thing stopping me now is my limited time and intelligence. If anybody wise in the ways of putting the front end back together feels like calling down to give a hand just let me know. Think i'm talking radiators, oil cooler, associated hoses, wiring, intercooler, fluids all round, change the oil and fuel filters and possibly i'll be ready to turn the key. The couple of interior issues can be sorted out easily enough when the bad boys moving.
Good news is I may have a house with a garage (with electric) sorted. woohoo!

[Knight Rider S4]

I might be free on Sunday next week Noel just need Anastasia to entertain Rosie

[Nj]

i'm sure she'd be happy to entertain Rosie mate.. while I entertain you with my head scratching and general ineptitude.
If you make it that'd be amazing mate.
one of these and one of these I think
No late nights or swinging engines about this time though. It will be a novelty won't it? just man handling small items that don't have mother frickin dowels.
I better go to bed before I get myself upset.
cheers

[Nj]

Alrighty - Steve is officially my new hero. He strode out of the mist on Saturday morning (ok, drove out of the rain) and fuelled by bacon rolls and tea he got to work.
The gist of the work between us was....
changed oil filter and fuel filter (I was a bit giddy after being under the car with petrol dripping all over the place)
All the wiring went in and hoses went on. If only it took the same time to do it as type it. Despite me taking photos of "everything" as I took it apart I still didn't take enough and the battery on my laptop died pretty quickly so it was irrelevant when we couldn't see the pics. Thankfully I remembered bits and Steve is well acquainted with S2s.
radiator in
oil cooler on
airbox in
xmember on
aux radiator in
intercooler on
Dizzy cap and ht leads in (pain in the plums on a 3B)

Unfortunately the battery is most definitely knackered because when we tried to start the car it almost turned over but did that sad sound of a flat battery.. 'woup, wooup, wooooooeeeuuup..'.. nothing.
So we pulled Steve's car over to give it a jump and in the approaching darkness had a brief spark when the pos and neg were almost connected back to front. First thing I can confirm is that the alarm on the s2 works. With the battery connected the right way we tried again but although the dash lit up ok the starter motor just makes a hollow click sound. I don't know if the rod/piston/rack bit that shoots out of the starter is stuck somehow or if the starter is knackered.
Any suggestions?
One thing to ask - Do both pos red cables connect to the same terminal of the alternator? And could this cause any issue with starting the car if connected incorrectly?

Couple of bits I need if anyone can help me out...
The support bar than runs from the slam panel to the main radiator
The small bar/bit that goes from the slam panel panel down to the aux radiator
I could probably do with a decent main radiator some time too. The one I have is OK but might need replacing in a while.

But the main thing is.. the car looks car-like from the front! woohoo! I didn't get a pic of it as we were wrapping up but I got a couple as we were working.
Steve in action.....

[Nj]

One thing that came to light was that there must have been a boost gauge at some point and the previous owner of the old car took it off because there was a little t connector with nothing connected on the 3rd side. So the car must have been running pretty badly compared with how it should be.

I also managed to lose the air filter somewhere between taking the airbox out of the old car and putting it in the new one. How does that happen I wonder?

Apparently the IC does have the Mark H mod. I wouldn't have known what it was if Steve hadn't pointed it out.

......all irrelevant though if I can't get the starter working and the car running.

[Knight Rider S4]

I need a haircut

Went and had a look at the alternator looks like i have 4 wires? pretty dark out so will confirm tomorrow

[Nj]

I need a haircut

not at all mate. thought you were going for this look no? wrong knight rider? hehe


so anyway.. 4 wires? hmm. I need someone with a 3B...

[Knight Rider S4]

Busted !!!! just went and bought the leather jacket as well

[Azman]

think i have 3 wires will confirm tomorow for you.... good work lads... nearly there