Well, changing thee gearbox oil was nice and simple. I popped along to Halfords to pick up two new sump washers - one for the drain plug and one for the sump plug on the gearbox. Also picked up two bottles of gear oil as I knew I needed a litre and a half. Took the whole lot home and started the change over.
I now know why the early gear changes sounded a little noisy. As I removed the drain plug from the gearbox I expected a gush of oil to come seeping out and fill the basin that I had placed underneath. Not a drop of oil came out. Not a single drop. Serves me right for not checking that there was no oil there in the first place, guess this sort of thing happens when you buy second had goods. Not sure what made me think that it was full in the first place anyway.
Still, what's done is done. The gearbox is now full of clean fresh oil. I started the beast up and, with the car on axle stand, tried to select a gear. Seemed to slot into first gear nice and quietly. One thing I did notice was that as I gently pressed the gearstick forward so that it was not quite in gear, the rear drum started to spin. Not sure if this is correct, but I'm not worrying about it at the moment. What I hope to try at the weekend is to drive the car out of the garage. This will be a true test of all my hard work, even if it's a noisy one due to no exhaust. Perhaps I should send the wife and kids out first so that I don't get nagged from anyone - the neighbours don't seem to mind (not that any of them have said anything). We'll see.
Aarrgghhh! I nearly managed to crash my car today. It actually drove out of the garage (and back in) without the need for me to push it. That's good news. The bad news is that the brakes either seem to have leaked or have not been bled out properly. As I was going backwards I pressed the brake peddal and very little happened. After stopping the car to have a look I noticed that the brake fluid reservoir was emtpy - not too clever. I'll need to check that all the brake lines are OK and haven't leaked anywhere (I'm sure I tightened everything up a while back), then I'll need to bleed the system again. That's what I reckon is wrong.
Still, at least these problems occurred now and not while driving for real! If I had a body shell on, I'd probably be looking for a new one now - lesson learned there!
I've been told by a number of people, and even on my guestbook, that due to the radiator being installed upside down the additional brackets (or wings) need to be removed in order for the nudge bars to fit on properly. Apparently they get in the way, so they'll be coming off this week if I can brave the weather (it's bloody cold here).
The other thing that I have tried recently was to see if I could run a nut down my newly chrome plater gearstick. John, my father in-law, shortened and chromed up a spare stick that I had for the Rover gearbox. As it was bent to start with I asked him if he could shorten and straighten it, when done, put a plate of chrome on to it, which he kindly did. The only problem with that was the chrome plating added some extra thickness to the thread at the top of the stick where the gear knob fits on to. I'll be taking it up to his place this weekend so that we can use his tap and die to cut a new clean thread on it. Then it should be ready to be fitted. Hopefully he has also managed to chrome the handbrake lever that I gave him.
You know it's just too damn cold these days! I guess it must be winter. To say that the weather is making me stay indoors...this would be true. Anyway, taking the advice that I had been given about the radiator wings blocking the front nudge bars, today I removed them, as you can see. This should make fitting the nudge bars a little easier when they arrive. Cutting the wings off was a little tricky as they are only made of plastic and you need to take care where the hack saw blade is going, otherwise you'll end up with a hole in your radiator. I got as close as I could, but it left a couple of untidy edges. Still, once the bodywork is in place those edges won't get seen.
Apart from bleeding the brakes (when I get some help) that's probably it for this year. The bodywork will be ordered at the end of January, when the money arrives, and I hope to also have a shed put in the back garden so that I can take all the crap out of the garage. There will be even less room available when the bodywork is on the car.
Happy Christmas to everyone!
