With the shed base now completed and with me feeling completely stiff and sore I thought I'd take time to relax and see what needed doing on the car. Seems like I haven't been near the thing for so long I was forgetting what it looked like!
So, I started making preparations to fit the wiring loom into position. This is probably the most difficult task I have come across to date.
Looking around the bulkhead on the chassis I see a predrilled hole that may be suitable to fit the loom. Second thoughts, it's too small. With the complete new loom you get all the fancy end connectors and multiplugs that you could possibly want. This is great when you need to plug them together, but putting them into position is a completely different kettle of fish. For example, the loom has the multiplug that fits onto the alternator. This plug is HUGE! Closer examination shows that it is possible to remove the pins out of the plug and just pass them through the hole. This brings into play another problem. The more wires that you put through the hole, the less room you have to pass things through.
I decided that this was not going to work so set about cutting a new hole. One hole, 40mm diameter and everything can pass through it. Job done. Now I just need to get a rubber grommet to cover the hole and the loom can be placed into position. This I'll do tomorrow as it was already 10pm.
The sun was out. Kathy has taken the kids to a friends house. Time is on my side. Time to put some of the new parts onto the car.
First thing to do is to get a grommet for the hole I cut last night. A trip round all the local car accessory shops was fruitless. The largest size they all do was 25mm blanking grommets. No good to anyone, but I bought some just in case.
The alternative - get down the scrappys and pinch one of an old car. I now have a selection of large grommets.
Two grommets of the same size look the closest to the hole size I cut, but the hole still needed enlarging a little. A short while later it was in place and I could start fiting the loom. The video suggest that you start at the steering column and work from there. This is useful advice as if you simply pass all the cable around the car and tie the in you must make sure that the multiplugs can still reach the top of the column. (This did not happen to me - I did start from the steering column!)
Figuring out what part of the loom should go where is fairly straightforward and even the most stupid man would have difficulty laying it out incorrectly. So, with the loom laid into position I looseley cable tied it around the front of the chassis, laid the instrument wires across the middle of the car and stretched the remaining wires to the rear. Interestingly, I had passed the wires for the rear through the same hole I had cut for the front. This left me with a multiplug hanging in an interesting place just where the seats go. My guess is that it shouldn't be there, so tomorrow I'll cut a hole in the side of the bulkhead and pass them down through there. That ought to sort it out.
Having sorted out the loom, I finished off the fuel supply. I changed my mind about waiting for a replacement fuel sender and decided to increase the size of the hole that it sits in, redrill the fixing holes and put that into place. Took about 20 minutes to complete and it was done. I had painted the tank a few days previous and so fitted that to the chassis. I fixed the fuel pump into position and then attached all the fuel lines together, not forgetting to put the fuel filter into position too.
The Rover engine only requires a single fuel line to the engine (there is not return feed) and so the extra pipe that comes out of the fuel tank needs to be sealed off. This is easily done by attaching a small piece of tube and fixing a bolt into the end of it (something I found when I visited the Pilgrim factory). I'll put some pictures up when I get the camera.
I stopped short of putting fuel in the tank just yet - not quite ready for that!
One of the other big items still laid in its box was the radiator and cooling fans. Time to get them out and fix them up. The holes in the radiator brackets did not line up with the holes in the chassis. Typical. So a quick fix with the drill sorted that out. I had to make some brackets up to hold the top of the radiator in position. For some reason I imagined these would come with the radiator but that isn't the case. The aluminium strip I bought earlier came in handy for that. Brackets made, radiator in position. Solid!
Now to fit the cooling fans. These fans use fancy QUICKMOUNT fixings that push straight through the radiator core to secure the fans in place. I checked out the fittings that were supplied and some of them were knackered. I need to phone these guys to get some new parts I think. However, they're easy to fit, but you must make sure you get it right as you can only use the fixings once. They secure in position in a similar fashion to the way in which cable ties work. So having watched the video, read the instructions and read the instructions again I fitted the first fan in place. Looks good.
Now for the second fan. Tie, fan, washer, radiator, washer, cap. That's the order to put these things on. Wrong time to find out that the first fan I fixed I've completely ballsed up. I somehow managed to put the washers the wrong side of the fan which meant the fan was sitting on top of the radiator. Oh well, I fix the second fan correctly and proceeded to remove the first. How I managed to get that wrong I don't know, but I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'll need to call Pacet and ask them to send me some extra fittings anyway
All in all quite a good day. Lots of parts in place and it's looking more like a car. John, my father-in-law works for this company that has a chroming plant so I've taken off the rocker covers for him to tidy up for me. They should be back by the end of the week (with Kathy and the kids) looking all nice and shiny. If they can't be chromed I may just get them polished or powder coated instead. Damn aluminium!
I'll update the phot gallery when I get my new camera. I'm toying with the idea of adding some extra cash to the insurance cheque to see if I can get a better camera so I'll probaly wait until next pay day before I take the plunge. Gives me some time to look for a better model.
Called Pacet today to get some replacement fixings. They wanted to charge me £6.08 + VAT for a set, but when I told them that one of the fittings was knackered, they said that they'd send me a replacement set F.O.C. We'll see what arrives in the post.
Rerouted the wiring that goes to the rear of the car. Another large hole successfully made in the chassis (gulp!). Hope this doesn't make it structuraly unsafe...
The multiplug that was next to the seating position has now moved back two feet and is behind the fuel tank. Not sure at this point what that is actually for - perhaps it's for the fuel sender. We'll see. Once I have laid everything in place for proper I'll look more closely at what wires are needed where. Lots of people have offered me advice on how this is done, so I may just add a special section to the website to detail what they tell me and how I get on with it, complete with pictures'n'all.
Bob Findlow has already sent me a few wiring diagrams for the Rover and a few switches, so I'll include them also.
I have spent the past week or so trying to figure out the wiring loom, trying to determine which wires go where and I'm almost there now.
One of the biggest misunderstandings I have at the moment is with the relays that are required. There are spaces for 4 relays on the loom. Checking the wiring diagram in the build manual shows that there are also four relays used, so that's quite simple. What isn't simple is the diagram shows that there are two relays for the headlamps. I can only think that one is for dipped beam, the other for main beam. Checking back in the Sierra manual only showed one relay for the lights. Perhaps I've missed something. If someone has already solved this could they please let me know.
I've fixed the relays and fuse box to the inside wall of the chassis and will secure them up with lock nuts when I get and buy some. I've also started to lay the loom into position so that I can get the final layout correct without the wires snagging anywhere and without wires being too short to reach their destination.
I've figured out all the warning lights and just have a few extra wires to figure out now and then that. as they say, should be that. All-in-all, fairly straight forward.
I'll add the diagrams of the extra switches and things that are required soon, as I'd like to show the wires in colour as best I can. I'll finish these off when I get some spare time.
Today I started the interesting job of stripping down the engine so that it could be cleaned up and where appropriate, replace worn parts with new parts.
Given that I am working to a budget, I did not fancy (or relish) the idea of completely stripping the engine and rebuilding it. Yes, I know that it's a lot easier doing that sort of thing with the engine out of the car and I know that I would be better off doing it as the engine had been stood idle for a while, but the budget has to stop somewhere. And anyway, if I wanted to spend all that money rebuilding the engine, it would have worked out about the same money to buy a recon unit in the first place.
So the stripdown started.
I had taken off the rocker covers a couple of weeks ago and gave them to my father-in-law, John, to get cleaned up and powder coated. They should be here in a couple of weeks when he travells down for a charity fishing match. Taking off the covers revealed some dried up oil on both sides of the engines. This meant that the heads needed to come off and get a good clean up. I decided that at the same time of taking the heads off I may as well re-seat the valves and polish them up.
The first head. I removed all the bolts as described in the Haynes manual and then proceeded to lift off the head. It wouldn't budge. This was the first bit of bad luck I'd had with the engine with regard to things being seized. Every other bolt or part that had been removed did so freely and easily. I could only imagine that the head and the gasket had coroded so much that the thing was just stuck.
I tried all sorts of measures to try and get the thing off. First there was a hammer, then a hammer and scraper, trying to wedge a gap. Wouldn't budge. Then I tried a lump hammer and a piece of wood. Still nothing. I even tried a small car jack between the heads and this still wouldn't move it. I then decided that two brains are better than one, so I enlisted the help of Jim from across the road. Jim had done quite a bit of mechanics before and knows quite a bit about engines.
So, Jim, complete with his specs, walks into the garage, takes one look at the heads and says "Is that a bolt?". Bugger me, below what must have been 1 inch of oil there was a bolt, and another the other side too. Quick work with the socket and the bolts were out. Low and behold, the head came away as easy as ordering a pint of beer in an empty pub! Cheers Jim, I owe you a pint.
Of course, I made out to everyone around me that the thing was stuck and some people think that is still the case - namely Kathy, my wife.
So with the first head off and out of the way I cleaned up one side of the top of the engine block. I cleaned out the pistons and took a look at the sleeves inside. They all look OK. The piston rings don't seem to have stuck at any point, so a quick brush with a honing tool should see them polished out.
The rocker assembly that came off the head also needed a good clean so I filled a tub with some white spirit and popped it in to soak overnight. With the pushrods and cam followers extracted, cleaned and lined up as they came out I was now ready to start the other side. Tomorrow.
After leaving the rocker assembly to soak for a day I lifted it out of the white spirit tub and it almost gleamed. All the dried oil had virtually disappeared. A quick scrub with the brush and a wipe off and it looked almost new. So it was time to do the same with the other side.
The head on the other side of the engine came off very easily as this time I had removed ALL of the bolts. Pushrods & cam followers were removed and cleaned. Pistons were cleaned out and checked, and then I cleaned the other side of the engine block. The difference between what the engine looks like now and what it looked like when I first got it is quite remarkably different. It is certainly worth taking the time to clean up as much as possible. The end result it just so much worthwhile. When the engine is sat in the nice and tidy finished Cobra, the last thing you really want to do is to lift the bonnet to reveal some dirty, greasy engine. Oh, and you also get to know how they go together should they decide to break on you.
Dropped the other rocker assembly into the white spirit tub to soak again. Should come up as clean as the other one.
Inspecting the pistons on both sides showed that they looked in pretty good shape. Given that is the case, my main aim is to now replace the main bearings, possiby the con-rod bearings and the cam chain and sprockets. I should then be able to put the engine together, attach the gear box and drop it into position. Sounds too easy.
Next thing to do now is to wait for some more money and order the parts from Rimmer Bros. Good job it's pay day next week!