See you at firkin?

With a bit of luck, I'll be there straight after work on Saturday morning ... but I'll be good for nowt until I've had some sleep!

Well. Today's job was to get the clutch cable sorted. i was beginning to wonder if I could adjust the cable enough to operate the clutch, and after a bit of fannying around with it I discovered that no, I couldn't. The problem is not in the length of the cable, but instead in the fact that the end of the clutch pedal describes an arc of around 45 degrees on the old pedal, as opposed to about 90 on the later pedal. So the only way I could get the clutch to operate at all was to adjust the cable way beyond tolerances so that the clutch arm at the gearbox end was already half way actuated even when the clutch pedal wasn't pressed at all. This is clearly no good.
Needless to say, the later pedal assembly is not just a straight swap: the master cylinder bolt holes are in the same place, but the pedal box actually bolts to the bulkhead. So now I'm going to have to find a way to modify the later pedal box with bits of the earlier one in order to make everything fit. Whether i can do this in time for Firkin Freezing is another matter ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VbtNBmWX3o

Here, take your mind off it with a video of the car in a previous life. About 4:00 in...

Good stuff.

I've been starting other threads about this in "Technical", so let me bring this one up to date ...

Having put the entire car back together and farted about trying to get the clutch to work, first with a series of bodges to the cable, then with a new pedal box from an Ami 8, none of which worked, I finally bit the bullet and took the engine out again. I thought that the only thing left to go wrong was the clutch, which Ken immediately confirmed upon seeing a photo of the pressure plate on the flywheel.

A further bonus was that my arsing about with the cable length had bent the release arm ...

... which I was able to straighten ...

... so that it looks the same as my spare one. I was going to change it, but I can't work out how to remove it without removing the brake drum backplates first, so it's staying on there for now. I did remove both drums and the brake shoe locating pins at the front of each drum in the hope that the shaft the release arm pivots on would push out through the pin holes, but it doesn't. So I've had an entertaining half day re adjusting the front brakes, which is a good bit harder with the gearbox in the car and a fairly big hangover after an impromptu session yesterday. Never mind, once the new clutch arrives (tomorrow, with luck), I should be able to get the engine back in.

New clutch is now fitted, and, alhamdulillah, it works. Now all I need to do is put the front panel back on (again), refit the heat exchangers (again), wire in an oil pressure light, drain and replace the brake fluid, sort out what I hope is a minor issue with the brake pedal (since fitting the pedal box, the pedal is miles off the brake light switch and the pushrod into the master cylinder is too short) and refit the speedo. Then I can finally drive it.

Here's where I was at with it before resigning myself to changing the clutch ...



... and here's the new clutch in its new home.

I'm crossing my fingers and really hoping it works this time!

Should be ok. I was a bit down about it last time I posted, as I felt I'd had the thing six months and was right back to where I started, with no engine in it and the brakes in bits, but I'm all fired up about it now. With a bit of luck and some free time in the afternoons (in between tiling the kitchen, decorating the bedroom and going to work), I should be able to use it from this weekend ...

It's back! Finished it off this morning and took it for a quick blast around the block. The cab filled up with exhaust fumes at first, but after a few minutes all the oil burnt off the manifolds where I'd been lifting the engine in and out and I could breathe again. We ran down to Monmouth and back in it and it runs pretty well. The exhaust is blowing on a heat exchanger to crossbox joint, something in the suspension scrapes on right hand bends, the speedo over reads (old speedo, new gearbox) and I've still got to find a heater tube for the right hand heat exchanger. Oh, and I can't get the heater switched off without opening the bonnet, and one of the headlights is a bit on and off. But otherwise, it works. And it's great to have it on the road again ... see you at Easter in the East!