congrats.. job well done (well almost)

Terrific, what a great thread, well done on getting it running and finished to such a nice standard. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of it out and about. What a contrast to the first pictures you posted.

Bravo!!

Really nice! Love that video of the start-up!

Cheers everyone - I was excited for about 10 minutes.

Then;
Issue 1 - oil leaking from both output shafts on the gearbox. I have ordered new oil seals and a set of SKF speedi repair kits to sort out the output shaft wear.

Issue 2 - oil pissed out of the engine. I think I left out one oil plug which was hidden behind the fuel pump heat guard. I have plugged it but now have lost all oil pressure. Need to take off the sump and get to the oil pump to see what is the problem

Issue 3 - water pump is drip drip dripping so need to take off again and get the output shaft machined and a new seal.


But as I have never had this car working it needed to be started to highlight any snags..... so just taking it as it comes

can try to fill the pump up with oil through the hole you just plugged. It's maybe running in air now.

I have finished the night on a high and just had my oil pressure confirmed as sort of in spec that is great.



You could be right, it may have been pumping air last night and now after leaving it over night the oil has settled and bled itself.

I had a great alternator tip from another tractionist - It is to do with the charge light that fields the field power. There are only 3 connections on the alternator, B+ to the battery, B- to the negative and DF which gets a 12 volt feed to jump start the alternator into charging. But to have the current pull it needs a lamp of at least 3 watts - I tried with my posh little LED and light stayed on and no charge. Put an indicator bulb in temporarily and the light goes off once started and I am getting full charge to the battery. I would have been there for ages scratching my head otherwise, so just need a little modification and that is finished. Means all my electrics work fine (1st time I have ever rewired a complete car and changed to 12 volts).

I put the car through the gears too (on the lift) and all work and the speedo works a treat.

So just the water pump, output shafts and exhaust to sort out.

and the wings, the lights, the door cars, the handles........... tighten the ball joints, check the torsion bar........ you get the picture.

But I think I see a glimmer of light at the end of this very long tunnel.

This might be the tip you were given, but if you want to keep the led charge warning you need to run a resistor in parallel with it.

that was my plan, any ideas on size.

Um, I going to say to flow the same current as a 3W bulb it would want to be 48ohm, so anything under that should work, 47ohm is a common size. If you go with too low a resistance, the led won't light at all because you'll have effectively shorted it out. Assuming the resistor needs to be 3W as the bulb would, use the next size up, 5W is common. You might actually be fine with a lesser wattage, but I've no idea off the top of my head what the resistance of the alternator's field windings is.

So I'm guessing at 47ohm 5W, it'll probably be one of those square ceramic ones. Try it and see, if the led does what it's meant to and nothing overheats then I was right

That's not to say its the only value that would work though.