13 September 2010

12th September - Brakes 'better'/wheels back on

HOOD
Brushed on the Fabsil over the entire hood in situ on the 109. I just released all around the base of the hood and masked off the body work and screen with newspaper and sheets over the doors.

Originally i bought 2.5 litres and the manufacturers quote 6m sq coverage per litre. Aaaah not on a canvas hood you don't. Neighbour gave me a further litre left from his TVR hood which I managed to eek out to finish the job. Ideally a second application would be best but will have to wait for few years.

Rained next day and no water made it through so must be doing the job?


BRAKES
In a rush I managed to get the two front brake plates rebuilt with TWF/Girling pistons and new cam adjusters. To actually get these bled through Rob ('Minivin') and myself I placed the back plates on a stool alongside the axle with the drums dropped over the backplates and the adjusters wound out. This seemed to do the job!

The plates were refitted and the hubs reassembled. The drivers side hub was a problem though. Whatever we did the drum is dragging on the shoe. Both the drum and shoes are new so all at their max dims so I hope that this is the problem and a bit of use will ease it up a bit. Time will tell after driving back and forth across the yard.

Now I could move the 109 away from the front of the house so the real estate agents could take pics of the house the following morning!


WIRING
Rob refitted the military headlights (I couldn't remember how they went together) and the 109 now looks like 'Chitty Chitty bang Bang' so SWMBO tells me ;)

The instrument panels were dragged out of the box they had been residing in for the past 18 months and were stripped and refurbed. The main central panel had to have the left hand temperature/oil pressure/fuel unit dumped due to corrosion and was swapped for a late 2A one. The other benefits were the 'new' instruments were now electric and not rusty/broken/mechanical which suits the Tdi better anyway.

Even fitted a 52mm boost gauge to replace the now redundant oil pressure gauge. Not really a necessity but fills a hole?

Central panel & gauges before...

....Central panel after

I dragged out the grubby old wiring loom and now see a few additional problems with this despite the entire loom being only approx. 9 years old......

a) The PO had a bit of an electrical short-circuit and some of the large central cables in the instrument loom are melted. These need to be stripped out and repaired
b) Not all colours correspond with any wiring diagrams I have (though I have to admit these are all Series 3)
c) It's a nightmare working out where everything goes to and a suitable routing.

So...as mentioned in previous posts I have decided that I will keep the loom for spare wire sections and order a new Autosparks loom which is as close to the to what I need as possible. I can then do the few odd mods as required - though shouldn't be much (heated screen/twin tank senders/reverse light/alternator/single wiper motor not twin...). £200 order now placed.

In the meantime I have fitted a good solid braided ground bond from the rear chassis (brass bolt) up to the underside of the rear tub and terminated all the lighting grounds to there. Same for the rad panel ground point for the headlights. Wiring from the fuel senders to the changeover switches to be finished this week.


Aside from all the above I have realised that I have lost one wheel nut (somewhere in the gravel) and need one more red glass brake light lens. Dropped my brand new onto the concrete floor the other week and now have to resort to an old chipped one :(

Oh, and the fuel return tap cork internal gasket has now been fixed! Old one was totally shot and appeared to have been feeding return fuel to whichever tank it fancied. Sorted now though.

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