Exhaust Pipes and manifolds.

Lovely Sunbeam has been dispatched to the exhaust shop for new stainless manifolds and pipes.

It will take about a month.

Once at the shop she failed to start!
The door handle snapped!
And the hand brake sized!

Very embarrassing.

Starter would spin but no spark. Voltmeter showed less than 8V on starting. Eventually decided the Voltage was going so low the Duraspark wouldn't ignite. I hadn't trickle charged the battery since fitting the alternator. :-(

Hopefully it will work when charged.

On the ramp it was found that the steering contacts the Oil filter - so will have to remove or adjust the oil cooler.

The plan is to cut a 3" pipe through the chassis on the right hand side and shrink the battery box by 4".
Maybe I'll be able to find a low profile modern battery shaped like a pancake to fit.

Alternator wiring and Dynamo control box mod

Wiring in the alternator.

The main 12v cable was wired directly to the start solenoid and hence the battery.

The alternator was lamp feed was spliced to the wire that was on the D contact of the control box.

The original starter solenoid had already been adjusted so the 12V input was also directly connected to the pre-engage starter. So all the fat 12V cables are now on the same terminal.

The original solenoid is now used as an extra low current switch only to switch the pre-engage starter solenoid. To save on wiring mods. The manual solenoid button is useful.

The Dynamo regulator box was modified (dismantled) and the plan is to use it as a fuse box with two fuses using the F and D terminals as output links And also a mega fuse for the alternator.

A and A1 were soldered together inside to provide a link.





Alternator didn't work when the engine was started.


A Voltmeter was installed on the dashboard on the right hand
Ammeter position. This showed no voltage change when the engine was running and the warning light stayed on.

I had fitted a new alternator regulator about a year ago.
I removed the regulator and inspected the brushes, they were undamaged. The commutator also looked clean. But there are two finger contacts in the alternator that connect to the regulator by spring contact. I bent these outwards a little more and ensured they contacted the module in the correct place.

The next time the engine was started the warning light went out and the Voltmeter registered a steady 15V.

Success .

After a winter of problem starting I added a new starter cable direct from the battery to the starter motor. So the ignition and starter solenoid are now on a different circuit so not affected by any voltage drop along the main starter cable.

Throttle cable to Weber 38DGMS

 The old linkage was removed and modified as shown.

Thios gives about 45mm cable movement which is about right.

And a single cable uses the existing bolt hole.

Seems to work ok

 The Weber cable mount kit needs a little mod as it hold the cable offset - maybe I fitted it wrong. Will try reverse the control arm

The left hand gearlever from eBay has a more backward angle.
I could have bent the old but this was cheap enough and then I have a spare!

Another thing to do is to "quicken" the lever action as per this site HERE

V6 More instrumentation

I'm trying to keep the instruments looking the same.
I suspect the fuel gauge is wrong type.

The Speedometer will have to wait until properly mobile. A new cable will be made and then the speedo will probably need calibrating.

The choke cable was modified to take a new cable and outer cover but keep the original faded knob and mounting.

The cigar lighter needs new or cleaned internals.

The Jaeger Clock has already been modified by the previous owner to take a modern movement. It made the positive to negative earth conversion simple as it is in a plastic isolated body.

There is a lot of work behind the dash board to sort out the birds nest. But its mostly working as is. The Hazard warning indicators still work.

The horns have an added relay behind the dash, one of the horns isn't working.

The water temperature gauge sender doesn't fit in the Granada housing and the Capri sender guage is the wrong type.

The original sender (on the left - with minor repair) is roughly 1000 Ohms at 18 degrees C (room temp) and 130 Ohms at 90- ish degrees C (boiling water from kettle in cup - I don't have a suitable thermometer).

The Capri unit (on the right) is 1/8 NPT but still not the right size for the Granada manifold which has a spare M10 x 1.5 port.




I couldn't find any data on most of the gauge senders available for sale on most sites but Holden and Merlin Motorsport had Smiths compatible senders available in 1/8 NPT.
On receipt the measured resistance readings were close to the original. The instruments don't seem to have external calibration pots

I was able to re-cut the 1/8NPT to M10 and it fits nicely with some thread lock/sealer.

The Mechanical Tacho conversion to electronic is working well, except I have a zero offset issue so I need to open it up again.

Ammeter only for show - it had a vacuum gauge before but I plan on fitting a Voltmeter if I can find a Jaeger or smiths one (at a reasonable price).

Oil pressure connection was a bit hard to find.

The original Capri had an M10 convex connection which was hard to find so in the end I went for a new pipe and adapter from MLR.

Manual pump washer - may be modified to activate a switch for electric pump.

Engine mount also visible here.