Servo failure

 It seems my servo is holding on the brakes.

Overheating so much I rolled into park foche Laon with only a hand brake.
After a bit of cooling it was fine for the rest of the day.
Sticking on again at the farmhouse and unlocked when I turned off the engine.
I removed the vacuum hose and blocked it with a tyre valve.

Similar to previous post.. do I need a servo.
Well, with current braking power, yes I do. Quite a struggle to stop.
I have a girling 7/8" master cylinder. Do the none servo cars use a bigger bore?

I'll try the air valve fix first from the archive.
But also, is there a repair kit for the lockheed type 6, 4257 729 29?

Considering I always thought the brakes were a bit hard - so assumed the servo was dud anyway - now it is dud a proper emergency stop would probably break the seats by pushing so hard. So - in my case -  need to fix it.
Of course there may be more wrong than just the servo.

My master cylinder is 7/8" - series I & II had 11/16". So I think to run without servo one ought to use a different master.

This weekend I'll clean and polish the air valve and give it a test run vacuum on.
And a fluid bleed.

I've looked under the air valve and the air valve piston seal is well worn.
So for now I've ordered enough to service what can be accessed easily from northwestclassic.

The proper full service/seal change will be done in the winter.

my servo part number is 4257-729, apparently superseded by 4257-792.

see here for servo operation http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/servo.htm

see here for servo rebuild https://landcrabforum.co.uk/thread/393/lockheed-servo-rebuild

on the last run the brakes stuck on again, so I missed a day trip to the National.
Weather is a bit    so pulled it all apart.

The brakes release when the engine is stopped but I'm changing all the seals in both master and servo.
The servo seals looked OK but the master cylinder seals looked life expired.
Also, despite recent bleeding of a pint of fluid, the fluid in the master still looked contaminated.

Will see soon enough. (I had some yellow that needs using up. No-one will notice)

Got it all together after the master cylinder and servo rebuild -a while ago.
Drove out of the garage and the symptoms were the same. - Brakes stayed on and would release with engine off or very low idle.

After some more looking at the drawings and how it works - In desperation (the only thing still- old) rotated the rubber hose that joins the front portion to the airvalve. It then seemed to work well enough to go to Capel car show.

I replaced the rubber hose with new and now it is working as expected - for two good runs at least.

maybe that was it.

My current theory on the hose is that it had hardened to the profile of the air valve and pipe.
So wasn't blocked but leaking. So not enough power to push the air valve back down. (Could be wrong theory)
Rotating it assisted the seal.
The pipe was easy to remove. The new one was a bit of a struggle to fit. So is well and trult sealed.

It's still OK.  
But I realise now the brake effectiveness is a bit sh t. Even with the servo.

Looking at EBC front and rear next. or Princess 4 pots.

prepare for Laon Historique 2021, Springs

 

In preparation for the Laon Historique I changed the front spring to gain some height at the front. The "new" springs had gone soft and I was almost running on the bump stops.

I fitted the "long" springs but without the rubber donut and the ride height is just right. and I can add the donut if they go soft.

The Laon classic was well organised.

On the saturday we were given a route to follow so the co-pilots had some work to do.

On the sunday the towns roads are closed and the  cars "parade" around the streets. 

Its not a race - but one keeps up with the guy in front!

starring at time 2:26min

https://youtu.be/RQDYH3Gd8R4

On the way home (in the UK)  the proshaft lost a circlip so we had to stop when the car suddenly started to shake.

Both UJ's seemed a bit damaged - maybe due to lack of greaseing - or too much torque.

Ordered GKN U040 no grease nipple replacements.

The GKN U040 have larger rollers but seem otherwise to be the same.

Fitting is fairly easy. 

Although I had trouble with two circlips at the yoke end.

its a bit tight.

If using a version with grease nipple then the nipple needs to fit in the correct orientation on the propshaft which has an indentation for it.

Shown here.

nn

Spa Classic 2019 and lost wheel

A trip to Spa classic went well along with a fun track lap session.

We went all the way there and almost got home without a mishap.
but a short way from home I felt a vibration starting so slowed down to investigate.







Slowly exiting the motorway I slightly applied the brake and suddenly the rear wheel flew past me into the bushes. Releasing the brake then allowed the drum to detach as well.

Fortunately all was at very slow speeds.







After investigation it seems this wheel hub had shorter studs than all the others!
Long studs are hard to find. and standard ones are definitely not suitable for alloy wheels.
Picture shows (left to right)
standard, "as-fitted", desired length, ebay sourced long stud.






A hub puller was obtained and as the studs are not able to be replaced without removing the hub.

The hub wasn't coming off easily. but eventually it released.
The new studs all fitted ok.

The other side refuses to come off so will need to be removed with halfshaft and taken to a press.

Tonneau and windscreen

Christmas present to Sunbeam was a Tonneau from Don Hoods.
Winter probably isn't the best time to try to fit the tonneau as it wasn't easy to stretch so it was warmed up in the house every so often.

Nutserts

I used captive nuts (nutserts) and lift the dot fittings with M5 threads.

Tenax fasteners

For the front, once the screen was removed, I added Tenax fasteners to somewhere near the factory location.
This is instead of the air vent screws as is popular when the screen is still in place.

Some original paint exposed for view

The windscreen is badly scratched and is a nightmare driving at night or into the sun.

The rubbers were showing all of the 55 years.  Despite having been resprayed with screen removed the rubbers were still original.

Cutting the rubber made glass removal easy. but the stainless trim wasn't so easy to remove as it was attached with a strong sealant.








Once the screen was removed the expected rust wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Not the prettiest of repairs but the stainless covers will hide it all.

Any colour so long as it's black...

I don't have the matching paint (Dupli-Color 629686 AC 7-0680) 

and she won't stay Racing Green forever so the bits that are seen will be satin black for now.

I've also left the top-rail front the original light green metallic for future reference.



Fitting the screen wasn't so bad
and the top and side trims were easy. The lower trim was fitted after the frame to body seal had been glued down.

The frame to body rubber trim wasn't so easy.
The rubber trim came with advise to glue the trim to the frame at the back where the cylindrical section is. This worked well.




The original seal had been attached by a sealant filling the entire channel section.Which I also tried to do but the sealant I used wasn't very sticky to rubber.
I followed it up with "serious glue" which did the trick and helped when fitting the frame to body.

Adjustment of the angle wasn't easy and needed some packing on one side.

LED lights

The painted orange indicator bulbs didnt look quite right in the clear lenses so I tried the orange LED indicators from classic car LEDS instead.

I needed to change the lamp holders - as the side lights are in the headlamp now and the lamp holders are offset pin dual filament. -

I've since found the supplier does a white side light and an orange flasher in LED - so I'll be changing it back soon!

The indicators are the same brightness and colour. The only obvious difference is the LEDS are instant ON/OFF compared to a more fade ON/OFF with incandescent lamps.

Hazard style

To get the indicators to work one needs to change the flasher. The type needed has to have an output for the single warning lamp. The only mod needed was to attach the required earth lead.


Then the Hazard warning (Lucas SFB300)  lamps were doing strange things so that relay also needed changing.



I got the bug - so I also changed the side light bulbs to Hi bright LED's and the stop tail lights. The side light lamp is very bright white compared to the original dull yellow.

Number plate lamp to follow soon.

Number plate lamp fitted OK - just ensure its the right way around else it wont work.

I have changed the side lights and indicators now so the lower side/indicators are used as original using an offset pin dual side(white)/indicator(amber) LED.
The lamps are peculiar in that when side lights are on and indicators are selected the associated side light turns off until the indicator is cancelled.

Le Mans Classic and MOT time

The run to Le Mans Classic was another good test.

Prior to the run some preparation was carried out
Exhaust rattles were fixed.
The gearbox needed a lot of oil.
As did the diff.
Hand brake adjustment.

One side seems to be smoking on overrun and on the outward bound trip I lost some a fair amount of oil - but on the return no loss..!

Performance was good but 20mpg may be a bit low.

The only snag - speedo stopped working.

After the run it was MOT time. Passed.

MOT is still required  due to the engine change.
But as there is some likely sill welding needed soon its a good thing to check.

And confirm the brakes are ok.

Propshaft

The original propshaft from the BW35 auto was modified by changing the output sleeve yoke to a type 9 version.

It was considered at the same time to lengthen the propshaft by 1" - but the company I used ( autoprop-uk ) had recently had some items lost in a fire and couldn't do the balancing. So we just changed then ends and spiders.

I decided to wait a while to determine if all was well before going to adjust the propshaft length.



It later occurred to me that a spacer on the axle would be a solution. I wasn't sure if it would be "safe" until I noted a few "propshaft spacers" for land rovers and Atlas axles available on eBay.

So here is the drawing for the Sunbeam.

Lofty volunteered to make it.







A week later and here it is - and it fits! (amazed my measurements were accurate but lofty made compensations for my lack of tolerances )
Perfect fit on the propshaft, slight interference fit on the Diff flange as I made the measurements the same for both sides. M8x50 class 8.8 were used as the 5/16" x 1-3/4" UNF grade S were just a little too short to fully fit the nylocs.
A test run proved it hasn't added any balance issues and I'm happier the propshaft fits further onto the gearbox.

Petrol Tank Refurb (POR 15)

The boot would smell a little of petrol when the tanks were more than half full.
Not sure where the leak was coming from but probably time to change all the rubber seals and seal the tanks with POR 15.

To remove the tanks you need to remove the boot springs and disconnect the strut from the boot lid to make space.

The condition of the tanks were not that bad but evidence of previous repair was noted on the LH outside.

Little bit rusty inside RH tank

The POR 15 cleaning takes a while. And preparing the 3 joining pipes also.

S3 filler, joiner, S4 joiner

Note that the series 3 has a different RH tank and the filler cap and joining hose is different to series 4 & 5.

The Tank sealer does need to be mixed well, it can be lumpy.
Sealing the tanks is easy enough but ensuring the excess is well drained takes some care.

Refitting the springs is easy if the strut is removed from the boot lid.

Pulling the strut rear-wards means the spring is close to the shortest extension possible. The left spring was easily fitted by hand. The right spring was a bit stronger and just needed a small hook to pull a few extra mm.





8mm Nylon fuel pipe from ssldiesel was installed as fuel feed and also a new return to tank.

Disc Brake Caliper Refurb

The car would pull to the left on hard braking.
So its time to investigate the calipers.

new piston and seals

I thought I would find old rusty calipers and rusty stuck pistons.

But it turns out the previous owner had fitted stainless steel pistons and pins.

But behind the rubber seals there was still much rust and maybe the pistons were sticky.

The calipers were dismantled and dipped in the rust dissolving solution.

After reassembly and painting in silver brake caliper paint I was advised by the forum that its
possible for the brake pads to stick in the caliper due to being the wrong size.

It was found that two pads were a tight fit in one of the calipers. These pads were 0.2mm wider than the others. They were all filed down so they loosely fit in the caliper. So now there should be no problem in the future.

Installing the rubber seals is a tricky task, but the best method was to fit the seal around the base of the piston, offer it up to the caliper, hook the lip in the groove and push in the piston to finish.

New bleed nipples and then the system was bled until air free.
Actually - not air free.. many times tried but still spongy.

A vacuum pump system was tried and also didn't fix the spongyness. Only using a willing helper to press the pedal and apply force while bleeding fix the spongyness in a few presses.

New Rocker covers

Ordered these rocker covers some time ago from Redmond Metalcasting.

They arrived for Christmas.

Some installers have had issues with the alternator being in the way.
Being pre-warned I didn't have an issue.
Maybe a lucky choice in fanbelt sizes.

Not a big problem  - but the breather hose needs to be extended
To keep the the run fairly neat the original hose was cut to keep the moulded bends but means a few extra unsightly jubilee clips are added.

Will look to improve that later.







Work to-do

• Fuel return hose install
• Fuel tank refurb
• Oil cooler take off port blanking.
• Front caliper rebuild
• Engine Electrical wiring improvements

Log Book and new engine

19 May 17
I've been working away for a while, Back for a long weekend to go to Spa Classic.

The log book has returned from DVLA with a change in cubic capacity. A lot less hassle than I expected.

The engine has been collected from specialised engines and looks good.
Would have preferred to build it myself (without the mistake) but working abroad for a while.
I'll begin the install after the trip to Spa



______________________________________________________________________



23 May 17

After Spa - now fitted the engine...
It runs but whines a lot.

I thought maybe starter motor stuck on.


Apparently its the Aluminium timing gear and will reduce in volume as it wears in!

Hope so

Need to refit the cooling system and fill with water etc.. - When I'm home again.