Bordfunker

I refurbished the brake master cylinder on my Herald 1200 a couple of months back after discovering a leak while cleaning up the bulkhead. I replaced the seals and reassembled the cylinder, and everything looked fine, however I have now noticed that it is leaking again. Having checked the piston seal, this is fine with no sign of a leak. Which leads me to suspect either a hole in the cylinder casting itself, or more likely a leak at the union from the cylinder to the brake pipe. Having looked online I can see complete brake pipe kits, but might really only need a couple of unions and a length of pipe made up. Can anyone suggest where to get these? Thanks Karl

Pete good point about the TRE being a different length. I was intending to check that this evening after pumping in some grease as the new TRE had very little in it, however this was not to be. I applied my trusty Wanner grease gun full of grease and applied 5 strokes of the handle. Simple? Well it would be if the grease gun had disengaged. The grease nipple was stuck firmly in the end of the grease gun. I spent the next half an hour trying to remove the offending nipple with no joy, so it's now stuck in the Wanner I use for grease. I can only assume that the new grease nipple is larger than the standard ones on the Herald, as the Wanner has had no issues with these in the past. I feel a call to Canley Classics is in order in the morning. Karl

Count yourself lucky guys, I have to deal with Microsoft for a living! I had some gaps in my imperial spanner collection, now remedied, and I now at least have some duplicates for those double spanner jobs. The old track rod end is off, having noted how many turns it took to remove, so that the new one would go in exactly the same location, and thus preserve the tracking. I did have to take the power drill and rotary brushes to the threads ahead of the lock nut, but after a bit of heaving it released. Everything is now back on, and torqued up in line with the manual. No chance to drive it as off to see Arrival tonight, and off the NEC tomorrow for the Classic Car Show. Karl

When's the next tapper day? Always been scared by the thought of adjusting tappets. Not sure why. The new set of spanners turned up on Thursday, so I tried the 13/16 on the locking nut. Too big! Good job I bought the set of spanners as it was actually the 3/4 spanner I needed, and that fitted fine. Might get a chance to attack it this afternoon, chores permitting. Karl

Pete, I think that might be a good idea. I've got a pair of mole grips, and some ancient 'foot prints', but not a proper adjustable spanner. The new track rod end turned up this morning, now just need a spanner to remove the old one! Karl

I tried Halfords and they didn't do a 13/16 spanner! Sod's law I didn't realise that I needed that size spanner until all the local motor factors had closed. Karl

Tom, thanks for the encouragement. As you suggest I don't have a clue when the track rod ends were last replaced, however going by the condition of the rest of the running gear they have been maintained. Given that, a replacement track rod end is probably the safest way to go. Lacking a suitably sized spanner, and not having a clue what size the lock nut is on the track rod end, I had to measure it up with a vernier gauge, and now know it's a 13/16" nut. What a bizarre size. So new spanner duly ordered from Machine Mart. NEC next weekend so probably not a lot of progress over the next couple of weeks. Karl

Long story short, the gloss black applied last weekend bloomed as it was obviously too cool in the garage. Therefore I took the whole lot inside to the study, where I've got a small spraybooth, which I use for my modelling. Luckily the components weren't too large. Everything got a rub down with wire wool and allowed to harden off for a couple of days before reassembling. At which point, under the glaring brilliance of my desk lamp, I realised both the trunnion dust seal, and the top ball joint gaiter were perished, something that I hadn't spotted in the gloom of the garage. Oh well! Emergency order to Canleys for the offending parts, along with some new nylocs. And this is what I was left with. That lot is now back on the car, and making the rest of the running gear look decidedly shabby. Ho hum. This did highlight on issue, in that in attempting to remove the track rod ball joint I'd damaged the threads and now the nut wouldn't go back on. So now I contemplating removing the trackrod end and re-filing the threads, assuming I can find a spanner the right size. Karl

I've done too many times in the past with models, particularly those which have glossed, so now try and contain myself, and let it all dry thoroughly. Karl

Thanks for the advice Pete. I'll keep a copy of the official Triumph Workshop manual in the car when it goes for it's MOT next year. This week has been spent cleaning up the passenger side upright and associated components with a rotary wire brush ready for painting. Here it all is in my deluxe paint booth awaiting a coat of etch primer. Everything was treated with a rust inhibitor prior to being primed, hence the colour. All the areas that needed to be paint free were masked off first with cardboard and masking tape. And here they after a couple of coats of etch primer. It's not perfect by a long chalk, but it will do, and is a massive improvement on the crud covered mass that I removed from the car last weekend. And before any one says, I did wear a respirator mask, as handily I also make models and frequently use cellose based thinners when doing this, so have one available. I'll let that harden off overnight, and then tomorrow I'll apply a couple of coats of gloss black. That'll probably need to be allowed to harden for a few days before I put it all back together and contemplate doing the drivers side. Karl

Stupid question, I'm full of them. Do you need a spring compressor to simply remove the spring and damper assembly without splitting them? I'm part way through cleaning up my front suspension, and was considering cleaning up the wish bones and returning them, hence the question. Karl

I was just passing on Pete's sage advice. Glad it was just the solenoid. Mine was playing up last week and resulted in a new starter. Karl

Thanks guys. I'll leave these as is, and simply replace the top seal, reassemble, and lubricate. Karl

I couldn't split the track rod end ball joint, so split the steering arm from the upright instead. Hence the removal of the stub axle nut. I was thinking about this while walking the hounds just now,xand it makes sense that there would be some end float, however I was still shocked by how easy it was to remove the castle nut. The last time I did this was on a VW Beetle, the original type, and that required something stupid like 150lbs of torque! Thanks for the advice Pete. Karl

The new starter motor came out again on Saturday, at which point I noticed that the top bolt on the starter hadn't been fully tightened up. Might explain the noise. Oops! I checked the number of teeth on the Bendix gear on old and new units, perfect match. A thorough inspection of the ring gear showed no wear at all, so everything went back on, and the car started perfectly. With that out of the way I replaced the engine side valance, and put everything back in place. Time to take something else apart! Trunnion time! I started on the passenger side as I know this is the side most likely to fail, and here it is up on an axle stand and my trolly jack. The castle nut was only on finger tight! Thank goodness for the split pin. Here it is in close up, minus the castle nut. Next up was removal of the brake calliper, which was held in by 2 very stiff bolts. However, as you can see they responded to the attentions of my torque wrench. This allowed the calliper to be removed, and the disc and hub removed from the stub axle. It was at this point I realised that I don't own a ball joint splitter! I tried giving the ball joint a sharp tap with a hammer. Well more than one actually, but to no avail. Time for plan B. I removed the arm that goes from the back of the upright to the steering track rod end, which then allowed me to remove the upright and trunnion. Leaving me with this.... ...and these... The trunnion appears to have a nice polyurethane bush fitted, with no signs of wear, and so is probably fine for re-use. The all important threaded end of the upright was also in good nick with no corrosion or wear evident. Both upright and trunnion required a lot of clean up, with each having a good 8mm of crud on all surfaces. It was so bad I couldn't even see the bleed nipple as a separate component! I'll give the wishbones and backplate a good clean up, as they are all very mucky, and I figure a clean car is far easier to work on and maintain than a filthy one. Before I put the upright and trunnion back together I'll clean out the oil way in the upright, and the bottom of the trunnion which still shows signs of grease. Karl

The new starter motor came out again on Saturday, at which point I noticed that the top bolt on the starter hadn't been fully tightened up. Might explain the noise. Oops! I checked the number of teeth on the Bendix gear on old and new units, perfect match. A thorough inspection of the ring gear showed no wear at all, so everything went back on, and the car started perfectly. With that out of the way I replaced the engine side valance, and put everything back in place. Time to take something else apart! Karl

I've stripped down the suspension on the passenger side of my 1200 Herald this afternoon, after the dealer I bought it from decided to grease the trunnions! Given the state of the suspension, these didn't look like they'd been changed in years. So imagine my surprise when I was presented with this. I am assuming this is a polyurethane bush, and therefore I probably don't need to bother replacing them with the rubber ones that I purchased? Karl

On the solenoid you should have a terminal to which the positive lead from the battery is bolted. Next to this should be bolted the lead that runs to the starter motor itself. If you bridge these two pints with something insulated, like a screwdriver, you are effectively taking the solenoid out of the equation. Alternatively connect the positive terminal on the battery to the power feed in the starter motor. I know all this because Pete has been talking me through similar issues. Karl

I took the Herald out for a spin last night, and the old git started perfectly first turn of the key! I will still take the starter motor out over the weekend and check both the Bendix gear as Pete suggested, as well as taking a look at the ring gear itself. But feel is that the battery is good, but who knows? Karl

There's certainly no rhyme or reason Pete. Tried it again this afternoon, and although it did start there were a couple of times when it emitted a loud clonk, and I could still hear the starter motor spinning. Once started, the car restarted without issue. The new starter is definitely a lot more lively than the old one, so I think that was the right move. Not sure what the clanging sound is. Would suspect something not meshing properly with the ring gear, so may remove the starter at the weekend and perform a visual inspection of the ring gear. Karl

They certainly are! Just tried it again and it started first turn of the key. Go figure. Karl

Based on your feedback Pete I hooked up a temporary earth between the bell housing and the earthing point on the bulkhead using a jump lead. No change. Starter motor churns over sluggishly, and gives the impression of a dying battery. Battery checked and all looks to good with voltage above 12.5 even after churning. Battery is new and fitted by the dealer before I bought the car, so should, and I stress, should, be OK. Tried moving earth connection around, both in terms of where it attached to the engine and the shell, but with no change, so removed. Gave the ignition one last go before heading off to bed and it started perfectly!!! Completely at a loss to understand what had changed. Will try it again when I get home tonight to see if it can repeat the performance. Thanks for all your advice everyone. Karl

New starter motor arrived today, so after dinner I duly took it off to the garage for fitting. Removed the old unit, and replaced with the new one. Checked the battery, and it was reading 12.8 volts, so all set to fire up. Well, no. Still won't start. The problem appears the same as before, slow turn over, which just gets even slower. Another check of the battery, post this attempt, still showed over 12v. Tried connecting the battery directly to the starter motor, but no change, so not solenoid or cabling related. The only things I can think of, is that I've got a dud new starter motor, or it's an earthing fault. Any ideas? Karl

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've gone down the reconditioned route, and ordered a replacement from Rimmer Bro's. The hi-torque unit sounds interesting, but the car already has an alternator fitted, so as long as you can actually get the thing started, battery charge isn't an issue. Did think about reinstating a dynamo that for period look and feel! Karl

As per my post in the Electrical section of the forum, focus has continued to be on my Herald's starting, or lack thereof to be more precise. I didn't do anything on the car last week, but as Mrs Bordfunker was away this weekend, I took the opportunity get to grips with the starter motor. First off I turned the battery around, and fitted new positive & negative leads to the battery, not because I necessarily thought it would improve the starting, but because it at least removed one annoyance. Next up I removed the side valance to improve access to the starter motor, which was quicker than anticipated, and made removal of the starter motor very easy. With that out of the way, I broke out the Gunk and the steam cleaner to give me this. As you can see 48 years of crud and oil came off quite nicely. The starter motor itself was placed firmly in my bench vice and hooked up to the battery to observe how it performed. This revealed that the Bendix gear wasn't moving smoothly as it should, and therefore it got a thorough clean up with more Gunk, to leave me with this. Another bench test showed that the Bendix gear was now behaving as it should, but overall performance appeared sluggish. A quick check on the battery showed 13.6v across the terminals, so it wasn't that causing the issue. I tried the motor back in the car, more out of hope than anticipation of it working. As expected no joy, so it looks like I'm in the market for a new start motor. Still while it was out, I decided to clean the engine bay valance. Here it is marinading in Gunk. It was allowed to stew for about 20 minutes, before being attacked with the steam cleaner, and is now sitting clean, if not exactly shiny, in the corner of the garage. And I still haven't got around to rebuilding those trunnions! Karl