Tom

Am I right about tightening the Suspension bolts in the loaded postion?

Thanks chaps, I’ll have a look for that. Pete, I’ve used Tiger seal on my repaired welds, seems to have worked well and can be painted.

Just whilst I’m thinking of jobs I’ll be doing over the next few weeks can I ask a few more questions? I’ve had the entire rear suspension and transmission off the car and rebuilt it all, currently the bolts that connect the ends of the spring to the hub carrier are all still loose as if I remember from my Spitfire days these should be nipped up with the suspension loaded and sitting properly level. Is this the same for the Herald? and secondly, although I put the spacers that go between the rear control arms and the chassis I wouldn’t be surprised with the amount of work I’ve done to the chassis and suspension that the rear wheels aren’t pointing where they should be! Is this a specialist setting up job or can it be done by a DIY method?

Ok, I’m painting the valances off the car. I’ll do them early next week, I’m filling and painting my rear wing repairs at the moment so with a little luck the valances will be on next weekend, tank in and lights back in. thanks, Colin

Getting close to putting the rear valance and rear quarter valances. Do they just bolt on metal to metal or is there some sort of product that goes between the quarters and the rear wing to fill the seam?

Thanks chaps, Plenty to be getting on with now!

That’s a great help Colin, thanks. Just one question, does the loom initially come from the front of the car on the Drivers or passenger side?

Yes I had to destroy the captive nuts and cut the long 3/8 unf bolt to get mine off so I’ll have to use an alternative fixing method. Its more the fuel pipe routing and wiring routing I need help with.

Hello, it’s been a while but after lots of repairs to the chassis and rear tub the two are finally together! She’s no show car but she’s solid and maybe one day I’ll treat her to a full body spray!! I’m at the point I want to fit the fuel tank, I’m fitting all new lines but I can’t remember the routing the copper pipe that goes from the rubber hose that joins to the tank to the long line from the front of the car. Essentially the bendy one one that gets past the rear wheel/ drive shaft etc. Also it looks a lot easier to fit the rear lights and wiring loom before the tank too but again I remember the exact routing of the loom? if anyone could help with either of these problems I’d be very grateful. Thanks, Tom.

My Herald did exactly the same a few weeks ago, no leaks anywhere, no fluid loss and slowly sinking pedal. My car had stood for 8 odd years, I think I changed the fluid once in that time to save the brake system but still ended up replacing the rear cylinders, front pistons and seals. I stripped the MC, bore was perfect, seal not split but had become a bit squidgy and swollen, cleaned it all up popped a new seal kit in, had a good few hours of bleeding ( that was the hardest part of the fix! ) but now the brakes are the best they have ever been!

I loved my 11, simple, super comfy relaxing car. Mine was only a 1.4 first gen 1985, twin headlamps. In the winter of 1996 I browed a hill heading out of Barnet, a Range Rover had left the road on black ice, ricocheted of a tree and ended up back on the road, I braked ( on the aforementioned black ice ), ended up sliding sideways on the opposite side of the the road only to be T boned by a TWO day old BMW 5 series! The BM hit the passenger wheel sideways really hard, the 11 spun that quickly the rear quarter smacked the back of the Beemer as it went past!!! Wrote both cars off! I distinctly remember seeing the glovebox coming towards me in slow motion and the seatbelt locking up and stopping me faceplanting it!!! Anyway, spent a bit more time bleeding, more air came out and now I have a lovely hard pedal! and a jam jar full of what looks like new fluid, should this be binned now or is it perfectly fine and reusable, It has only passed through the Heralds system and not mixed with old fluid as everything is new, I have a couple of motorbikes that need a fluid change, this would be ideal.

They only gizmo I've had for bleeding brakes was a device that used tyre pressure to force the fluid through the system in a continuous stream, I remember that being handy a few times to get the air out of my Renault 11 I had at the time, it also made it a one man job. I made the fatal mistake of lending it someone, he left it in his leaky shed and the whole thing had corroded, in was useless, he gave me some money for it but I never got round to buying another as I wrote the 11 off and have never needed one since, it was good though. One last thing, the fluid I'm now removing is clear new fluid. is it ok to put it back in the system as I'm getting a bit low on it now?

Yes see what you mean Dan, all I can say is pistons and seal are new and moved freely and I've adjusted the shoes up as per manual. Do you have any bleeding tips, I've read in a few places Heralds can be tricky to bleed sometimes?

I know I've drifted off my original topic but I'm into the brakes now! Well all the braking system is complete once again. I rebuilt the master cylinder, new seals and pistons in the front calipers, new rear cylinders, new pads, new shoes, checked system for leaks, rear brakes adjusted up. I have bled the system with help from my daughter on the pedal and me with a piece of pipe, jam jar and spanner but I'm struggling to get a firm pedal. The pedal does not go to the floor but it's still too squishy. I must still have air in the system. Are there any pearls of wisdom out there? Technique/wheel order etc? Tom.

I almost got to the point of splitting the calipers but after a good nights sleep and a fresh head I managed it. Tips I can offer are for the 12's are..... 1. Spend as much time as need cleaning the groove out for the dust seals on the caliper, it makes a big difference to the how easy and well the the seal goes in. 2. Fit the piston seal and then the piston but don't push it all the way in make sure the bottom of the groove in the piston is about 2mm proud of the top edge of the caliper. 3. Fit the dust seal over the top of the piston and carefully get the top lip in the piston. 4. Push the piston the last 2mm down ( fully in ) and then hook one edge of the dust seal into it's caliper groove and hold. 5. This is the tricky bit.......whilst holding the edge that is already in use a pair of long pointy nosed pliers to gently pull the inaccessible edges of the seal in and using your fingers in a V formation hold each side. 6. Now all you have to do is hook the front edge in whilst holding the bits you already have in, if you have a Hamster or Gerbil trained in caliper rebuilding this is the moment you need their little hands!!!!!!! 7. Gently with the tip of a small screwdriver press around the top over the seal through to the bottom of the seal in the caliper, I found this squared it up a little. 8. Have a cup of tea and possibly a biscuit depending how it went. 9. Repeat 3 more times 10. seek anger management therapy! Wish I'd taken some pics but I hope this helps anybody contemplating this.

No mine are Type 12's Colin, blimey are the 14's even worse?

Yes those clamps do look a bit on the flimsy side, I on initial inspection I thought mine were a little weedy but they were ok as the nut is weld in, just to make sure I dropped a bit more weld onto mine. So the cure for Tub spread is to just squeeze it back together? I think mine survived it's 8 yrs off the chassis as I stored it on it's side on an old mattress, not that I knew anything about tub spread at the time just because it took up less space in the garage.

Well Dan, that's exactly what I was thinking😁 He wouldn't have it though, my argument was which direction is the force created by the rotation moving the object? it's AWAY from the center of rotation not towards it otherwise a centrifuge would chuck all the stuff at the center and all your clothes woulds float around in the center of the drum when spinning around!!! Anyway I've moved on from hubs they're done, thankfully the bearings are all good..........I've found a piece that isn't worn out!! Now trying to rebuild my calipers and it's killing me how to get the dust seal to locate in both the caliper and the slot in the piston seems an impossible task, I'v got all four pistons to do aswell!!!!😣 might have to call it day!

Interesting Pete, pretty much every hub I've ever taken apart is full of grease, I often wondered about that myself, all this unused grease in the middle of the hub. I wondered if the sloped surfaces inside the hub would slowly feed the grease around the bearing from centrifugal force*, constantly rotating the grease around. *I remember having an argument with my Mechanical engineering lecturer (when I did my HNC) about rotating forces. He was adamant Centrifugal force did not exist and the only force involved is Centripetal acceleration, the force preventing the rotating body flying off at a tangent................I never did get my head around that?????

Taking an hour or 4 off tub fitting to clean the manky grease from my front hubs, check the wheel bearings and re pack. I've just noticed my felt seals are different, one is quite thin and the felt faces towards the bearing? the other faces the other way towards the vertical link and is much thicker, obviously only one is correct! My car has disc brakes.

I'm sure you'll get there in the end Colin, yes I had that problem with my passenger side rear mount. I kind of suspected an issue when working on the chassis, All my measurement indicated it was low like yours. It has been replaced in the past so it looks like someone got it a bit low, I almost bit he bullet, cut it an lifted it but I wasn't 100% sure of my measurements and was not in a position to offer the tub up, there were so many variables at that point too so I just left it.................should have trusted my instinct/measurements as it looks like they were correct.

Cheers Pete, yes it's always had those cappings? What is Tub spread?

She' one again!!!! Yes I know the edge around the back of the hood is scabby......that's the next job! I'm going over to VRS paint matching tomorrow for a few rattle cans of colour matched cellulose, I'm afraid a full paint job is a couple of years away!! It's few days of filler, wet and dry and aerosols now!!

Well I got back in the garage, done a bit of shimming and jiggery pokery. everything apart from the boot outriggers seem acceptable,I've definitely seen worse! I think I can tweak things in a bit better ( doors/bonnet in the vertical plane. The boot is really puzzling, maybe it was packed out? it's 8 or 9 years since I took the tub off and at the time I wouldn't know what to expect ie. what is correct or not?so maybe I forgot, I wonder if it's the chassis or the body? it's pretty much the same gap on both sides.

Blimey Colin I have never seen anything like that!!! What were they thinking? Makes my car look like a precision Swiss watch!!! Not managed to get back in the garage today been working through my 'domestic' jobs list!