Tom

Blimey Colin four inches!!!!!!! You fellas know how to make me feel better! Mine doesn't sound too horrific now! Also I forgot to ask .....how tight should the fasteners be? I'm thinking until the rubber washers compress maybe 50%?

'An anything goes job'................I did laugh at that!!!! Cheers Pete you have lifted my spirits, I was feeling quite down about those boot gaps!!! I might turn some bespoke nylon spacers to fit these gaps then?

Well the tub is sitting on the chassis and I sense this is where the pain begins!!! I have it sitting on the alloy C washers on the top diff mounts near the top of the dampers.1 rubber washer is under every other mounting area. I have all the bolts in apart from the boot outriggers, we'll come to them in a moment! I'm presuming the resting mount things that contact the chassis near the handbrake pivot and the diff mount points give the basic vertical reference as these can't be altered? My doors seem to line up ok. My biggest concern is my boot outriggers which seem to be low by a good 15mm! which is a bit of a worry. It is the same gap each side so I don't think any twist has taken place, this seems like a lot to pack out? It's a long time since the body and chassis were one and I can't remember how much packing I took from the boot outriggers.

Yes it's interesting what comes in handy, I have a plastic crate full of all the parts I've taken off my old 1500 Spit and this Herald....somehow seems wrong to throw a 40 or 50 year old original Stanpart in the bin! Very often given time and effort some parts can be refurbished, usually it's economically pointless but that's not why we do this is it!! I remember my friends Dad who had a fabulous classic car collection telling me this, he had a workshop with a lathe and vertical mill and he would refurb everything as he said a rerubished original part is usually better than a reproduction part.

Colin, do you have any of these steel C washers? I don't throw any old parts away and when I dug through what I thought were the old canvas/rubber washers a number of them had these washers attached to them. I chiseled them off and cleaned them up they look like they could be useful. I'll give them a liberal coating of DYNAX first of course! These are the best condition but I have three more.

Yes Colin I put the aftermarket one in there to show how different it is to the originals. My front end is all together now Colin, all these fittings were in my 'rear tub jar' . I'm hoping it will become apparent when I'm building everything up where some of these fittings go! I think the ones I'm not sure about relate to the fuel tank.

Yes Colin I thought the rubber strips seemed a bit thick for between the tubs. I'm only replacing the rear tub. I've not started yet but I'm close. I've cleaned up some of my original fittings as some of the the new one's are quite different especially the large self tapping type screws that hold the tubs together. The originals have an almost ACME type thread form where the new ones don't and are a slightly different dia and waggle in the captive clips on the outrigger. On the pic you can see the difference. Also I'm not sure if I should use the larger or smaller plates with nuts welded onto? I will reuse the thick washers in the boot for the boot outriggers. I think the rectangular keyhole plates are for the gearbox tunnel? The 6 other shorter ACME type screws might be for the fuel tank? Also does it make sense to fit the handbrake cable in place before putting the tub back? Also I'm presuming this is all done with the car on it's wheels or should it be supported at specific points on the chassis? The joys of returning to a project after many years eh!!!!!!!!!!!

Is it the thick slotted washer/spacers that go on the diff rails near the top damper mount? Is it important to have a solid mounting here for some reason? The tub is very stiff in this area, maybe it adds stiffness to the whole structure and needs a solid mounting? Also does the point in the floorpan where the front bulkhead and tub fix together need some form of mastik between them?

Seems like much fettling is par the course for this for tub fitting, I didn't manage to start mine nice weather meant wife and 2 kids wanted to go for a cycle!!!! maybe tomorrow?

Great tips chaps, I was going to use a touch of Tiger seal on the rubbers. I'm also presuming all this is done with the car on it's wheels on a flat surface. Yes Colin I also noticed my old flat clamps are better than the new ones!!! Why the hell can't suppliers just make things to the original spec, I have a small box of new stuff I've refused to put on my car, I've either spent time refurbing things that in any other situation you would replace as it's time heavy or sourcing second hand. I honestly think some of the stuff on sale is actually dangerous!!! Things appear to have got really bad in the last ten years or so? It's the same in the old motorcycle world too!!!

ok Pete. When I need a spacer to adjust for wonkyness is it best go against the body or the chassis?

Hello again fellas, looks like I'm ready to put the rear tub back on. Just wanted a bit of guidance as to what fittings/spacers/washers/rubber pads go where? I have bought a full mounting kit so have everything, it's just a case of what goes where? The front tub is still on it's original fittings. Thanks, Tom.

My car is not running yet so can't do the dynamo thing but I did just run the generator with my electric drill with the +ve lead of my digital multimeter ( that shows + and - voltages ) on the large lead and the neg lead on the casing. The dynamo gave a positive output so I'm pretty sure now my car is neg earth, I think it may have been positive earth when new? and as you said earlier it is quite common for folk to forget to switch the coil connections over.

Yes I was wondering about the dynamo. If I spin it up with an electric drill and put a multi meter on the output to earth and it's giving a positive output would that confirm neg earth?

Whilst scrutinising the battery terminals I can now see a little red blob of paint on the drivers side terminal and a little blob of black paint on the one that bolt to the bodywork, to me that indicate Neg earth. But looking at the Haynes manual neg earth wiring diagram it implies the Negative side of the coil should go to the points not the positive as mine is so maybe the coil is just connected up wrong?

Coil +ve goes to points and the battery terminal with the smallest dia ( base ) bolts to the bodywork so it's looks like mine is neg earth........how embarrassing!

Cheers Scrapman, weirdly I've never noticed that!

Mine were literally like flaky knarled teeth an impact gun would have instantly shattered them but in future with studs in better condition I'm willing to try anything!!

Pete, I know this is an embarrassing question, but my battery a year or so ago, I recycled it. There is nothing on the leads to Identify polarity, I have had a brain freeze and I can't remember if my car has a positive or negative earth!!! I just remember I put the battery with the terminals facing forward and attached the leads, you could stretch the leads to the nearest terminal. How do check whether it's Pos or neg earth?

Ok Pete, I'll try to clear it out. Dave, I tried everything I know.....maybe I should have asked 1st! Drill and tapping is always the nuclear option. This what I did.....( please insert 'drink tea' in between each of these steps! 1. Filled a small container with GUNK and dipped the stubs in it for 2 days. 2. Lock-nuts wouldn't grip it as the threads were so poor so I held the stud in a vice and gently wiggled the manifold, this didn't work. 3. If I had access to oxy/acet I would have heated the casting around the stud but I only had a plumbers torch so I tried that again wiggling the casting, again no joy. 4. I then abandoned the vice, I wondered if it was acting as a big heat sink? I then heated the casting again and then used my best most unworn mole grips on the stud. 5 Sensing some movement I very moved it back and forth periodically spraying with wd40 until the stud actually fatigued and snapped off with about 10mm poking out the casting! A*SE!! 6. Proceeded to do the same on the other two....double A*se!! 7. I then MIG welded an 8mm nut to one stud and it came out!!! The other two snapped of almost flush!!!! 8. I have NEVER had success with an easyout but I tried it no the less and true to form no joy. 9. I made sure I drilled the easyout hole dead square in the center as I knew I'd be drilling it out. 10. I then drilled it out with a drill that fitted neatly into a 5/16 nut, I didn't look at the size, my imperial and metric drills are mixed up in a box! 11. I then sharpened a scriber and carefully used it to collapse what was left of the stud into the hole squirting with wd40 regularly until most of the stud was out. 12. Finally I ran a 5/16 UNF tap through to clear the threads and tidy it up. 13. My new studs only had a short bit of thread so I ran a die down it and added a couple of mm, I wanted as much thread in the casting as possible!! Pic attached and yes I know One didn't quite turn out square but they are all nice and tight and the exhaust gasket and flange fit over no probs. Then I had 2 cups of tea and 3 hobknobs.

Cheers Colin, does it go to the exhaust side then? I think mine is blocked so I'll give it a poke with a fine piece of wire and blow air through it.

Hello, I've had the manifold off to remove my manky exhaust studs and fit new ones, horrible job! I ended up drilling them out and re-tapping the threads they all went in in the end but it wasn't fun. My question however relates to a pipe that screws into the manifold on the back, it is a piece of copper brake pipe with a brake pipe fitting screwing into the manifold. There appears to be a tiny hole in the manifold where the pipe screws in but I can't work out where this tiny hole goes? The pipe is open at the other end and just points down at the side of the engine.

Well my car has a Dynamo so I believe that is more suited to an Ammeter. I have all the very thick cabling, I think I took all this off a written off Sunbeam Rapier in a scrapyard in Derby about 25yrs ago!! Back to the coolant sensor/gauge. I dug through more of my bits and found 2 temp senders, I wired them up to a battery and the gauge and put them in a bowl and pour hot water in, I also had a glass thermometer in there. One sender read high ie. at 60degc the gauge read Normal and 80degc High. The other sender was bang on Normal at 80degc so I think I have a working setup! I still don't know whether I need a voltage stabilizer and exactly how it's wired up so if someone could let me know that would be great.

Cheers for the info chaps, I quite like the Radio flanked by two gauges, I have two unused aftermarket switches to the right of the speedo I could fit one there to hide the holes in the dash. Pete - my ammeter pointer waggles around so does that mean it's a moving iron? If so how do I identify a 121997 temp transmitter? My gauge has one term marked T and the other B, so does B connect to battery +ve and T to the temp sensor?

mishmosh, so is it simply live feed from volage reg to the sensor ( thermistor ?) on the stat housing and then to earth? Just a series circuit? Would you be able to draw the circuit and post it?