cliff.b
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Posts posted by cliff.b
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1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:
back to basics the keyway takes the drive and must be a good fit any slack and the pulley can pant/shuffle the nut does some work but holds the pulley in place
150 lbft is not very high ( wheel nuts on a truck can be over 300 and there 10 of them)
you must lock the flywheel do not put in gear as 150lbft is far in excess of the engine torque/power the clutch hub is designed to cope with
an decent impact gun will work quite well without having to block the flywheel
use of one of the loctite products is ok remember it can make romoval difficult and depends just which loctite you use ( there are many for specific uses)
Pete
Maybe I will buy that impact wrench I was going to buy to get the nut off 🤔
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5 hours ago, johny said:
I believe its designed to be self tightening as well, thats to say the rotation of the engine keeps it done up. Certainly I never achieve that torque setting (no way to properly lock crank) but its not come undone and is always well tight the next time Ive undone it....
Mine was showing no sign of coming loose and I couldn't shift it with my longest bar. I had previously wedged a bar against the chassis and used the starter motor but it just stalled it.
On Thursday though, I accidentally did something I would not have intentionally done, leaving the socket & ratchet in place with enough space to gain momentum and the engine to catch.
There is no doubt the nut was on pretty tight, but still possibly not as tight as it should be. Can't know if that was causing the noise and all I can do is put it back on properly and listen 🙉
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49 minutes ago, johny said:
Is the nut going to come undone again though? Sounds like youve been lucky a couple of times but it needs a reliable solution...
The manual says that nut should be done up to a massive 150 lbf ft and I doubt I achieved that when I previously replaced the lost one. But I have a decent torque wrench now and the plan is to make sure it definitely is that tight this time.
Maybe some loctite as well, just to be on the safe side lol
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10 minutes ago, johny said:
I really cant see why just torquing the nut up to the correct setting shouldnt be enough - is it really floppy on the key? If it is wheres the wear and I suppose if a lot it could conceivably loosen the nut over time but surely it'll be held tightly to start with so cant be the source of any noise?
That was my assumption. If the noise has gone then I suppose the only way of proving if it was the oil is to put the old oil back in again lol
I don't see myself doing that so is anyone running their car on a tight budget and interested in some barely used Castrol Classic 😊
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44 minutes ago, johny said:
I wouldnt drive it anymore with the pulley on and no nut as thats asking for problems.
A paper filter will stop smaller particles line tank rust than the gauze type but as your carb was clean that doesnt seem to be an issue. Its sounds more like the sticky float valve was down to residue from fuel drying out so maybe use the car more or at least refill the carb with fuel more often...
No, I'm not planning to drive it anymore without the pulley nut, although I may start it again tomorrow without the pulley to see if I can hear anything. (Or more strictly speaking, not hear anything)
Regarding refitting it, I was wondering if some loctite around the woodruff key might help eliminate any potential movement in that area. No idea if that is a good or bad idea as outside my experience.
I'm guessing someone wiser than me will comment shortly, explaining why it's definitely not a good idea 😊
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26 minutes ago, johny said:
Come on then what about the noise! The only trouble is that youve done other things as well as change the oil so any difference in the noise could be due to any one of them😩
Have you got a paper fuel filter in the line?
And no, I don't have a paper filter. I do have one of those glass ones before the fuel pump.
I didn't find any sign of debris in the carb, but the float valve felt like it was sticking. After I dismantled and cleaned it moved easily.
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Yes, well, regarding the noise.
I think I said near the start of this that I had a similar noise when my crank pulley nut fell off and I wanted to remove the pulley again just to confirm it wasn't causing it this time. But I couldn't shift the nut so decided to check other things out first, assuming as it was so tight it probably wouldn't be the cause.
Anyway, when I got fixated on valve gear yesterday I was turning the engine with a socket on this nut but forgot it was there and started the engine. A bang and a clatter and on the floor was the socket, my ratchet drive and the nut lol
Today, I ran the engine briefly without the pulley and couldn't hear the noise, but had to stop as the engine was getting rather warm (no water pump)
Once I sorted the carbs out I went for a test drive with the pulley on and no nut, and it did clatter a lot but the noise was not that different to before.
So the next step is to put the pulley back on with the nut torqued up properly and listen carefully. The thing is, I will have inadvertently changed 2 things at once, so if the noise has gone I won't know if it was the pulley or the oil masking a bearing issue 🤔
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Well an interesting day.
The bad running is now cured. There was very little fuel in the front carb float chamber and I suspect the amount getting past the valve was not enough to meet demand. Valve cleaned and all running fine so clearly, as suggested, it was just a co-incidence. While there I balanced the carbs, which were way out and reset the mixtures as the rear carb was running weak.
On my test run I found the new oil seems to be giving almost twice the hot pressure for any given engine speed with hot tickover pressure of 15 to 20psi now.
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1 hour ago, johny said:
Surprisingly the Lucas vac advance on a Vitesse (presumably similar for four cylinders) can advance up to 26º so some advance at idle is to be expected👍
Ok, that's interesting to know. Thanks 👍
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4 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:
the vacuum is developed from air passing a small hole near the throttle plate and is nothing to do with the vacuum in the manifold
the vac unit has a start vac a end vac and the max amount of advance thats developed need the manual to see the spec
lucas are better the vac unit has the figures stamped on like 5 -11- 9 thats startat 5inhg max +11 deg end vac 9ins hg just as example
vac unit only advances at low throttle opening so it gets max advance when cruising has no effect on any acceleration its a economy devive of around +4mpg
if you dont have a balancer undo the clamp on the throttle cross shaft undo each idle screw , turn them in to just touch the casting , turn each 1.5 turns nip up the cross shaft and then both throttles are mechanically set the same thats how they were supplied to the engine bench on the assy line .
pop the top off the float bowl ...is the fuel level low when its misfiring remove the float and needle blow it clear backwards
prime the pump to squirt some fuel into a jar ....any tiddlers ????
Pete
Thanks Pete 👍. I've not been too well and got very cold outside all afternoon. Think it's fuddled my brain 🤯
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13 minutes ago, cliff.b said:
Aha, you have got me thinking straight now. The number 1 plug was dry and very white, so maybe fuel supply issues to front carb🤔
Also, regarding my question on vacuum advance, I checked the ignition timing by strobe, but forgot to disconnect the vacuum pipe and the mark was off the scale at about 26BTDC. When I pulled the pipe off at the dizzy end I could feel it was sucking and the strobe now showed 12BTDC which is what I was expecting.
So I actually wondered if this was connected with the original problem and took the car out to warm it up with the vac pipe disconnected to see if it made any difference to the noise. But I never got that far because a few miles down the road the misfiring started. And reconnecting the vac pipe made no difference.
Just thinking about this again, surely the vac unit can't physically give an extra 14deg of advance but maybe that was in part due to the increase in tickover speed adding centrifugal advance as well.
Also, trying to understand if it is possible for a carb to generate excessive vacuum and then I wondered, if the front carb has a fault, could that increase tickover speed even though the butterfly on the rear carb was closed?
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6 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:
think you need to stop , dont relate an oil change with any misfire
rocker box off have you disturbed the breathers ?
and there is the dreaded rubber slivers from fuel hose meddling jams the float needle brings a good misfire to go with it
Pete
Only had the rocker cover off after the misfire started. Fuel hoses not disturbed for over a year. But based on other comments I'm now thinking carb issues may make sense.
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34 minutes ago, johny said:
Cant be the oil and unlikely to be anything you did changing the oil so its a coincidence. Could it be a carb affecting two cylinders? Spark plug wet of cylinder(s) thats not firing?
Aha, you have got me thinking straight now. The number 1 plug was dry and very white, so maybe fuel supply issues to front carb🤔
Also, regarding my question on vacuum advance, I checked the ignition timing by strobe, but forgot to disconnect the vacuum pipe and the mark was off the scale at about 26BTDC. When I pulled the pipe off at the dizzy end I could feel it was sucking and the strobe now showed 12BTDC which is what I was expecting.
So I actually wondered if this was connected with the original problem and took the car out to warm it up with the vac pipe disconnected to see if it made any difference to the noise. But I never got that far because a few miles down the road the misfiring started. And reconnecting the vac pipe made no difference.
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Ok, I'm even more confused than normal now. Changed the oil this afternoon to Miller's Classic Sport 20w60 and as I went out to warm her up, I could see that the oil pressure was immediately much better, but then I got a really bad misfire with the car barely driveable. Then it cleared, then it came back again so I stopped to investigate. Sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders and removing plug lead 1 kept things the same, so assume the issue is with that cylinder. But I have a spark there and swapping to a spare dist made no difference. So decided to limp home, a difficult even to pull away, then it cleared again until almost home before re-occurring.
Unless this is a huge co-incidence this has only happened since I changed the oil. Could it be affecting the valve operation in some way? Had the rocker cover off and everything is moving with plenty of oil spraying about.
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Just a question while I am checking things out, how much vacuum advance should I be getting at tickover?
Difference between pipe disconnected & then connecting it.
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40 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:
i was thinking ....... get on with it .......... we have 6 pages and no solution we all want to know what the !!!!! is it
keep smiling
Pete
I would love to get on with it but I have other work to do on the house which is unfortunately more pressing at the moment. Or at least Mrs Cliff thinks it is 😒
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Just now, Pete Lewis said:
think you are worrying too much
your driving style and oils used is not going to make your clatter
its a mechanical clatter so something somewhere is loose or worn unfortunate but i dont feel you will get to the bottom of this until things get stripped down
who said happy new year ?????
but start with the bits you can unscrew and check before removing the lump to dive in side
Pete
Yes, that's the plan 👍
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Been too busy to look further at this problem but have invested in these to monitor temperatures at various places under the bonnet while I am driving. Says they work up to 110C and were £3.47 the pair on eBay, including batteries and free delivery.
Once I have resolved the problem I might just use one as an ambient temp gauge, maybe the other as a cheap oil temp gauge with probe clipped to the oil filter. I know it wouldn't be accurate but would give an indixation if temp rising or not 🤔
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Looks like these have started up again after being cancelled at the end of last year due to illness. Near St Ives in Cambridgeshire. Had a lot of cars attending last year.
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2 hours ago, JohnD said:
Ah, Cliff! But what if you miss a line? That has been known!
JOhn
I suppose there is more chance of that with a six lol
I wonder how they got on with adjusting the tappets on a Merlin engine, orca 28 cylinder Pratt & Witney.
I was going to say the 16 cylinder Napier Sabre engine, as fitted to Hawker Typhoons, but then remembered they wouldn't have tappets 🤔
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21 minutes ago, JohnD said:
Daver asked for a visual method. The Rules of 13 (or 9) require a bit of mental arithmetic, which I'm not good at, so instead I use the "Mirror" method.
Imagine there is a mirror between the two central bores, six or four. Turn the engine until two valves - doesn't matter which - are fully open. Then go to the valves that they would be if they were reflected in the mirror. EG, as above, No.8 fully open - adjust No.1, or No.5 open adjust No.4. As you can see, this parallels the Rules.
And one tip. To be sure that you do them all, making paper notes will get messy! I keep a tub of Vaseline handy, and put a dollop on each rocker adjusting screw as I complete it. Then I can see which valves I have done, and know when I have completed the cycle. Vaseline, because it dissolves quickly in engine oil, when a dab of grease might take longer and block an oilway.
John
Yes, guess it achieves the same thing. I just find it useful to have the optimal sequence to minimise crank turning written down in front of me. And as long as I can remember which one I am currently adjusting I can just carry on to the next one until I get to the bottom of the list 👍
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8 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:
Search the Net, eBay or wherever for the original Girling seal sets, they still come up for sale. There are some good old stock sellers out there and their wars have been well stored, so no deterioration or damage. I'd go for those rather that the new replacement kits where in many of them you can see that the rubber hasn't even been trimmed properly.
That's a good idea. Also worth asking local motor factors if well established. On a few occasions I have found local ones had a dusty box on a shelf that they didn't even know was there until I asked "have you got one of these" 😊
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For the 4 cylinder engine, the Haynes manual appears to follow the rule of 9 with the sequence suggested giving the least possible crank turning. Think it's only 2 complete turns.
I assume their manuals for 6 cylinder cars would have something similar.
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10 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:
just dreaming of what else can creat a clatter
then camshaft bearings popped into the frame
just more ideas
Pete
I'm sure I will have a good laugh when I find out what is actually causing it 😒
Leaky rad drain
in Cooling System
Posted
My Spit has a full width radiator which I have realised is leaking around the insert the drain tap screws into. Thought it was the tap thread itself first, so refitted with PTFE tape, but definitely around the insert.
During normal running at this time of year it was just a slight drip but while working on another issue and the car getting hot in the garage, I noticed steam coming out, so needs sorting.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar, what the insert is made of, can it be prised out and refitted with some sort of sealant or will it disintegrate?Alternatively, anything that might be up to the job of a permanent repair applied to the outside?