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** 26/02/23 Heading Up ** Probably how not to restore a Herald!


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I'm glad to report that the Herald is running beautifully.

The idle is now nice and steady, and the engine pulls cleanly, with no popping or banging.

I took the car out for a 25 minute drive this morning, up hill and down dale around Banbury, Bloxham and Adderbury, including some time sitting in a long queue of traffic, all without issue.

I pulled one of the plugs on getting home and was presented with this wonderful sight.

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Before heading out I took the precaution of fitting a new fuel filter, just to be on the safe side.

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That should hopefully prevent any more crud getting sucked into the carb.

One thing that I had noticed previously on the Herald was a distinct oil leak from the rear of the head to block, which I am assuming is down to the washers under the head nuts compressing over time.

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I did check the head nuts, but not with a torque wrench, and they felt pretty tight.

Next up a shot of all the shiny new bits in the engine bay.

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That's a new battery, coil, battery retaining stays and nuts, power lead to the solenoid (Lovely in red), new earth lead, and battery clamps, and hidden away, that new starter motor!

And over on the other side of the bay, that new brake master cylinder.

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The old cylinder worked fine but leaked massively from the extension piece, so is now spare clutch master cylinder should I ever need one!

On a much cheaper note, I did get the interior light working!

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Now just need to get the wipers working consistently.

Thanks for everyone's help on getting this far.

Karl

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Great that plugs looking quite normal .. bet youre pleased about that

 

thats a standard leak, do check the torque back off each nut 1/2 turn and retorque

 

dont worry too much till you need the head off , a retorque can improve it. Not always.

 

You can remove the supressor from the wiper motor , unless you use Mw its not needed these days

 

I would remove the wiper arms and pull the rack for greasing, turn the wheel boxes 180 deg before refitting so you use unsed gear teeth

 

You have to pop the gear box plate off the motor and grease the gears and crank first

 

then you can test the park switch, if you strip the motor you may need some pins to hold the brushes out the way to refit the armature comutator

 

pete

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Much happier now that the car is running properly again.

 

I'll have a go at re-torquing the head nuts at the weekend.

 

As for the wipers it's just a loose connection, as they come on when I jiggle the loom behind the dash or turn left!

 

Thanks again

 

Karl

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Not a lot to show this week, though I did manage to replace the old air filter with a nice clean new one.

Here is the old one in situ.

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As you can see it's pretty mucky.

And here's the new one in position. Much better!

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Given the lack of warmth in the garage, I decided to retire in doors and take a look at the heater valve that I had first looked at when I first acquired the Herald.

It didn't take miles of ownership to realise that the heater in my car was permantly on, fine in the winter, not so great in the summer!

Therefore at the start of this thread I removed the heater for closer examination, which soon identified a issue with the valve, obviously.

Now why not just replace the valve?

Because I have a Delaney Gallay heater, rather than the more common Smiths type. As well as looking different, each heater uses a different valve, and being the rarer of the two, the DG one costs around £90, so definitely worthy of taking a look at before shelling out for a new one.

Here's the offending item after a cleanup.

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There's a spring loaded plunger inside the box bit which opens and closes the water circuit to the heater matrix.

Testing of the valve in the sink revealed that it wasn't sealing. (Yes Karl, we have already worked that out!)

Closer inspection made it clear that there was insufficient movement in the plunger, however I found that this could be adjusted by the screw in the picture below.

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By screwing this in, it increases the throw of the yoke which activates the valve plunger, and thus effectively allows the valve to seal, as confirmed by a further test in the sink.

It now just needs oiling and it's ready for re-use.

Just need to get on and finish refurbishing the rest of the heater.

Karl

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I did a fair bit of Googling yesterday to find out how the valve worked as I wasn't too clear, and was amazed to find out that these valves, made in the UK, were used as original equipment on manufacturers from Volvo to Chevrolet!

 

There is even a guy in the US who specialises in rebuilding these valves at a $100 a shot.

 

Isn't the tinterweb great!

 

Karl

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not a lot too report at the moment as I've had a cold and now my daughter is in hospital.

 

Nothing life threatening, but lots of toing and froing between home and hospital.

 

I did however manage to start the refurbishment of the driver's side upright and trunnion, removing the upright last night and breaking it down into its component parts.

 

In between visits today I attacked everything with lashings of Gunk and wire brushes.

 

Everything is now either drying off or soaking in more Gunk pending violent assault with a power drill and wire brushes.

 

I'll try and post some pics later.

 

Karl

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Back up to strength now after a couple of days laid up in bed.

With that nonsense out of the way I decided to continue with the work on the driver's side front suspension by having a look at the state of the wishbone bushes.

They all look a bit tatty, particularly the damper to lower wishbone one, so I thought 'What the hell!', I might as well replace them all with poly bushes now while I've got the suspension in bits, as I don't want to do this again anytime soon.

You can see the state of the bush in this picture.

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The spring and damper look a bit scabby, but work fine, and just need a good clean up.

To assist with that I've ordered a spring compressor from the club shop, as I figure it's one of those tools that will last forever, and save me a few bob along the way.

All of which lead to this.

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Excuse the poor lighting.

The upper wishbones came off with nair a fight, however the same could not be said of the lower wishbone, where the bolt through the front bracket simply refused to budge.

Here's the offending item after removing the bracket itself, but still attached to the wishbone.

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At first I thought the bump on the bracket was a bead of weld, till I realised the rear bracket had something similar, and that bolt came out without drama.

However clean up soon showed it wasn't, and that wasn't why the bolt was stuck.

The bolt was so stuck, the bracket didn't even want to move on the bush, which means my strip down was probably well timed!

I had to resort to extreme violence with a lump hammer to drift the bolt out, as even compression in a vice wouldn't get it to budge, which left me with this.

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Note what looks to be a nasty crack across the bracket, probably the result of my judicious use of force!

Scratch one bracket, but better now than on a roundabout somewhere.

With everything removed, I broke out my high tech parts washer.

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Well after ordering those poly bushes I couldn't afford anything flash!

Everything then got a thorough wash in hot soapy water, and then was laid out on newspaper to dry.

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Look at that lovey shiny trunnion!

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My next challenge was how to remove the old bushes from the wishbones?

The jaws on my vice won't open wide enough for the normal method, so what to do?

Here's my Heath-Robinson solution, utilising an F-clamp, a socket and a bolt driver bit which just happens to fit nicely.

 

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Despite its makeshift nature this shifted 3 of the 4 bushes very swiftly, with just one left in the lower wishbone, which I'll need to tackle next week.

Here are the 2 upper wishbone arms minus their bushes, and awaiting clean up.

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Everything now needs a good clean up with wire brushes and electric drill, ahead of a coat of paint, and fitting of the new bushes.

I've ordered blue, comfort, poly bushes as I don't think my little 1200 really needs the control offered by reds, along with new bolts and nuts.

So I figure I've a week or two of clean up and painting before I can start reassembling the driver's side suspension, then repeat on the passenger side.

Karl

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Recently did this job on my Vitesse had to cut three of the four bottom wishbone bolts, found the easiest way to refit the bottom wishbone, after fitting the polyurethane bushes, was to fit the fulcrum brackets then fit the assemble to the chassis. Also found that the top damper bush was to big when compressed to go through the hole in the turret, you will find my post about this and at least one other.

 

Not driven car since fitting polyurethane all round as doing other jobs to leave what will be a brilliant spring and summer free to drive the car.

 

Well thats put the mockers on it.

 

All the best for your work.

 

Paul

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Your spring in the first picture rests on Flaubert's Paradox. Heavy stuff, man.

Flaubert has since lodged a complaint for sexual harassment!

 

Apparently resting your damper on another man's paradox is not the done thing!

 

Paul I think I will be adopting your approach as there is very little space to remove or replace the wishbone bolts.

 

I'll keep an eye out for the issue with the top bush problem.

 

Which make & colour of bushes were you using for your Vittesse?

 

Karl

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Also a well known make, also used superflex rear trunnion bushes as the standard ones I ordered the non threaded part of the bolt would not go through the tube although the threaded part would. I had some new old stock for the front trunnions which fitted perfectly, there seems to be a lot of sub standard parts out there.

Usual reply from the supplier, we have supplied many kits without complaint etc. etc.

 

All the best for your restoration.

 

Paul

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