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

[Bordfunker]

I’ve got one snail type horn and a flat Hella one that is clearly a replacement.

The Hella one is dead as one of the contact spades has snapped off, but the other one should be working as it was when it came off the car.

I think the problem is possibly earth related, as the wiring under the dash needs sorting out, and I have had similar issues with the earth for the wipers which is now fixed.

Just need to gird my loins and spend an hour on my back with my head under the dash while I sort out the wiring.

Karl

[Bordfunker]

No progress this week as I've come down with a case of tonsillitis!

I did however manage to remove the fuel pump and start the strip down process before succumbing to the lurg!

Here's the crud I removed from the fuel pump bowl.

I checked the valves and they look to be working OK, however the two large sealing washers are very hard, so I've ordered a rebuild kit, as I doubt anyone has had this pump apart in the last 49 years.

Karl

[dougbgt6]

Karl, you've been ill a lot recently?!!  Get that garage sorted out! Heating, draught proofing, old carpet on the floor. 

[Bordfunker]

The doc reckoned I’ve had a strep infection in my throat for the last month, which has now turned into tonsillitis!

I haven’t been ill like this for a decade, so blaming number 2 son for spreading his freshers germs from university.

Karl

[dougbgt6]

Ha! Karl,wait till you have grandchildren! I have 5. All the time, at least one, has green nasal pistons. 

[Badwolf]

Back to the plot. Karl, when you have recovered, connect your snail horn directly to the battery and see if it works, if not, I will post the strip down photos.

[Bordfunker]

Badwolf, I need to test the horn, as I haven't got around to that yet on mine.

I have managed to spend a bit of time cleaning up the fuel pump and fitting the various components in the rebuild kit.

Here's the old and new diaphragms side by side.

And here's the top of the old one, showing how perished it is.

Might explain the lack of suction!

These are the sealing rings that sit beneath the top cover.

The old one on the left is very stiff, and probably wasn't sealing too well either.

It's a similar story with the sealing washer on top of the pump unit.

Here's the shiny new diaphragm in place.

The pump itself has had a thorough clean up with a rotating brass brush in a Dremel.

The rebuild kit came with a two new valves, but I can't see a way of removing the current valves without damaging them, and given the fact that they both work, I am inclined to leave well alone.

This just leaves me with the task of refitting the pump, after which, hopefully the Herald will start.

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

Staked fitting always a problem.  Often on pumps and UJ yokes

Needs a pre formed drift to coin them back in place , odd whacks with a centre punch won't work for long

Pete

 

[Bordfunker]

Pete, that’s what I figured, so they can stay put.

One thing that I did notice is that the pump didn’t have a paper sealing gasket between the pump itself and the block. 

Is there supposed to be one?

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

Just a paper  gasket, unless someone fitted a long lever pump one with a heat isolator block ,  and thats unlikely

These need longer studs and are not available now   was used on 1500 spits , yours looks pretty std.

Pete

 

[Bordfunker]

Pete, this is what I currently have fitted.

Karl

  

[Pete Lewis]

looks pretty standard  to me , if it had a long arm pump without a spacer it would have probably wrecked the lever

 

do make sure on refit you dont hook the lever behind the cam instead of on top of it . 

or   you still get no pump action , and start the now what campaign  

i dont think anyone these days supplies long arm pumps all have to rvert to short studs no spacer and a std fits all pump.

was only the 1500 had the heat spacer, as did many makes of the era.

keep an eye pen for a glass top much nicer to rebuild and you can see whats going on , great for finding air bubbles from un known leaks 

and you can swap arms and all the lower parts around   if the specs not quite the same 

Pete

[Bordfunker]

Pete, thanks for confirming that.

Looks like whoever fitted this one omitted the paper gasket.

Might try and get that back on this evening if I can.

Karl

[Colin Lindsay]

On 10/14/2017 at 10:06 PM, Bordfunker said:

 

But I figure no one is ever going to see then apart from me.

 

Lines like that are giving me so much encouragement with mine....

My tub is a nightmare of patches, welds and thick black underseal. However, it's very solid.... so do I undo all the work already done, just to replace factory-looking floor panels that no-one other than the MOT man will ever see, and thereby incur expense and delay, or do I clean up what I can, tidy the welds and redo the dodgy looking ones, paint and replace the underseal, secure in the knowledge that like me it's not the best looking but who cares, it actually goes?

I think Karl has talked me into it! 

 

[Bordfunker]

Colin, it’s lovely to see all these beautifully restored cars with every panel and weld factory spec, but unless you are infinitely skilled and/or fabulously wealthy, and have unlimited amounts of time on your hands you have to be pragmatic about what you can reasonably achieve.

I’ve just put the fuel pump back in, but still no joy, so some more investigation is required.

It may be an air leak in the fuel line, or the pump not working as it should due to my dodgy reassembly.

Karl

[Bordfunker]

It lives!

I’ve managed to get the Herald started!

I gave the fuel pump a helping hand and sucked the fuel up from the tank to the pump, and then having reinserted the fuel line into the pump, primed the pump until fuel appeared in the fuel filter.

With that a quick turn of the ignition key, 5 seconds of churning and the Herald burst into life again, for the first time in almost 7 months.

It did also spring a fuel leak on the engine side of the pump where the fuel line runs behind the radiator, so I’m now in the market for a length of new fuel hose.

But a happy bunny as at least the beast is now alive.

Karl

[Badwolf]

Congratulations Karl. Its a wonderful moment when the car wakes up after so long.

[dougbgt6]

Well done Karl! I've replaced all the metal in the fuel line between pump and carb with one length of R9 rubber, as advised by Mr Lewis. Cuts down the chances of slivers and leaks.

[Pete Lewis]

Dosnt transmit or collect the heat like metal pipes , which can help on some installations 

Pete

[Paul H]

If using R9 use vaseline when joining to metal as reduces slivers

Paul

[Bordfunker]

2 hours ago, Paul H said:

If using R9 use vaseline when joining to metal as reduces slivers

Paul

Ooh err missus!

I can just imagine the comments from Mrs B when I disappear into the garage with a tub of Vaseline and a length of rubber hose!

I'll have to give that a go as getting the new sections of rubber hose on the fuel lines underneath the car was a major pain.

Slivers shouldn’t be a major issue due to the inline fuel filter ahead of the carb.

Pete, it’s a Herald 1200, therefore not sure heat is going to be an issue!

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

if the line runs by the water pump , its in the hot rad air flow and radiated heat when standing, modern fuels seem to have a reputation for vapourising easier

than the old stuff, having said that on the Rorty  Vit6 with all the bolt on  hot nasties she never suffered from vapour locks ,  just engine fan and nice set up

i still consider most vapour  problems are due to other factors or base setting errors , 

Pete

[Bordfunker]

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had an issue with vaporisation on any car I’ve owned, including the Beetle which you would expect to suffer issues, and that used to get driven in heavy traffic around West London on a regular basis.

Still, never having driven the Herald on a hot day in traffic, I haven’t fully explored the Herald’s vaporisation capabilities!

Karl

 

 

[Bordfunker]

It's been a bit of a two steps forward, one step back weekend, with major progress on the brake and clutch hydraulics, but also a narrowly avoided disaster.

First up the disaster bit.

I was putting the gearbox tunnel cover back last night, when the car suddenly started to fill with smoke!!!!!!

A quick look around identified the culprit, the driver's door courtesy light wiring which was bubbling before my eyes and emitting clouds of smoke.

Quick as a flash I pulled the leads off the battery, and opened the garage doors, to let the smoke disperse as rapidly as possible, and grabbed the fire extinguisher just in case.

I let everything cool, down as well as my heart rate calm down to a more normal level.

A thorough inspection revealed that damage was limited to the courtesy lighting circuit, with the driver's side completely fried, and the wiring to the interior light switch and master light switch all in a similar state.

To make sure I had a full picture of the damage, meant dropping the dash out as much as I physically could, leaving me with this.

It may seem a bit drastic, but I wanted to appreciate the full extent of any damage to the main loom itself, which also entailed slitting the binding on the loom to check the condition of the wires within.

Thankfully the main loom was in perfect condition, with all damage limited to the courtesy light circuit.

Here are the remnants of the courtesy light wiring after removal, along with some of the removed dash components.

I haven't put the driver's seat back together yet, but have simply swapped the passenger side seat over to allow me test drive the car up and down the drive, or that was the intention before the smoky hiatus.

I have now rebuilt the wiring to the interior light so that it operates off the passenger door, and via the central switch, but I'll need to take a look at the remains of the switch on the driver's side and see if I can reinstate that another day.

I've also got an issue with intermittent lighting on the speedo, which is why I spent over an hour upside down under the dash yesterday, something which influenced my decision to remove the dash, rather than tackling it from underneath.

One of the bulbs has blown, so should be a simple replacement, while the other works intermittently.

All the other bulbs on the speedo, high beam, ignition, work perfectly, so I don't think it's an earthing issue, but haven't done a multi-metre test yet, so it could be as simple an issue with the switch itself.

As well as lighting issues, I was also trying to sort out the non-functioning horns.

As per Badwolf's advice, I hooked both horns up to the battery to test them.

The Hella barked into life, but is past saving as one of the connector tabs has snapped off, but the Hooters wind tone one was completely dead.

Next up was a test of the horn circuit itself with the multi-metre, which confirmed everything was working as it should.

Therefore I'm in the market for two new horns, as I can't be arsed to try and revive the wind tone horn.

Now the stuff that did go well.

I finally got around to picking up the brake line from the garage, and this time it was the right length, and went in without too much of a struggle.

With that in place it was time to fit the clutch and brake master cylinders and their associated brackets to the bulkhead.

Here they are with fresh bolts and topped up with Ribena!

Note the warning tag advising that both clutch and brake systems are silicone filled.

My youngest son gave me a hand to bleed the brakes and clutch before I dropped him back at university today.

The other job was to sort out the leaking fuel line, so a length of new fuel hose was purchased, along with some hose clips, and in 15 minutes I had this.

Not pretty, but non-leaking at least!

The rebuilt fuel pump seems to be working with more vigour than it did before, as not only did it cause the old fuel line to leak, but the idle needs to be adjusted as it's too high with the current setting.

Given that nothing else has changed, I can only assume that the pump is now pushing more fuel through and thus upping the idle speed, but sorting that will have to wait until after I've sorted out the electrics.

Finally a shot of my homemade front valance brackets in situ.

My car hasn't got the seals at either end of the valance, so I cheated and screwed the bracket direct to the top of the valance. One day I'll have to get a new valance, but for now this one will do.

So definitely a mixed weekend, including a drive to Lancashire and back, but definite progress at least.

Karl

[Darren Groves]

Hi Karl,

The fuel filter would be better positioned where the fuel line exits the tank, that way it will protect your newly rebuilt pump as well as the carbs.

Keep up the good work.

Darren