Bordfunker Posted October 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2016 I was looking at the spanners in Halfords today. I think I shall be asking Mrs Bordfunker to buy me some for Xmas. Some Imperial stubbies would come in very handy. Today saw the brake master cylinder back in, and brakes bled, with help from Mrs Bordfunker on the pedal. Then spent several hours trying to start the Herald. Turn over on the starter was very sluggish, and drained the battery in seconds! After several rounds of charging the battery, and consulting the Haynes manual, I decided that the starter was jammed in the ring gear and wouldn't disengage. I tried backing of the starter without joy. A quick consultation of this forum, threw up the idea of putting the car in gear and rocking it back and forth. Et voilà! A Herald that starts, albeit with a engine that tried to rev itself senseless. Two minutes with a screw driver adjusting the accelerator cable and we are good to go. Next stop tomorrow's Bicester Scramble, and the TSSC stand. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 Although Halfords have a sale on now, their biggest tool sale is generally AFTER Christmas! Cleaning up the starter motor is quick and beneficial. Don't be tempted to grease the shaft, it's very mucky in there and grease attracts muck. Graphite is good. Get Mrs Bordfunker to grind up some pencils leads in her mixer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted October 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 That starter motor is definitely coming out as the Herald wouldn't start this morning, so had to take one of our modern Citroens to the Scramble. Great selection of Triumphs, as well as the more mundane selection of Ferraris, Porsches & Astons. Came back this afternoon, and the Herald started on the button!!!! I think the problem is a combination of sticky starter motor dog, less than stellar battery condition, and dodgy wiring between the battery and solenoid. I took the Herald out for a 10 mile spin through some of the local villages and much of the vibration has gone, no doubt due to proper support for the engine. There is still some vibration, but the car can now at least attain 60 without trying to shake itself to pieces. Looks like October will be dedicated to the starter systems, and rebuilding those trunnions. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted October 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 As per my post in the Electrical section of the forum, focus has continued to be on my Herald's starting, or lack thereof to be more precise. I didn't do anything on the car last week, but as Mrs Bordfunker was away this weekend, I took the opportunity get to grips with the starter motor. First off I turned the battery around, and fitted new positive & negative leads to the battery, not because I necessarily thought it would improve the starting, but because it at least removed one annoyance. Next up I removed the side valance to improve access to the starter motor, which was quicker than anticipated, and made removal of the starter motor very easy. With that out of the way, I broke out the Gunk and the steam cleaner to give me this. As you can see 48 years of crud and oil came off quite nicely. The starter motor itself was placed firmly in my bench vice and hooked up to the battery to observe how it performed. This revealed that the Bendix gear wasn't moving smoothly as it should, and therefore it got a thorough clean up with more Gunk, to leave me with this. Another bench test showed that the Bendix gear was now behaving as it should, but overall performance appeared sluggish. A quick check on the battery showed 13.6v across the terminals, so it wasn't that causing the issue. I tried the motor back in the car, more out of hope than anticipation of it working. As expected no joy, so it looks like I'm in the market for a new start motor. Still while it was out, I decided to clean the engine bay valance. Here it is marinading in Gunk. It was allowed to stew for about 20 minutes, before being attacked with the steam cleaner, and is now sitting clean, if not exactly shiny, in the corner of the garage. And I still haven't got around to rebuilding those trunnions! Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted October 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 The new starter motor came out again on Saturday, at which point I noticed that the top bolt on the starter hadn't been fully tightened up. Might explain the noise. Oops! I checked the number of teeth on the Bendix gear on old and new units, perfect match. A thorough inspection of the ring gear showed no wear at all, so everything went back on, and the car started perfectly. With that out of the way I replaced the engine side valance, and put everything back in place. Time to take something else apart! Trunnion time! I started on the passenger side as I know this is the side most likely to fail, and here it is up on an axle stand and my trolly jack. The castle nut was only on finger tight! Thank goodness for the split pin. Here it is in close up, minus the castle nut. Next up was removal of the brake calliper, which was held in by 2 very stiff bolts. However, as you can see they responded to the attentions of my torque wrench. This allowed the calliper to be removed, and the disc and hub removed from the stub axle. It was at this point I realised that I don't own a ball joint splitter! I tried giving the ball joint a sharp tap with a hammer. Well more than one actually, but to no avail. Time for plan B. I removed the arm that goes from the back of the upright to the steering track rod end, which then allowed me to remove the upright and trunnion. Leaving me with this.... ...and these... The trunnion appears to have a nice polyurethane bush fitted, with no signs of wear, and so is probably fine for re-use. The all important threaded end of the upright was also in good nick with no corrosion or wear evident. Both upright and trunnion required a lot of clean up, with each having a good 8mm of crud on all surfaces. It was so bad I couldn't even see the bleed nipple as a separate component! I'll give the wishbones and backplate a good clean up, as they are all very mucky, and I figure a clean car is far easier to work on and maintain than a filthy one. Before I put the upright and trunnion back together I'll clean out the oil way in the upright, and the bottom of the trunnion which still shows signs of grease. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 Why take the nut off the back of the stub axle ?.. bearings MUST have end float 0.002 to 0.008" thats a light hand nip of the nut , spin the hub tomsettle the rollers and back of one or two flats, there are 2 split pin holes to aid position of the pin and castleations hence finger tight is about right if you fit new dust felts recheck after a few miles. never tighen the castle nut up or you will sieze the outer bearing to the stub axle very quickly and this gets very expensive to fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted October 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 Why take the nut off the back of the stub axle ?. I couldn't split the track rod end ball joint, so split the steering arm from the upright instead. Hence the removal of the stub axle nut. bearings MUST have end float 0.002 to 0.008" thats a light hand nip of the nut , spin the hub tomsettle the rollers and back of one or two flats, there are 2 split pin holes to aid position of the pin and castleations hence finger tight is about right I was thinking about this while walking the hounds just now,xand it makes sense that there would be some end float, however I was still shocked by how easy it was to remove the castle nut. The last time I did this was on a VW Beetle, the original type, and that required something stupid like 150lbs of torque! Thanks for the advice Pete. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 The d washer stops any nut rotation the pin just has to hold the nut the bearings should and does rotate on the shaft or you would never remove the hub and this spreads the wear load most wheel bewring of this era are a hand fit on stub axles and into rear trunions the outer ring is a press tap in fit onnhubs but its the inner thats tight on rears but light fit in the hsg. it allows some degree of rotaion from drag to spread loaading where as a modern witha double row cassette bearing is designed to be tight fit all round hence MOt muppets often fail front wheel end float , a good few just dont know always keep manual in boot when going for an mot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted October 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2016 Thanks for the advice Pete. I'll keep a copy of the official Triumph Workshop manual in the car when it goes for it's MOT next year. This week has been spent cleaning up the passenger side upright and associated components with a rotary wire brush ready for painting. Here it all is in my deluxe paint booth awaiting a coat of etch primer. Everything was treated with a rust inhibitor prior to being primed, hence the colour. All the areas that needed to be paint free were masked off first with cardboard and masking tape. And here they after a couple of coats of etch primer. It's not perfect by a long chalk, but it will do, and is a massive improvement on the crud covered mass that I removed from the car last weekend. And before any one says, I did wear a respirator mask, as handily I also make models and frequently use cellose based thinners when doing this, so have one available. I'll let that harden off overnight, and then tomorrow I'll apply a couple of coats of gloss black. That'll probably need to be allowed to harden for a few days before I put it all back together and contemplate doing the drivers side. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted October 29, 2016 Report Share Posted October 29, 2016 You mean you dont have the incentive to have to pick it up and find the bit thats ..... still wet pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted October 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2016 I've done too many times in the past with models, particularly those which have glossed, so now try and contain myself, and let it all dry thoroughly. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted November 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2016 Long story short, the gloss black applied last weekend bloomed as it was obviously too cool in the garage. Therefore I took the whole lot inside to the study, where I've got a small spraybooth, which I use for my modelling. Luckily the components weren't too large. Everything got a rub down with wire wool and allowed to harden off for a couple of days before reassembling. At which point, under the glaring brilliance of my desk lamp, I realised both the trunnion dust seal, and the top ball joint gaiter were perished, something that I hadn't spotted in the gloom of the garage. Oh well! Emergency order to Canleys for the offending parts, along with some new nylocs. And this is what I was left with. That lot is now back on the car, and making the rest of the running gear look decidedly shabby. Ho hum. This did highlight on issue, in that in attempting to remove the track rod ball joint I'd damaged the threads and now the nut wouldn't go back on. So now I contemplating removing the trackrod end and re-filing the threads, assuming I can find a spanner the right size. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomL Posted November 6, 2016 Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 Wow, what an improvement! Nice, shiny black paint - looks great. I've just enjoyed reading the whole thread. I was sorry to hear she didn't make it to the Scramble event. Back to the front suspension project, it might be worth considering replacing the track-rod-ends as I assume you don't have much history on the car, so can't verify their age. Of course whatever you do, you'll need to get the tracking done (as I'm sure you know). I had stupidly put off getting mine done on the Vitesse and then, about this time last year, I had both front and rear done and it made a quite surprisingly noticeable difference. Keep the photos and updates coming. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted November 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 Tom, thanks for the encouragement. As you suggest I don't have a clue when the track rod ends were last replaced, however going by the condition of the rest of the running gear they have been maintained. Given that, a replacement track rod end is probably the safest way to go. Lacking a suitably sized spanner, and not having a clue what size the lock nut is on the track rod end, I had to measure it up with a vernier gauge, and now know it's a 13/16" nut. What a bizarre size. So new spanner duly ordered from Machine Mart. NEC next weekend so probably not a lot of progress over the next couple of weeks. Karl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted November 6, 2016 Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 You'll find plenty of other bizarre size nuts on your Triumph! Give in, get down to Halfords! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted November 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 I tried Halfords and they didn't do a 13/16 spanner! Sod's law I didn't realise that I needed that size spanner until all the local motor factors had closed. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted November 6, 2016 Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 A 300 +mm adjustable is always usefull on things like track rods and other little shifted tight basket fittings pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted November 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 Pete, I think that might be a good idea. I've got a pair of mole grips, and some ancient 'foot prints', but not a proper adjustable spanner. The new track rod end turned up this morning, now just need a spanner to remove the old one! Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 Our local Hospice Charity Shop has a warehouse clearout day every month & im first in the queue as with house clearance there are always tools - last week I purchased a large Record G clamp , 100 sheets of Wet & Dry , and a Norbar short torque wrench which shows ft / lb - All for £8 NB my larger torque wrench doesnt show ft / lb so im always doing conversions Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 After the tappet day I guess a set of feelers and a decent screwdriver are on the next shop visit ?? Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 After the tappet day I guess a set of feelers and a decent screwdriver are on the next shop visit ?? Pete Hi Pete, the tappet day was excellent and I learnt a lot - picked up the feeler guages & screwdriver last month though on the lookout for wire feelers as you suggested Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted November 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2016 When's the next tapper day? Always been scared by the thought of adjusting tappets. Not sure why. The new set of spanners turned up on Thursday, so I tried the 13/16 on the locking nut. Too big! Good job I bought the set of spanners as it was actually the 3/4 spanner I needed, and that fitted fine. Might get a chance to attack it this afternoon, chores permitting. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted November 12, 2016 Report Share Posted November 12, 2016 when looking for spanners there are some metric that are compatible 3/8 =10mm 7/16= 11m we can do another tappet or any other thing day when ever you suggest. I'm always around to pass on some clues tips and training I'm based near Luton 1/2 = 13mm 9/16 = 14 5/8 = 17mm 3/4 = 19 or there abouts and just reset windows 10 as usual things were having a mind of there own and just spent all afternoon trying to make the thing .....work again who are these microsoft guys ....they must sell shares inblood pressure pills Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted November 12, 2016 Report Share Posted November 12, 2016 My lap top & Windows 10 got so bad I had to completely zap the whole thing and re-load. But first I had to load Windows 8, then update to 8.1 THEN I could load 10. Whole thing took HOURS. I should have known better, I used to work with this stuff, familiarity breeds.................. Now I have done what I should have done in the first place, got a memory stick and backed up to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordfunker Posted November 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2016 Count yourself lucky guys, I have to deal with Microsoft for a living! I had some gaps in my imperial spanner collection, now remedied, and I now at least have some duplicates for those double spanner jobs. The old track rod end is off, having noted how many turns it took to remove, so that the new one would go in exactly the same location, and thus preserve the tracking. I did have to take the power drill and rotary brushes to the threads ahead of the lock nut, but after a bit of heaving it released. Everything is now back on, and torqued up in line with the manual. No chance to drive it as off to see Arrival tonight, and off the NEC tomorrow for the Classic Car Show. Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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