Thursday 2nd April - A busy day!

I had the day off today, so I thought I'd crack on with a few outstanding jobs on the Lotus Cortina. The main job on my list was to strip both brake callipers down in readiness for the new pistons to arrive. 
Three of the existing pistons were reasonably easy to get out, but the last one was a real challenge. Eventually, I managed to get the piston out far enough to clamp it in the vice and then tap the calliper away from it with a copper hammer. As you can see below it was in a bad way! The others were all knackered as well! 

I had to separate the callipers to be able to get the pistons out and the bolts proved to be quite tight as well. In fact I managed to break my 5/8th's socket before adding some heat to finally extract them.

With this done, I then jacked the car up and altered the steering track rod arms so that the wheels looked straighter. I had fitted new track rod ends a few weeks back, but couldn't adjust them properly until they were on the car. Once the wheels were straight the car looked much better. 

Another job to do was to fit the newly refurbished brake and clutch master cylinders. The brake cylinder was already in place, but had to be connected to the brake pedal. This is always fiddly, but I eventually managed it. The clutch master soon followed and is another job I can cross off of my list. 

The next thing to do was to remove the old rough black paint off of the cam cover. I used a brass brush attachment on an electric drill and luckily it came off quite easily. 
I then sprayed it with several coats of etch primer, before adding several coats of top coat. I have to say, I was quite pleased with the end result. It should look quite smart on the engine when it returns. 😊

Saturday 28th March - A very busy day!

 My good friend Dave Maton came up today to help with the Lotus Cortina. I had a huge list of jobs to get done, as the plan was to finally get the Lotus off of the rotisserie and back on its wheels.  
I made a start before Dave arrived and rebuilt the front hubs and fitted new bearing races and new bearings. I also cleaned up the discs with a wire brush attachment on an electric drill. 

When Dave arrived our first job was to bleed the brakes on the Green Cortina so that I at least have one car to do the shows with. Fitting the new remote brake servo the other night had allowed air into the system which need to be expelled. With this done successfully, we moved onto the Lotus. 

I started by fitting the front hubs back onto the car, while Dave was fitting new bearings and retainers to the half shafts, and oil seals to the axle. The old bearings and retainers have to be cut off of the half shafts very carefully with a thin cutting disc on an angle grinder so that you don't gouge into the half shaft.
The new bearings and retainers then have to be pressed onto the half shafts with great pressure, but luckily I have a 20 ton press in my garage, so this was no problem. The original oil seals put up some fight before they would come out, but they had been in there for sixty years! 

Once this had been done, we then spun the car onto its side and Dave fitted a new metal brake pipe that runs from the front to the back of the car. whilst he was doing this, I fitted the newly refurbished brake master cylinder.

While the car was on its side, we then fitted the newly rebuilt half shafts so that we could move onto the next stage of fitting the back plates and brakes. We then fitted the rear back plates, new wheel cylinders and adjusters along with brand new metal brake pipes. 
By now, time had caught up with us and Dave had to leave at 4.30pm. However, we had had a very good day and achieved everything that we wanted to, so it was now time to finally remove the car from the rotisserie. I went and got a set of wheels and some car ramps from the shed and we got the car back on its wheels for the first time since last September. 
It's been a great feeling bolting bits back on, instead of the relentless removal and cleaning and replacing and refurbing over the past six months or so. It's also nice knowing that the car has new wheel bearings, new brakes and new brake pipes all round and all new suspension bushes too. 
There's still plenty left to do, but every job I do brings it closer to completion. I couldn't have got everything done today without the help of Dave and I am very grateful for his assistance. 😊

Thursday 26th March. - Back to the Green Cortina.

 The new remote servo for the Green Cortina arrive today, so I decided to get it fitted. It's not a massive job and it's the same design as the previous one, so I can use the same bolt holes and I wont have to alter any of the metal brake pipes. 
The worst bit was trying to find the two bolts inside the passenger compartment that are situated under the dashboard. As you can see from below, the remote servo bolts through the fire wall. 

The whole job only took about an hour though, so once I'd finished I went into the garage and stripped down the hubs from the Lotus Cortina. I thought this would save a bit of time when it comes to Saturday and the heavy work load I have lined up. 

Wednesday 25th March. - Suspension legs!

 I managed to get a couple of hours in the garage tonight and decided to refit the suspension legs onto the Lotus Cortina.
Before I fitted them though I removed the front hubs and discs in readiness to fit new bearings and bearing races. To be honest the original bearings do seem ok, but I need to keep in mind that these could well be sixty years old and even if they aren't, they would have been coated in the same grease since before 1977. (That's when the car was last on the road)
With the hubs and discs removed, it did make the suspension legs a little bit lighter to lift (not a lot though!) and I had them fitted within a couple of hours. 
The bottom ball joints put up a bit of fight and I usually get a trolley jack under the bottom of the legs and jack them up to give me more room, but because the car is on a rotisserie, it's not possible to do it that way. 
it was a good nights work though and it knocks another few things off of my massive list of impending jobs. 

Sunday 22nd March. Steering linkage!

 I had another few hours spare this morning, so I thought I'd try and get ahead on the Lotus. Dave Maton is coming up next Saturday to try and help me get the Lotus back on its wheels, but there's a lot of work to do before that can happen, so I wanted to get a head start. 

The steering linkage was the next on my list and I decided to fit all new track rod ends. (There are four of them!) With fitting all new track rod ends, the tracking will have to set up at some point, but that's not important right now. Annoyingly, I also forgot to take pics of the refurbished steering linkage and track rod ends, so I'll use a picture of how it all looked just after I got the car. It will give you an idea of what it all looks like. I'm pleased with the progression so far though. 😊 

Saturday 21st March. -- Billericay Breakfast Meet.

 Today was to be another test drive day for the Green Cortina. I had fitted another set of idle jets since the last test drive, so I wanted to see if it had made any difference. 
I decided to stop for breakfast before I got to the Billericay meet this time as the cafe at Billericay is very good, but the queuing and waiting time for food and drinks is ridiculously slow. 
My cafe of choice this morning was the 'My Place' on the A127, but when I slowed to pull in my brake pedal seemed to stick, but then free itself quite harshly. 
I had noticed the sticky brake pedal feeling a few times recently, but nothing as bad as this morning. I suspect that my remote brake servo is on the way out.
 Once I had eaten I carried onto the breakfast meet with no further issues. When I got there I adjusted the tick over on the carb as I felt the engine was running too fast and also adjusted the air mixture screw to give it more fuel.

There were some nice cars at the meet, including my friend Keith's Lotus Cortina and a Mk2 Cortina with a turbo and injected Lotus V8 engine. This engine also has four camshafts and a secondary radiator in the boot as the radiator under the bonnet is not up to the job of keeping the engine cool! 

On leaving the meet I had to endure my sticky brake pedal again only this time it got much worse as I had to dab the brakes on on the A127, only this time, they stuck on and stayed on. 

Luckily a parking lay-by was very close by, so I pulled in and opened the bonnet. My suspicions were the brake servo, so I removed the hose that runs from the inlet manifold to the servo and a loud gush of air escaped out. With the air released the brakes then freed off and I was able to drive the car home. So it was indeed a servo problem. I'll get one ordered and fit it when time allows. 

Once I was home I decided to go and play with the Lotus for a few hours. I had fitted the front axle on Wednesday evening after work, so the next stage was to refit the anti-roll bar and track control arms.
This turned out to be a bit of a mission as I had replaced all of the bushes, and being an anti-roll bar everything has to be very taut with hardly any movement. 
After a couple of hours, everything was fitted and as it should be and now that I'm finally bolting things back on instead of removing them, I feel that I'm actually moving forward. 😊

Saturday 15th March. - More tuning and test driving.

 After speaking to a weber carburettor specialist about my issues with the Green Cortina, I was advised to try changing the idle jets to a bigger size. Being a twin choke weber there are two jets, a primary and a secondary. 
The standard sizes are 55 & 50, so I purchased two at bigger sizes. The first combination I tried was a 60 & 55. I then took the car for a long test drive. It did make quite a difference and the car felt happier a low speeds and the popping and banging on the over run reduced dramatically. 
I then returned home and decided to change them again. This time I tried a combination of 65 & 60. I went for another test drive, but to be honest it didn't really feel much different to the first run. (Although I didn't go as far)
The car is a lot more drivable though, but removal of the spark plugs showed that they are still quite white, so it appears the engine is still running lean. I think I'll need to having a chat with the carburettor specialist again to see what the next move is.