Tuesday 27th March-Gertie's back on form!

The recent Chinese Rally (In Holland!) had left Gertie running a little bit sick. To be fair she wasn't running 100% when we arrived at our hotel on the Friday night, but she carried on regardless and was never really a cause for any concern. On high revs and motorway speeds she was fine, but on tickover and slow running speeds she had a constant misfire that I just couldn't get to the bottom of. After tinkering half of Saturday and until late last night and with time (and patience!) running out before the HCR this weekend, I dropped her off at Carlow engineering to let Gordon have a play and see what he could find.
When I collected the car from there tonight, Gordon revealed his diagnosis........I had blown the inlet manifold gasket on ports 1 & 2. Oh dear! Maybe we were trying a bit too hard in Holland then! While talking to Gordon, I also mentioned our issue of constantly blowing no.1 fuse and everything that it affected. Gordon suddenly said 'Oh! I might have cured that then. I've just bent a spare tab on the voltage stabiliser out of the way because it was touching the clutch master cylinder resevoir'. He then led me over to Gertie and opened the bonnet to show me what he meant.
On the bulkhead of the Mk1 is said voltage stabiliser. Close (in fact dangerously close) to the stabiliser is the reservoir for the master cylinder for the clutch. The reservoir should also have a bracket that holds it tight to the bulkhead. Mine is missing! So the reservoir was moving every now and then, and when it was, it was touching the spare tab on the voltage stabiliser and shorting it out and subsequently blowing the fuse ! As I was in the middle of trying to eliminate the problem, the temperature and fuel gauges were currently disconnected, so when I arrived home I reconnected them, (They are on the same wire on the fuse box) then bent the spare tab on the stabiliser back over towards the reservoir and then made the two contact. Sure enough there was an instant spark and the fuse blew again! So it looks highly likely that this was causing the 'blown fuses' issue in Holland. I then decided to move the voltage stabiliser away from the reservoir or any other 'loose' parts.  I also now need to look out for the bracket that holds the reservoir tight to the bulkhead.

Whilst tinkering with the car on Saturday, I decided to remove the bumpers. I love the 'bumper-less' look on  Mk1's but wasn't sure if it would work on Gertie with it being a darker colour. However, with Gertie now having a cream roof and cream wheels, maybe it might just work? In the end, I couldn't fight the urge anymore and bit the bullet and took them off. I have to say, I was pleased with the result and I think she looks good.
With the car now running well and sounding good, I'm looking forward to the overnight challenge of the Historic Counties Rally this weekend.

Friday 16th March-Going Dutch!

At long last the night rally in Holland was upon us. My Navigator for the event was Doug Foreman who arrived with me on the Friday morning an hour earlier than expected. This turned out to be a bonus (or so we thought) as the traffic in the area was pretty much at a standstill.
We battled our way through Essex and down to Dover hoping to catch the earlier Ferry. (Our booking was at 14.00 but there was one at 12.00) However, this was not to be as the 12.00 boat was in dry dock awaiting repairs, so we were faced with a lengthy delay. (As you can see by the bored looking Mr Foreman)

The two hour crossing to Dunkerque meant that it was 5pm local time when we left the Ferry, so we hiked it up to motorway speed travelling up through Gent, Antwerp, Breda, Tilburg and finally towards Beekbergen near Appledorn. While on route we stopped in a Belgium roadside cafe where Doug spotted something on the menu by the name of 'Cheesecrack'. I whispered to Doug that I might ask the waitress if I could see her 'cheesy crack' but thought better of it. In the end we both settled for Goulash and Frites.

After leaving the restaurant and while travelling at around erm....70mph-ish the revs increased for a second and then went back to normal again. It felt like the overdrive had dropped out momentarily. It was at the same time that we realised that we had no temperature or fuel gauges, indicators, wipers, washers or brake lights. The no.1 fuse had blown!

We managed to get to our hotel ok and decided to investigate our electrical issues in the morning as there was some decent alcohol in the bar to be consumed before bedtime.

Saturday morning saw replacing the fuse and also changing the points as Gertie had started running a little sick. Our search for petrol on Saturday morning found us a nice line up of Ford Transits. I can't remember the last time I saw one, let alone this many!

After finding some petrol we also found that Gertie was running worse with the new points and had also blown no.1 fuse again. So, we returned to the hotel and cleaned up refitted the old points. We had another look at the electrics and cleaned up the fuse box in the hope that that would do the trick.

Saturday afternoon saw us and the other CT British crews that had arrived head down to the Wok Chinese Restaurant for the buffet and event start. (This is why it's called the Chinese Rally) There were lots of other cars competing in this one and the competition looked good.

Our start time was 18.25 (CET) and thanks to my top class navigator we were soon picking off the routes and picking up plenty of code boards. We once again blew another fuse and trying to trace it decided to disconnect the brake light switch as we thought this might be causing it. This wasn't the case though as we still blew another fuse with this disconnected! We carried on regardless and managed to complete the first half of the rally. (This was the competitive half) However, with about 11kms left to go to the half way point the rain started coming down. With no windscreen wipers we headed to the halfway point very carefully and enjoyed coffee and cake while waiting for the rain to stop. Once it had, we decided to play safe and call it a day and head back to the finish.

Once at the finish we enjoyed a couple of small beers and then headed back to our hotel. The bar in our  hotel was closed so Doug and I retrieved some beers and crisps from Gertie's boot that had been purchased for just this kind of emergency!  I managed to find an English TV channel showing the days football and Doug later managed to find some euro channels involving naked ladies cavorting about! Maybe that's what the people in the room opposite ours was watching as there was certainly a lot of 'man grunting' coming from there! (but no female noises I hasten to add!)

Sunday morning saw us faffing about with the electrics again, although this time we managed to get the wipers, washers and brake lights working without blowing fuses. I also mistakenly thought our ferry crossing was at 4pm, but it turned out to be 2pm, so a high speed chase back to the port was the order of the day to make that deadline. I thought we did alright seeing as we were still in Beekbergen at 10.10am!

Another 2 hour crossing saw us depart Dover late Sunday afternoon and head into more rain before arriving home. (Good job we managed to get the wipers working!)

We had a memorable weekend away, met some great people, and drove some fantastic roads. Apart from her small issues Gertie performed well. So much so that I might postpone her engine change and use her on the HCR!

Sunday March 5th. HCR Prep

Seeing as my mate Dave had a free day today, he came round to finally finish fitting the headlight relays to the estate. He'd already done the full beam lights quite some time ago, so it was the dipped beam that now needed attention.

The car is lined up for the Historic Counties Rally at the end of March and as this rally is an all night one and the headlights will be on for most of it, we thought it best to get them finished.
While Dave was pulling wires about and playing with his multimeter, I was underneath splashing a bit of underseal on so the car looked good for the MOT tomorrow. Fingers crossed for that!

February 29th. Steering issues finally resolved!

Well I managed to collect my reconditioned steering rack today and rushed home from work in order to fit it. I had already removed the old one from the car last night, so the job was half done already.
I took my time and made sure I didn't miss anything and after checking everything over, the reservoir was filled with fluid and the process of bleeding began. In no time at all the all the bubbles were out of the system and a test drive revealed that all was well. In fact the steering was smooth, but tight and felt the best it ever has, so it was worth the expense of getting it done.
I haven't put any pics up because it would only be another one of a steering rack (albeit a clean and shiny one) and I'm sure that like me, you've seen enough of them by now!
The MOT  for this car is booked for Monday and at present, it shouldn't have any problems.

The next job on the agenda is the slightly leaky clutch slave cylinder on Gertie. It's not too much of a problem if you keep an eye on the level in the reservoir, but I want to get it seen to before Doug Foreman and I take to foreign shores in a few weeks time for a night rally in Holland. I really don't fancy finding myself with no clutch by the side of an autoroute somewhere!

February 18th to present! Steering issues!

Before I start on my novel on my power steering issues, I will cover the oil leak issue as mentioned in my last post. I discovered the oil leak the same afternoon I collected my newly rebuilt engine from Benfleet. It was quite a large oil leak and I was lucky to make it home before the engine dried up and siezed.

On the A130 from Saddlers farm near Benfleet, there's a fair bit of roadworks in progress. On the way home that day, I was following a tipper lorry when a piece of debris bounced out of his back wheels and up off of the tarmac and towards the front of my car. I managed to brake enough for it to have lost a lot of its 'bounce' and it went underneath me hitting what I thought was either a floor pan or suspension part. However, said piece of debris was sharp enough, and hard enough to puncture the bloody oil filter and nearly empty my engine of Valvoline 20/50!  On  further inspection, the oil filter had a huge dent in it and had been neatly holed. At least the nearside underneath of my car will never go rusty now! And it enforced an oil and filter change earlier than I'd planned.

Now to my saga with the steering. Are you sitting comfortably?........ 

With the impending MOT on my Mk2 estate, I decided to investigate the small amount of play in the steering that had been listed as an advisory for the past two years. It wasn't that bad, but I didn't think I'd get away with it three years running.

I've had a spare untried and untested rack that's been in my possession since 2008, so the plan was to remove my one and put it in for refurbishment and fit the spare one so that I could still use the car.

I hate doing steering racks at the best of times and power steering with its messy, slippery fluid is even worse. I never seem to remove them without depositing a large quantity of fluid all over the floor!

Anyhoo, the rack was removed without too much fuss and the spare rack was fitted. 

  However, all was not well with the replacement rack. The power assistance would do nothing of the sort and I was left with a power rack, but manual steering. No amount of bleeding or flushing would cure the problem and so sulking, I gave up and left it alone. 

My original rack was left with a specialist on the Monday morning with a polite request to mark it as urgent. My 'urgent' request was rewarded with a completion day of Thursday, only to be told when I rang on Thursday that it now wouldn't be ready until the following Tuesday! If they'd have told me that in the first place, I'd have taken it somewhere else!

So, Thursday night I decided to remove the spare rack again and strip it down for another inspection. All of the pipes were removed for a flushing out and also blasted out with the airline. I also took the input shaft out to see if there were any issues there, but nothing seemed untoward (Other than a missing gasket) to my untrained eye. (Or did it? Read on!)

Friday night I was otherwise engaged, so Saturday morning I put the rack back together and refitted it to the car. Was it cured???? Was it bugger!!!  Admitting defeat I decided not to waste anymore man hours on it and wait until the original rack was finished and returned.

Seeing as it was a bright sunny day, I kept myself occupied by giving the car a wash, t-cut and polish. (Although you can't really tell from the pic below-but I did! Honest!)  

Whilst having a cup of tea in the early evening, that bloody steering issue was still bugging me. (Funny how things can turn into an obsession isn't it?) I'd managed to convince myself that the issue was in the input shaft area. So, seeing as there is no engine or gearbox in the yellow car at present, I figured I should be able to remove the input shaft and assembly from it without removing the rack. Then I could have a look at this one and compare it to the one now in the estate. I decided to do just that and once I'd removed the input shaft from the housing I could see where the issue was. The input shaft in the replacement rack on the estate was 180 degrees out, so the fluid wasn't circulating round the rack as it should. I had wrongly assumed that it was in the correct position when I removed it, and so therefore put it back together the same way. Now it dawned on me why I had been given it for nothing all those years ago! The bloody swine! It obviously didn't work then either!

With renewed enthusiasm I once again removed the rack from the estate, stripped it down again and rebuilt it again, this time with the input shaft in the correct position. At 9pm, I decided to call it a day and refit the rack (again!) Sunday morning.

By 11am Sunday morning, everything was all back together again and it was time to fill up with fluid,  and test. was it successful...................(drum roll required here!) It was! I finally had power steering!   

After all this messing about and aggravation I was hoping that the rack would be good enough to be able to stay in the car and I could keep the refurbished one as a spare when I got it back. However, I never seem to be that blessed. Without being able to explain it precisely, it still doesn't feel quite right and it also has a small leak from one of the seals. (Which is also an MOT fail) 

So as it stands at the moment, I'm collecting my refurbed rack tomorrow and so tonight was spent removing the rack yet again in readiness for refitting of the refurb tomorrow night.

Incidentally, the company refurbishing the rack told me that if I take the car into them, they can change it for me for £100 on top of the refurbishment cost. My answer?.............'No thanks, I can do one of these now in 55 minutes. I've done it four times in two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!' :-)  

February 15th & 16th. Time to get on!

While making a short trip to the local scrap yard the other Saturday with a car load of old engine blocks, cranks, suspension parts and anything else that weighed loads and would make them give me money, I noticed that the suspension on the estate was sitting lower on the nearside than it was on the drivers side. The weight in the car was evenly distributed so I could only assume that I had a broken or weak spring.
So, after going through my spares cupboard I found a set of 520lb rear springs that would be ideal replacements.
There was no evidence of any cracks or anything on the ones I removed, so the nearside one must have just weakened over the years.

The replacement springs were fitted and a test drive showed that the back end has stiffened up somewhat. Better for carting about engines and stuff!...............................
Speaking of which, the following day I received a phone call saying that my engine was ready for collection. So the estate was press-ganged into action again and a trip over to Benfleet was arranged.

The engine now has six new pistons, rings, mains, big ends, core plugs and oil seals. It was already bored out to plus .40 thou, so it's now at plus .60 thou. (Plus it has some other nice mods as well!)  I'm looking forward to fitting it into Gertie, but this will have to wait for a few weeks yet, as I have other fish to fry.
The estate's MOT is due in a few weeks time and I've still to resolve my 'play in the steering' issues first. It's also developed an oil leak over the past few days as well, so this will also have to be rectified before the test.
Gertie is also booked in for the 'Chinese Rally' in Holland in four weeks time and I don't want to start pulling the 2000 engine out of it now and not being able to get the new engine fitted and running in time. (There's other stuff I want to do while I have an empty engine bay too)  So the plan is to leave Gertie as she is to do the Chinese rally, start on the engine swap when I get home and use the estate for the HCR. Then hopefully Gertie should be up and running again ready for the International Auto Ecosse at the end of May. Simples!

February 8th. Revenge is not sweet!

I was going to use the estate this morning to go to work. I don't own any modern cars and normally get to work via mountain bike. (It's only 5 miles) However, what with this bloody white fluffy stuff we've had since the weekend, biking to work has been proving somewhat difficult. (They don't grit the cycle paths in Essex!) So, I decided to go and dig the car out as it was still buried from the weekend and have a nice warm drive into work.

(Pic taken Sunday Morning)

What I didn't count on was her starting and running well for 30 seconds, then running really sick, then dying altogether, then refusing to start at all! I tried to open the bonnet, but now that all of the snow from Sunday had frozen,it was stuck fast and wouldn't grant me access to the engine bay! With utter disgust I locked it back up and went to work on the mountain bike and froze. Again!

I had been wondering all day at work, if the reason for the car dying was it possibly being frozen up. I knew it had anti-freeze in it, but was there enough in it? I didn't hear any fan belts squealing against a seized water pump or anything so I was hoping this wasn't the case.

Once home, I defrosted the bonnet area (I'm really glad the car was out the back and nobody could see me waving a hair dryer at it!) and checked the radiator and all pulleys on the engine. Nothing was frozen and nothing was seized so that was a relief. I attempted to start the car again but with no joy. With it not even attempting to fire the first thing I looked at was the petrol. Sure enough, there was no petrol getting through. For some reason every eight months or so, this car develops some kind of air lock in the fuel system. I have no idea why?

 I undid the pipe that goes into the fuel pump and as soon as I removed it the petrol inside the pump bubbled and then the pump seemed to top up a bit more! Very strange! I also blew down the fuel line to make sure that there was no blockage in the line, (She's had one of them in the past as well!) but that was free. So, with all pipes re-fitted and tightened I manually primed the pump and..............success! The petrol was flowing again. Hearing the straight six burble into life was music to my ears and with a bit of a luck, she'll now behave herself and go back to being reliable again!

Actually, I think the real reason she wouldn't start this morning was because she was sulking. Those close to me will know that this car used to be the most unreliable piece of engineering I have ever had the misfortune to own. It used to leave me stranded in the most inhospitable, dangerous, and often pitch black places that you could ever imagine. The regularity of which it did so as well was truly alarming. Sometimes it would breakdown four times in a week! Many times I pondered selling it and it did even appear on eBay twice only for them to remove the ad both times for mentioning things that I apparently shouldn't have. ('Spares available as separate purchase' was one offence and saying 'No paypal' was another!) She even managed to seize her engine on the way home from a CT Essex Christmas meal in 2009. Anyhow, I persevered with her, spent money on her and for some time now she has been fine. 

Until...................... I bought the below T-shirt! I thought it was funny. She obviously didn't!

 I'm not sure about wearing it now! :-/