Josephine rebuild

[Keith Clements]

I will check. Perhaps both against the strobe and the race tacho and also against the speedo/gear + diff ratio.
Currently not on the critical path as the car should be at Goodwood on Sunday!

[Keith Clements]

The 11 'Lift the dot' fastenings were cleaned up . The holes were tapped for 2BA, posts were screwed in and nuts tightened. Hood was given a polish with vinyl cleaner and the windows cleaned with a glass cleaning emulsion that had a good attempt at getting rid of 20 years of crud.

The hood was raised to accommodate the roll bar used in racing and rallying. This required 5cm clearance above the crash helmet and I have a long back. That roll bar is still being used by Ib Rasmussen in Denmark which I gave him when he came over to the Basingstoke rally in 2013.







The extended windows were required for rallying when going around hairpins on the Alpine passes or reversing when the navigator got it wrong!
4 hub caps were found and polished.



Then onto the engine idle. the engine starts pretty much on the button. But idle is very bad. The engine will accelerate very quickly on application of throttle, but hunts even at 3000 rpm. If you let the revs fall back it will go back to a fast idle and if warm will hold it there for a while but then suddenly dies. Examination of plugs showed one clean and weak (4) one light grey (2) and (3) and (1) dark grey. Swapping the (4) to (2) made the one that was in 4 go grey and the one that was in 2 get lighter.
I will check compression but suspect it is a carb fault. I have disconnected the throttle linkage and will attempt to diagnose with carb balancer and 'colour tune' glass spark plug. But any ideas would help. Note the carbs are DellLorto but really should not be much different to Zenith.

I have also cleaned up the carpet channels and rather than chroming will paint them. Hopefully get the carpet in tomorrow. Then just the trim around the back of the seat and a few odd jobs still on the list.

[Keith Clements]

This may not have been the best way to do it but this is what have done.
1. Checked compression. 1=170, 2=160, 3= 160, 4=170 psi
2. Changed spark plugs.
3. Changed dizzie for electronic. Was going to do that anyway.
4. Changed spark plug leads and back again.
5. Changed dizzie cap.
6. took leads off each cylinder in turn using insulated pliers. 4=died, 2 = died, 1= kept going, 3=kept going. 3 cm sparks off each so not much wrong with spark delivery.
My assumption then is the nearside carb is not doing its thing. So I will read up tonight. The only issue I have had with them is a jet came loose. It could be just the idle adjustment has changed or a jet has become blocked. Although not perfect on the test bed it did idle fairly well. There is a slim chance it might be petrol delivery as that is about the only thing changed since on the test bed.

[Srenner]

The car is looking quite good!

If everyone has spark, than somebody isn't getting fuel. My vote is for a plugged jet. Gas turning to varnish while sitting during restoration, possibly with a little crud from the gas tank. Less likely to be a fuel delivery issue, but possible. Good hunting!

[Keith Clements]

The mixture is part 56 and the idle 55.
The idle jet is 5 , pump jet is 6, power is 4 and main 3

Click on thumbnail and then click on high resolution image link if you want to.

Disassembly video. Really excellent explanation of most things that can go wrong on the carb.

keep your eye on the left side of the screen at 5:22. What can you see coming in? A paw?

[Keith Clements]

So I blew out the jets on the nearside carb and took off the top to blow out as many galleries as I could . Then put back and tested no difference.
Just blew out the idle circuit and emulsion tube on the offside carb and tested . Hey presto all OK.
So set up idle and mixture. Fairly good tick over at 840 rpm.
UP TO TEMPERATURE AND FAN ON.

Rev counter should read 840 rpm. At 2650rpm it read 2000.


Oil pressure pretty good at 840 rpm. Note oil temp not yet connected so will rely on electronic gauge.


Carbs' throttle screws balanced with link disconnected.


Speed and ignition timing.


Then thought I would adjust the timing but discovered the micrometer wheel was rusted up. That flame retardant got everywhere. So squirted some WD40. Then the previous fault came back. So did same procedure on both carbs to no avail.
Not happy as time is running out as at rugby all day Saturday.

Back to garage....


.

[Keith Clements]

After another couple of hours no further forward except I did find that the float had become bent on the nearside so a few trials has eventually got it to freely move, permanently I hope. I noticed because the throat was dry and the pump did not squirt. I had taken the tops off and squirted down every orifice with carb cleaner and then with the air gun on both carbs.

The video suggested cleaning out the gallery next to the air corrector . Compressed air easily passed down it so I did not play with a wire probe as in the video. But maybe...???
When you put two fingers over the offside carb, like a choke, the engine speeds up. This is born out by the same weak mixture indication on plugs 2 and 4. Screwing the idle mixture screw in and out had little effect but died when screwed right in. This suggested that the idle jet was gummed up. So all jets have had the carb cleaner treatment.

I suspected it might be the progression system as well so off with the carb so that I could blow up the idle and two progression holes.

Now waiting for the sealer to harden before trying again.

The car starts straight away with a little throttle but does not want to idle. It also revs well.

This may be one of those oscillating problems caused by the mechanic! But why having just got a good idle and moving on to adjust the timing did the same symptom come back? And why did the initial clean of the offside carb have no effect?
Just read that the mixture should normally be about 3.5 turns out so have set it at that for the next test. I have not touched the nearside idle mainly because it is difficult to get at and I have no reason to believe it has changed since this morning or since when it ran faultlessly for 20 years in racing and rallies. Ok it did have a 3 year lay off whilst the car had a different engine and carbs in it.

[Keith Clements]

I have now got it idling, just too fast. If I screw the mixture back in I can slow it down but perhaps the idle jets are wrong for this engine and they need to be bigger. More research required. Both carbs were stripped . The standard dizzie was put back as I could set the ignition timing manually (the electronic is usually set up to 22 deg max advance (but even that might change with this standard engine))

On reflection these carbs were set up for a 1600cc , high compression, modified cam engine so perhaps some different jets are required. As this is a 1500cc, medium compression, standard cam engine. But I still think there was a blockage .

Anyway the nearside carb had 1.5 turns out on the mixture screw when I took the carb off to clean it. I had to make a stubby screwdriver from a couple of inches off the end of an old one and ground down so that I could adjust in situ. A real pain to do
on a hot engine. Perhaps a flexi drive might work better.

So I first set both carbs to 1.5 turns. This set up was very unstable and needed lots of throttle.
I screwed the offside one out to 5 turns as this gave a fast idle and was stable. So I did the same on the other side. Now the idle was very fast and even with the throttle screws right back was still too fast.

I now have a compromise of 4 turns on both. Perhaps a test run tomorrow will prove it is drivable. this means I am adjusting the idle speed with the mixture screw. That is not correct.

However I have a small rad leak , a brake fluid weep, a gearbox oil weep and a wire off on the wiper indicator. plus the carpets to put in and the bulkhead to seal. Will it get to Goodwood?

Just noticed the Amps are reading the wrong way in the photo a couple of posts back. That is because of the switch from positive to negative earth. I may get around to changing it but it has been like that for 30 plus years!

In conversation with carb video maker he said the cat was originally going to be called 'Nappy' but is now called 'Dreamy' because his wife said in Britain that meant 'diaper'.

[Keith Clements]

http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads ... dle.38905/

[Keith Clements]

Another go at tuning but really not much progress. To take it out for a drive I fixed the weeping brake union, put an epoxy patch on the weep from the rad, put some draught excluders on the pedals and filled in the few unused screw holes in the bulkhead (Most of these were for the rubber skirt that stopped stones on forest stages peppering the underside)

[Keith Clements]

I took Josephine down the village but she sounded rough like it was missing a cylinder. So back into the workshop and looked at the plugs. Three weak and one black. Check compression. none. Check again none. Look down the cylinder with the endoscope. Off with the rocker cover.

Now you know yesterday the compression was at 170psi. The locknut was not tight and the adjuster screwed itself down very quickly. No wonder I could not get a stable idle.
So started to look at the other issues. Oil coming from three places on the gearbox.

Not one I had built I might add.
Fitted the brush draught excluder around the pedals.

And around the steering column.

Grommets on all the holes not used. These were for the scuttle stabilising bars part of a factory recommended mod.

Fitting the carpet and footwell trim.

Then a blast up the hill to give the car a wash




I found my 1950 AA badge for the offside!
Semi-final rugby tomorrow and then a drive to Chris and Sharon on way to Goodwood.

[Keith Clements]

The trip to Goodwood certainly shook all the gremlins to the surface. After Sarries won there semi final I started the journey in unusually hot weather.

First off there were some different vibrations occurring, at certain speeds they became quite violent. I tried in and out of overdrive to establish front or rear prop. But then a more serious problem develped in I had overheating. My four temp gauges and the fan thermostat gave some indication of what was happening. Luckily I put in a gallon of water so that when the temp dropped on the header tank I knew I had lost water. It took most of the gallon so I reckoned I had about 10 miles before I needed some more water and made it off the motorway to fill up. Then proceeded to make it to Chris and Sharon's as I had also put in some radiator sealer and taken the pressure cap off.
A check at 6 in the morning on the propshaft did not show anything and the radiator sealer seamed to have done its job. So off i went with Chris and Sharon following later. Luckily there was not much traffic on the country lanes so I managed to keep the speed out of the vibration zone of 40 mph and below for most of the time. Once on the main road the car easily got to 70mph but I kept it at about 60. This was a stop to put on a jacket as the sea mist lowered the temp by 10 degrees.


Then onto more country lanes and I led a Triumph to the circuit in a quite spirited drive to complete the 50 mile drive. Then got stuck in a queue waiting to get on the track for 20 minutes and I arrived in a cloud of steam. I really should have pulled out as the temp rose, but it was only another few yards.


C & S arrived in Peter' s Jav by which time the engine had its water replenished. A check about an hour later made sure the head gasket had not suffered.
We put the display at the chicane.

And the sun came out when Amy arrived from her late night at the Royal Wedding at Windsor Castle.





My vote went to this colourful vehicle with a spinning prop on the front.


When we came back from a late and delicious lunch at the Kennels, everyone had left. Just the two Jowetts on track!

On the way back more issues developed. The rad resprung its leak. obviously not liking being overheated. The vibration became worse. A tick at wheel rotation speed developed in the rear wheel but went silent when the brakes were applied. I took off a loose hub cap as it was a bit loose. The front offside brake started squeaking on application. The vibration may have stopped the overdrive working. It then became difficult to get into first and second so the plan to stay off the motorway changed, although heavy traffic meant I had some difficult driving to do as I had to start off in third. Then the phone charger decided to stop working and a few screws on the dash fell out. A real shakedown.

[Keith Clements]

I had 13 jobs on my list to do as I started my trip to Goodwood and ended up with another 17 after the trip.
Monday and Tuesday I spent sorting out my Rally Treasurer's job for the Rally in Grantham next year. The system I used for the Basingstoke rally needed to be considerably changed to accommodate this different hotel.

But I did manage to grab a few hours to clean and polish the SC (Napoleon) which I will take to Harrogate tomorrow, I am stopping over at Hardwicke House Mill near Chesterfield on the way up.

I also had an hour on the SA , first checking the plugs. All four were running a little weak or hot. At the same time as checking mixture, I will also check tappets and timing. So a job for the next month.

I took the radiator out and cleaned around the suspected leaking area. I will build a pressure test rig to see exactly where it is.

I also looked at the prop shaft. I initially thought perhaps the rear universal joints were out of phase but they do need to be parallel and they seem to be. So perhaps it is the new overdrive location that needs adjustment. The previous arrangement had a little give in the mountings whereas the current arrangement is more solid.The angle of the rear prop is quite severe (although the same as it was before), and it is a little worn, so possibly a CV joint conversion would be advisable. But first I will take the car out on the old wheels that I know are balanced. Note I did test on the lift with the wheels at full droop (or greatest angle). However, the vibration is load related so that test may not have shown up the issue. It maybe the new location of the torque reaction buffer on the overdrive is not correct , or it needs another.

The rear wheel was also rotated and did not create a tick but there was some scraping, so the wheel will have to come off.

But whilst the rad was out it was much easier to put the gear linkage back on. I think I forgot to put Loctite on the nut when having adjusted it.

So then another hour checking over the SC and loading up the spares and tools. looking forward to a glorious weekend in a Jup.

[Keith Clements]

1. So the overdrive was easy to fix .... two spade terminals needed some clamping to make them tight.

2. The ticking at the rear was investigated by taking off the drum. I discovered the drum was rubbing on the back plate and the handbrake slider touched the wheel studs. The outside of the shoes were also rubbing. This was solved by taking out the 2 mm spacer behind the back plate, so now the end float shims bear directly on it. There was also some scraping of the drum on the offside , although very slight when on full transverse load. So the spacer was taken out of that side as well. The shoes seem to have bedded in well with even wear showing the stop dimples are correctly set. I think I had to weld a little on the back plate to get the shoes sitting properly a few years ago. Is it possible that the drums are different on Jup and Jav? Or perhaps the replacement half shafts have different taper position. Normally this situation occurs if the drum has been loose on the taper.


3. The radiator had been sandblasted around the leaking area after a bubble test with compressed air showed the problem. The area was then coated with epoxy resin, left overnight and tested . A view from inside using the endoscope of the sealed leak .


BUT then noticed some wear at the top of the rad and looked in the corresponding position under the bonnet to discover the cruciform had been rubbing on it. So I am hoping some adjustment may get over the issue. If not the rubber block under the mounting will have to be thinned.


I also had a good look and test by hand of the props and overdrive. I cannot see anything wrong with the torque reaction design or misalignment, so will have to wait till I install the rad and get the motor going.

4. Did the retorquing of head where two nuts needed an extra quarter of a turn. So will have to keep my eye on them. Redid the tappets where two inlets needed adjustment, so those too will need another check later.

[Keith Clements]

5. Radiator installed. I had to remove the rubber block under the rad support and replace with 1 mm of rubber mat. Much checking with BluTack managed to get a 5mm clearance. The problem is due to the frame being 15mm lower on one side than the other. I know Chris had a hell of a job getting a good fit. Well it has hit the tyre wall at Donnington and had a wheel come out from under it in Cortina D'ampezzo and been hit by a reversing white van driver in Riga , Latvia.

5.5 A small leak on the water inlet to the block was cured with a retightening of the nut.

6. The distortion was proven when I put the foam pads under the bonnet 'sound deadening' support with two strips rather than one needed on one side. I also stuck a strip where the rad might hit the cruciform and so will check periodically.

7. Supported the wiring under the bonnet .

8. Welded some extra metal on the bonnet support pins so the bonnet now stays up and locates more easily!

9. Adjusted the front valence as it just touched the bonnet in a couple of places.