What have I done! IIa sitting out front.

Way back in the mists of time when I bought Bill, he had no vent levers on the bulkhead. The vents just flapped around merrily in the breeze, but summer waned and the cold winds started to blow from the south and again the season of the Ugg was upon us. I bought some vent levers and they did a mighty fine job of keeping the vents closed and the Ugg winds out of the cabin.
But there was a problem, the levers had no handles which meant the Princess was unable to open and close then without much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Verily, there was trubble at' mill.

Trubblesome vent handles
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/05/882.jpg

I set to finding a solution to to this problem, which after many years of searching I did - Sugru.
It a silicone based gunge that you can shape, bonds to almost anything and dries hard enough to sand, but with a rubbery texture.

So using a mold made from the plastic tube packaging that my new centre punch came in, I made some handles.

Here's the mold, after I'd removed it. Basically a 10-12mm plastic cylinder
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/05/883.jpg

Packed it with Sugru and pushed it over the lever arm
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/05/884.jpg

Left it for 3-4 days to cure, then cut off the mold
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/05/885.jpg

And there you have it. A nice little handle bonded to the lever, much nicer to use:)

Hmm, not sure why the piccys are so small. Just did what I usually do but blimmin' Flickr changed its interface again!!!:mad:

Forgot to say Sugru is quite expensive.
Apparently you can make your own very easily, look up Oogoo on the Googlemachine.

Sugru dries harder than Oogoo, so I imagine there will times one will be better than the other.

Choice. Its a wonderful thing.

Finally got around to fitting the TM4 temperature watch dog.

The head unit I fitted underneath the 'dash' using velcro
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/854.jpg

The engine temp sensor I fitted to the hole at the front of the engine that is used for the lifting hook, and the trans temp sensor to one of the studs holding the inspection plate.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/855.jpg

After driving around I noticed the engine sensor was recording pretty low temps, which I think is caused by the overly efficient fan so I made up a shroud

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/856.jpg

But this wasn't too successful as the bolt head is still getting full airflow, although it was now reading 56-57deg up from the low 50s.

I've since moved the engine sensor to as close to the temp sensor as possible and the trans sensor to a bolt lower down on the box (although I might move that again) Engine is reading 67 which I think is about 10 lower than actual (using a IR temp gun) and trans temp is sitting around 50

Fitted door tops and rubbers. Needed to swap out the felt runners on the drivers door, but that was surprisingly easy. I was expecting the screws to have rusted in but it was alright.

Also picked up the ultimate LR accessory
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/857.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/858.jpg

Terrific accessory! Best on the market. I used to have one of those. Did lots of miles and never let me down once.

Cheers mate.
She's pretty nifty.
Got her from the rescue home near by. She's a blinding little thing, I've got no idea why anyone would have dumped her.
Still their loss..

Got round to swapping out the broken tappet adjuster. I probably would have left it longer as it hadn't been too long since I'd set them last, but I realised that the head bolts needed a tweak since my engine was rebuilt with a copper gasket, and I'd bought a Gunson MicroAdjust Tappet Adjuster.

Drained the coolant (should have done this warm to open the thermostat).
Filter off, disconnect choke, dizzy vacuum advance and moved the choke cable and rocker vent tubing out the way.

Rocker cover off, then I loosened the smaller shaft to bracket bolts a 1/4 turn, then slackened the tappet adjusters to unload the valve springs, otherwise the shaft is still under load as you removed the fixing bolts and you risk damaging the threads.
I then cracked the head bolts a 1/2 turn in the reverse order to the tightening sequence in the manual. You'll need to remove the spark plugs to do this.

Once the head was de-tensioned I removed the 5 head bolts holding the rocker shaft assembly to the head, and the shaft to bracket bolts, and removed the rocker assembly.

I then needed to removed the sheared tappet adjuster. This took a bit of effort as where it had sheared had distorted the threads and it took a lot of twisting with some mole grips backwards and forwards to get it out. At one point I though I may need to dismantle the whole shaft to cut the tappet adjuster off, but thankfully it didn't come to that.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/08/1008.jpg

Refitting took a bit of effort as the springs between the rocker arms had pushed everything out. I can see why its suggested to use the rocker cover to hold the assembly as it would stop this spring creep. Wasn't a option for me as I needed to be able to get at the broken adjuster.

I tightened the head bolts in sequence to 40lb ft, then the 5 shaft to bracket bolts to 18lb ft, head bolts to 55, then head bolts finally to 65lb ft, then re-checked the shaft to bracket bolts again.

Now I roughly adjusted up the tappets, then cracked out the Gunson adjuster thinking this was going to be a nice efficient way of doing things.
I was wrong.

It's basically a locknut socket with a handle with a spring loaded screwdriver coming down through the middle of the socket. You tighten up the tappet adjuster bolt until you hear a loud click, then back it off a set number of clicks until .10" clearance is reached. Then tighten the locknut. Easy.

Problem was I couldn't figure out what the set number of clicks should be. Everytime I tried to set the baseline the number of clicks to get .10" was different. I'm not stupid, I trained as an engineer, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what could be wrong either with my usage or the tool itsself.
So I went back to the tried and trusted screwdriver, spanner and feeler gauge. Bingo.

I'd noticed a bit of coolant at the junction of the head and block in one spot, so rather than bolting it all back together, I turned the engine over on the starter to clear out any coolant that might have seeped into the cylinders whilst the head was de-torqued. (cue my observation about draining warm coolant).

Refit everything removed in the correct order, refill coolant, and start it up.
Ran beautifully, idle might be slightly fast when fully warm, but I'll look at that some other time.

Pulling plugs was good as it showed a nice uniform colour across all the plugs, the slight oil on the number 1 plug at 500kms was completely gone

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/08/1009.jpg

Next job is to fit the recon brake booster I've picked up, the old one is slowly getting more intermittent in its boosting.

Seems like this is turning into a monthly update. I really need to pull my finger out.

Anyway replaced the brake booster last night from this

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/09/1221.jpg

to this

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/09/1222.jpg

Ooh shiny.

It was a nice easy swap. A good tip I found was to put gladwrap over the reservoir and screw the cap back on causing a partial vacuum and the brake fluid to drip out quite slowly.

The booster bled very easily and I had a nice pedal feel. Only thing is a slight leak from the threads round the bleed nipple (not the port) despite a good tweak on tightening. I'll give it over night for any more signs of weeping and if so I'll add a wrap of PTFE tape

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ozdunc

Only thing is a slight leak from the threads round the bleed nipple (not the port) despite a good tweak on tightening. I'll give it over night for any more signs of weeping and if so I'll add a wrap of PTFE tape

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Nice car and nice Woofo Dunc!

If the bleeder leaks cobber, it needs fixing properly, as the brakes are a safety system. Take the bleeder out and examine the end of it, if there is a ridge or signs of corrosion try a new bleeder; if it is a ball type, replace the ball and give it a whack with a drift and hammer and then replace with another new ball,

Cheers Charlie

Thanks Charlie,

Will do.
This is a new nipple on a recon'd unit. I'd thought that since the fluid wasn't coming out the port the nipple had sealed and it was a small amount that was being forced out via the threads as it was screwed in.
Maybe new nipples ain't as good as old nipples :angel:

I can take the old bleeder nipple from the old booster that sealed OK.