Rebuilding Sid

Day 3... Pistons and bits.

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Installing pistons....oodles of assembly lube, all went together well.

Only challenge came from the con rod bolts, some were loose from the machining and positioning them upside down bound from behind was tricky so all bolts got marked for orientation before the positions went in.
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All done and turning nicely.

Camshaft was easy enough, I did test the end float more out of interest than being able to do anything about it. I couldn’t find different thrust plates. In the end it was a thou over which by my reckoning is margin of error so dead on.

I’d made alignment marks as none of the marks described in the manual were in this engine.

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Timing mechanism got a rebuild, clean and lube. Lots of oil ways in this part that have to be clean.

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And done for the day. Finished up cleaning and installing the cam followers (all stored safely, in order)

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Tomorrow, plan is for the peripherals to go on (oil pump, etc) and the head.

Will have a side job to do to fix a tiny weep of oil from the clutch releases mechanism that I noticed today.

Day 4 .... slow progress.

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The hard job (according to the manual) is getting the reverse gear in. This was not too bad. Lying the engine on its side on the stand means you can look through the grub screw hole for the corresponding hole in the bush And as soon as you spot any of it, a fine screwdriver holds it still while the gear shaft rotates into place. The gear itself rotates 45 degrees so taking this as a start position means it drops in the correct alignment. I noticed afterwards that there was an engraved mark at the 45 degree point. Point that at cylinder one and it dropped and rotated into place correctly.

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Oil pump rebuilt earlier went in easily.

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Then on went the front and water pump. Should have been easy... not. Pain in the **** blue box packaging neatly folds the gaskets for (their !) ease, not mine. The gasket barely fits to begin with but trying to position this when it’s been screwed up in a ball is a pig. Merry Christmas!

Water pump needed all the threads cleaning up with cutters and a few studs removing and refitting. A new water pump had been installed quite recently and not very well. Still all in now. Just missing two bolts to finish it.

Turning ahead to fitting the engine, looking at the leak in the clutch release housing. It looks like a stud has threaded so it’s not tightening. Does anyone know by chance the thread size of the inner end of the lower 1/4” stud.

Day 4... surprises at Bunnings.

Found the leak in the clutch release housing

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Another crushed up gasket. Here’s the water pump gasket posted from supplier in the UK via DHL. Fortunately I bought a spare in the UK that survived in my suitcase in better condition

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Clutch housing was easy enough fix, new gasket, etc. challenge though was the Stripped stud. A new one from the UK was $5 + $60 delivery or I could get one out of the spare gearbox but this is still in other car with engine attached.

Solution was found in Bunnings. They sell 1/4 Whitworth threaded rod (who’d have thunk!). The inner thread on the stud is BSW so it was a five minute job to make a new stud. Sorted.

Cylinder head tomorrow so cleaning the decks ready.

Day 5.... lots done.

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Head has it’s hot soapy shampoo , blow dry and highlights done. Then on to Valves fitting. All straightforward taking it steady. I’ve fired the old tappet set for now until I can get the spare set machined.

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Head went on fine, bit of messing with cleaning and picking the best of the head bolts. Landy #2 had a head gasket go at some point so the bolts were corroded badly about half way down.

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Flywheel and clutch again easy enough. Run out on flywheel was perfect. Clutch fitting easy, but I’d bought an all singing and dancing centring tool which required me to align the clutch plate by eye before tightening. Sort of thought that was the tools job.

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And we are in. Son’s came to help refit as they helped pull it out. Made one mistake of leaving the engine mounts off to ease alignment, but then had the fun of fitting then in situ. Won’t do that again. It can be done but a five minute job becomes an hour.

Started putting the shiny bits on this evening and hopefully finish that tomorrow.

Day 4.5.... retreating steps.

Well at 10am this morning it looked like this

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Ready to fire. I’ve put the old carb on as I know it worked (and I haven’t gotten around to rebuilding the solex)

But by this afternoon we were back a few steps with the front of the engine off again.

I had been starting to connect things up to test fire, filling with oil, etc. one hiccup is that I’ve managed to ‘safely put away’ the battery. Can’t find it anywhere.

Fitting the alternator was a challenge as it’s a bit of a shop made affair, fortunately I documented everything and kept every scrap of metal so worked it out in the end.

But big disaster was a missing core plug. There has all been done by the engine shop with a few spare to insert after flushing. Between them missing one and me not realising I had managed to miss the blindingly obvious hole in the front of the engine. Needless to say filling the traitor highlighted the problem.

Not a big job, will have the engine back together in a hour, I’m sure someone stocks a 1-3/8 core plug nearby 🤣

I had the same plug missing when mine was done, and didn't realize until i was up to that point.

whitehillbilly

Thanks... so it’s not just me then.

When I was looking back through photos the missing plug was bleedin’ obvious. Yet I’d stared at that hole for weeks

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We are in business....

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Been a long few days. After the fun that was the missing welch plug, I started prepping to fire him up. But with the cock up in the plug, I decided to pull the engine out and go over it once more. May have been a good idea as I found a weeping oil plug between the flywheel housing and block caused by a missing washer.

After re-installing the engine I prepped all for starting, buuuuttt..... woke in the middle of the night with horrible thoughts about timing setup. So this morning, off came the front cover again, and I set up the timing according to the manual (dial gauges, EP marks, etc....) . As I'd mentioned before, there were no timing marks at all and I had made some, but in hindsight, I had not made them unamibigous (they could be 180degrees out), nor was I 100% sure that I had checked for TDC. I think I was OK, but now I am sure.

Sooooo, first fire using old carb was a bust, couldn't handle the refurbished fuel pump and it was shooting petrol across the garage.

Rest of the day was then spent rebuilding the old Solex I had and fitting that....

Set up for test fire...

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I've done this before holding spanners across terminals and it doesnt end well if things go wrong.. starter relay, ignition on/off swtich and coil.. plus big black starter button. all safe, no shorts and easy to kill.

Few seconds to fill carb and he shot away, the vid is his first run, no timing adjustment or carb tuning, just fresh out of the box. There's more work to do to get him running nicely, but that can wait until after the new rocker gear is machined and I can get an exhaust.

Happy with that!

hi all, I wonder if anyone can help with a clutch issue before I pull the gearbox out (which is suspect is inevitable)

After nearly 3 months wait a large shoe box arrived from Craddocks with a single brass bush inside for the clutch release shaft. So as i had a few moments spare I thought I'd fit the clutch mechanism, 'cos it's only a five minute job.

Problem I have is that the shaft from the clutch withdrawal mechanism appears to be rotated 90 degrees out of position, so the clutch lever (to the slave) is pointing vertically rather than horizontally as it should.

My assumption here is that I've buggered something up when I rebuilt the clutch withdrawal housing (hence the need to remove the gearbox.....again) but I live in hope that there is another explanation.

By way of update, I had started the bulkhead rebuild and set out with good intentions of patch welding the footwells, but they appear to be made of cheese and melt at the slightest heat so new footwells and door pillar are on the way.

Thanks!

Do you have a photo of what you are talking about with the clutch?