chele’s Dad and I spent the afternoon today attempting to bleed the brakes on the Spitfire. After not getting any fluid out of the rear lines, we discovered that the rear reservoir on the master cylinder was empty. It also leaks fluid all over the firewall and into the drivers footwell.
Joy.
Thankfully I had ordered a rebuild kit for the master cylinder a couple of years ago. Unfortunately that means the car stays on the jackstands until I get the it rebuilt; the firewall stripped of rust, sanded, and painted; and the brakes bled yet again.
Yesterday evening the UPS driver rang the doorbell. The rear brake lines I had ordered from SpitBits had arrived! I eagerly opened the box and compared them against the original… YES, they were the same length!
After getting the kids to bed, put them on the car. I was surprised how quickly they went on. Even after 32 years of rust and grime, everything unstuck without too much torquing.
Tonight I’ll bleed the system out, and perhaps get the new clutch slave cylinder on.
After Easter service this morning and the kids doing the bunny basket thing, I went out and puttered around on the Spit. None of the four side running lights were working, and the two license plate lights were out as well. All of them needed new bulbs, and the left plate light had a loose wire. Replacing them was tedious but rewarding.
However, when I pushed the switch to turn them on this evening, I felt something break inside the switch. It had felt stiff ever since I got the car, and it picked now to give up the ghost. I’ll pull it out of the dash tomorrow. I need to replace the hazard switch as well, so it looks like my next order from VickyBrits will be for electrical stuff.
I also worked on putting in the ‘replacement’ horns my Dad gave me with the car. They’re from an ‘88 Sundance, so they’re not original. The factory ‘Clear Hooter’ horns are rusted solid and I haven’t found an easy way to disassemble them. It looks like I need to fab up some kind of bracket to mount the other horns, tho.
I haven’t started the brake or clutch work yet. I think I’m just doing little stuff on the car as a way of procrastinating.
The work on the Spitfire continues.
The original owner had a problem with the turn signal switch while he owned it. Rather than simply buying a new switch, he had a “friend” who supposedly knew something about electrical systems “repair” it. The result was a two-way toggle switch hacked into a badly drilled hole in the wood dashboard facia. It wasn’t installed very well and would fall out on a regular basis. I just used the standard arm signals when signalling turns until I could fix it.
Today I installed a replacement switch from Victoria British, a parts supplier outside of Kansas City. I ended up having to use some of the hack-job wiring to get it to work correctly, but I did put a new plug-in terminal on the wire and convered it with heat-shrink tubing. Now the switch on the steering column works!
On to the brake lines next, as well as figuring out why the sidemarker lights aren’t working.
After a couple of years of not working much on the Spitfire, I started up again. The church we attend is considering having a car show on Father’s Day, so I’m getting some much needed repairs done for that. One of the messiest will be replacing all the flexible brake lines. After 30 years, they’ve developed cracks:
I plan on replacing the clutch slave cylinder as well, and putting down the new carpet set.
I spent a couple of hours this evening cleaning the replacement gearbox.
After building a quick jig to hold the thing in place, the 30 years of accumulated
gunk and crud scraped off pretty well. The aluminum parts actually look a
nice silvery color now, instead of matching the black that the rest of
the gearbox was. This wasn’t critical to the gearbox operation, but it will make
a big difference when it comes time to wrestle it into the interior of the car.
Now I need to get off my keister and schedule a weekend with my Dad to put
the darn thing in… and send in the form to the state for the historic plates.. and
the form to American Collectors
Insurance… and.. and.. and..
There never are enough hours in the day, days in the week, etc.
Google and Yahoo, oh my!
Somehow, google and yahoo both found this site, specifically the picture gallery. Strange. I don’t remember submitting it to any engine in particular. I modified the apache logs to include the Referrer: header, so now I can see where people are coming from.
I’ve heard it said, and said it myself: without a plan, any car project is
doomed to failure. So here I am, puttering around on the car, with
no clue in sight as to what I’m going to do. One goal has always
been to get it running enough to drive it occaisionally during the summer
months. Another has been to clean up the interior, while yet another is
to halt the corrosion on the firewall near the brake and clutch master cylinders.
Beyond that, I don’t have a real plan for my end result.
I have a replacement gearbox that is sitting in my garage. It’s grimy, but
it spins with no troubles. It’s the correct 3-rail with an FK serial number.
However, after looking at the one in my car, I’ve got a small mystery. The
gearbox that’s currently in there has a serial number starting with ‘HK’,
and I can’t find a decode for that anywhere. We’ll see if the experts on the
Spitfires mailing list can help.
I drained the gearbox oil today. The magnetic post on the drain
plug was a modern-art sculpture of metal bits and pieces. What bothered
me the most were the bits I could recognize as circular parts of
bushings and spacers. It’s been in the back of my mind that I’d
end up rebuilding or replacing the gearbox, but I didn’t plan on it
this soon. Reverse is impossible to find. First and second are getting
more difficult to shift into also.
After a break for a family vacation, the weather finally cleared up for a
weekend. After backing the Spit out into the driveway, I drained out all
the old coolant. I flushed out all the remaining crud from the engine
with a hose (a nice brown/green color).
My Dad had an idea for installing the replacement plug: use a socket slightly
smaller than the inside of the plug, and hammer it in. An 1 1/16 socket
fit perfectly, and the new plug is in! No leaks!
While I had the system apart, I decided to replace the thermostat
and gasket. After looking at the inside of the radiator, I’m betting I’ll
need a new one of those soon also.
With the help of my neighbor and his slide hammer, the leaking freeze
plug is finally removed! It took three tries and the application of
a torch, but it finally popped right out.
Now off to the auto parts store to get a replacement.
My in-laws are visiting this weekend. My father-in-law is an excellent mechanic,
who gave me a great idea. Use a slide hammer to pull the plug straight
out, rather than attempting to pry it out. Less chance of damage that way.
Just when things were moving along, Ms. Rust and Mr. Corrosion came along
with their evil ways. I’ve got a pinhole leak in one of the freeze plugs
in the engine. When the water pump is off, there’s a small dribble of
coolant out the side. When the pump kicks on, tho, a stream shoots out
the engine a good 5 feet. Thankfully, the plug is right under the manifolds
at the top of the block..
This will be fun to remove. At least I can get to it, unlike the other ones.
Maybe a pry bar, or dremel’ing a hole through to use a screwdriver to
pry with.
There are amazing things to be learned from the people at the
DMV. When my wife was
going through our property tax forms for the new year, she noticed a
classification for “historic vehicle”. I’d heard mention of that on the DMV
website, but didn’t pay much attention to it.
When I was in the DMV getting the title and plates for our
newest car, I asked the woman I’d been working with about it.
Come to find out, any car that is 25 years old or older qualifies. There are
mileage and usage restrictions, but as I’m not using the Spit as my daily
driver, I can live with those. The best part: I don’t have to pass all of the
emissions and safety inspections (scary!). Additionally, there is only a
one-time fee to get the plates, unless you opt for personalized plates, then
they charge you an additional $15 per year.
I didn’t even blink. Give me the form, where do I sign?
It’s amazing what a little elbow grease and cleaner will do. The
interior of the car is the what needs the most attention, and that’s
where I plan on starting. The majority of the work is cleaning up and replacing
old parts: carpet, seals, etc.
These pictures show what 15 minutes with some cleaner, a rag, and
elbow grease can do with a dirty passenger seat.
Liquid Wrench didn’t help. PB Blaster didn’t cut it. The only thing that would cut
the corrosion and break the bearing free from the gear shaft was repeated
heating from a torch, followed by a cooling period in the chest freezer. The
bearing is now freely turning on the shaft.
The Spit now makes noise when the horn button is pressed! They’re clogged with 28 years of grit, grime, and crud, but after turning the adjustment screw back and forth, the low-tone horn loosened up and beeped. The high-tone is still clogged, but that should free up.
At the very least, I have two horns out of a salvaged Sundance that I’ll swap into the Spit, and rebuild the original horns this winter. But, one more item is now crossed off the “safety inspection” checklist.
These are a few of my favorite things!
My dad ordered a bunch of stuff for the car from Victoria British prior to his visit down. While down here visiting the kids, he figured it would be a good time to do a little work on the car. In the box were:
- 4 U-joints.
- 2 rear motor mounts.
- 2 wiper arms, with new blades.
- 2 bonnet locating pins.
Gonna be a busy weekend, I can see.
Even after soaking the end of the shaft in Liquid Wrench and PB Blaster, the shaft refuses to turn in the bearing. The biggest problem I’ve found is that there isn’t a good way to get ahold of the shaft to try and break it loose from the bearing.
I’ve managed to force the shaft and stuck bearing out of the housing with a hammer, screwdriver, and a large bolt. Much to my father-in-law’s chagrin, I did manage to botch up the end of the shaft. Thankfully, it wasn’t too badly, so I should be able to file down the damage. Now to soak it more thoroughly in PB Blaster.
