A Californian drying out in South Africa

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African Imp
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Does anyone have experience of a failed rear wheel bearing?

I ask as the noise that comes from the nearside rear of the car may be just that?

The noise only really sounds bad when the car has driven about ten miles and things have warmed up, brakes etc?

At first I suspected the UJ, I still have that in mind but the sound is more like an intermitant rub rather than a UJ??

Would it be the Mintex brake liner ? I cleaned the drum out and also trimmed the forward edges of the brake liner to see if that will help?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

617sqn wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2019 6:08 pm Wow. That's it then. No more posts from Roy then. It's all done. Finished.

Oh well. There are lots of new forum members posting now, so we can look forward to seeing some refurb images and information. 8)

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I am not quite finished with this rebuild yet, the cars original export engine still has a set of 0.030" oversized pistons to fit into it, the crank and bearings may well be ok?

Then of course in just 130 miles more I need to change the Shell 20W/50 engine oil and filter on the engine that is now in the car :D

I would like to thank Bob Allan of The Imp Club spares for sourcing the 0.030" sized pistons for me, they are very lightly used and almost like new, the rings I had in stock and are made by Repco.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

The kind of noise that was coming from the rear of the car was mentally narrowed down to a wheel bearing, a process of elimination?

In all my Imp ownership and driving this fault has never happend to me before, It was not a lack of grease as the bearing was a sealed unit.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Outer bearings, the red one was on the car, with stainless steel spacers to mimic the correct bearing.

This set up was on the car when I bought it twenty five years back, that bearing is sealed on both sides and is still perfect as far as I can feel when I rotate it.

How long does a sealed bearing last, 20,000 hours, more?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

When I worked on the nearside rear hub in February 2015 , there was some free play in the hub splines, to overcome that and stop any further wear I used Loctite 648 retaining fluid, the same as is used for bonding 998cc liners into the alloy block.

I will have lubricated the shaft splines to allow removal at a later time.

This time and on removal the hub required a puller to remove it, that was not a super tight bond as was the case with red 271 Loctite, I have just cleaned the hub and splines, the Loctite 648 is still good and the hub is ready to fit again.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Bobbycham wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:25 am How much time does this car get out on the road,being driven ? It seems to spend a lot of time stripped down.


Bob Imp005
Well spotted!

I have owned the car past twenty five years?

In the past ten it was driven rarely but since I bought it back it has been driven more often, in the recent period daily.

So the past and its fifty plus years has caught up with the car?

I have never had the rear suspension off, so while work was done on the rear brakes and the drivers side UJ and I think bearings were changed on that side, very little more has been done to the rear .

Before I bought the car back very little was ever done to the car other than driving it, lack of maintainace then has caught up with both myself and the car, I am ok with this as it was always a work in progress.

This drive shaft is what I might term the last of the larger jobs that have been waiting for me to do, of course others may arrive any day now?

The image is in 2007, I sold the car in 2008, then it was lost for a period of four years.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

Are they 1 " shafts for the Sport spec engine? The normal ones might twist when you put your foot down :?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by oli »

Behave yourself Peter... :D
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

New bearings and of the correct pattern just happened to be in stock, I used Shell Oils Retinex A grease to lubricate the bearings with.

The lip seal was supplied by the Imp Clubs Bob Alan.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

The shell must be twisted Roy from that bad rear ender try and do some diagonal measures from the floor suspension mounting bolts to the end chassis legs. Do it with plumbobs and string, should give you an idea if it's far out, see theres another project for you to do :D
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

617sqn wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:51 am Yeah. Unbolt the rear crossmember that the arms attach to, whack it with a big hammer so it moves by half the distance ie 4 mm and retighten it.

Or just stop being so critical and leave it alone ?? :roll:

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Two reasons that I have wanted to know why my engine sits on the one side of the engine bay?

One was why?

The other is that the fitting of the Rotoflex on the near side has been such a difficult job to do.

The spare subframe I have here shows that the holes for the fixing bolts are 1/2" in diameter, if the bolts are 3/8" or 9/16" in diameter there would be very little hope of shifting the sub frame the 4mm ( 3/16" ) required?

Note, due to the way the body and sub frame are shaped I would say that movement of the sub frame left or right was never an intention, the 1/2" holes are oversized to allow the mounting bolts to fit, not for adjustment.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by 617sqn »

Perhaps the fault lies with the way that the transaxle mounts location has been manufactured ? If that is to one side the whole assembly will be skewed.

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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

A general view of the area I had to work in, the radiator heat deflector, while its in the way to some extent does allow enough space to work around.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Slot sizes, in my case the extra length gave me say another 3mm side ways movement?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

An unexpected result of driving the car was that the rear engine mounting rubber has self centered itself.
Check the section which was fitted flush, it has now moved aft and is sticking out of the back of the alloy mounting.

The bush is new and was supplied by one of the Hillman Imp parts vendors, the steel tube is a tad undersized, not a loose fit but it does not require a press to fit it, a block of wood and a suitable hammer works fine.

The mounting and rubber bush removed was a genuine Rotoflex and new one.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

Just forget all about it now Roy, as you said yourself you're happy with how it goes so just use it and accept it's OK for your needs, you aren't going to correct the problem without jig checking and major bodywork by the looks of it so just leave it as it is unless it starts to create operational problems just carry on using it. Digging trying to find reasons will probably only show up others as well then you won't sleep at all night.
Don't forget to hang your stocking up.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

The second water pump I fitted since the engine rebuild started to leak as well, it has new bearings and a near new impeller but used seals, nice ones I noted, so I decided to hang in and see if running the engine bedded in the seals?

It has taken time and right now it will drip more when the pump is cold, warmed up it leaks very little and even after a decent run out yesterday and in 29c air temp, into holiday traffic, driving up the twisty Glen mountain roads the temperature stayed inside the white on the gauge and no additional coolant was required.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by 617sqn »

I'll bet you a tenner, Peter, that our Roy completely ignores you :lol:

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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Before I re check the manifold nuts are tight I have looked for other routes that air may be finding a way into the manifold.

Note the Blutack on the carb body, there is a hole under there which a screwdriver shows me to be very shallow, it was for a vacumm pipe and was not required, can air suck there, if it did both cylinders would be affected?

More possible is the hex headed plug on the suction pipe entry to the brake servo, I have tightened that more, a slight air leak there may be all that is the matter?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by 617sqn »

We've been trying to tell you that for years ! :roll:

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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

I've an idea R on the plug type stands for resistor but not sure I know it's what folk ask for down here in the south west I've heard them "Ooooh Rrrr"
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

The IMP does have a tendency to loosen off its nuts especially manifold and cam cover unless locking washer or nuts are used, maybe it's the frequency the engine runs at?, if you just have normal nuts and plain washers they will inevitably become slack and need checking each time you've had a run.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by 617sqn »

Zackly

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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

I don't think the idea was to run it in to 500 miles then at 501 miles floor it, don't forget to retorque the head at 500 too first, it might not be loose but needs tightening, but anyway you need to give it 1001 miles for the rings to bed in properly and then see about all the settings etc as the engine frees up.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

On return home and with the car parked I placed a clean sheet of newspaper under the drip area being the crank scroll.

A half hour later and an inspection shows not a single drop of oil, nothing at all.

The higher speeds on the freeway suited the piston rings?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

This is the area of wear, should it be lubricated?

Would the plates lock and with the ignition in the advance position?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by moose »

yes that would alter the points gap and also that alters the ignition timing and it would be erratic so sometimes will cause a normally idling engine to die at low revs other times not. Also and probably harder to tell is the acceleration would be slightly slower or faster depending on where the advance plate sticks and how long it sticks in place till it frees itself. This is like the brake scenario when people drag a car out of a garage commission it and use it then complain the brakes are poor so buy a disc conversion as it is newer and bigger therefore better, but if they had maintained the drum brakes properly then they would not have gone down that route, this is backed up by the amount of people who by my rear shoes due to the front discs locking too early it is usually a poorly maintained rear shoe set up causing that. Same with "i have fitted elec ignition as it is newer and better and only £12 delivered from e bay" nope sorry, just overhaul the dizzy use quality parts and keep it as it is tens of thousands of miles can be done like that, yes you have to add a bit of grease and oil here and there, make the odd adjustment but it takes minutes and is part of the joy of owning an old car.

If someone read your excellent thread and the others on here and noted all the age and component related pitfalls i reckon they could run an imp to 200k miles just like a brand new nissan micra only difference you would open the engine cover on the imp twice in comparison to the micra but it could be done. I did 9 rallies and some 3 k road miles in 2015 and never replaced a serviceable component on the car or had to tighten anything up and rallying is usually rated as 10 X more on a car so if oil change is recommended at 10k miles then on rally car you would change it at 1000 miles. oils, greases, fuel has come on so much you can stretch the service intervals from the recommended in the 60's etc

moral of the story check all components for wear everywhere before masking problems with more modern items that could be of worse quality.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

With a new distributor cap fitted and taking the advice of Moose, I went for a drive out of the valley and up to Suikerbossie, that is a long hill, a good mile of it, using engine revs and basically on acceleration all the way to the top I returned home and then inspected the NGK BP6ES spark plug.

Looks fine to me, plus I did not clean off the soot from when the engine was last run, so the plug has cleaned itself :D
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

A job that I have left right to the end of any works due to the ease of access when the plate is removed, is to refit my home made heat shield between the silencer and the twin Strombergs.

It will require the removal of the silencer.

Note, the row of holes on the side edge closest to the camera exist as the metal was cut from a steel shelf that I found in a scrap yard. :)
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

To fit the heat shield I knew that the silencer had to come off, what I forgot is the way that the exhaust manifold sits that I have to lower the engine to remove the silencer .

Anyway the shield is back in place, just need to do the bolts that fasten it and then refit the silencer :)

This was all down to The Nun who suggested that a heat shield was a good idea?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by oli »

Wouldn't it have been better to paint the underside silver to reflect the heat away?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

While I knew that the silencer had to be removed to be able to fit the heat shield I had forgotton what the process was to remove the silencer?

I got to the stage when I thought the engine cross beam needed removal as the silencer fits in such a way that the cross beam prevents its removal, I was about to give up on the job, then I realised that if I lowered the engine I could pull the silencer backwards and remove it.

Once the heat shield was in place I bolted it front and rear, two bolts each end and a pair of grub screws in the side chassis rail, it is very secure.

I started the engine to check that there were no rattles etc, to my surprise I reaised that the engine sounds quieter with the plate in place.

It should be noted that even with the plate being painted black on both sides, the reduction in heat to the Strombergs is very noticable if after a drive you place your hand in the space between the top of the plate and the carburetors.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

It's because Express Panels come bare metal with just a light covering of oil on them.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

These pics and with the card template that I used to have the heat shields cut to size from suggests and issue with how things will fit?
As my constant curve in the stainless plate will not work?

I think I can leave this idea alone?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

If you mod it now though Roy you will have to send every one who has bought one the improvement mod as well??
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

You can't think like that though now as you would never buy anything, you could get a new imp for under 1000 pounds and that's the cost of a rear wing now. Prices have gone up so your budget needs to if you want the right parts?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

The new cork gasket that I imported from one of the UK Imp parts suppliers has not lasted more than six months?

I suspect that the missing bits are floating around in the tank?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by oli »

Good excuse to drive the Imp then..?
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

The recent discussion on rear suspension adjustment reminded me of the road/race Imp that I did some eight years back for a chap from Scotland where the car was later shipped to.

The owner was advised to make the rear suspensions adjustable, the photo shows how that was done.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

Oh well if an expert said it that's all ok then.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

The car will have driven more than 100,000 kms than shown on the odometer as it had a spare one fitted when this one broke.

Distance is increasing if slowly.
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Now that the new engine has some hours on it having passed the 800 kilometer distance on the odometer, I find that if I start the engine and it was used the day before, ignition and starting now is instant, less so if the car has been unused for a few days.

This is down to how much petrol is in the twin Stromberg CD125 carburetor fuel bowls?

Either way what remains unused is the choke control, having worked so hard to have the choke working well some months back I can smile about those hours now :D
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Within reason its probable that this 1967 car is in as good as or even better condition than it has been in the last four decades, it certainally drives well :D

Fifty three years old!
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

A drive out along the freeway known as Ladies Mile took me to the turnoff the Oue Kaapse Weg ( old cape road ) by then it was feeling around 34c and the fog that I left Hout Bay in was a memory.

I did 42 kms in all, speed never more than 100kms as shown, that at least warmed all the systems up, even at plus 30c the water temperature never moved out of the white zone.
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African Imp
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

February 2020 Impressions has just arrived, in it was the 40 years of Imp Club transfer, how do I remove the air bubbles?
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African Imp
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Looking better?
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African Imp
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

So the sticker tells its story but it was not quite where I would like it to be and it did still have a small rash of bubbles, so I asked Grahame what was the best method to apply it?

This was his reply, he also sent me an image of a similar sticker on his own car, a perfect job and I think placed in a position which was a lot easier to apply?

Wet the sticker with soapy water and affix to the glass. Then smooth out with an old credit card which acts as a squeegee. This will result in no bubbles. If there are one or two remaining just prick with a sharp scalpel.

Here's mine using credit card method. Near perfect result.


Grahame Pearson
Editor, Impressions

I decided to leave the job until the next day as right then it was 34c here and cooking.
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African Imp
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

Now in place and smoothed down with the edge of a gate access card, with the water and soap mix underneath the transfer I could move it into position better.

This was worth the effort and the half hour that it took me to make a better job of placing the transfer which I hope will be on the car for many years to come?

I joined The Imp Club in 1994 I think?

Is it a transfer or is it a sticker??
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by The Nun »

Stickers of the sticky glue on kind arent good, you lose them if the glass gets broken or you sell the car, the static cling peel off on types is the best then you can apply it from car to car.
Peter Nunn...ey im member 00033
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African Imp
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Re: A Californian drying out in South Africa

Post by African Imp »

To repair the damage to the engine cover I have placed an order for some more 2K paints.
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