The Vusky. Clutch , H orrible bracket change

[Uncle Henry]

Hey Dave ! Where did you get the Information label from ? I could do with one for Stan re the cut-off switch, as copied from your earlier mod.

UH

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Hey Dave ! Where did you get the Information label from ? I could do with one for Stan re the cut-off switch, as copied from your earlier mod.

UH

Il bring you one to national if i can find tother one ive got

[Uncle Henry]

Thanks.

AG

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

CNC bits we are playing with at work
B post door striker and early van / Husky tailgate bit

[bazzateer]

More nice shiny newness. Good stuff Dave.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

CNC engine mount done for Barnaby - just because i can - And before you ask theres no advantage other than looks and its easier to clean

[moose]

This cnc stuff is fantastic Dave. Now you have the program it would be easy to change the bore diameter for a more readily available bush just need to experiment with what is available that gives the same cushioning as the originals.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So a heatwave and a car with a reputation of boiling , warping heads , headgaskets etc etc ---- not a good combo except a well maintained engine and cooling system should cope fine .
So as a trial i stuck some Thermax heat sensitive stickery things on the rads of both - these will tell you what the temp actually is and not what the gauge tells you ( although both mine are bob on ) .
These just give a " max reached " temp so its not a gauge but a good indication of the hottest it got , they dont return to how they were but stay on the indicated max reached .
Anyhoo Heres the results of both mine - heater off obviously or we would cook - first off the Singer in 27˚C after a 10 mile thrash .
Second is Barnaby after 140 odd miles to the full English plus 40 odd miles this week to work and back , you can see number 4 block was just beginning to change on this so maybe 85˚C is a more accurate reading of this one

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Gonna try one on the sump if i can clean the exterior of it enough so it sticks

[bazzateer]

I might try those.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Someone mentioned sticking a Thermax on the sump and seeing as they come in a pack of 10 i thought id give it a go,
Stuck one on the oil filler canister and one on the sump of the Singer , will be interesting to see what they tell me

[bks974c]

whooo, looks good on the oil filter housing.

I've got some coming to go on the gearbox as it would be good to know if it needs additional cooling for track days.

Scott

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Thermax sticky temp thing stuck on Barnabys sump showed this after a 25 mile blat , Rad one remains at 82˚C. This being the hottest day so far ( 31˚C ) I recon thats OK

[moose]

Getting some good data there Dave. If you or anyone wants some stickers I have plenty in stock. £1.10 each plus the cost of a stamp.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Getting some good data there Dave. If you or anyone wants some stickers I have plenty in stock. £1.10 each plus the cost of a stamp.

Didnt know you used these Moose , feel in good company now

[bazzateer]

Mine arrived today. Planning to stick them on before National.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Mine arrived today. Planning to stick them on before National.

PS your stickers on my heap of a Merc - seemed apt

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So what would you expect from a " rebuilt " transaxle .
Well first off would you expect it to be dismantled , cleaned and any worn bits replaced , tolerances checked plus a full overhaul making sure its as best it can possibly be .
Or would you expect someone to just wipe an oily rag over it , change the diff and input seals as these are visible and pass it back as done .
Well I got the latter - twice - or was it three time - its stressed me out so much i cant bl***y remember
Oh and Im fairly certain after paying a fair chunk of money to have all this done youd like it to actually F U C K I N WORK !!!!!!
Well the box ive just fitted that had previously been " rebuilt " had this mess still in it - no wonder it was shite ,
Anyhoo Its just been redone again only this time by someone who doesnt offer this service but did it anyway out of kindness ( and probably feeling sorry for me ) and for this my gratitude knows no limits - THANK YOU SIR .
Finally I have a box that doesnt jump out of second , where first is actually available without trying to snap the lever off and thus far doesnt leak a drop .
THANKS AGAIN ,you know who you are - YOUR A STAR

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

At national Pete Fitzgerald sold me this genuine arm rest , never seen one before - just pictures .
However I can see why as the mounting set up is utter crap .
Anyhoo a bit of cutting and bending and it fits 100 times better , its held on with a wing nut and will fit any drivers or passenger door .
Bit ugly but its history all the same

[Bobbycham]

Really glad you have got gearbox worries sorted (by the sounds and looks of it)

Good to chat at Alton last week


GJ Bob

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Just to finish off the transaxle job I fitted a NOS clutch pedal I bought at national .
No more excess play or clunking when pressing the pedal - the clevis pin hole wears oval causing lots of free play .
Can you do it in situ = YES
Would I recommend doing it like this = HELL NO

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

National weekend did yield some handy bits , as well as the NOS clutch pedal , a NOS rear window lock I also picked up a NOS set of stub axles .
There was a catch however in that the bearing spacer wasnt on either , this is the stop for the inner bearing and also what the seal runs on .
My parts list says Stub axle C/W spacer implying that at one time they werent , the spacers are also listed in it .
Anyhoo I removed a spacer from a knackered stub axle and machined up a pair at work , I used bearing lock to hold it in place as well as it being pressed on .
Ive built up the drivers side with pins etc and once tother side is built il actually have a new pair for Barnaby ,

[moose]

King pin overhaul looks mint mate. Proper job how long did that take you to do it?

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

King pin overhaul looks mint mate. Proper job how long did that take you to do it?

Took an hour a spacer plus another hour to build up each unit - so 4 in total

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

NOS Stub axles are now fitted - 1 1/2 hours per side aint bad .
Ive had to play the game of " Guess the tracking " as it was miles out .
And no wonder given that back in the dim distance past of cobbling the thing together I used odd carriers , the arms were completely different

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

My " guess the tracking " turned out to be 6˚ toe in - failed on that then

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So to Barnabys tailgate seal that fell off ( combo of hot weather and leaky waxoil ) .
From what I remember the factory seal is mega squishy - much like a marsh mallow with blanked off front and sides - in other words a solid looking face with no tiny holes showing .
Its about 20mm wide by 13mm deep - go to 20mm x 10mm and it fits in the groove but the 10mm bit is too shallow so it doesnt seal on the flange .
Eventually i found some mega squishy stuff 25mm x 12mm with the solid looking front - sides are still full of tiny holes like foam is normally .
Anyway it fits - seems to seal all the way around and looks the part

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So now Barnaby has a newness tailgate seal it was time to sort out the lock.
Handle was NOS ages ago but the lock mech itself was utterly knackered with loads of wear esp. on the brass catch.
Yeh you can braze brass and build it back up but at 900˚C the spring inside would turn to liquid so I had to cut the thing open , braze the catch then MIG it ( badly ) back together .
Anyhoo another find at national was a near perfect tailgate lock with very little wear and an evil lively spring inside , mine was getting less Zebedee and more BIC pen if im honest .
So this evening and after a bit of adjustment ive got it shutting loverly , no slamming required , just a gentle push plus the seal is actually sealing all the way around so no fumeage or choking

[ImpManiac]

Good work, Dave. Choking is certainly best avoided.

IM

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So ive dived head on into Barnabys engine issue - ticking over on 3 but running on 4 .
No sure where i got the will but there you go .
Anyhoo way back at the national at Swanage I managed to get two L4 NOS bare heads 71981533 - AM4 .
Not seen AM4 ones or ones with the AE trade mark but i guess they are very late . I built one up and stuck it on my spare engine where it still sits .
Tother one was eventually built up in 2017 after id managed to get NOS valves / double springs , collets etc etc eventually building a complete NOS head .
Its been in the loft ever since --- until now that is whereby I ve stuck it on Barnabys block. Also had a couple genuine Reitz gaskets here so used one of these up .
Engine now runs great and strangely is much quieter
Not sure what that head was worth but more than it cost me i bet

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So back to Barnabys newly headed motor .
Done about 40 miles thus far however even with the instant starting and running OK I thought it might be a tad oot of tune , after all the decades ive had it you get a feel for this type of thing.
Checked the carb balance and sure enough it was way out , rear carb had way more suckage than the front one , Im certain this is due to the different flow of the head , they never go oot of balance normally .
Anyhoo ive sorted this out , checked the plug colour which is a tad rich however il leave this until its bedded in a bit more ,
Ive mulled on a head retorque but seeing as its a new head and its got a genuine head gasket i think il leave it alone ( thoughts please )
Not driven it since the carb balance so tomorrow will be the tell on it all.
Gotta new fuel filter to fit at some point too .
So far all the bits ive fitted are still attached

[oli]

If you have gone to the effort of fitting a genuine Reinz head gasket, I would retorque it after 500 -700 miles. It will reward you with reliability later...

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So the head did get retorqued , done just over 200 miles thus far , all seems fine

[Bobbycham]

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Id love to say id spent days or even weeks straightening out Barnabys oil cooler .
The reality is I sorted the ones you can see and blasted some VHT paint over it - All in 2 hours .
Fully restored

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Tiny update .
Done over 600 miles since fitting the rebuilt transaxle at the beginning of August , and yes its fine , had to adjust both front wheelbearings ( although weeks apart ) after fitting the NOS stub axles , i guess thats all bedding in as well
No issues with the new head / gasket and ive completely lost track of the mileage ive done since fitting it on 21st August , il probably re-torque it in the next few weeks and sort the one annoying tappet which hasnt settled in .
I think ive got a UJ on its way out but i cant be bothered to sort this as yet so il wait til the clunk becomes a bang

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Potential mis-fire , messing about / not a happy engine averted on Barnaby after a routine checkover .
Took the lightening whurler cap off and the centre fell out
NOS Lucas cap fitted - revs its little bonce off now

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Someone kindly sent me a non working partly dismantled but NOS ignition switch .
Anyhoo it didnt work as the contacts were basically green with water ingress .
Cleaned up fine though and tests OK on a meter at least .
Ive posted for you the image of a dismantled ignition switch

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Ive been doing key hole surgery on Barnaby .
Yep real actually key hole stuff sorting out the ignition switch , i have the rebuilt electricery stuff but the key barrel is quite knacked , im sure its not correct that you can pull the key oot and leave it running or the fact the keys fall oot whilst driving leaving the ignition on .
Thing is i wanted to keep the same key as it also fits the door and tailgate .
So having pulled it apart it became obvious the 5 tiny springs that operate the tumbler doodabs were shot and had no spring left to hold the key in .
I had another NOS one with the wrong key serial number and obviously the wrong number however being new it had new springs .
Anyhoo to cut a long story short i removed all the 5 springs from the new one and by removing each tumble in turn on mine replacing the springs one by one i got it working ,
not only that the keys now wont pull out or fall out whilst driving
Penny is for scale , only had three springs left in it that still resembled springs ( one twanged into the alternate universe ) , no wonder the key kept falling oot

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Gonna be changing Barnabys front bearings soon - its on me to do list .
As usual i just build up a spare pair of hubs and just swap em over as ive got ready here .
Anyhoo - two Timken NOS bearing sets - one UK made and one USA made .
Go figure !!
And yes ive changed the outer races as well

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Barnaby gets a bit of maintenance , Both front hubs plus bearings changed , Also re-torqued the head for the final time and checked the valve gaps - three exhaust ones are all 1 thou too big so il pretend i didnt see that - bolts didnt tighten further going by the marks i put on the bolt heads so thats that
No 1 - 8 thou
No 2 - 15 thou
No 3 - 8 thou
No 4 - 15 thou
No 5 - 8 thou
No 6 15 thou
No 7 - 8 thou
No 8 - 14 thou
As VGG says - good enough for the Girls we date

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Seeing as its been in many separate bits lately a 500 mile checkover on Barnaby was required .
Oil use - well a bit but its a 1974 engine rebuilt 15 years ago so il pretend I didnt see it = fixed .
Mixture seems fine although No. 1 runs a bit weaker than No. 2 which runs a tad richer - No. 3 and No. 4 are perfect - Again il pretend I didnt see that for the above reason stated in the oil consumption = fixed .
Coolant use = zero = fixed .
The clunk from the rear has now gone = fixed itself
Starts " right now " hot or cold " so thats still normal .
Need to check the new front wheel bearings for play now its done some miles but other than that its good enough until
sommat else falls off or self destructs

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Massive thanks to John A Ross for sending me down the remains of a carb undertray . I made the inspection hole too small on the last one , obviously making the hole bigger on my main bit was easy , problem then is the covers too small . Anyhoo after much butchery ive made a bigger cover from the one John sent down .
Its silver as that the only engine paint colour ive got

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Also got rather loaded up clearing the last bit of my late Fathers house

[RoyBlunt]

Going back to the silver paint on the carb undertray.... It has always seemed odd to me that the standard undertray is painted black on both sides. Surely a black surface is the best absorber of heat whereas a silver surface would reflect some of the heat. Thus it would make sense (to my mind anyway) to palnt the underside of the tray silver to absorb a bit less heat from the silencer anyway.

Roy

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Weird how a really simple task can turn into a nightmare .
Three way bleed valve thingy has been leaking for an age on Barnaby . Its been leaking between the valve thread and the three way bit . Anyhoos the valve lever then left the building so thought id just change the valve bit.
Could I get it to shift - hell no
Nae bother - il just change the whole thing .
Therein was tother issue - the nut that holds it to the mounting bracket was rusted solid - cue me over a fair few weeks a bit at a time sawing the nut through - 5 minute stints at a time - eventually today I got it off .
So now ive got a leak free three way valve ( with a home botched lever ) held on the bracket with a brass nut drowned in copper grease .
Time for coffee

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

So within the sea of negative comments I often get when i take the Singer to any car show theres one positive comment that always brings a smile .
That being the Guinness coil
I did it moons ago , problem is for it to work I had redesign the coil bracket , normal brackets wrap around the coil making the effect null and void .
Anyhoo to alleviate the winter boredom Ive made one for Barnaby .

[Uncle Henry]

What negative comments, Dave ? Or do you mean the usual stuff about cement in the "froot", head gaskets etc ?

AG

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

What negative comments, Dave ? Or do you mean the usual stuff about cement in the "froot", head gaskets etc ?

AG

Usual stuff plus ive ruined it by lowering / roll cage etc etc

[Uncle Henry]

Have to ignore the ignorant, mate.

UH