Sunday 1st March 2020
When nothing seems to go right !
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| The wiring is a problem ! |
pretending to be a mechanic - Underneath I am still just someone with an inquisitive mind who is willing to have a go. As a result, when some of the more "difficult" mechanical skills are required, I am often left floundering. With the Healey it was somewhat easier because the car was mostly located in Classic Car Clinic with their expert mechanics, so when an issue came up that stretched my knowledge, I had them to fall back on, and often they were able to even help me do the job. Another issue is age !! My strength is not what it was, so often difficult bolts are hard to undo, and additionally, as I do not have a hoist, my car is at floor level, and much of my day is spent getting down on the floor and then up again repeatedly (often to get a spanner I forgot !), so at the end of the day I am exhausted. As a result of this, I decided to have a few days sitting inside the car doing the wiring - It may have been less physically exhausting, but since I am even less proficient as an auto electrician than I am as a mechanic, it would prove to be mentally exhausting instead !
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| Sally & Mike arrive at the door ! |
Shortly after we finally got back home, a long time family friend passed away, and Janet announces that she is off to the funeral. "Where will you stay?" I carefully ask - already knowing the answer. "With Sally, of course" she replies. I did make an effort to suggest that perhaps she did not need to attend the funeral, but of course that was quickly shot down in flames. "When are you going to come back ?" I ask. "Perhaps not till after my birthday", she replies. 😳 Fortunately I had a medical appointment the day before her birthday, so she planned to come back for that, so it looked like everything would work out.
Finally I set off to the airport to pick up Sally & Mike, telling Janet I had to "pick up a couple of items". The plane was an hour late arriving, (of course !) so by the time I got home Janet was in her pj's and ready for bed ! Sally and Mike had gone to great lengths to bring balloons and humerous outfits to surprise Janet, so I had to get Janet into a dressing gown so she could answer the front door. "Who on earth can that be at this time of night - Why don't you answer the front door ?" she asks. Close to giving up, I finally got her to the door, and, having spent much of the last 3 weeks staying with them, it was more a case of "What are you doing here ?" rather than "What an amazing surprise !"
Ah well............Champagne before bed, and the next 3 days were spent eating, drinking, and exploring the Gold Coast, and a fine time was had by all. Eventually !
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| Oil cleaner needed internal cleaning |
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| The joys of wiring diagrams ! |
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| Original column wiring |
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| New column wiring |
inbuilt loom that fits inside the steering column and carries the wires down from the turn signal and ingnition switch and out to the main loom. The trouble was that all the plastic parts on my turn signal switch were perished and falling apart, so I needed a new one. This duly arrived from California and was almost identical - except the 8 wires just end loose - I would have to refit them into the inbuilt loom section, and this requires special 2.5 mm wide spade clips !! I am still waiting on these to arrive, so more on this next time !
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| Small clips on bottom of wiring |
Understand the title for this post now ? 😊
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| One way of wiring ! |
internally in order to spread the current between 2 or 3 separate fuses. The moden box does not enable this, so I have had to build a number of "wire junctions" to enable a single wire to be split to multiple terminals. It doesn't look pretty, unfortunately, but I think it will work......... I will only know once a battery is connected !!
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| Rear swinging arm refitted |
turnbuckle and chain to get it into position, and it was NOT easy ! The 2nd side was somewhat easier, but finally I was done. By this time friend Steve had fitted all the bearings and seals to the two rear trailing arms, so after picking them up, I set-to to refit them. For once I was stunned at how easily it all went back together, and I even got all the positioning marks I had made before dismantling to line up correctly. Woo hoo !!
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| Brakes go back together |
first one seemed VERY tight length wise, being stretched skin tight. Didn't look right. Measured the hose against the original,
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| And one side finished ! |
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| 4 torsion bar cover bolts |
This seemed very tight to me, but who am I to argue with the experts ? I struggled to get them to 60 ft lbs, so I thought that would do. On moving to the second side, I got three of the 4 bolts to 60 ft lbs, and as I did the last bolt ...........it snapped ! This was
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| The broken bolt |
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| Wrong hose supplied !!! |
underneath, I saw that while the length was OK, the fittings were wrong ! This side is different from the LH side, and needs a female fitting on each end, not one male and one female. The supplier had sent the wrong parts - backed up by the first one that had seemed too short. At this point, being a Sunday so I could not even call up the supplier to complain, I gave up and came inside and read a book. Excellent decision - A fascinating book about George Mallory, possibly the first man to ever climb Mount Everest, but since he never made it back down, it was impossible to prove.
So now I am waiting on brake parts for a couple of days, and am somewhat frustrated, to say the least !
Rest of the pics are here :- https://photos.app.goo.gl/omXiT7VMAiJbs5ka8
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