Spyder restoration - long time coming

[peteracs]

Bolts all had over an hour at 200 degrees. Not sure if it will make any difference as the plating was a few days ago now and the bits I have read say needs to be done ASAP after plating. I will carry a few spares in the car and have some locking bolts fitted as well, so any failures will not be the end of the world.

Peter

[squiglyzigly]

I wonder what effect years of heating the wheel bolts from brake heat transfer has?
Just a thought I woke up with this morning? (Is isolation getting to me?)

Ian

[WestonE]

Ian Worry when you reach the Jack Nicholson in the Shinning stage!

[squiglyzigly]

Ian Worry when you reach the Jack Nicholson in the Shinning stage!

 

[GerardJPC]

That might perhaps be a cost saving measure in 1300s, Neil.  I will dig out my brochures but think that door inserts to match the seats were possibly a thing in 1600s.

Coming back on this, I have checked the brochure and some books and the fabric inserts on the doors of Beta Coupes did indeed match the colour of the seat fabric.   

[peteracs]

Not a lot of progress due to elderly parents needing support and due to positive test having to isolate etc. (I was part of family group, did not have test, but assume all 4 of us, sister mother and father, were exposed and hence had it). As it happened mother and father had jabs a few weeks before and both myself and sister had no symptoms. She suspects she had it back in March 20 before last lockdown and me, well maybe I had been exposed before, who knows. Mother and father had mild symptoms thankfully. All back to normal now, my jab is this coming weekend.

Ok, enough of that. I have now managed to fit the new brake master cylinder, not fully bled the system yet, but there is fluid in all the system and a bonus is that the servo appears to work which was in unknown.

Also after a false start with bug in latest version of IOS, I have run up the AEM X-WI-FI and had a look at the mixture levels with the car idling and as expected it ran rich when first fired up at between 10 and 11, then when the choke comes off it ran very lean on small throttle opening, too lean to keep going, but in excess of 15, keeping the revs up resulted in around 12-13 which is what I was expecting to see. So the carb is coming off and the idle jet etc is being cleaned again....

Peter

[peteracs]

Another couple of days managed in the garage, great now the temperature is a much more enjoyable 8-10 degrees.

Ticked off a few jobs which have been kicking around. Yesterday managed to do a start on bleeding the brakes which went well. A few weeping joints which responded well to a bit of tightening up (they are all new so hard to know when too tight on first tightening). Ended up with all the circuits bled and a sort of ok brake pressure, all the callipers appear to be working. Still need to do some more bleeding which is not a surprise given starting from scratch. The pressure bleed unit I bought is proving much better than the vacuum system. The trick is to not put brake fluid in the bottle and keep the pressure below 20psi.

I removed the carburettor and stripped it ready for its ultrasonic clean, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a 10l one as the carb was proving hard to get crud off of. Interestingly I found that the fuel stop solenoid had been disconnected whilst running the engine recently and on inspection found the spring inside all gummed up, hence ineffective.

I also cleaned the under the car part of the handbrake mechanism and adjusted the new handbrake cable. On applying it I was pleasantly surprised to find the rear brakes come on and on release they come off. I had been unsure of the handbrake mechanism in the rear brakes since rebuilding, but all was as expected, a full result.

I have a decent pair of the rubber boots which surround the steering rack as it pokes out of the engine bay, but they were pretty dirty, so out with scrubbing brush, CIF and scraper. The end result is below after a quick squirt of rubber restorer. Happy with that.

Also tidied up the last bits of the wiring in the engine. Mainly the new wiring from the electronic ignition and the fan motor wiring to the new fuse.

Last job was to cut two pieces of wood which I intend to use to setup the tracking using the parallel string method. More on how successful that is in the days to come!

Peter

[peteracs]

Not such a successful day today, spent 3 hours fastening the 4 outer bolts of the front anti roll (sway) bar. Got there in the end after much playing with jacks and bits of wood to ease it into place.

Ultrasonic cleaner has arrived and liquid for it arrives Monday, so hopefully will have clean carb Wednesday if all goes well.

Tomorrow, another go at bleeding brakes, then wheels on and finish tightening the suspension and start on setting up the tracking.

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter

You have my sympathy on the anti roll bar bolts. I remember leaning on a pry bar whilst I did them up. On the suspension do it up with load on i.e. put the car on ramps. This avoids creating bush pre-load in the wrong place in the travel.

Eric

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

Thanks for the tip, I was simply going to tighten the rears standing level.

Peter

[peteracs]

Well not quite the planned day I had envisaged. I had a thought about the steering wheel position and on trying it, it was miles out when in the centre of the rack position. The steering wheel on the column is keyed, so you cannot just move it round from what I can see, so I had to unbolt the column and the lower joint from the rack and reposition it. One I wish I had thought of when I was reassembling it originally. Then on to the tie rod adjusters. I remembered one of them was difficult to screw, and it certainly was, so I decided to rescue one from a spare rack which had been living outside for a while. Took quite a while to get the adjuster off, but it was in good condition and it screwed on much better meaning I can adjust the toe in much easier. Then it was a matter of screwing both adjusters fully on to the tie rod end and the rack and tightening up the ball joints. Simple, but after I had just done this I remembered the rubber boots from the other day and you need the ball joints off to get them on......

The ball joints thankfully came off easily, rubber boots loosely pushed on and ball joints retightened. Last job was 4 wheels on and remove the axle stands the car has been on for the last couple of years.

That means the actual alignment, suspension tightening and brake bleeding will be another day.....

Peter

[peteracs]

I have spent a couple of part days on the alignment for all 4 wheels. I am using a method which I will call the string method. You can find numerous videos on it on the Internet.

This basically involves two poles (I used lengths of wood) cut approx 12 inches wider than the car and each one has two slots cut into them using a saw. The distance between the slots is approx 10 inches wider than the distance between the outer rims of the front wheels. One pole is mounted so it is level with the centre of the wheel and placed just in front of the car, the other is the same height and placed just behind the car. I used axle stands and fastened the poles to them. Then take some string and connect the front and back poles using the slots as fixing points.

You then need to measure the distance of the string from the centre of each wheel and adjust the poles until the distance is equal for the front wheels and the back wheels. Note the back wheels are slightly closer together so you will find the gap is slightly wider for them than the front wheels. Once you have equal gaps side to side this means the string is parallel to the car and you can then take measurements of the front and rear of each rim, obviously centre the front wheels before doing this. Haynes gives you the differences, but in general a 3mm difference front to rear on each wheel is what I set it to. Also remember the back wheels point inwards and the front wheels point outwards (toe in and toe out).

Adjusting on the front is via the small tube at the end of the track rod ball joints and for the rear it is the rear lower suspension bar which connects the hub to the centre of the car.

On mine I had to remove one of the rear rods as it would not adjust sufficiently due to a build up of crap in it. A fairly simple job for me as I have had the hub removed recently so the nuts etc are easy to undo.

Now on with rebuilding the carb after having the main body in the cleaner. We will see if that has made any difference hopefully tomorrow.

[frankxhv773t]

When I had a few pennies to spend on some retail therapy a while ago I invested in a Tracace laser alignment tool. I'll admit it's £75 more expensive than some sticks and string but handy to have if you periodically need to do tracking.

[peteracs]

Hi Frank

I had assumed a Hitech solution would be loads of money and came across this method online and thought I would give it a go as it seemed pretty simple if a little time consuming. It would be interesting to know what you bought?

I recently watched a video on how Mercedes dealers check the tracking/castor etc and that is real Hitech and must cost a small fortune to buy (it was a US video taken in a main dealer).

Peter

[squiglyzigly]

Hi Peter,
It must feel good to hang those axle stands up.

Tracking. It’s a curious thing, in fact maybe even personal. Over the years on various FWD Italian cars I’ve often experimented with it. Like yourself, having done a few beta road miles and several hundred track laps I believe tracking is the most important setting to give or take your confidence and trust in a car.
The Beta for me has always been the most responsive car to the smallest of changes, a testament to its design.
The front tracking toeing out has never worked for me personally. Toe out gives slightly better traction but makes the turn-in slower. Mid corner is fairly similar but ‘on’ power corner exit is much better with toe-in. And if you push to understeer I always felt the toe-in made the car come back quicker and more predictably. But I suspect the factory setting is designed to be safe and manageable.

I’m not suggesting you change anything you’ve done or that the factory settings are wrong, but maybe to inspire an experiment when the time is right. Get to know your car and then see what works for you.

As for rear toe, there is only one setting that is safe. ‘Factory toe-in.’
Toe in or expect handfuls of opposite lock every time you lift the throttle mid turn. Fine for mid-corner trajectory adjustments on the track, but quite tricky to live with on the road.


Ian

[peteracs]

Hi Ian

Thanks, interesting comments and will squirrel away for future consideration. I am just really happy to get the wheels setup somewhere near given I have had most of the suspension off the car.

Today was another of those milestone days. I finished rebuilding the carb and put it back on the car. After warming the engine for 5 mins or so the choke came off and it was noticeably better at lower revs (previously impossible to idle below 2000rpm). After a number of goes tweaking the idle screw, the accelerator adjustment screw and also the idle timing I achieved stable idle at around 800 rpm. A full result.

So fresh with success I pushed the boat out, jacked up the front and went for clutch and gear selection. I was pretty amazed to find that there was no issues at all given the clutch has not moved in over 11 years. I was expecting it to be stuck to the flywheel. Also managed to select all gears without major issue, albeit not going down the road.

Next up remove the front jacks and for my first time I actually drove the car. Admittedly only 10 yards onto the drive and then back into the garage at very slow speed as the brakes are not 100% yet. The good news is the clutch feels very smooth, though I have no way of knowing if there is any clutch slip yet. It should however be in fairly good condition as the car has not actually done that many miles. The other good news was there were no nasty noises from the gearbox in the gears I used, 1st, 2nd and reverse.

I am now concentrating on the brakes as I want to put them to bed before I move on.

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter

Fantastic news and I am suitably jealous of your progress just in time for Spring sunshine. The Clutch and Brakes will both have to bed in. You can expect a springy brake pedal with more travel until the pads work into the discs.

Eric

[HFStuart]

First drive under it's own power is a great feeling. Have a beer or three!

[frankxhv773t]

Peter, "Trackace" is what I bought. It aligns one front wheel against the other so you have to make sure you have puled up straight before you start measuring. Otherwise it works very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCo72Fyrao

[peteracs]

Hi Frank

Looks very simple to use, glad they appear to provide a conversion chart to degrees!

Peter