myglaren wrote: 26 Jan 2021, 12:58
I thought that with it being a modification of a primary safety system that you may need an engineers report to satisfy them.
It's a worthwhile question - definitely worth a ten minute phone call. Hopefully not as that would be gigantic pain in the tail to sort out right now I suspect. Though in the same breath, I really do want to get her properly (rather than informally!) MOT'd at some point - only reason that's not been done already is that none of the garages I have any sort of working relationship with do Class III tests. The nearest one which has a decent reputation if I remember right was further away than I was comfortable driving TPA in the early days...obviously that's not really an issue these days.
The box with my new steering linkage ball joints has turned up. There's a little play in a couple of the ones on the car and one of the others has a shredded boot, so I think it's time to replace them.
These are standard Mini track rod ends so readily and cheaply available. Conveniently they've got a hammered black finish as well which fits in perfectly with what I've generally been using for the cabin metalwork!
I'll probably do that one first just to confirm they are actually correct as that one is by far the easiest to get to. That's a job for another day though.
Today I wanted to get things mostly buttoned back up - but there were a few tasks I wanted to do while I had the seat and service hatch out.
[] CVT Belt.
Our research had shown that the Dayco HP2020 should be a "drop in" replacement for the original Dayco 43-5639 belt. Having compared the two next to each other they appear identical (well within the variance that there seems to be between various batches of the original belts).
Checking my notes it's hard to believe I've done a little over 400 miles since I fitted that NOS belt! Taking a close look at it though it seems to be doing absolutely fine.
I was particularly interested to check for any signs of either overheating or the outer braiding failing given that she's done quite a few high speed blasts up the A5 recently - and I don't think howling along at 70 was really in the original design spec for these belts! That's one area where the HP2020 is a better bet as I know it's factory spec for some vehicles with quite a bit more power than the Invacar so hopefully it should be able to stand up to this sort of punishment reasonably well. Even if I do wind up changing the belt annually or something as a service item at £35 it's hardly the end of the world.
Changing the belt takes a grand total of about fifteen minutes from stepping into the garage and requires a 17mm spanner...that's it. In my case there's also an 8mm one needed to actually open the service hatch. Suffice to say these are kept in the car as standard these days. That belt I've taken off will be getting tucked away somewhere in either the engine bay or under the front hatch as a spare so should I have issues with a belt letting go unexpectedly in the future I shouldn't have issues getting myself going again.
The HP2020 is a directional belt, so the arrows want to be pointing towards the left hand side of the car (as if you're sitting in the driver's seat), I assume this is to do with the direction that the braiding is woven, so if a thread were to come loose the rotation would tend to keep it from unravelling.
Virtually impossible to get a photo of that because of the guard and poor lighting...but you get the idea.
[] Gearbox oil leak.
While TPA's engine is pretty much entirely oil tight, the gearbox isn't. It's fine when stationary but is clearly losing some when you're driving. One of the main sources is from the top cover, from where it's then running down the offside of the gearbox casing. I can't tell for certain if there's an additional leak from that driveshaft seal as well until I've sorted the leak immediately above it. Helpfully it's only held on by four nuts so hopefully an easy solution. It doesn't look like there was ever a gasket in here, just a smear of instant gasket goop. So I've scraped it back and replaced it with the same.
While I had the cover off I checked to make sure the oil level hadn't dropped - and it is still level with the top of the fill plug. It is a bit murky though and seems to have frothed up more than I'd expect from my messing with the pulleys while fitting the belt.
When I changed this oil originally it was drained cold when the car had been sitting for a while...so I reckon there may well have been some gunge in the bottom that was left behind (there's no drain plug on the gearbox so you have to drain it with a suction pump). The car will be getting an oil and filter change in roughly 150 miles anyway so I'll make sure that the gearbox and diff oils are changed then as well - I'll make a point of ensuring it's done right after a run so nothing has a chance to settle out this time. If it has been foaming though that won't have helped with any potential leak issues.
[] Electrical Isolator Switch.
I noticed that this was wobbling around a bit by random chance so took the opportunity to nip this up a bit.
Easy fix.
[] Seat improvement.
The seat base on the Invacar is a little unusual because the seat is designed to be able to slide a foot or so over to the left to aid someone transferring from a wheelchair into the car. To allow this it sits on rollers at both the front and the rear. The lateral movement is only locked by a single latch on the front runner...the downside of this is that between play in the latch, the front rollers and the unsecured rear, the rear of the seat can of course shift a little - probably an inch or so - during cornering. I imagine this was probably far less of an issue with the original seat as it wouldn't provide any lateral support to speak of - the one I have fitted does though. After a year and nearly a thousand miles, the feeling of that moving just as you start to go into a corner is still extremely disconcerting.
My solution for this was actually very simple.
I just drilled two holes through the rear of the seat frame, through the back of the backplate the runner is attached to and out the back of the bulkhead, then stuck two bolts through it. This simply prevents the frame from being able to move left or right.
It's a tiny detail in the grand scheme of things, but I think it's one of those things which will make a huge difference to how pleasant the car is to drive.
[] Reassembly.
Last thing I had to do before putting the interior back together was to return the rigid brake lines to their clips, then it was just a matter of putting the hatch back in place and bolting the seat back in. Which took about half an hour because it decided to fight me.
That seems to happen about one in four times you have the seat out, it just refuses to line up properly when you're trying to get the bolts in. Got there in the end though.
That's where I ran out of time today - hence why there are still tools strewn all over the place. I haven't fully bled the brakes yet as I'll obviously need to do that once I've fitted the new master cylinder and done the associated plumbing modifications. I did get enough air out though so I could get full pressure in the braking system to do a leak check on the pipework I'd disturbed - everything seemed just fine.
Before I got stuck into the Invacar I did take a look at the alternator on the Jag. I wanted to see how accessible it isn't.
Actually looks a lot less buried than I expected...Awkward yes, but not utterly impossible. I reckon once the airbox is out of the way and maybe that idler for the air conditioning belt it should be *reasonably* accessible. Of course being a Jaguar I'm sure there will be one fastener that's completely inaccessible and probably isn't shown on the parts diagram just for giggles...I'll have a closer look and pull a couple of bits and pieces out when I've got a bit more time...but I'm leaning a lot more towards having a bash at changing the alternator myself than I was this time yesterday.
So a lot of little things today, but it feels like a reasonably productive afternoon as it ticked a few things off on the whiteboard in the garage.
What sot of oil goes in the Invacar gearbox and diff?