My neighbour Jason is making a 500bhp drag-racing monster out of some old grandad's mid-60s Ford Falcon. The Falcoon of Doom is fitted with a
ll sorts of shiny hot-rod bit
s, many of which have been fabricated
in aluminium by one of Jason's mates. So I handed over my broken bracket and two days later Jason knocked on my door with it all fixed.
Next up I couldn't find studs to replace the two broken ones on the rack at my local Burson's parts place, so I bought some long 5/16" UNF bolts and gave them to my Daimler club friend Michael, who was kind enough to cut the bolts down to the correct length and cut UNC threads on the other end.
The studs screwed in easily, with some Loctite on the threads, on Friday night and I left them overnight to cure.
It is a freezing cold, wintry Saturday, but after a bracing walk back to Burson's to buy some spring washers (why is it you *never* have all the little bits you need?) I was ready to get going.
Firstly I had to drain the radiator -- which of course meant I got as much coolant all over the garage floor as in the bucket.
Then it was surprisingly easy to undo about 8 bolts to get the top branch of the water pump off.
The four bolts to hold the alternator bracket were easy to get to with a socket once the water pump branch was off, and from there I put everything back together, refilled the radiator and started her up.
There was one small coolant leak at the small-diameter pipe that takes coolant from the water pump into the manifold, but loosening and re-tightening the clamp seemed to cure that.
So that's another problem solved: next up it'll be time to take off the rocker covers and do the tappets (there's a nasty tappety clatter on start-up on the left bank), and I need to check the right-hand exhaust, as I think it's blowing where the manifold joins the downpipe (which is of course directly under the steering box and hence almost impossible to get at!)
1 comment:
Hi there -- just came across your great blog.
My father in New Zealand is currently restoring a Daimler 15. He's having a particularly tough time reconstructing the car's wooden sub-frame, due to insect damage. I see from your site that you have a friend named Roy Shelton who's undertaking the same labour of love. I'm wondering if there's any way we can put them in touch. Certainly, if Ray or you have any advice, it would be very much appreciated. Here's my e-mail address: snichols@american.edu.
Many thanks,
Simon Nicholson
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