New Kit arrives at Phaeton Towers GTM K3

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Phaeton

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Early start this morning, up at 06:15 mug of coffee & out into the truck, fill it up with fuel & off I go, A14 is closed so 180 miles, 3.5 hours & a divert later I end up in deepest darkest Kent I pull into the farm for my latest acquisition. Met up with Derek who drove it onto the truck, said my Goodbyes & set back off up North, must have been parked as it's not showing on the MOT history database. The fun started when I tried to reverse it off the truck, the gear selection is a like a stick in the puddle of treacle, something must be wrong as there is no way it can be that bad & driveable, suspect a bush or a link has come loose. It's the 1.4 K series through a rod change R65 gearbox, they must use something like the Mini but with 2 rods, could sort of feel the engine moving as well, so that might be the actual reason. I have to finish a couple of little jobs on the Beetle & then onto the GTM, hopefully have it at Stoneleigh assuming Stoneleigh is on & not called off.


 

Phaeton

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Got a few minutes on the GTM yesterday, it's not on my drive so it's not as easy to do stuff on, but it fired up straight away which is a good sign. Went through all the lights as the idea I think is to just take it for an MOT & let them decide what needs doing, all works apart from the 3rd brake light, not needed but as it's there it ought to work. Took off the wiring & with the aid of a stick & a moving seat proved I had volts going into the unit. Pulled it apart & brought it home.

IMG-20200318-091731.jpg


Should have 3 582 bulbs but there is only 1 & that had bad connections, cleaned up the terminals & used the single bulb to prove it, but it's now all working, just waiting for some new bulbs to be delivered.

Other things not working are rear fog lights, the switch on the dash lights up so it's a case of tracing wires or to start with check the bulbs. The windscreen washer pump runs but I'm not getting any fluid on the screen, YES I have a screen. Once they are fixed I'll get it taken down for MOT.

The front indicators look a bit of a mess although they work,

IMG-20200317-155543.jpg


I think they are Sierra so on the lookout for some new/old ones, I believe the foglights are off an XR4 & like Rocking Horse droppings, so the alternative might be to remove both of them, fibreglass some of the hole up & find a suitable set off something else, just a shame the car is white otherwise it would be easier to paint the bumpers
 

Phaeton

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Bit more done tonight onto the fog lights, it has a pair but neither work, started with the easy bit, pulled the fronts off to test the bulbs offside was fine, nearside flashed as I tried to get it out, couple of wiggles later it's on, still pulled out the bulb & cleaned the holder. Back to the offside I had 12V on the terminal but no earth, after pulling out the holder I found



It has cleaned up but will need a new terminal on the wire & may have to look at replacing them later in the year, looks like somebody mounted them on foam which is why they are holding water. Personally I hate rear foglights & never use them, so I may blank them off & use the 3rd brake light as a fog & brake light, just needs a diode in the circuit.

So once they are finished tomorrow, hopefully the last thing I need to sort is the windscreen washer, I can hear the pump just no water coming out, then it can go for test, although I may have to look at the gear change before my MOT tester collects it, it's like stirring a pudding trying to find a gear, need to get the arse in the air to look, but it's not at home, it's on a drive 1/2 mile away with no tools.

 

Phaeton

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The car has been up at my fathers bungalow so working there has been a little difficult as he has very few tools now, at 95 he has very little need for them, most have migrated down to mine. Advantage up there is I can be undercover whereas at home it's out on the open drive.

But decided to swap the Beetle over with the K3 to try to get a few jobs done over the weekend. Getting it off the drive was fun the gear stick is like a spoon in treacle, no idea what gear you might get, so that was the first job to tackle. The forward backward movement seemed to work it was across the gate that was not working, I wanted to take the whole thing off but couldn't spilt the forward/aft movement shaft, so whilst it was still on the car I managed to drill out the bar from 6mm to 8mm & put a new bolt in, it's taken up some slack but I suspect it will still be a horrible gear change, but hopefully I only have to lie with it a few months until I can get my 1.8VVC rebuilt & fitted along with a PG1 box which will go to cable change. I had to remove a section of the exhaust, I'm hoping when I try to put it back tomorrow it's not going to be in the way, I may have to modify it with a large hammer.
 

Phaeton

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Took the rear clamshell off to rewire the back lights, keep looking at the VVC cylinder head I will take the plunge one day :lol:


 

Phaeton

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Looks a bit neater now, just need a few grommets & more fixings to tie wrap the wiring to.

 

Phaeton

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Been putting off rebuilding the VVC head for several months but decided to tackle if yesterday afternoon, well what a job, reckon it's something that if you did on a regular occasion it would be something you could do easily, but the first time wow what a tricky thing to do. You start with



Which you have to build into



Then offer it up to the head whilst trying to locate those spigots into the holes in the previous image whilst also engaging the small cog into the teeth of cam timing adjuster



Once you have done it you end up with



However then you have to lock that end off & repeat the same at the other end but this time you have slightly less movement because you cannot adjust it slightly after fitting like you can with the first end.

Then the only other issue now that there is no way to test you have it all correct until it's fully built, installed in the car & up & running !!!!

From start to finish I was at it over 6 hours, must have built & rebuilt it over 15 times, it was one of those, no, no, no, no, no, no, no that's not right, oh that's right on it slips without issue,

 

Phaeton

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Put te VVC head on the back burner, still not convinced I've built it right, anyway, Eric the Beetle went to his new home last week so as I need a runaround it was back to the GTM to fulfill that position, but as no MOT it couldn't be used, so booked it in for Thursday.

Set off to the MOT place, got about a mile from home & lost all power, engine just cut out, tried to restart it & nothing happened when I turned the switch, no lights on dashboard, no starter on the key. Ah has the battery somehow got disconnected, nope as all the lights, indicators, wipers all wrok. So phones the MOT place up to say I wasn't coming, phones a friend to come tow me back, it had a new starter the day before I bought it, so checked all the wiring the best I could in the engine bay but found nothing wrong, just thought I'd give it another try & it fired straight up. Rang & cancelled tow & then had to decide what to do about MOT, decided to press on, when I got there he hadn't finished the previous anyway ;D

Car was sat there running for 45 minutes or so whilst he did the test, had a discussion about how the emissions should be tested, its was registered in 1999, so the rules say it has to be tested on the numbers on the V5C, well like every kit I've ever had there are no numbers. He wanted to test it as a 1999, as it hasn't a cat it wouldn't have had a cat in hell's chance, so I argued that it should be tested on the age of the engine & as the Metro GTi stopped production in 1992 the engine had to be older, he accepted that. Rest of the test was straight forward, the rear brakes are a bit low on effort but as it's only light they were good enough, looks like they were new pads & discs many years ago but just been allowed to rust. I intended to see how it goes & see if they clean up, might push the pistons back a few times in case they are sticking slightly, hand brake again only just passed, but I noticed that it's right at beginning of it's adjustment as though it's been wound back.

Anyway the upshot is a Pass, but needs 4 tyres (advisory) discs (advisory)

Only big issue was that I put 15 litres of fuel in on the way back, UNDER £15!!! by the time I got home the petrol smell was quite bad & there was petrol on the floor under the passenger seat! It did come with a spare tank now I knew why, decided to remove the old tank only to find it wasn't exactly the same, the sender is in a different place so despite trying to modify it I doubt it will work properly. The new tank also had to be modified to fit, cut the pipes down etc.

Put it all back together only to find it won't start, spins over but won't start, first thing I found was that the fuel pump wiring had been swapped over previously live to earth & earth to live, took the pipe back off the pump, turned on the ignition, no fuel, rewired it back to live to live, earth to earth, switched on ignition I had fuel coming out Wahoo fixed, nope, still won't start, I have fuel all the way up the injection unit, pulled a plug I have spark but still won't start, it does try a little. That was last night just waiting for the weather to pick up so I can go out & have another look, I'm suspecting a bad earth, but who knows on a car that'snot been on the road for 15+ years.
 

Phaeton

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Spent Saturday & Sunday between the torrential storms chasing down the intermittent fault, at first I thought it was a live near the ECU, then the lives coming off the starter motor but in the end I hope it was just a loose connection of the big connector into the ECU so put a big tiewrap around it. Since then although very little mileage it's not cut out again, but without a definite fault I'm still waiting for it to bite me in the arse.

Next job is the dropping drivers door, you need to be a contorsoinist to get to the 6 nuts holding the door on, hand through the dash, of course there one that you couldn't get a full spanner on because of the fibreglass, so 12th of a turn, turn spanner over, 12th turn, turn spanner over, repeat, eventually managed to get a 6th turn, but it did come off.

Once off stripped down the door card to get to the other 6 bolts bit easier & spun them off with the gun & a spanner, once off it was evident what was wrong, the top hinge had virtually seized & I could not open & close it by hand, but after some working & some Plus gas it freed up.



But the problem is more with the bottom one, it has seized up in the past & then it's broken the welds that hold the pin





With very little effort the thing came apart I now have to try to get the pin out, I tried a punch, then putting one end into a socket & then into a vice





I looked for my blow torch but no gas, so will have to wait until tomorrow & see if getting it hot will persuade it to part. Failing that I may have to drill it out but getting it square in the vice to drill is aways a problem without proper workshop facilities.
 

Phaeton

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Tried heat even managed to get it cherry red but the pin still wouldn't move so resorted to drilling, 3mm, then 5mm, finally 8mm, which appears to have worked.



Decided to take the passenger side off to inspect them, they were good, in fact good condition.




So I decided use the passenger hinges on the drivers side after greasing them & put the door back on



Waiting for some 8mm rod to repair the broken hinge
 

Phaeton

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Now having to wait for some metal rod before I can put the other door back in I thought I'd turn my attention to the wiper

So the wiper problem in detail, the stalk has 4 positions but 5 functions which appear to be

1. Off
1a. Pull to get a swipe
2. Intermittent
3. Slow
4. Fast

However all I have is in position 2. Slow but with no park, I have wondered if the park is now not in the right place this has been disabled?

Anyone understand how the park works, there is a switched live to the unit with the ignition, if I remember rightly when the motor moves it makes a set of contacts so that if the stalk is switched off power is still applied until the motor gets back into the home position & the contacts break again. If that is right it could be that the home position is not in the new home position so this has been wired out.
 

Phaeton

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Got a bit more time on this yesterday afternoon, really got frustrated in not being able to work it out, tested the motor & could get 2 speeds out of it, but couldn't get it to park. Then had a look at the delay relay, opened it up but it didn't really reveal anything useful. In the end I stripped the steering column down to get the stalk off. later found out I didn't need to :D But upshot is that the stalk appears faulty, I can get all the functions working if I twist the stalk ordered a NOS from Fleecebay last night £20 so let's hope that is the cure.
 

Phaeton

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Wiper stalk came & nope that was no better in fact it was worse, nothing worked with that one, so that one has been returned & another ordered. The door hinge repair wasn't very successful I think I needed some clearance on the dowel, not 9MM drill for a 9mm dowel, it's just too tight, so I've ordered a new one, hopefully that will be here today.

Decided to have another look at the gearchange, took out a lot of the play at the back by drilling the oversized 6mm with an 8mm drill & bolt, but the front was just as bad if not worse.

This is supposed to be a 6mm round hole



But this is with a 6mm bolt in



Filled the tube with a piece of a bolt & welded it in, then redrilled, not taken it for a run yet, but It cerainly took up the slack or at least appears to have, reverse is still interesting



 
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