It's weird what pops into your mind.....

I woke up this morning with an idea, well more the idea of a place to look for the solution - complicated I know. Here's the twisted tale. I have an agglometer in the PI, a fancy name for a glass bowl and drain tap in the fuel filter. The idea for this is that you can see if there's any water contamination and drain the fuel. It also has the added benefit of being an easy way to drain off a small amount of fuel for starting a BBQ in true boys own dangerous cookery style - but that's another story :-)

Anyway, as well as the agglometer thingy I have a clear injector line so I can see what's happening there too. The result of all this transparency is that you see things you never knew were happening - phenomena that you'd be blissfully unaware of if you had a standard system.

What could I see?

Bubbles!

No not the one time monkey partner of the deceased King of Pop but bubbles of air/vapour in the glass bowl and the injector pipe. These baffled me - the system was not leaking, it was not cavitating, these were appearing from start up and through out running up to temp (pump temp as well as engine temp). So where were these bubbles coming from? They were worrying as the PI system has no way of bleeding air out once fuel has flowed passed the PRV and then at pressures over about 30 PSI the PRV won't bleed air.

OK so to the point - I woke up this morning and thought "I know where the answer to that is" and I went straight to the article Dave Pearson gave me which emanated from I think a 1990 Club magazine (2000 register maybe?). I had blogged about this in the past. There it was, failing motor shaft seals on the pump unit will allow air in as well as leak fuel out.

Now I have tested loads of pumps and found failed shaft seals on about 60% of them - I haven't looked for air ingress just fuel egress (which is more obvious when bench testing). So it seems highly likely that I can sort this out with new seals.

The article also provides some good advice on blue printing a pump, what and how to modify as well as what to leave well alone!

As I write this, I think I'm going to have to work through this article and do the operations it suggests with camera in one hand and blog in the other.

Whilst the Lucas pump will always be the weakest link I am determined to build a good 'un and run the little bugger to success - I am actually enjoying this.

As soon as work, family and life generally allow me the time in the garage to get some momentum on this I'll be OK.

So far my local hydraulics place have let me down on the parts I ordered but my new best friend Darren at Pirtek Reading is on the case. Today's idle though - I wonder if they can supply injector O rings?

Here's the article, scanned and blogged, I commend it to all PI owners, I just wish I could credit the source properly:-

Jason's Blog: More Lucas PI info - some pearls of wisdom here :-)

Tyred and emotional

I'm a hoarder, I can't throw stuff away, it's a serious problem for me and although eBay has relieved me of a few things it's a double edged sword because for every thing I sell I seem to buy more replacements!
Anyway, Sunday was a good day, fellow Triumphist Nick Jones was in need of a hood frame for his Vitesse and yes, I had one, well two actually. They'd been up in the garage loft for a few years - one even had a 1970's white roof still attached. Anyway, an arrangement was made and Nick pitched up Sunday morning for excavations in the garage loft. I uncovered a spare wheel well for a Herald/Vitesse up there too (will be on eBay when I can find the camera). We managed to get the frames down and examined, they weren't as good as I remembered them but together they were good enough for Nick and beer tokens changed hands. Not one to hang around, Nick's already been at them with grinder and hacksaw to make a bespoke but more importantly fitting hood frame for his Vitesse!
Great stuff, my junk is useful after all! The best bit came when I was assessing the storage up in the loft and realised I had a set of decent 13" tyres up there - I think they came off my old Vitesse but I can't really be sure - there was one brand new tyre, one that looked like it could only have done 50 miles and two part worn ones.
Why is this relevant I hear you mumble? Well because outside sat on a flat tyre is my daughter's hateful little Corsa. I had noticed a deflated tyre a few days previously and upon closer examination I wasn't happy with the state of the sidewalls on another of her tyres - it's a 10 year old car and although low mileage it looks to have lived outside all it's life - the tyres were all showing signs of cracking. One was particularly bad.
Anyway, quick check of the sizes and yes, spot on the same as Vitesse tyres - 165/70 x 13 - ideal! So off to my favourite little garage for a quick swap around. It wasn't quite as cheap as I remembered and in the last 12 months their costs for mounting a tyre, new valve and balance has near doubled. Still fifty quid for what is effectively 2 new and 2 nearly new tyres is a bargain - for my daughter - she paid :-)
The big bonus is that I have used some spares, made some space and saved some money. I can also constantly remind her that her beloved Corsa is on "Triumph" tyres.

Turned out nice again :-)

Under pressure

The PI piffling continues in the heat - great for vapourising all the spilt fuel just hope no one lights up nearby or it's instant BBQ!

I never knew there were two types of pressure relief valve - the long ones are easily dismantled and examined but the short one is a bit of mystery to me. The brass piece is just a 3 way, the next segment is just a housing for a mesh filter, the actual PRV is in the end. On the short one looks to be very similar to the normal long type but I can't see how to take it apart. Never mind, I'll see if it works and adjusts OK. I'll have to use the car as the test rig as I haven't built a bench test rig yet.

I have now been through my stock of pumps and tested every one on the car. Which one is the best? Well would you believe it, the KMI one that wouldn't run and I took apart and cleaned! All bar one actually pump, 3 have failed shaft seals so they piss fuel out of the tell tale and one just won't hold a constant pressure as it over heats within 5 minutes and screams like 12 year old at a Jonas Brothers gig.

That leaves me with the pump that won't make 106 psi for long enough and the KMI one I "refurbished" as the only serviceable ones out of the whole lot! Proof, if proof were needed, that you can't buy anything decent for less than a tenner - well I guess you could say that the KMI pump cost me fifty quid and came with a load of spares :-)

So, the quest is on for seals and I'll refurb them all (maybe the one with the broken magnet might be last, not sure about that one.)

I started to look into whether I could get some shaft seals, I found them quite easy, it's part number 517419.

Prestige - £8.95

Rimmer's - £10.29

Witor's - £9.95

Canley Classics - £7.35

As far as I can tell all the seals, brushes, "o" rings etc are available, Rimmer's do a kit which appears to contain all you need for just shy of £40.

I think I'll get on the blower tomorrow and see what I can rustle up, I've got 5 pumps to build :-)

Pump it up

I'm Jason and I have a problem.

I buy "bargains", you know the sort of stuff, £0.99 on Fleabay and I'm there, "click" and it's mine!
So, armed with that "skill" I find myself sat in a hotel room in India, with nothing but a mini bar and a laptop. You know the routine, drink, eBay, random clicking, box of busted PI pumps is mine for a fiver, delivered.
So I get home to be greeted by piles (and I mean piles) of various eBay purchases and they get stacked in the garage.
The intention is to learn about the things, figure out what wears, what can be refurbished, what new parts are needed and how to test the finished item.
This week I am on a "use it of lose it" holiday at the end of our holiday year - no one else is off and I can piffle in the garage,
I am now surveying my vast stock of pumps - I've paid no more than a tenner for most of them and the vast majority were less than that. Some came with mounting cradles, pipes, pressure relief valves, filters, etc, etc. I've got a KMI re manufactured unit (interestingly it's got a big sticker on it that says it must be fitted with a cooling coil, it was), one that has been DIY refurbed to an amazing standard (and came with loads of parts thrown in by the seller) but most are just standard second hand pumps.
So I took a couple that didn't seem to work when voltage was applied and started stripping. First off is the pump body to see if that's seized. The KMI one was solid but a little percussive maintenance fixed that and it turned. The KMI motor was filthy inside and so I got my newly acquired ultrasonic cleaner on it - pretty good result. I cleaned it all out and reassembled just to see if it would run again - yup!
Next off was one of the grottier looking pumps, I remembered to take a photo of this one, you can see the kind of thing that greets you inside.

However, it too cleaned up OK and ran when reassembled. This pump will, I fear end up as parts. The shaft seal has gone hard and failed, that means fluid gets passed it and into the motor - it leaks from the tell tale (the brass drain just visible under the base plate in the picture above. It's also noisy and when I looked carefully I could see that one of the curved magnets in the case was broken. A shame really as the rest of it looked OK.

I have some reconditioning instructions somewhere that cover what can be done to the motors to help increase efficiency but as I don't have any sophisticated test kit like a growler I don't think there's much else that can be done.

I need to find a decent supply of seals so I can rework these pumps, I should be able to build quite a few then throw them onto a test rig and run them for 24 hours or so - I have acquired a variable voltage power source to do this. I need to figure out how to put a hydraulic load in the test circuit and sort out the plumbing but it's coming together.

Also in the pile of mail order parcels were things like an electronic pressure gauge, a Moto-lita steering wheel, a rivnut gun, some stainless tubing, some headlight accessories, some pressure gauges, a set of curved sewing needles and piece of ex-Military hardware.

More blogging when I stick another screwdriver in my leg and need to come in for a plaster.

Tacho wiring diagrams

Having been considering a tacho/rev counter for a while now (Mk1 PIs do not have one as standard) I started thinking about what, where and more importantly how I would fit it. I don't want to bodge a hole in the dash, I don't want to cut out existing instruments and I don't want a modern looking tacho. As ever, my eyes turned to eBay and there's a bewildering array of instruments, often without instructions or wiring diagrams. In my quest for information, I stumbled across this and thought it was worth sharing

I still haven't got a tacho but I do have a reasonable idea of how to mount it and what sort of tacho would be OK. Ideally I'd like a works type pod like on FHP993C so I can put a fuel pressure gauge up in view but that might be a little tricky to find - my car isn't a replica so I don't have to be a slave to originality but I would like to keep it period looking as far as possible

From FHP993C - At Canley Classics July 2007

Indian SD1

Have been out and about in the city of Pune and spotted an SD1 in a carpark, didn't have the camera but will try and remember it later today so I can get a picture, if it's still there. SD1's were made in the old Standard India factory in Chennai (aka Madras) where the Standard Herald and Gazel were made. The whole Standard / Leyland India compant went bust in the 80's and lay dormant for years until Rimmers bought up the stock of half assembled SD1 shells.

Anyway, I've got a weekend in Pune and then off to Noida (Delhi) before the long haul home. I hit the ground in the UK on Thursday night then Friday morning it's up to Scotlandshire for the event formerly known as La Carerra Caledonia.

See you there :-)

Back home in one piece

Well we made it home and didn't need the services of a recovery truck so I count that as a successful outing! A straight drive from the docks home, not the easiest but I took it steady and it was fine as long as I didn't expect any acceleration!

Well it wasn't all plain cruising - it's misfiring or to be more accurate, not firing fully, well that's what it feels like. I didn't have any pump cavitation issues and that's the spare pump running without a cooling coil. I'm starting to think "ignition" so I am going to go through it all and assume nothing is right, testing it all one component at a time.

Must find out how to test a coil!

For now it's unpack, wash-up and sensible meal time.

BIG thanks to Graham and Angela and the Isle of Wight Triumph club for another cracking weekend!

What a day

Well that was a day and a half! The car ran better for a while then started playing up again, not in a good way! The PRV seemed OK but then the pump started to cavitate and scream just after the car stops! It had been running OK, cool and when I checked it was drawing only 4 amps. Today it was up at 5.6 amps and it was cavitating - I could see the bubbles circulating into the glass bowl of the filter - fuel pressure in the engine bay was fluctuating all over the place. The current diagnosis is therefore crap pump!
So being a good boy scout, I had a spare and changed it, that seemed to then show up a bit of dodgy ignition! The rotor arm was changed out for one I actually fixed with araldite once - better but not great
At this point someone handed me a beer and I gave up! The thing (the car gets called a thing when it's not running right) is running, it hasn't actually stranded me. Yet and to be brutally honest I am knackered and looking forward to a few more beers!
So balls to the PI and cheers to the beers!!


Sent from Blackberry.

It's a hat trick!

Despite stiff opposition and the creation of a splinter group "Rejected by the Shirts" when partners decided to make their own team, the Hants & Berks irregulars won the pub quiz for a third year running. Wearing the same awful shirts as last year and christened the Matalan Marvels because of them, we managed to retain our winning streak. Quite how still amazes me as we were only 7 and were fairly drunk but just as stupid as we always are.
Last year's prize money was recycled into a Sat Nav which we have donated at this year's raffle prize to keep the weekend interesting :-)
At the moment I am contemplating getting the BBQ lit to start breakfast for 11 - I do hope the rain we had in the night doesn't come back!

Sent from Blackberry.

What a relief!

Well that was fun, the PI continued to fart and pop it's way round the island today but we did make it to Blackgang Chine and back. During the day a diagnosis of sticky PRV seemed favourite amongst the gathered Triumph intelligenci. Although I had a spare in my kit I was not sure of it's suitability. I mean it could be worse than the one on there! Fortunately for me organiser of the weekend Graham Stretch came to the rescue again as he so often does! He had a known good PRV on the shelf. After showing me how it worked (because I wasn't sure and it was in pieces) I fitted it and immediately got a steadier pressure reading and a smoother running/sounding car. A quick blast down the road and all seemed much better.
I will do a post mortem on the old PRV and we'll see what the issue was. The car is running quite rich but once I've got it stable I'll get onto that.
For now it's on with the tasteless and tight shirt for an evening Pub quiz and some beer.
Oh and Richard, I did manage to help Alison, it was the overdrive switch and although I didn't have a spare I did have some araldite to lend for her and Mark Bland to fix the old one :-)

Sent from Blackberry.

Installed

Well we made it without issue, a couple of chugs and nothing more dramatic but it's still not right :-( Anyway, I am installed in the bar, there is Spitfire Ale on tap so all is well with the world. I will have a look at things in the morning and assess whether it's worth messing about or just a prayer to the gods of self healing!

Sent from Blackberry.

Isle of Wight here we come

Not sure if this will work as I am using a bit of company bandwidth. Have arrived at the ferry ahead of schedule only to konk out at the check in! A quick look at my pressure gauge showed a distinct lack of PSI - like nowt!
Pump buried under camping gear but I left some room around it (the boot is currently bare of any trim). It was not hot nor even warm to the touch so I wonder if the PRV is playing up? They apparently don't go wrong often. I have a spare with me, as you do. If it is heat in the pump then it will have cooled by the time we get off this ferry. I wonder if I may have squashed a fuel line with all the stuff packed in the boot?
Plenty of time to investigate if/when we get to the camp site.
I have heard from the advance party (Carl) that my tent is up :-) He has also called for fresh supplies of beer so we will stop off on the way and pick some up.
Right, enough of this mobile blogging, back to enjoying the Isle of Wight ferry!

Sent from Blackberry.

La Carerra Caledonia

Well what an interesting couple of days. I had to go to Manchester on business for a meeting today so I drove up last night and stopped off to see Dave at Canley Classics. I often drop in for a pint and a chat (OK usually a pint of coke).

I had considered entering and mentioned it to Dave but it was somewhat half hearted as I knew I would have no time to prapare or help prepare a car and mine hasn't really proved itself yet.

Anyway Dave said he'd been visited by Dave Langrick who had convinced him that doing La Carerra was a good idea - we'd done the event together 2 years ago in my fire breathing Vitesse (the flames out the back had scorched Langricks bumper) and it had been fun despite the issues.

Anyway, Dave asked if I wanted "in", well I had already decided that I could not do it in my own car, due to the lack of any preparation time. I'm due out to India again in a few weeks and won't be back until Thursday evening on the 4th but hey! If there's a drive in it and Dave's prepared to do the hard work then yes I'm in!

So Dave's doing the entry, I'm sorting the accomodation and the deal is done!

What car? Well maybe the new Atlas V8 Sport Touring? Or maybe not. He won't tell me but who cares, a weekend away with Triumphs and the Scotlandshire countryside will be just fine.

First issue though is finding somewher to stay on the Friday night as the Old Stome Trough is apparently full! Major issue as we do like to have a drink or two. Sleeping bag in the car or maybe a tent in the field? I'll have to ask around but if anyone doesn't mind a couple of house trained semi-drunk blokes snoring for a night then let me know, if you're going to the OST and can give us a lift that would be a bonus (well if you don't ask...) We've got B&B money to spend.

Unstuck stickiness

Well that's me done for the day, my back's gone stiff and it's time for a shower and a beer. It's been a decent day really, the sticky brake is unstuck. I couldn't really see much in the way of a cause but there was quite a lot of dust and crud in there. I've cleaned it all up and made sure there's no rust on the drum or lumps on the shoes. To be honest it just looks like they were sticking to the drums, everything now looks fine. It's all pretty new looking in there, all NOS stuff.
I also managed to get blanking plugs into all the holes in the nearside inner wheel well. Throughout it's life the car looks like it's had several incarnations of PI plumbing. That's not uncommon seeing as there were half a dozen factory modifications done to Mk1 PIs! I've gone and done my own version relocating the pump to the offside, away from the exhaust. I've plumbed in a fuel tap and glass bowled agglomerater with a drain. That drain goes down through the boot floor so changing the filter should now be easy and involve turning the tap off, draining the filter through to the outside. The filter housing is now plumbed in with flexible hoses so it can be unbolted and manoeuvred easily. I still need to do something with the boot boards to tidy it all up, especially as I have pulled out all the grotty boot carpet (have kept it for patterns). I am still looking for some shadow blue carpet so I can make it all pretty and neat.

Stabilisers back on

Well stabiliser (single).

Ever since getting the car the dashboard has been a weird ornament. None of the instruments worked. I had a low fuel warning light but that was about it.
First came the choke light, that was just a clear up of the mechanism and I did that when I found the right choke cable to fit.
Next came the clock, thanks to Scrapman Colin Wake I got a working clock - it even kept excellent time.
Next came the speedo, that was my fault I think, when I fitted the cable I seem to have managed to miss align it at the gearbox, quite how I did it I don't know but a happy few days tracing it sorted out and that was great.
But the fuel and temp gauge eluded me - I got a new voltage stabiliser but that didn't work, it was more serious than that. I managed to buy one of those new solid state stabiliser chips (no connectors just the chip) and was prepared to "go modern" to fix it. First though lets get the multimeter out and see what the hell's going on. Yup, it's all over everywhere. Neither stabiliser (original or new) was producing the required stable output, even running a direct feed for the earth off the battery didn't do it.
So, nothing for it but to get the soldering iron out and have a play. 30 mins later I had soldered up some wires onto the tiny chip and it was all connected - it works! Frankly I am amazed, I'm crap at electrics, my eyesight is going so fine work is a challenge and my soldering has always been more expressionist art than electronics.
So, what's left on the job list - bloody loads!
I have now renewed 3 of the injector seals as another injector failed today. The ones that have failed were yellow plated, the ones that have not are plain - no idea if that's the cause but it does seem likely. I have one plated injector left but it was the first one to fail and I have replaced the seal in it - I have no more decent spares to use. I'll get another set of seals and the clean up my spares, I might just swap out that plated one anyway.
Next on the list is to investigate a sticky rear brake. I don't tend to leave the handbrake applied on the car when it's in the garage so I can roll the car about but just lately it's been very hard to push. I found the same just before and at the MOT test but the brake efficiency was fine. I suspect a strip and clean will sort it but we'll see, nothing is ever that easy!