1987 3.2 Carrera Backdate project - Sladeys hotrod

[sladey]

Ah yes - happy days

[murph2309]

Does it come with a taste filter in all that electronic frippery?

[sladey]

You funny man - I kill you last

[murph2309]

It's looking well cool Sladey. Loving the 90 degree solution

[sladey]

OK so nearly a year since the last update. Obviously I’ve been using it every day since then but haven’t actually done a lot of work on it.

I bought a lathe in January and then sold that and bought a bigger one in June. Been enjoying getting to grips with that

I’ve been missing working on the car though....

Luckily the car had other ideas.

A couple of weeks ago, when leaving an afternoon ‘do’ in Derby the car wouldn’t start - just a click. My alarm has been playing up (consequence of dodgy door switches) so I initially thought flat battery. When it wouldn’t jump start off my brothers car I called the AA. They diagnosed starter motor problems and bump started me to get me home.

Once home I thought that if it had just been sticking the journey might have freed it. No such luck.

Now I still had a working hi-torque starter motor on the shelf so I thought I’d just do a partial engine drop and switch them over.


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[sladey]

While jacking up the car a thought, or rather, a memory, popped into my head.

I remembered 3 years ago when putting the engine together to go back into the car, I was tightening the Allen-headed brass nut that goes on the inside of the starter motor.

They are hollow down the middle (where else would they be hollow? Muppet), so as you tighten them up the stud comes up the middle.

I remember tightening it up and the stud had come so far down the middle that you didn’t have much room to put the Allen key in.

I remember thinking ‘that will be tough to undo now’ but as I was in a rush I didn’t think anything more about it until last Thursday, when I was lying on my back under the car.

I realised I’d basically made it unremovable without dropping the engine & box.....


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[sladey]

After a few minutes of cursing I thought actually that might not be a bad thing - the clutch was only passable 3 years ago so it might go in the next month or year so I could do that at the same time.

Of course if I’m doing the clutch it would be a shame not to install a lightweight clutch plate from Patrick Motorsport.....

And it would be a shame not to install one of those clutch slave cylinders that reduce the effort required....

And while I’m at it I could have a good go at the various leaks on the engine.

This is starting to sound like fun again.


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[DustyM]

Walking to work for the next while then!

Just a thought but have you checked that the connections on the 14pin plug in the engine bay are clean, corrosion on the terminal that takes the yellow solenoid wire will stop the starter...

[sladey]

So I ordered some parts

First that clutch plate (I didnt’ order the disk - getting that from over here)



It’s 8 and a half pounds lighter than the standard one - which is a useful reduction in rotating mass

I also ordered the MPL clutch slave


(The 993 isn’t included, which is a shame).

By rejigging the internals it apparently makes the clutch pedal lighter. While it hasn’t too heavy before the new clutch plate is a bit stronger so it’s probably worth doing.

And then for the oil seals I ordered various parts including those for the ‘triangle of death’ as it is known on Pelican (3 bits at the top back of the engine), rear main seal and the cam covers




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[sladey]

Finally got started yesterday. The big difference to previous work on the car is that I don’t need to have it ready for Monday morning - my youngest daughter has now gone to uni and I’ve got use of her car in the meantime.

This lack of time constraint has made a huge difference - I’ve been table to take my time and clean stuff as I’m going on. I’ve really enjoyed it

I carefully undid everything yesterday morning and then got Ian around to help with the key moments



Once Ian had gone I had a cunning plan for getting it onto the engine stand - the plan involved an engine hoist.

Didn’t entirely go to plan whoops!



(It fell off the breezeblocks when I was trying to pull the gearbox off. Luckily I’d already hooked it to the engine hoist so it didn’t go far


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[sladey]

After thinking things through a bit more I realised that lifting it just from the front/rear wasnt’ going to work - time to break out the straps


Then I started lifting. I’d had an idea that once supported I would manoeuvre it into place to get it onto the engine stand. Once it was in the air I had a much better idea - lift the engine stand and fit it onto the engine in mid air



Worked like a charm. The lowered it onto the floor - all ready to work on




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[Darren65]

Gotta love a few Sladey updates!

Way to go Mark

[sladey]

Forgot to say - before I started hoisting it up, I did the rear main seal


From this shot you can see that it had obviously been the cause of at least one of the leaks

Managed to get it out with this handy tool


And after cleaning it all up I tapped a new one into place using the old one initially and then a wooden drift for the last bit of tapping




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[sladey]

So far I’ve just changed an ‘O’ ring in the thermostat at the top of the engine, and also cleaned up the oil pressure switch wiring.
I saw a tip elsewhere to put epoxy around the rim of the switch - I figured it can’t hurt so I did that



(The levers with holes in it is the handle from my Ferrari seats - I’d previously polished them but they were pitting so I chemically blacked them)

That’s it for now.

I may do a bit in the evenings this week or it may be all next weekend

Cheers


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[sladey]

Oh I forgot to add - re the original nut that sparked all this - this is how it should have looked if I’d bothered my arse to think about it 3 years ago and just popped a washer in there



And this is how it actually looked to my probing fingers (of course it was worse than this because it was also dirty in there - this is after I’d cleaned it up)



Jon I will make sure I test I’ve got a working starter motor before it all goes back in - but thanks for the tip on that wire


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