Took out my baby's engine and transmission. Time for a rebuild. I will be gone from home for a few months, but I have an Italian mechanic who is going to rebuild and paint it. The engine bay is a mess and needs de-greasing. I might spray paint it in a color close to the outside paint. You can see by the drips on the garage floor, she had a ripped axle boot that was leaking fluid.

All the best with your trip--good idea to have the work done whilst you are away. Are you having the engine rebuilt as standard or 'enhanced'? Ask your mechanic to take some photos please, especially if it is going to be uprated.

No modifications are being done on the engine. Keeping it original as I don't mind the moddest engine performance. I might get an entirely new engine for a spare and make that one peppey in the future.

While my engine was out, I had the engine bay stripped and repainted in the body color with a bit of rubberized texture. Came out fantastic.




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Unrelated to the engine work, I recently had some front end work and now my "bonnet" will not open properly. When I pull the release the latch clearly moves, but the bonnet will not pop up enough to clear the latch. What do you think, maybe some grease on the release and catch???

I suffered the same problem after the respray on my 'wee beastie'. The problem was cured by fitting a soft(ish) rubber 'stop' by the bonnet release on the front panel. When the bonnet is shut this rubber is slightly compressed, so that when you pull the release lever it 'springs' the bonnet enough to get you fingers under the front edge. Various people sell the correct 'cone' rubber, but I used a cut-down cotton-reel mount from Car Builder Solutions--if I remember correctly, No.2 on page 72 of their catalogue (part no. COT2). With 1 end cut off and the cone shape trimmed, it works fine.

Looking a bit better now.

So the motor has been taken a part and has some issues with cylinders, pistons and timing. The car was set with the wrong timing (the chain was 1 tooth off), the piston rings are leaky, the camshaft is worn to the bone it needs new engine bearings. The previous owner also installed a spark plug extension on one of the cylinders.

All those problems make sense now after looking at the material that a scrapped out of the oil slinger on my first oil change. The mechanic is going to take some pictures as the work is done.

Luxe said:

So the motor has been taken a part and has some issues with cylinders, pistons and timing. The car was set with the wrong timing (the chain was 1 tooth off), the piston rings are leaky, the camshaft is worn to the bone it needs new engine bearings. The previous owner also installed a spark plug extension on one of the cylinders.

All those problems make sense now after looking at the material that a scrapped out of the oil slinger on my first oil change. The mechanic is going to take some pictures as the work is done.

Click to expand...

Look on the bright side in situations like this is my mantra, it's going to cost but it will be like a new car when you get it back and probably a totally different driving experience if it has always been like it since you owned it.

Tony

Got the motor and trans back today. I look forward to installing it Friday. I have a car show to take her to next Saturday. She will be the only 500 there.

I will have a 126 carb to sell after I get it cleaned up. I will post pics in the for sale by owner section when it is ready.

Update:


I have put everything back together and connected all leads. Now I have zero electrical power anywhere in the car. No dash, headlights, mirror light, starter etc. Battery is fresh charged and reading 12.5 volts. I checked the grounds from the battery to the grounding cables. I also checked the grounds in the rear engine compartment and all is grounded. Any thoughts?


Secondly I can put the car in any gear without using clutch. This tells me that I do not have the clutch lever adjusted properly. The lever is currently all the way back pointing towards the engine or in other words totally perpendicular to the tranny. Thoughts?

Hi - check:
1)the starter live terminal to ground
2)battery positive terminal to a good earth - not negative terminal of battery
3)continuity / resistance of engine block to chassis - this will tell you whether the earth strap is connected correctly


This is a start


regards

Luxe said:

Update:


I have put everything back together and connected all leads. Now I have zero electrical power anywhere in the car. No dash, headlights, mirror light, starter etc. Battery is fresh charged and reading 12.5 volts. I checked the grounds from the battery to the grounding cables. I also checked the grounds in the rear engine compartment and all is grounded. Any thoughts?


Secondly I can put the car in any gear without using clutch. This tells me that I do not have the clutch lever adjusted properly. The lever is currently all the way back pointing towards the engine or in other words totally perpendicular to the tranny. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

There should be a brown cable that is connected to the starter motor. This is a thick cable that supplies the live to all your electrics
Depending on if you have lever type or solenoid type.
Make sure the brown cable is connected to the same terminal as the main positive cable coming from the battery. There should be a smaller one for the solenoid type that is connected to the spade terminal. this supplies the live to operate the solenoid.


Presumably you mean you can select every gear without using the clutch when the engine isn't running? This should be correct.
If the engine was running (not the case as you have no electrics) then you should not be able to select any gear without a horrible crunching noise

If you have the pull starter, does the engine turn when you pull on it without the key?

I will double check the starter connection. There are only two connections on the starter. One for the pull lever and one for the electric and both are attached.

I metered the positive battery terminal to three different places on the car body and I get 12.5 volts.

Lastly the engine does turn over by hand. Is it possible that the voltage regulator wires are swapped? Tried metering the regulator yesterday and got zero voltage on the terminals. Not sure if this is normal.

Like I say, when I flip the key over to start I get zero power on the dash.

Okay I got back under and gave it a look. It seems when I pushed the engine in, that little brown wire sat nicely on top of the starter. I fastened it and now have electrics. The starter will not engage now. The lever makes contact with the starter post, but maybe not enough?

I adjusted the starter cable and pulled the starter lever by hand and pinned the cable one notch up from the old position. She turns over nicely now, but will not start. She has gas, but not sure on spark. Next step, spark chasing.

have you tried the fuses?

Fuses are all good. I am getting voltage to the coil, buy nothing out of it. The coil randomly allows current flow and then stops. I think the coil is the issue. Going to have a look at the condenser as well.

So funny story here. Figured out what the electrical issue was. I replaced the lead from the coil to the distributor and the condenser. Apparently when you get the leads backwards on the coil it does wonders on the condenser. She now fires right up. Now here is the funny part. My mechanic insisted on reverting back to the original carb for the engine vice the 126 carb that was on it. He did so without even asking me during his rebuild. I got three miles down the road today and the car died. I opened up the engine lid, and low an behold gas is gushing from the top of the 26 IMB and just squirting out of the overflow spigot. I literally ran back home and got the 126 carb and put it on. I promptly drove back to the mechanic and plopped if off there. I said fix it or send the 26 IMB back and get me my $260 back.


So frustrating seeing as I have a car show to bring her to Saturday. I still need to do some paint touch-ups before Saturday, mainly around the sunroof area.