03/06/2003

4hr

Chassis

Over the past few days I have done small odd jobs, nothing significant. Hopefully they will all come together and I will see some rapid progress in re-assembling the engine.  Today I ordered the van to collect  the chassis at the weekend.  I had attempted it yesterday by contacting “Budget Van Rental”. According to them , the size of the chassis 13’ 6” x 4’ 9” would only fit in a 7.5T truck at £110 per day.  I contacted “Caversham Vehicle Rental” ,who were very helpful  They suggested a Luton box van and putting the chassis at an elevated angle in to the box over the top of the cab.  They gave me the dimensions and I did the calculations. It looked as though it would be a comfortable fit. I checked with the Factory and they confirmed it would fit.  £75.00 per day and a small charge for over 200 miles, plus I could collect the van of Friday and have an early start on Saturday.  This eased the` time pressures caused by  having to return the van by 5:00 pm. Saturday to avoid an extra days hire.  Additional to all this I have painted the chassis stands, and stripped the alternator for refurbishing.

05/06/2003

4hr

Alternator

Yesterday, I managed to clean all of the old paint off of the alternator pulley and cooling fan. In between this job I refitted the alternator mounting bracket to the engine and refitted the power steering pump. Despite all my efforts to mark bolts, so that they could be located and refitted I appear to have lost the bolt which anchors the fan belt adjuster to the water pump.  No big deal! I got a replacement bolt from “Unimaster” today.   The power steering pump is not used except as a jockey wheel and adjuster for the fan belt. I said earlier that I would short circuit the pump and fill it so that it would be lubricated by circulating the fluid. I cut one of the XJS power steering hoses in half and looped this between the inlet and outlet of the pump. I did not like what I saw and besides it was in danger of fouling the inlet manifold.  My thought was to make a “U” shaped piece of pipe flared one end and use the fitting to attach it to the pump and attach the other end to a piece of rubber hose and then to the pump inlet.  Talking to John at “Unimaster” We came up with the idea of using an 3/8” to metric adapter and a length of rubber hose. This was both neat and simple. It got over problems with Imperial / Metric conversion and the double flare of the fitting which would have been difficult to manufacture.  Painted the alternator pulley and cooling fan with undercoat.  Started to collect together packing material and ropes for collecting the chassis on Saturday

06/06/2003

Collected the van and loaded it with packing materials and rope ready for an early start tomorrow

07/06/2003

9hrs

 including journey  time

Collected the chassis. Installed the chassis on the ex Westfield “A” frames.  See “Collection day” for details

08/06/2003

4 hrs

Chassis

The morning after.  The bulk of the kit was just dumped in the garage so I spent the morning re-organising and tidying up. With the chassis here you realise what bits a you are not yet ready to install and need to install early on, like inner wishbone pivots for the rear suspension. I put these in a bath of de-rusting fluid and left them to cure.   Painted the alternator body, pulley and fan.

09/06/2003

I hour

Front Wishbones

Cleaned up the wishbone pivots with a wire brush,. The need further de-rusting treatment so were put back in the bath.
 

Total hours to date = 286 hrs