Dipped in green glass

[Nick Moore]

Thanks Nick, Dave Pearson said the same thing. I suspect the right wheel must have been turned outwards when she landed nose-first, and the right steering arm was pulled inwards. In any case, I've ordered new right and left hand steering arms. I may space them in a few millimetres with washers to keep the gaiters clear of the brake discs.

[Nick Moore]

Update - the final push

After five months at the local panel shop, she's home again. Thanks to everyone who sent chassis alignment diagram - the chassis is straight and her bonnet lines up with the bulkhead and doors. The front panel has been replaced and repainted, she has a new grille and front over riders, and various little paint chips have been touched in. The uprights and bent steering arms have been replaced and she tracks straight and true. I don't have any photos of her homecoming, as it was right on dusk and I was too busy making sure she didn't fall off the tilt tray. Again. The photo below is from my garage security camera, which lets me keep an eye on my treasure hoard during the day.

So what now? I've made a list of things to do before she can hit the road (excuse the expression):

• Remove inlet manifold - get air box tig welded up
  
• Remove exhaust manifold, get ceramic coated
  
• Refit both manifolds
  
• Finish idle air valve canister
  
• Megasquirt - find fault (rewire?)
  
• Remove front engine plate, fix leak from oil gallery end plate.
  

To be continued...

[byakk0]

Nice Nick. I bet that's a great feeling after all your hard work.

[BiTurbo228]

That's brilliant news good to see her back and in one piece.

What's the little red companion? I recognise the silhouette but it's baffling me!

[Mark Hammond]

Quoted from BiTurbo228

That's brilliant news good to see her back and in one piece.

What's the little red companion? I recognise the silhouette but it's baffling me!

Looks to be Nick's red Herald 13/60 daily driver.....

M.

[BiTurbo228]

Oh of course it is. My mind was filling in an MGB-shaped fastback c-pillar and throwing me off!

[Nick Moore]

Ha ha, that's the first time my Herald has been mistaken for an MGB. An Anglia, a Wolsley Hornet, but never an MGB.

[Mark Hammond]

Is your Herald one of those Australian versions built with Air Conditioning Nick?  If not, how do you stay cool in it?

Mark

[Nick Moore]

Nope, my 13/60 was built in New Zealand, and is far closer to the UK model specs than Australian Heralds. No air conditioning! Actually staying cool isn't a huge problem - we did a 3000 mile road trip in Summer 18 month ago, and the heat was rarely uncomfortable. I may be part reptile, which will be useful in the GT6. I have learned though that on really hot days, keeping the sunroof closed is cooler, because you aren't baking in the direct sunshine. Shade and a breeze keep you cool in almost any weather.

[Mark Hammond]

I spent many a summer holiday in Malta in the back of a 13/60 Estate as a kid back in the '70's and the bloody thing was like a kiln!!!

M.

[Nick Moore]

My never-quite-finished GT6 has taken a few more last steps towards the road. The exhaust headers have been ceramic coated to try to limit cockpit and under-bonnet heat. Shiny, too! The plenum is welded up with six trumpets and several scallops - they were unplanned but are necessary to shut the bonnet. It still needs polishing, a job for next weekend maybe.

Another job, which shouldn't have been needed, was to replace some urethane wishbone bushes. The car's never been on the road (OK once, but don't tell the Fuzz) but some of the bushes had disintegrated while it sat in the garage. The rest were fine, so it was obviously a dodgy batch. Yep, parts wear out even when the car's not moving. Sigh.

[Nick Moore]

Another job has been to fit one of Hazen Wardle's tailgate huge covers with integrated brake light and indicators. Like the wishbone bushes, it meant revisiting earlier restoration work, but unlike that work, I was happy to do this particular job.

The cover came complete with the lights and a very tidy wiring harness, with each wire labelled. The plastic cover was perfectly moulded. Put it this way, Hazen makes great product and at a price which certainly can't reflect his time and evident attention to detail.

As for installing the cover, it took a while to thread the wires down the C-pillar, but after that it didn't take long to link the harness into the car's wiring loom. And the results speak for themselves. The third light will never be eye level with a four wheel drive because the car's so low, but the brake lights and indicators are bright (brighter than the photo shows), and will hopefully catch other drivers' eye. And the LED blinkers work with the existing indicator and hazard flashers. Plug and play!

Next job, re-jigging the injection loom to find and fix a fault. Or two, not sure yet. Or I might just sand and polish that plenum.

[Nick Jones]

Great to see this moving on again Nick.  Really looking forward to the first running reports...... but not nearly as much as you are I'm sure 🙂

Nick

[byakk0]

sweet!!!! I love it love it love it! Looks great! Great to know they are plug n play like I intended.

I've got a bug in my loom some how then, as I can't get the LED's indicators working anymore.

[Nick Moore]

Another quick question - does anyone know the thread used for the oil gallery plug that lives underneath the front engine plate? It’s the one that, if you remove it, you can see right down the length of the oil gallery. And apparently, when you replace it, it leaks.  

[Nick Jones]

IIRC it's 1/4" either NPT or BSP.  For some reason the thread is not the same at the front and rear ends.  Front is an aluminium "snap-off" plug from the factory - you can buy sticks of them from Moss I think.  Conventional plugs work ok too once you've got the right thread but you need to be careful they don't go in too far as the drilling to the front main is pretty close.  Leaks from here usually go into the chain case - it's the one at the back that makes a mess!

Nick

[Nick Moore]

Thanks Nick. For some reason there’s a slow trickle of oil from behind the front plate, immediately below the gallery. I used an alloy plate, so perhaps it doesn’t have enough clamping pressure to ensure that any oil leaking from the end plug stays within the timing case.

Time to browse Moss. Cheers and Merry Christmas.

[Nick Jones]

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/plug-oil-gallery-front-aluminium-stick-of-10-ps1103.html?assoc=127405

I'd use a conventional plug though - just wish I could remember for sure what the threads are.  Factory manual even refers to "1/4 NPS" (American, National Pipe Straight as opposed to National Pipe Taper) though not specifically at that location.  BSPT is also very similar to NPT at 1/4" size so it should be possible to find something that screws in nicely (not too far!!) and fit with a decent liquid sealer.

Pity you have to take the front of the engine off to get at it all......

Nick

[Nick Moore]

We have made fire. And noise. And smoke. But mostly noise. 

Yesterday I substituted a Quadspark coil control module for the Bosch coil controller. With power to the Quadspark and coil, but the ignition system not connected to the MS3Pro, it was fine. But as soon as the MS3Pro was connected to it, "Pop" went the ignition fuse. Darn. Head scratching. Hmmm, it's a 5A fuse. Why do I have that there? Surely that's not enough to power the coil? Plug in a 20A fuse and... no pop. Phew. Ten seconds later... "Pop". Darn. 20A should be enough though, I can't imagine each coil draws more than that? Maybe the MS3Pro powers the coils before the engine starts cranking? So I delved into its programming and checked things like dwell and spark duration. I fitted a 30 amp fuse (blow that yer bugger!), which is probably as much juice as the wiring can handle anyway.

I reset a few other things too. I'd changed the timing wheel, so played around with the degree figure in the setup menu. Time to hit the starter button. No blown fuse but no sign of starting either. Hmmm, it wasn't recognising the timing wheel. Changed to falling edge and now we have a crank signal. Hit the button again - kaboom! 

After a few misfires as two year old petrol was flushed out of the fuel line, she started and idled. A few more tweaks to spark duration and base timing saw it hold a steady idle, but stall when the throttle was opened. Since she last ran in 2016 I'd fitted a MAP sensor taking vacuum from all six runners, so I changed the acceleration setting on the laptop to ITB (independent throttle body), which uses both throttle sensor and MAP to determine engine load. Much better, no stalling. And so off down the road for a test drive.

Observations

1. The driveshaft's rubbing on something intermittently. I thought I'd trimmed enough floor away, but maybe it's rubbing on the handbrake mechanism.
2. The throttle return springs could be snappier, as the revs take a couple of seconds to fall after blipping the throttle.
3. The motor's noisy, possibly because of wide roller rocker gaps.
4. Darn she's long-legged, compared to the Herald. Second gear just goes on giving.
5. The brakes are heavy compared to the Herald. They're Canley vented discs and four-pot calipers, and a small booster. 
6. The fan is so close to the crank pickup that it's creating interference. There's probably no simple/cheap way of fixing that. 
7. The oil leak from behind the front plate is fixed.
8. Once it's running properly, this thing is going to be a rocket ship.

[Tim Bancroft]

Fantastic news, lets see some footage!

 

Well done, Nick.

[Nick Jones]

Link to some footage here

http://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/7798-nick%E2%80%99s-green-gt6-megasquirt-take-2/&tab=comments#comment-102880

 

Nick

[Nick Moore]

Desnagging continues.

The mounting lugs of the brake caliper mounting brackets had to be machined 1mm so that the AP 4-pot calipers sat centrally on the discs. It worked - no more front scraping and squealing noises. I trimmed the rear mudflaps to stop them rubbing on the back tyres. The driveshaft still scrapes intermittently on the floorpan. I designed the mounts for the Supra gearbox so that the height can be adjusted with different cotton reel mounts or shims, and some new mounts have been ordered.

The wheels have been aligned, proving that the chassis is straight. Driving her has been interesting, as there's more rear wheel steering over bumps than in the Herald. The GT6 has rotoflex geometry, so maybe that's the difference.

The engine's running better and I'm learning how to program Megasquirt. The air-fuel ratio's shown on a gauge in the dashboard, so I know I'm not running it dangerously lean. It ran too rich early on and coked up the plugs - ooops. The six throttle butterflies don't snap properly closed, so the idle stays high. An extra return spring should fix that. 

My only grumble is reproduction parts wearing out before the car is even on the road - a repeated theme on Planet Triumph sadly. My new indicator switch lasted 15km before the white plastic component broke. The original plastic parts were nylon, I think, while the plastic in the new switches is brittle. And the rubber boots of the greasable track rod ends are already disintegrating. OK, they aren't new, but they were stored in a dark garage!

[Nick Jones]

Roto geometry usually gives less rear wheel steer than swing axle in my experience.  Never run big wheels and low profile tyres on either though.

What the rear toe?  Toe-out makes 'em twitchy!  I always do a quick and dirty check with a tape measure now as when we got the Spitfire "properly" aligned last year, after complimenting us on how close we'd got it with tape measure and home-made camber gauge, the operator then proceeded to mess it all up......

Doesn't help that all the book figures are given for the laden condition which is totally impractical to replicate.

Nick

[BiTurbo228]

Hell yeah! Great to see this up and running.

I'm surprised at roto geometry giving less rear wheel steer. In my headphysics model it seems like it would give more as the angle of what's effectively a semi-trailing arm (made of the two wishbone joints) is more acute in the rotoflex, but I'm more than open to my headphysics model being thoroughly flawed.

For your fan interference, could you try and find a push-fan and fit it to the front of the radiator? Not as good for flow in motion, but if your radiator has enough spare capacity that might still be fine :)

[Nick Moore]

Quoted from BiTurbo228-

Hell yeah! Great to see this up and running.

For your fan interference, could you try and find a push-fan and fit it to the front of the radiator? Not as good for flow in motion, but if your radiator has enough spare capacity that might still be fine :)

Given the temperatures in Australia, even the standard radiator is undersized, so I don't want to block any airflow. She gets pretty toasty now, and I haven't driven her in weather over about 35C. It gets into the 40s here for weeks on end in summer. I plan to have a wider radiator made, which will have two fans, one either side of the crank position sensor and far enough away that they don't cause interference.