Good news! Hope for Nessy...

Post by **foggyjames** » 28 Nov 2005 01:35 pm

Well after a second day of toil, we have a roadworthy car, which is ready to drive away (once I've fitted a drivers seatbelt), and runs very smoothly for such a high mileage engine. Andy has worked wonders on the carb, and it now reads a very acceptable CO value.

Myself and Pete did a lot of cosmetic tidying, and after pinching a few bits from Snowy, she now looks pretty smart (if you squint and ignore the rusty bits).

Thanks again to Andy and Pete for travelling all that way to help out. Thanks to Pete for driving us to and from Torbay - I hope you guys enjoyed your brief visit to the seaside! Special thanks to Andy for bringing his awesome gas tester, and for putting up with me and Pete looking on in a gormless manner (ignorant of the ways of the B14) as he worked his magic.

Next up, transferring the ownership, and buying insurance! I believe pics and even some video is on the way!

cheers

James

Post by **petefarrell360** » 28 Nov 2005 11:45 pm

Indeed, video and pictures are on their way. What pictures I don't use in the video will be posted first. There are some funny moments, and hopefully some interesting footage too. Watch this space.
Pete

Post by **foggyjames** » 29 Nov 2005 02:45 am

Update...we now have insurance!

cheers

James

Post by **pettaw** » 29 Nov 2005 06:47 am

OK guys well, whilst I'm up at this ungodly hour getting ready for work, I thought I'd do a quickie update.

First of all thanks to Foggy for putting us up overnight at his place. Even though it was cold working out on Nessy it ended up being a pretty good time.

Mechanically speaking, there's not too much to sort out now, but James, you do need to change that hose ASAP, before it bursts on you, I'd recommend changing before driving it anywhere as its pretty swollen and soft.

Full update to come later, probably this evening.

Post by **petefarrell360** » 29 Nov 2005 07:44 pm

Indeed, thanks to Foggy for putting us up, and the hospitality of his family, and for the food provided!

I have the video ready, at last, after lots of technical problems, for example one editing program was messing the sound up, the other was pants, the other was fine for editing, but saving as a movie file became a nightmare, so I've been forced to save it in three sections, then piece it back together in another program! So, please excuse these problems, and be gentle, it's the first video I've ever made! Plus I had some trouble getting it within the realms of being an acceptable download, started off as 3.7 Gb, then 488 Mb, the 113 Mb, but I've managed to compress it down to 37 Mb.

So, once it is hosted, it'll be here for all to see.

Pete

Post by **pettaw** » 29 Nov 2005 10:36 pm

Great news on the video.

Okay, so we sorted out what we need to do on Foggy's checklist and we did as much of it as poss last weekend. The exhaust is sorted and all OK. The manifold is almost sorted: Its still missing a couple of studs, and this was probably the reason the gasket disintegrated so they need to be replaced. Speaking of exhaust, Foggy had a new back silencer with him, but it had part of another exhaust stuck on the inside of it, and it took us a lot of effort and much blue language and lots of hammering, hacksawing and chiseling, not to mention the blowlamp, to get the pipe out.

The carb was in pretty bad shape, it was horrendously dirty inside and had quite a few bits damaged, most important of which was the top cover gasket, where half of it was missing, presumably ripped off last time the carb was stripped. The fuel cut off solenoid was damaged and we had to solder on a new connection onto it. The ground connection for the deceleration relay was also missing, and still is. I can live without the extra fuel economy for now. After a really good clean and a big bit of bodgery, ie: sealing the carb lid down with instant gasket, I've got it as good as I can get. The lid is still missing a large part where the casing broke off and the studs are missing.

I've screwed down the air filter housing with two long bolts directly into the carb cover and reconnected the crankcase ventilation.

The rocket cover is pretty badly bent so we'll need a new one otherwise the engine will get covered in even more oil and perhaps rot a few more hoses, like the coolant hose to the carb which is swollen and porous, but miraculously after cutting off the split end, holding pressure at the moment. It does need changing imminently.

After all that, we've got the engine running pretty sweetly, and putting out about 2.0%CO, although my gas tester hasn't been calibrated in a while so it could be 0.25% out either way.

So apart from a few studs, a coolant hose and probably in the long run, needing a new carb, the engine is now pretty much sorted.

Other stuff that needs doing: The steering rack definitely has play in the nearside steering arm, that'll need a new rack.

The handbrake cable on one side is badly stretched and not operating properly, best thing will be replacement of both of them. The brakes otherwise seemed fine, after adjustments. The rears look like they've had brand new brake shoes on them, and I reckon they need a good bedding in before they'll be fully operational.

The rear shock casings have rusted and chipped but they function correctly and don't leak fluid so it'll be up to the tester on that one. The bottom mounts are also slightly split, but again, are holding the shock firmly so up to the tester too.

The rusty bodywork, James is on the case on that one, so watch this space on that front.

All in all, we got a lot done. There's still a bit of work to do and a few more bits to sort out, but the engine's running, and we've now got a clear plan of what's left to do now.

Thanks to Foggy for putting us up and to Pete for his help. I'm only sorry we were so busy that they didn't have much chance to see what I was doing with the carb/brakes etc etc and learn much about the 1.4s.

Sorrr for the long post. Hope it was of use.

Post by **petefarrell360** » 29 Nov 2005 10:54 pm

http://www.foggyjames.co.uk/inbox/V3M_nessy.wmv
Right click save as, approx 38 Mb of video!

Thanks to James for hosting it, as I've said before, it's my first effort at stringing together a video, so it's not great.

Andy worked wonders on the car. Learnt a lot over the weekend, and had a good time, despite the cold! Just need to get ym 1.4 sorted asap now, hopefully that won't need as much work!

Pete

Post by **SteveP** » 30 Nov 2005 12:54 am

Nice work guys, glad to see Nessy is on the way back to being on the road! Good video Pete - after all the troble you had with compressing it, its turned out good!

Post by **340GLT** » 30 Nov 2005 01:04 am

Gud vid pete mate!!! Gud to see another 300 lives again!!!
Cheers Adam

Post by **Chris_C** » 30 Nov 2005 02:31 am

Great vid there Pete! Well done guys, good to see Nessy running again... not that I've ever seen it running before

Looks a lot better than sat tucked behind a wall though!

Post by **foggyjames** » 30 Nov 2005 03:28 am

Great video indeed!

Thanks again to Pete and Andy for their help. I hope it was fun (as well as hard work), and worth the long journey.

The main thing is that the car is now mobile again. Once you can move it from A to B (or more to the point from Hugh's house to mine), everything becomes a lot easier. Once a few little urgent items are out of the way (namely the coolant hose and the manifold studs), the rest can be sorted in slow-time, according to how they manifest themselves.

So, all that remains to be done before it goes to the garage on Thursday night is...

Seatbelt
Grind rust back (the big job)
Fit front wheels with legal tyres

And pick up from the dealer, ready for fitment...
Manifold studs
Coolant hose

cheers

James

Post by **foggyjames** » 06 Dec 2005 07:35 pm

Update!

The car made it back to Torquay safely, where it has been waiting ever since to be looked at. Good god the B14 is impressively powerful for what it is!

It is now getting ready to go in for the MOT. There are a few things to be looked at in good time, including a slightly alarming vibration / noise from the rear end with the clutch released (presumably either gearbox or prop wear....or something being loose!)....however, I think we're nearly there regarding readiness for passing the MOT.

My garageman has looked at the rack and said "that'll pass just fine...my MOT man knows they sometimes have a bit of play in them". He's now changing the seatbelt, I'm supplying the new front numberplate, and he's doing quite a lot of welding! Other than that....fingers crossed....we're good to go. The only other thing which springs to mind are the slightly dubious handbrake cables, but it seems to be working perfectly effectively...

On the upside, the rear demister works

cheers

James

Post by **pettaw** » 07 Dec 2005 04:24 am

All sounds good news.

Post by **petefarrell360** » 07 Dec 2005 10:40 pm

Ah excellent! I must say the 1.4's I've been in seem to have some go, and that's not by thrashing them either, or it didn't seem it, so I'm looking forward to getting mine running. Good work James and best of luck with it all!
Pete

Post by **foggyjames** » 07 Dec 2005 10:51 pm

I've today been told that there was more rust than I'd found. Not sure where, as I got right under it, but hey ho. I've done quite well in the past week on selling bits, so I guess that's where that money is going!

cheers

James