Vulgalour's Vehicles - 10/03 Ignition Switch Woe

[vulgalour]

Yus, that's the colour, and the car you've picked lived in Ireland and is the only Princess I'm aware of that's in that colour. If I weren't going Aconite on the beige car I'd absolutely be going Tara green instead. It's tempting to paint the Renault in Tara rather than whatever the original metallic green is.

[vulgalour]

Important progress was made today. Not only did I get the glass in on the driver's door and the door cards and furniture on three of the doors - door four was thwarted by three missing self-tapping screws and having none suitable in the Pot of Fixings - but I got the charged battery plumbed in. The dash board also doesn't need a hazard warning plug wiring in after all, for some reason I'd confused it with the fog light switch which is much easier to resolve but I didn't get as far as fitting the dashboard today though it is sat in the car patiently waiting for me to get on with it.





The important thing was this (terrible quality) video. Click on the fuzzy picture to view



The big clouds of smoke are the remnants of the oil put down the bores and whatever had got in the wrong place when the head blew, the smoke cleared steadily as the engine was run. The exhaust is blowing at the downpipe join and I think it's the cause of a very strange squeaking noise that is coming from the same general area. The engine otherwise seems very healthy with no untoward leaks or noises.

To do list:
fit dash board
overhaul brakes - new rear shoes, handbrake cable & brake hose, bleed brake fluid
fix suspension - replacement sphere & Hydragas pump up
fit tyres
fit glass/furniture to one door
fix exhaust blow
fix radiator leak

Pretty satisfying what can be done when the weather behaves for a day or two.

[TerryG]

Well done I bet you were wearing a very big grin when she started.

[vulgalour]

Shortly before asphyxiating on the smoke, yes!

[vulgalour]

I finished the front seat covers. I also can't get one of the head restraints to come out, but other than that these are a triumph in style and fashion and all that stuff. Once I've bought more black wool I can get on with the back seat cover to match.


I also won this on eBay which I shall be stripping down and refurbishing before it goes on the car. Be very useful to have a towbar, particularly as I'll be moving house again later this year all being well but don't really have enough stuff left to require a van.


Then it was time for a job that is at least 2 years overdue. I'm not sure when the car last had an oil change but I know it's never been done in my ownership which, I'll admit, is very bad of me. Managed to get myself a NOS Unipart filter to replace the old grey Champion one that was fitted.


You should always take care to place the drain pans underneath the car in such a way that they catch all the oil. This is very important and you should under no circumstances forget you've moved them a bit so you can get to the sump drain plug a bit easier and then forget to put them back.


Because then this happens.


I hadn't bothered to check my oil in quite some time so while I knew the oil was very low due to the oil light coming on I was a bit surprised that the 6 litre capacity only had 1.5-2 litres of oil left in it. I haven't driven the car since the light came on and no harm has been done.

Removing the sump plug was surprisingly easy given how awkward some jobs have been. Likewise I was surprised that the oil filter came off with barely any effort, it was little more than finger tight and I wonder if it might be the cause of the small oil leak on that side of the engine. The sump gasket appears to be leaking and I got a better look at this in the gearbox casing.


I've scoured the manual as has Dad and have come to the conclusion it's a casing hole bodge because I can find no reference to any fixing in this location. It does leak a very small amount of oil and always has but never more than a spot when you park up. It appears to be a split pin put in from the other side and I'm not dismantling the engine/gearbox to find out. For now I've left it alone and just topped up with new oil.

I cleared out the filler neck where there was still a bit of mayonnaise from the head gasket failure and took the opportunity to clean up the filler cap and the dipstick. A previous owner had painted both of these with red paint over the grimy oil and I'd been meaning to tidy them up for ages. Plastic scraper, toothbrush and brake fluid did the trick though I'll go back and make them more perfect at a later date.


I gave the underside of the engine a spray with some degreaser but really I need to get it decently cleaned with a steam lance or something so I can see what's leaking where. Since changing the oil the top end of the engine is a smidge noisier but in the cabin is much quieter. Obviously gear change and smoothness of engine is much improved too now.

[tractorman]

I suspect the split pin is in the clutch housing and the oil dripping could be from the rear engine oil seal. Of course, I may be 100% wrong, but it was more or less a standard thing with cars of the era (and my Ferguson tractor): it certainly was with my Maxi - and I had the sense to change the oil seal before the clutch got contaminated. I suspect that the Princess will be more difficult to sort than the Maxi - I did that in a morning (including buying the new seal from the agents, 15 miles away).

I don't think you'll be the only one to move the basin from below the drain plug - I've done it more than once and even tried a plastic "tarpaulin" to avoid problems - the wind caught that, flicked a bit up which had to cut through the oil flowing freely from the sump and spray it all over the place!

[rich.]

ive seen a few cars with the split pin jobbie..

[vulgalour]

I've been told it's probably a jiggle pin to allow clutch dust to come out and the occasional oil drip is probably oil running from another location like my leaking sump gasket. Looks bodgey but is probably factory which is something I've very much come to expect.

[TerryG]

You are made of tougher stuff than me, the rubbish weather has kept me away from working on cars today. It looks like you are making rapid progress with your wedge
I have had cars with (what I thought was) a slowly leaking sump gasket. when I finally got around to checking one, there was a 1" section missing. when stopped there was only ever the odd drip but I would imagine when driving with the oil sloshing about a bit, that a fair amount was coming out.
As you are getting rid of the car there isn't a huge amount of point in fixing it but if you were keeping it, I would suggest you fixed it before putting the car in to regular use.

[vulgalour]

You're slightly confused, wedge work today has been on my daily driver.

I'm going to purchase another head gasket set, a sump gasket, a new clutch kit, new thermostat housing and anything else I might need so that I can pull the engine apart and seal it all up properly. At the moment I'm tolerating the weep of water from the thermostat cap and the occasional drip of oil from wherever it's coming from. Don't really want to strip the car down until after I've moved house and I've got the Renault as backup.