Sprint Restoration in South Australia (pic heavy)

[straylight]

thanks mark, best wishes to you and yours as well. Can you send those screen seals whenever you are ready, I'm almost there ! Did you catch the sprint resto in melbourne on ebay ?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

and his nissan engined conversion ?

cross posting these for completeness, worried about the prop shaft alignment.





stu

[triple tango]

dont worry about the alignment, thats what u/j's & c/v's are for

[xvivalve]

The concern about OD second was that it would over rev the engine if the overdrive failed or slipped out whilst going full chat in OD second. I worked on the probability factor that this would unlikely happen; used OD second on my original road car for some 10 years. Very enjoyable too it was!

[straylight]

thanks TC and Alun. I'm going to try and line up the propshaft a bit better during the week. Thanks for the info on OD second Alun.

stu

[xvivalve]

The way your engine mounts and axle rubbers are sitting could influence the prop by that much; I'd see how it looks after its settled in driving a few hours. Only problem if it stays like that is you might experience out of balance 'wobble'

[Carl]

Just to add to the O/D 2nd thing, I did this conversion on my car. A good standard overdrive is all you need for a road car plus the extra inhibitor switch and two bits of wire. You can beef up the overdrive if you want up but it changes very roughly afterwards. I took my advice from someone who converted their 2000 saloon over ten years ago and has given it plenty of stick ever since with no problems.

I don't use it that much in normal driving but it really comes into its own on twisty mountain roads. Flicking between 2nd and O/D 2nd is fantastic, especially if you need to overtake anything, and generally makes for much more rapid progress. Lovin' it

[straylight]

too many other things going on so not a lot of updating. I did get the intermediate steering shaft rebushed in poly though and refitted the thing to the car. I now have steering ! pain in the neck getting the steering linkage together though. Every time I went to push the top of the intermediate shaft into the steering column splines, they would just push the sliding column back through the firewall bush. Ended up employing #1 son and a pair of multigrips. There seems to be less back and forth wobble now, but more side to side wobble at the steering wheel.

While I had the wriggle on and spare feet, bled the brakes. Got the front calipers done and was feeling very confident. A loose union to the rear wheel valve fixed, then was faced with brake fluid running out of the drums. I had fitted 5/8" seal kits to the rear wheel cylinders and it looks like I've got 11/16 (0.7") bore rear wheel cylinders. Lesson learnt, always check the bores directly rather than assuming standard Sprint sizes. Now a wait until the new seal kits arrive.

Went for a drive (if 700km round trip is a little drive) down to Portland with the family in the daily runner. Took some parts down for Aaron and met him. He's living in a paradise ! Got some acres of uncleared land and a really unusual house set up with sheddage to die for. Couldn't stay long, kids and wife in the car, but good to catch up. then went and had a swim at cape bridgewater and drove past the google earth street mapping car.

Thanks for the advice on the prop shaft and OD second. I'll leave it as original for now and sort the prop shaft once I've fiddled with the brakes and let the car settle, as Alun suggested.

stu

[DOLLY76]

Took some parts down for Aaron and met him. He's living in a paradise ! Got some acres of uncleared land and a really unusual house set up with sheddage to die for.

Always Welcome stu! You got me really enthused so tonight I'm finishing the replacement pannels in the boot and parcel shelf and getting the old girl back on her feet!

BTW, the shed is to die for when it's clean! I'm so glad you saw it in that state or I'd have been quite embarrassed!

Keep us up to date with the build, I'll have more pics up soon once Dad gets home with his Super Duper digital thingamajig camera.

[123exner]

Keep up the good work Stu.
John Exner (Wentworth Falls)

[straylight]

howdy John and welcome to the TDC I'm looking forward to seeing some pics of your two sprints and some of the trips you've taken them on.

stu

[DOLLY76]

Stu, bear in mind that the Toyo Universals will require a smaller size circlip when doing the joints. The tailshaft ended up costing me 185 bucks.... so I urge you to try and do it yourself if you're able to avoid the frustration lol

[straylight]

a long time between drinks over here, but after a time waiting for replacement wheel cylinder seals (the ones I bought were 5/8 and the ones I needed were 11/16) and a successful brake bleed, fitted up the headlights and plucked up the cahoones to go for a start. Doing it without radiator or water in the engine, just want a start and 10 second idle. Then I'll retorque the head after an overnight wait.

steps I followed were:

thoroughly checked fuel line
removed spark plugs, rotated engine several times by hand
checked dissie, leads and plugs, re-installed plugs
another rotation by hand
removed coil HT lead and ignition connection to coil
ignition on, ignition light on, oil light on
turned engine without a start until oil light goes out. repeat the process a few times
put fuel in tank, checked delivery of fuel to float chambers
(took some fettling, had to prime the pump and gravity feed fuel into float chambers)
reconnected ignition cables and check for spark, success
go for start
Nothing for umpteen attempts, mucked around with fuel, made sure fuel was getting to carbs
then a roar and she burst into life, but as soon as I released the starter, she died on us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsEH8bM8qOA

at the moment she goes on choke and the video shows as best we got. Son's commentary in the background. As soon as the starter is released, the car dies. My comment that fuel is good might not be 100%, but delivery is to the float chambers and has been checked.

I'm checking electrics atm, noting I have no tacho or gauges except for the pie and volts. I need to fit the voltage stabiliser, but that doesn't supply anything except the fuel gauge and temp gauge.

any ideas ?

cheers

stu

[straylight]

aha ! success.

the ignition kill switch would be responsible. My memory must be fading, it was installed in about 1985 and was used to switch both the electric fuel pump and ignition on. I'd forgotten it killed the ignition as well

fault finding, checked voltage at the coil, nada, suspected the ignition switch itself, had a look at it, then over a cup of tea and wondered what would possibly stop 12V getting to the coil.

I've gone back to mechanical fuel pump now, so tidied up that redundant wiring and went for another start.

Running on a variable number of cylinders, but some tuning and fiddling will sort that out. For now, I can start putting back the radiator and the rest of the engine bay ancillaries, confident that she will start for the drive back to george's for windscreen, rearscreen and black paint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp00fmBp8nQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzSPzuVQGYw

happy days !

stu

[Reg]

Excellent Stu.. Something like that always gives real impetus during the rebuild.

[Howard81]

Excellent stuff! Nothing quite beats the sound of a newly rebuilt engine bursting into life