The River Cottage Corsair

Unseizing the clutch (part 2)

Dom — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:24:41 +0000

Finally did it, I got the slave cylinder off, you know, the one mounted on the bellhousing. After spending 2-3 hours tussling with various tools in the morning I decided to stop and have a break.

After lunch I resumed, jacked the car up a bit more, which enabled the front wheel to be turned allowing more room to manoeuvre. Starting with the coil spring clamps I manged to get a grip on the front cross member, the mole grips helping keep the clamp in place and the push rod end of the slave. A few turns on the clamp’s bolt was enough to get things moving. From there on it was a hammer on the ball joint splitter tool and then a lever iron to drive the slave through its mounting hole.

Next: freeing up of the clutch pedal.

Unseizing the clutch (part 1)

Dom — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:01:20 +0000

After some advice from the Rods ‘n’ Sods forum, on Saturday (19th) I removed (wrestled with) the clutch fluid reservoir to inspect the extent of seizure. The photos may indicate the level of corrosion but don’t illustrate the fact that the reservoir was dry upon removal.

I had to cut the fluid pipe to remove it from the engine bay. I then attempted to take off the slave cylinder mounted on the engine block. I got as far as removing the circlip before spraying the unit in WD40 to help the removal of that at a later date.

It’s Alive!

Dom — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:43:52 +0000

6th November 2011, 2.30pm: Reconnected the battery with it’s new earthing strap, a recheck that each of the plugs were sparking and several seconds (seemed like minutes) of cranking over and the old girl erupted into life.

The engine is alive!

Revving the half V8, erm I mean the V4

A short tour, front to back. Note the exhaust grime on the blue car.

Cover back on… Cover back off

Dom — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:32:50 +0000

Doomed by the prospect of no cash and lacking motivation the car cover went back over the Corsair in early September. However, tinkering around in the garage this afternoon and with the likely chance to show a visitor it was time to roll back the cover and show her off. In the time leading up to the visit I fitted the new earth strap (bought way back in June) and fitted the spare coil to distributor cap HT lead that was given to me by Hill Top Motors, Shaftesbury.

The Corsair was rolled back into garage, but the covers weren’t replaced. Start up day looms! Well, attempt two.

That old car smell

Dom — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:03:16 +0000

…mmm, that old car smell, right up my nostrils today when digging around in the garage for some tools on a non car job. Yep, the passion is still there to get the old girl started, and there is a … Continue reading →

Project on hold

Dom — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 11:10:46 +0000

Cash flow is the real problem here, a decent set of HT leads are required and I’ve not a penny to spend on the Corsair to try again on starting the engine. So, motivation has taken a bit of a … Continue reading →

Crayford info

Dom — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:09:26 +0000

Just added 12 scans of genuine Crayford brochures here. Not much is on line about this company that specialised in soft top conversions of UK production cars and according to the Company brochure they did some engine development too. Hopefully … Continue reading →

The first of the fire up attempts

Dom — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:19:01 +0000

A couple of hours on Saturday saw the Corsair being prepped for it’s first crank over. The cooling system was re-filled then it was plugs out and checked. The engine was hand cranked over just to ensure it hadn’t seized and things moved freely. The mower fuel can was set up as a temporary fuel source.

This was the moment that hadn’t happened for over eight years, the engaging of the starter motor and cranking of the engine. I kept the key turned and after an initial slow turn over everything seemed fine… except the engine didn’t fire. Out with each plug, and test. Well weak spark at No.1, ok on No.2, not sure about No.3 and ok-ish at No.4. Tested the HT lead from the coil, well it sparked. Checked the points gap was fine and condenser ok. Turned over… several times. Checked the fuel was getting to carb, all ok. Re-checked dizzy cap etc, looked ok. Re-checked HT lead to dizzy, prodded the wire that would make contact with the distributor and it broke off. Answered that then!

So, the battery was taken out of the Corsair and reconnected to the trickle charger with the next task to obtain newer HT leads. I came away happier that the battery was good and man enought for the job, the fuel was getting to the carb, the carb linkages were freed up and now aware of the dodgy clip mounting on the distrubuter body.

The battery saga

Dom — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:12:51 +0000

Two old (dead) batteries were swapped today at a breakers near Stalbridge. I decided to keep the one I had been trying to resurect, but still had two old spares (one possibly being off the wife’s bug) kicking about. Luckily, I hadn’t disposed of them at the local recycling centre (dump) as the breakers yard took them in as a swap for one good fully charged one. Result!

I’ve not tried it out but attached it to the trickle charger for now. Fire up day looms…

A bit of plumbing

Dom — Sun, 22 May 2011 20:38:33 +0000

A copper 'U' pipe fitted to bypass the heater matrix

The fuel fileter is disconnected from the petrol tank

Another hour was spent on the car on Saturday by the fitment of the copper U pipe I had kicking around for a while as a a bypass to the heater matrix (which is suspected as being blocked). The fuel pipe to fuel filter was disconected and another pipe added which was then fed into the lawn mower fuel can. The battery was also fitted with the vain hope that it would turn the engine over but also to test that the fuel pump was sucking. which it did.

The battery still failed to turn over the engine, but a fire up is getting closer.