Saturday 29th June was a Tech Day for me as I travelled down from London to the Southampton area where Dan Knowlton had very kindly offered his time to help me with a few issues. In advance of the day we had drawn up a list of items to tackle, in full knowledge that it would take more than one day to tick them all off, but that we would make a start and then look to have a follow up when time permitted.
The list was comprised of,
Thermo time switch change?
Adjust gear linkages to improve stick movement between gears
Visual check of car for other essential work needing to be done.
As you might expect, any one job can start and lead you down various paths different to that planned, and this tech day was no different.
I arrived for 08:30 having left London at 06:45 for the 90 mile journey. Upon arrival I drove straight in and parked 16606 at the lift.
No sooner positioned, 16606 was up in the air to enable inspection of the oil leak and to start the oil change while it was still warm from the journey. As a bit of background, I started to get an leak back in 2018. The general consensus was that it was minor and there was no urgency to getting it done, although at that time the source of the leak wasn't diagnosed. Then in 2020 after the first COVID pandemic lockdown had been lifted, I booked the car in at my local garage where I had my MOTs done. At that time the leak was diagnosed as coming from the main seal, as documented in https://timemachine16606.wixsite.com/blog/post/oil-leak-repair. The work was completed by the garage and it was thought the leak was resolved. Unfortunately, within a week, I noticed a leak, not knowing if it was the same or a new one. I've continued to live with this leak ever since. In addition, not having put many miles on the car, I have not carried out an oil change since 2016, embarrassingly.
Making an immediate start, Dan cleaned the oil residue so we could identify where the leak was originating.
After a short while we could see the oil appearing as in the photo below, from the main seal area.
With the source identified and knowing that to fix it we would need to lower the gearbox, we would wait to assess the day's progress as to whether this was something that could be done in the time available to us on this day. Next we began the oil change.
Oil Change
After removing the oil sump drain plug the old, dirty oil poured out.
After the initial torrent we let the oil trickle for a while until it had all but stopped.
Next the old oil filter was removed.
and the retained oil emptied from it into the bucket.
The new oil filter could now be fitted.
and for future reference the date of change noted.
Before filling up with nice new oil a new sump drain plug (and washer) was fitted.
Finally the new oil was added, 6.75 litres in all.
Hot Start Issue
There were originally two potential issues causing the hot start problem that had been identified.
A faulty fuel accumulator, not holding pressure
A faulty thermotime switch
Before we got started Dan recalled an issue with another owner's car whereby an apparent hot start issue was solved when it was identified that the starter motor was wired via a direct connection from the white/red wire of the cold start plug directly to one of the two male spades of the starter motor. This is thought to be a fix that some do on newer starter motors that only have the one male spade, however I understand that originally, and on the part sold back in 2015 when my car was being restored, there were two male spades with the two white/red wires going to one 6.3mm spade and the blue/yellow wire going to the 4.8mm spade. The advised solution is that the blue/yellow and white/red wires should be joined together and connected to the single spade on newer starter motors. On my car we had seen that it had this direct connection to the 6.3mm spade, as mentioned, despite the starter motor having the two. The 4.3mm spade was left unconnected whilst the white/red and blue/yellow wires had been left disconnected and taped up.
Knowing that this had worked on the other owner's car, and after confirming this via phone with Al Vanstone, we decided to rectify this first. We disconnected the wire from the cold start plug to the starter motor (the red wire hanging in the background in the photo below) which required us to then connect the break in the white/red wire at the cold start plug back together.
We then untaped the original white/red and blue/yellow wires at the starter motor end and fixed new connectors, 6.3mm to the white/red and 4.8mm to the blue/yellow and then plugged them to the starter motor as seen below.
Despite discolouration there are in fact two white/red wires going in to the 6.3mm spade (the one with the blue connector sheathing).
Once this was back together we attempted to start the car, but it failed. This was not the solution, but a good job to have had done to ensure the correct wiring for the starter motor that is fitted.
Fuel Accumulator change
So next the thought was that we should check the fuel accumulator. Dan removed the air filter and checked the pressure on the cover of the mixture control unit. The result was that it was apparent the accumulator was losing some pressure due to the ease of being able to depress the cover. Therefore we did need to install the new fuel accumulator; back up into the air 16606 went.
Just after starting to undo the bracket we took the photo below to record the positioning of the connections.
Gradually the old accumulator was freed and removed, and despite best efforts not to get dripped on with fuel, this was unavoidable. Due to the tight space within the frame where the accumulator is located it wasn't possible to photograph each step. The new accumulator was fitted. It was also lunch time so we decided I would take the car for a spin, come back, leave it to sit whilst we had lunch, and then check if it started without issue afterwards.
After lunch we started the car but alas, the hot start issue persisted. We scrutinised the wiring schematic and then Dan had a thought that maybe it could be due to a faulty ignition resistor bypass relay, the one that comes via the blue/yellow wire from the ignition resistor and starter motor, that is located at the back left of the engine bay.
As luck would have it, last time I purchased a change over relay, I also purchased a spare and had it in my box of spare and left-over bits in the boot. We simply replaced it, started the car and it started instantly and smoothly.
I will plan to monitor this over the course of the coming journeys. With this apparent success we therefore have not proceeded to fit the thermo time switch which I purchased from eBay. I'll hold on to that just in case this has been a herring of the red kind.
Loosen my stuck-fast gear stick knob
One job on the list seemed quite trivial but was something I had tried numerous times before and failed to achieve due to a nervousness of breaking something. So many times had I needed to work in the area of the gear stick/cigar lighter and never had the best possible access because I could not unscrew the gear stick knob to remove the gator and panel of the console. Removing it was also a prerequisite to adjusting the gear linkages, the next job on the list.
I had formed the belief that the knob had been glued on for some reason. This belief was dispelled once Dan had taken his wrench, bound the teeth with tape to protect the knob as much as possible and then with sufficient force applied, the knob loosened and unscrewed. I couldn't believe it, Dan had done it! When looking at the threads inside the knob it was full of rust, which probably was the cause of the seizing up.
This now enabled the next job to proceed.
Adjust gear linkages
Over time, and possibly in part due to my previous attempts to loosen my gear stick knob, it has become difficult to change gear into first and reverse. I found myself having to slightly move the stick back a little, as if to change into second, and then push up into first. With reverse I had to lift and slightly move the stick up towards first and then pull down into reverse.
With the gator and console panel moved out of the way full access was possible.
Upon inspection it could be seen, as in the next photo, how the pin of the gear stick was not resting naturally whilst in neutral between third and fourth, i.e. dead centre of the lower shelf, not including the raised shelf for reverse to the left. It was positioned to the left of centre which means it would not pull the linkages enough to enable a smooth gear change, hence it was meeting resistance.
To rectify this, adjustment was needed underneath the car, to the crossgate cable at the crossgate bracket. Adjustment would result in the gear stick pin moving along the shelf back to a central position.
So with me in the drivers seat to monitor, Dan raised the car on the lift and he adjusted the nuts of the cable at the crossgate bracket whilst I fed back on the changing position of the pin. This can be seen in the video below.
Following this we tested the gear positions, all of which are now easily shifted into. There was however a small amount of movement that Dan identified so the car went back up in the air and as expected there was play in the gearchange tube where the bushing had worn away. Fortunately Dan had a saved spare bushing and bushing sleeves which he then replaced as can be seen in the photo below - the bushing sleeves are the light coloured discs within the darker bushing.
Visual check of car
Finally Dan did a visual check over the car for any other urgent work I should get done. It was fortunate that this was done because he found that my drivers side lower control arm bushing was coming out. I've now ordered the new LCAs from DeloreanGo.com, the The D-Arm™ Fully Loaded Anodised Solid Aluminium Lower Control Arms.
With such an amount of work achieved during the day it was now time to head home. I did one last drive, up and down the road, to test the gear changes before my journey. We agreed that a follow up day was in order to, most importantly, replace the lower control arms, and also to drop the gearbox to resolve the oil leak.
Check back for DMCS Tech Day for 16606.
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