ARE WE SITTING COMFORTABLE

The bundle of cables that will eventually supply the rear lights and indicators had been lying around on the floor of the car along with assorted nuts, bolts and tools and it was now time to tidy it all up. The cable was P clipped up inside the transmission tunnel along with the brake hose, the nuts, bolts and tools were put away and the floor vacuumed. The aluminium panels to the tunnel were temporarily bolted/riveted in place and now that all was neat and tidy I fitted the padded cover to the tunnel, followed by the seat back and the squads.

I must be honest, the real reason for doing this in that we have friends over this weekend and I want to show Marjorie off at her best. In fact though, once the hand brake is connected, the brakes bled and the right side carburettor sorted, she will be ready to come off the trestles and then I will most definitely want to climb aboard. In the meantime I have left both side panels off so that any adjustment will be easier to make.

BACK BRAKING

Both front wheels are now fitted, although there was a slight hiccough with the left wheel. The rubber bellows on the top ball joint had split open and when I removed it to replace it, I noticed that the taper of the threaded shaft of the ball joint was a loose fit in the tapered top hat. A trip to Arthur's confirmed that I had a faulty top hat and he immediately replaced it with one of the correct size. fortunately the split rubber highlighted this problem, before the wheels hit the ground.

I had previously fitted the back wheel complete with the original Brembo calliper and back plate, but this didn't allow for a hand braking. A call to Alan at Triking, who had supplied my Brookland silencers, was able to resolve this problem with a hydro/mechanical calliper and a special back plate. I posted, last Friday, the rear brake disc to Triking to allow Alan to get the proper alignment of plate and spacer tube and on Monday I had an email to say it was ready and on Thursday it arrived  complete with pads and handbrake cable. Wow that's seriously efficient.

   

 

I did a trial fit to the back wheel and it was perfect, with just enough clearance where it was needed. Alan had sent the back plate unpainted in case I had to make some minor adjustments, but as all was fine, I removed it and gave the plate several coats of smooth black Hammerite. 

Its all back in place now and I am awaiting a 12mm banjo so that I can connect the brake hose to the calliper and get those brakes bled.

WHEELIE SURPRISED

I had arranged for a trip down to Ditchling last Friday, to collect seat back and squabs from Arthur. I was intending to fit a pair of bucket seats, but my wife insisted bucket seats just didn't have the traditional look and to ensure I keep on her right side I opted for form over function, still nothing that can't be changed at a later date and Arthur was offering a good deal. However to my surprise a text from Steve at Wheelwise told me my three wheels were ready for collection. So with my chum Gerry, it was two birds with one stone.

Arthur had the seat, plus tunnel capping and side panel cards ready and once loaded its was off to Cowfold, thirty minutes away for the wheels. Splendid, very shiny, already shod and ready to go.

I stashed my new goodies away and got on with a few outstanding jobs, like re-fitting the fuel tank and fuel pump. That done I wired up the fuel gauge and pump and after adding eleven litres of petrol the fuel gauge registered just under half full, so I expect the tank will hold about twenty five litres when full and the voltmeter showed 12 volts.

Before I connected the fuel lines to the carbs I turned on the ignition and with a whirring from the pump, fuel gushed out the end of the hoses, I deliberately did this to flush out any debris. However once connected and ignition turned on fuel still poured out of the right hand carb, left one was fine, so I will have to it take off the right one and strip it, probably the needle valve or float sticking, shouldn't be too much trouble to fix and then I will hopefully be able to start the engine.

Just to round off the day, I loctighted the bolts that attach the brake disc to the hub, fitted the brake discs to the calliper, greased the tapered roller bearings, gently taped in the grease seal and mounted the wheel to the previously fitted stub axle and finally tightened the castellated nut until the wheel became stiff to turn. I backed off the nut just enough to allow the wheel to turn freely and inserted the split pin. I slipped the brake calliper over the disc and bolted it onto the mounting plate. The domed hub caps, mudguards and stays are still to come.

The third wheel will be the spare and I mounted it on the back, but I need to devise a way to keep it in place. But not long now before I can lift Marjorie off the trestles and roll her out of the garage.for a proper photo call.

THE FINAL FUSE

Finally I have the electrics sorted, not totally, as I am waiting for a replacement column mounted switch to arrive, as to put it bluntly I buggered the original one, but at least I know exactly where each wire needs to go.

I eventually traced the short circuit down to the front right indicator light, I had stupidly connected the supply to the earth, no wonder fuses kept popping. Although I now had a working circuit on both left and right indicators, I couldn't get the switch to work, probably burnt it out, anyway whilst I was puzzling over it, I saw exactly where the connection for the flasher needed to go, so no need for a separate switch on the dash, just need the new column switch.

The last thing to tackle was the hazard warning switch. With the old bike switch still attached, I pushed the button and great, all the lights flashed, so I snipped off the wires and connected them to the new switch in accordance with the wiring diagram in the CBS cataloge and again great, all the lights flashed, until I turned off the ignition. Bugger, the hazard lights also need to flash with ignition turned off and there is a permanently life wire to the switch; back to the wiring diagram again. I eventually worked out that I needed to run a wire from the switch, that would become life when the switch was depressed, this would go to the supply side of the flasher unit and would power the flasher unit when the supply from the ignition ignition was turned off.

I routed a wire with temporary connections to the flasher unit and hazard switch end and it worked. Hooray. I made proper connections, tidied everything up, taping loose cables etc and did a final check that all lights and instruments worked and then I put the top back onto the electric box. Job done!!

TO INDICATE OR NOT TO INDICATE

I knew that the electrics would cause a lot of head scratching and I was right. It has been two steps forward and one backwards all the way.

In the last post I said it was time for the column mounted switch to be sorted, so I started to sort it. I snipped of all the wires to the old left handlebar switch, having properly tagged them first. The new switch unit I removed from the steering column and laid out in front of the scuttle giving me plenty of room and light in which to work.and started with the dip/main beam connectors, all went well until I realised that in the main beam position both the main and dip were coming on together. I looked carefully at the switch and saw that one of the contacts had got bent, so no matter at what position the switch was in the dip beam was permanently on, a little deft tweaking of the contact with the pliers resolved this problem.

 

I then started to look where I could connect up the wires for the headlamp flashers, but to no avail, I don't think this function was intended with this switch, but that's easily solved by running the wires to a separate spring loaded switch to be fitted on the dash, behind the steering wheel.

Next were the indicators and again a problem, one of the main 15 amp fuses keeps blowing, I've had the switch apart and I don't think it's there, but when I ran out of fuses  I decided to call it a day and work on something else.

The hooters I took of the old bike and mounted them on the front end under the headlights and I think they look good, I saw that Henry Wright had already done that and if good enough for him, certainly good enough for me. Henry has just got his MG3 through the most stringent of test in Oz, well done Henry. This time all works well with a loud toot with just a push on the end of the indicator stalk.

I then set about the rest of the new instruments. I ran five wires back from my new fuse box, two are permanently live, provided the isolating switch is down, these are for the 12v socket and the clock. The other three wires are for the fuel pump, fuel gauge and the voltmeter, these are only live when the ignition switch is fully on.

I wrapped the cables in the split corrugated sheaf and clipped them up under the glove box. The 12v socket I mounted under the dash just to the right of the transmission tunnel, but out of the way of my left knee when I am entering or exiting the car. Hooray all the gauges worked when I powered up, so now nothing for it but to sort out the indicators as that is the only thing between replacing the fuel pump and tank and firing up the engine for the first time, now that will be a hooray occasion.