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Away on a trip in Pootle and clutch bearing sounds like it is dying. Only replaced clutch 2000 miles ago when engine and box rebuilt so it is a surprise. Hoping to get back at weekend without an AA ride-of-shame! On the plus side, engine and box seem great! The bearing fitted is a horrid carbon...

Well if I measured it right the power drive will sit just below the bottom of the dashboard. The plan is to have motor under the dash so it is as unobtrusive as possible. I will need to fit a bracket to fix the motor to the bodywork somehow once it's in place so as to stop it all rotating...

Well shafts all done and just need to re-shim the worm bearings and refit/adjust the output arm with new oil-seal and jobs-a-gud-un...

Am I right in thinking that the steering column and box can be extracted via the cab?

Bit of progress. Cut steering shaft and welded a splined adapter to shaft to mount Toyota unit. Next I'll mount top section of Commer shaft onto the Toyota output shaft.....

Not too much progress but made a start. Bought a £30 steering column and box from a scrapped van on Isle of Wight and a Prius motor assembley from ebay. Biggest challenge was getting actuating arm off tapered splined shaft - 3 legg puller set scarey tight then used ark welder on hub of arm to...

Not sure of pros and cons of Prius and Corsa power steering setups and both seem similar arrangements. I found a cheap Prius one a while ago but haven't tried testing it yet - finding spare steering column took a while. I think I went for the Prius one because it defaults to a certain rate of...

Yep I was well-oiled by the time I went to bed Sat night....

Commer sump gasket replacement Sat 3rd September 2022 As Helen returned with son Matthew from the Green-Gathering festival in Chepstor last month, Pootle blew a hole in Piston No1 on the M4 (over advanced timing causing Pinking I think)… My mate Bob and I replaced the piston three weeks ago...

Here are a couple of pics showing what I had and how pinion teeth were a bit short on first pinion. Later pinion had teeth continuing towards the end of the shaft so gears fully engaged...

On my Wasp there is a fat +12v wire to the battery and a thinner +12v wire that is fed by the lucas starter solenoid mounted on the chassis. This solenoid is driven from the starter button and is really just a relay. There is of course a real solenoid inside the starter to push the starter...

Many thanks Panky. Will machine up an adapter to use withhalf inch ratchet.

Hello again. Some time ago we lost a hub cap and wheel trim from Pootle. We had spare caps but are now one short of wheel trims for 15 inch wheels. Does anyone have a spare they might sell or were they fitted to any other vehicles? Next I need info on starting handles. Pootle's crankshaft nut...

OK so today mate Bob and I tackled the great sump leak. After jacking the front up and removing track rods from steering centre plate we jiggled off the sump. The new sump gasket set and misc gasket sheets hadn't arrived so we removed rocker box and rockers to re-torque the head. Amazingly as we...

Next point is what temp do you chaps run engines at? Thermostat on my alpine engine seems to switch at about 92 and 98 degrees so nominal 95 degree thermostat I guess? Is this OK or too hot? I have an additional electric fan on a simple switch that can get temp down to about 80 which is perhaps...

Well I was very carefull not to over-tighten and both end bits failed. Might be OK to fit on an engine being rebuilt on a stand but an effin £60 nightmare lying on a drive. Have ordered suitable cork and nitrile sheets to roll-my-own at the weekend -£35 and leaving loads of material for 'stock'.

So we went to a festival up in Kettering and got there an back (250 miles). New silicone sump gasket leaking badly but engine running well so fingers crossed.... looks like an oily weekend fixing the leak with old-school gaskets and cork strips! Sent from my Galaxy

Well we got to Kettering OK and engine running well. Good temperature and oil pressure with overdrive making motorways acceptable. Unfortunately we have an oil leak somewhere - possibly just rocker box. No oil at exhaust so will just keep topped up until we get home and hunt it down after an...

Have now done about 20 miles with ignition well retarded (5 degrees advance at cold idle) and running well with no hint of pinking. Management is set on a trip to Kettering for the weekend so we need all your prayers I think! :)

Speedy is closed for holidays so I bought a set of Pistons from Sunbeam Spares which is just down from us in Shepperton. With all the gaskets and stuff the bill was about £500 which seems a lot until you realise it's about 4 tanks of liquid gold these days! Bloody hell - I remember my father...