Running rebuild

[Mark Bagnall]

Things are looking up. This yellow series 3 Phaeton is the sort of car I should have bought first time round - it drives, has an mot, and I fit in!!
I won't go into all the details but the purchase took around a month - there was no V5 at first. Collecting was a marathon - 240 miles there, with huge road works was bad enough but coming back the first stop for fuel resulted in a complete failure of the starter motor. Luckily my son in the support vehicle had no problem push starting so we eventually made it home around midnight.
I have now started working through the car, listing jobs - the idea (which I'm sure many people have) is to bring it up to the spec/standard I want while using and enjoying it.
Basic spec as relayed by last owner; 1700 cross flow, 711 block, BCF2 cam, running unleaded. I'm hoping the valves have hardened seats and valve spring have been sorted, although I'm only using 6 to 6,500 revs as a rolling road print out and on road experience suggest power peaks at 6,000.
The first job was to sort the starting. The last owner had installed 24 volt starting with 2 enormous batteries behind the passenger seat. Now I know this has been used for high compression cross flows before but a web search and my gut suggested a properly working system should cope without the need to go to 24v or an expensive high torque starter. Simple testing, by direct wiring the starter, produced no action and a quick strip down revealed burnt brushes and burnt and pitted rotor.
Even though I'm out in the wilds of Shropshire, there is an old school auto electrician who rebuilt the starter the day I took it in (R J Jones, Snailbeach, recommended, if you are ever this way).
I then spent this morning putting into practice my experience of designing electrical connectors (if there is something wrong in a circuit, first check the connections) by cleaning and tidying the connections and adding additional wires (to ensure the lowest resistance) including removing one battery and returning to 12 volts. The result is perfect starting!
So I'm on my way and really enjoying the driving - ill add some more photos and comments tomorrow.

[James Doulton]

Have you tried adjusting the damping rate or just the spring pre-load. The Gaz dampers have quite a large range. Mine came with a chart showing the damping effect at the two extremes of setting and the difference was about a factor of 4, by memory (I can't actually find the charts at the moment).

[Mark Bagnall]

James, I haven't fiddled with the dampers yet, I thought I'd try one thing at a time. Good to know there is a big range on the gaz dampers - I'll have a look online to see if I can download some instructions.

[Mark Bagnall]

James, have now started fiddling. Your comments helped me decide to make a big initial adjustment which really helped. If you do find the instructions I would really appreciate a copy (photo) as I can't see them on the Gaz website.

[Big Vern]

Please remember this is a sports car not a family saloon, the suspension will be less compliant. Most saloon car suspensions are set up to be comfortable over crappy british roads, though it does sound like yours needs some work.  

[Dave Adams]

That said you dont need as hard suspension as some would have you believe. There has to some compliance or you will loose speed skipping over the road surface.

[Mark Bagnall]

I know it won't be a limo, nor will it be a lotus élan which, with hindsight, I should never have sold (have you seen the prices now?). I want a firmly sprung responsive car I'm just aiming for a little compliance rather than crashing and bottoming out.
I hope to measure up over the weekend and post some more pictures

[Mark Bagnall]

I have continued adjusting - I went for a drive then re- checked the heights and corrected. I can't level completely, the nearside rear is wound up as far as it can go (collar is at the end of the threads, still engaged with the threads) and the chassis is a little low, c 141 mm / c 5.5 inches so have adjusted to that on the rear. I don't have a lathe and couldn't sort a sensible spacer so it will stay at that unless I mod the mounts or go for some 7" springs.
This all helped but the biggest change was when I adjusted the dampers. As the travel has now increased and I felt it was overly hard before I dropped all the damping (I believe adjustment is combined compression and rebound) by nearly half - the settings were around the middle of the range and James suggested the full range covers a 4 fold damping increase.
The result is excellent! The harshness has gone but without any bottoming and the balance is still good. I will try a few more tweaks as on the higher speed bends there was a hint of movement, not a wallow but not ideal and I think 2 up will be under damper.
So some fine tuning still to come but a transformed car that is a joy to drive.

[Dave Adams]

You can run S1/2's much to look much lower than the S3/4's (its to do with the chassis side rail locations)
S3/4's need about 6" chassis to road clearance to have the suspension geometry work correctly.
Your frear springs are mounted very poorly with reference to the chassis top mount. You would be better to make some towers to lift the top mount a bit higher (4 to 6 inches) you may have to buy stiffer springs and lower the platforms to get full shocker travel.
Look at grahams S4 long project thread.

[Dave Adams]

Ps.......
You may well be able to remount the engine higher in the engine bay to give sump clearance. It will have a minimal effect on your cars handling.

[Mark Bagnall]

I am planning to raise the engine with some spacers, initially, I'm sure there is plenty of clearance with the bonnet.
I'm working out the spring/damper and mount geometry to have the best compromise until I have the time for some welding (& I guess body off).

[Mark Bagnall]

Hi Stephen, thanks for that. Although I had a Mexico in the 80s I'm not an real escort aficionado - what was the purpose? Was it a greater oil capacity? If so it is going to make it tricky to work out how much oil to put in and the correct height on my homemade dipstick!

[Dave Adams]

looking again at your pictures.....

i dont think there is anything to be gained from further altering the sump, your shockers look to be the same as those fitted to my car. if so they will be 12.5 inches open and 9.5 inches closed giving 3 inch travel. 

but what is going on with your clutch cable?