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.

[Mark Bagnall]

I think the bracket for the clutch cable is spaced out from the bell housing so the cable clears the wings that have been added to the sump.

[James Doulton]

I think that I misled you on that one, Mark. There were no instructions, just a chart from a test which showed the damping effect at one speed and in both directions but I recall that it had two different plots, for min and max settings. I have hunted high and low in the garage, in the office, in the spare bedroom. I have found lots of interesting things, but not the chart. It is most irritating as I have had 2 sets of 2 and so there must be 4 charts somewhere - probably together!

[Mark Bagnall]

Glad you found some interesting things, thanks for looking, I hope you didn't feel it wasted. I'm not bothered about "instructions" but a graph of showing damping performance would be useful if you do find it. But whatever the reasoning I've ended up with a completely transformed Phaeton, thanks again. It is also testament to this forum and the helpful people on it.

[James Doulton]

I looked through an old post I made in July 2013:

The shocks each came with a graph of force vs displacement for 9.72 inch/s @ 2.5Hz (looking at the graph shapes then I think that the velocity is 'instantly' applied and constant throughout the stroke). There are two curves, presumably the max and min adjuster settings. On the minimum setting the maximum force is 77lb in compression and 94lb in extension. At the maximum setting those change to 190lb in compression and 599lb in extension.

From memory, the force is pretty much constant throughout the stroke. If we assume that the dampers are designed to work for cars that might be twice as heavy as the Phaeton, then we probably should be setting them towards the low end. I counted about 55 clicks from min to max and set mine to 15 from the minimum. Anyway, I'm glad that you are partly sorted, though you might want to get some longer springs sometime.

[Mark Bagnall]

REAR INDICATOR WANTED

On a drive yesterday, I thought I had a dodgy earth as the left indicator was flashing too fast - unfortunately one indicator has escaped.

Does anyone have a spare they would sell to me?

Marking on the lens is PEREI.  I think I have seen the same lights on other S3s so I'm hoping they were common.

[Mark Bagnall]

Thanks Stephen.  I'm hoping someone will have a matching one.  If I have to buy new I will probably go for a complete integrated one piece - I've see ones aimed at trailers/trucks that should fit and has all the lights (including fog and reversing) so I could tidy up the rear.

[28ullkq4hau58]

mark youre indicator lamp is the same as the NAS spec landrover  and are fairly cheap from the aftermarket land rover dealers  ,paddocks, LRS, and the like

thought i had a spare but its not on the shelf

[Mark Bagnall]

Thanks Spanners, I'll have a look