Well sorting out the minor faults after the car's short run didn't take much doing. The problem with the gear change turned out to be that I had fitted the striker plate back to front and upside down. Once turned over and reoriented the gear change worked perfectly. I also took the opportunity to fit a "Quick Shift" under the gear lever which shortens the lever travel and makes it more positive. The Headlights too were an easy fix. The reason that they were on all the time was because a small 6mm nut had fallen across the back of the fuse box giving the headlights a permanent feed. The spacing on the steering wheel required the making of an aluminium spacer, bringing the steering wheel 20mm further forward and that sorted out all of the test drive problems.
Now I had never been very happy with the condition of the original aluminium sill protectors and so decided to have some stainless steel ones made with the Karmann Ghia logo laser engraved into them. So I had the blank metal plates made and polished them to mirror finish in my workshop. I then drew the artwork on computer and and took the plates to a laser engraver in Leicester. Two weeks later I had these beautiful sill protectors fitted on the car.
This time, I read that some of the oil cooler seals were softer than others and so when through my collection of seals and found the recommended harder seals and fitted them. I rebuilt the engine again and fitted it back in the car. Guess what? It still leaked.
No luck. It still leaked!!!
So I decided to do the unthinkable. I took the engine out for the fourth time and stripped off the tin-ware and then re-fitted the engine back into the car with no cooling and ran the engine.
It leaked, but now I could see where the oil was coming from and it was the new oil cooler. Whilst it had stood up to the pressure test OK, once it had hot oil running through it under pressure it leaked from the core. I later discovered that this is a common fault with these replacement oil coolers. Fortunately I had not thrown away the original, 53year old, oil cooler. So I cleaned it and flushed it out and fitted it back on the engine. I then re-fitted the engine back into the car, still with no cooling, and ran the engine, to check for leaks. It didn't leak. Hooray!!Now the engine had to come out for the fifth time so that I could re-fit all of the tin-ware and
finally it could be fitted back into the car and tested.
At last it did not leak.
I shall be popping down every week to see how it is progressing.
Copyright 22.10.24 all rights reserved.
My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/before.html
1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.com/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html
Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.com/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide
Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.com/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html