What was originally booked in for what we and the owners thought for a clutch replacement, possibly just a slave cylinder due to being stood for sometime turned into a bit of a different story!
We collected the car on Sunday from Leconfield, a TF 160 Spark that hadn’t run for quite some time due to lockdown etc, so we winched her on to the trailer and took her back to the workshop.
Up and on bright and early on Monday to get cracking full of our usual enthusiasm…
The slave cylinder was completely blown, with plunger only just hanging in the end of the cylinder. We then attempted to free off the clutch release arm, but this was absolutely seized, the worst we’ve ever come across, and of course the inevitable happened and the end of the arm snapped off, we had already made the decision to replace the arm with new, so rotated the gear box and eventually removed the arm, this took 6 hours just to carry out this process, despite soaking with AC90, heat, and lots of effort from above and below. New arm fitted and gear box turned back in to place. New bearing and clutch fitted and gearbox back on. New slave cylinder fitted. New clutch line fitted as the existing one crumbled. When it came to bleeding we then discovered that the master cylinder was only pumping 25% of what it should, therefore new one duly fitted. System all bled and clutch all sorted. When we came to turn the key to test the car it wouldn’t start as the immobiliser had kicked in. We thought this was due to the Pektron unit being scrambled due to the car being stood and the battery going flat. So we gave up that night at about 9:30 pm.
Back the following day to get cracking with the other things on the list. Both front lower wishbones were shot so these were replaced. See pics below. Possibly the worst we’ve seen and will replace the one we had in our box of horrors for our stand at shows!
Rear pads and calipers replaced and front discs replaced. Drive shaft oil seals replaced on both sides. as discovered that they were leaking after everything put back together.
For the problem with the none starting issue we removed the BCU and boxed it up ready to send to Technozen. Fortunately, the owner did have another fob, which he brought over to us this morning and yippee the car started!
This car has certainly tested us this week, it’s been a love hate situation, every single nut and bolt was seized or corroded. You expect a degree of that on these cars, given their age etc. but we persisted with some late finishes, cuts and bruises and have to say a bit of grumpy moments from us both, which is rare. At the end of the day it’s a car that needed some love and needs a bit more. I gave her a Hoover and tidy up, but due to these awful storms we’ve all been experiencing couldn’t get her out for our usual wash and brush up and photo shoot!
Bit of break on working on this one on Thursday, when Tony came over to us with his TF 135 as the interior lights were staying on, and the horn button was faulty and he wanted a pre MOT check doing and an MOT. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our first thought of the micro switches in the door mechanism. Requires further investigation as it’s down to a wiring problem. Horn button repaired. Good to see Tony again who had a windy, but sunny drive over from Mattersey.
Really pleased to have Jim and Karen’s TF all done so far, MOT booked in on Monday.
Stay safe everyone through these dreadful storms! Batten down your hatches. We came home to carnage in the garden with broken fences etc, but we do have a well needed weekend off. ☔️ – https://ift.tt/UDywjc6
