B690 BAV - Live

[mikeeskriett]

Had this since about 2001 when I sold my Bronze. I bought it from Charlie's to do list in a very sorry state. It has been my daily driver for years but is now taking a rest for a bit of a rolling refit as it's looking a little rough round the edges due to car park rash.

Cheers,

Mike

[mikeeskriett]

Hi,

Sometimes we all struggle to get decent quality parts for our Metro based cars but sometimes you can find some real gems out there. I found a breaker who was breaking a 1989 Metro which had got only 741 miles on the clock I snapped up the rear frame for the convertible and the thing is mint complete with original waxoil i can only think it's been tucked away in a very nice garage or museum. The car would have made a great classic car. I'll add in some brand new discplacers I got for £36 each and the old girl will be mint.





I've got a brand new genuine front frame to go in and have manage to get new displacers and genuine bushes all round.

Just the scabby body and draughty hood to cure after that, but it'll have to wait until the bronze is on the road.

cheers,

Mike

[mikeeskriett]

You know it's not your day when....

Your gearbox dies

and

You're checking over your spare gearbox and forget the selector shaft retainer is not in place and catapult the 4th gear syncro springs everywhere

and

Having reassmbled the gearbox and you find the diff sideplate gaskets are missing from your gasket set

think I'm gonna go sit on the sofa with GT5 instead of getting oily!!!!

[Hans Efde]

Ah, well: http://youtu.be/WlBiLNN1NhQ

[Geoff Butcher]

May one enquire sympathetically what the gearbox died of?

[mikeeskriett]

There's no definitive cause yet as I've not split the block and gearbox yet but judging by the noise the centre main gearbox bearing and possibly the drop gear bearings. It's one of those situations where it's probably been on the way out for a while but you couldn't hear it for the exhuast rattling!! Once that was solved i've started to hear all sorts on things that need attention. The old girl does get used and abused so the 70k miles she's done on that gearbox is pretty good. While it's out i'll change the timing chain and any other bit's that are a pig to do with it in the car.

I can recommend Machine Marts 1 ton folding engine crane and their load leveller kit it made pulling the engine out a doddle with some much less pulling and twisting, thankfully I had a VAT free voucher so tooling up to pull the engine wasn't quite as hideously expensive as it could have been.

[manifold]

I have one of those Clarke machine mart cranes. Handy to put away after use and quite cheap for what they are I think.

A lot easier than 2 guys, a piece of timber and a rope, like I used to do it!

Keep up the good work! That pinion double bearing is a pain in the arse down by the diff. I think the hot oil in the gearbox perishes the plastic races. When it goes it can take out all the gears (and transfers) if you don't catch it early enough. Thats one of the reasons I have the KAD outer bearing housing on 2 of my boxes.

RHP do one of those double bearings with a steel race but its more expensive.

[mikeeskriett]

Update on the gearbox front is the first motion shaft bearing had died where joins the third motion shaft. It looks like the shaft may have had a good go at chewing the case at the other end as the outer race can move in the casing a little. I dare say when I pull it to bits the shafts will be toast. Time to pick up another case I think. Not too surprising as this box has a bit of history as the retaining collar broke of the previous third motion shaft allowing the bearings to fall out and the gears to collide nicely.

My nice super snotter of a gearbox seems to be a peach having cleared the remains of the broken piston out of it and fitted it. It's taking a bit of getting used to the change from a HLE gearbox down to a stock Gta unit it's made the car quicker off the mark but i think I prefer the lower revs while cruising on the motor way.

[mikeeskriett]

Time for some fettling on the convertible.

Out with the crusty old subframe





Nice and crispy and also bent chich explains the dubious back end handling



Time for some shiny new stuff. Brand spankers displacers and a frame out of a timewarp Metro Clubman that had only covered 400 miles.

[mikeeskriett]

After an epic bit of getting around to the convertible is back on the road and getting back on form the new frame has made a huge difference to the drive and handling of the car it's now as it should be The old frame had numerous issues in the end so not a surprise that the rear of the car was steering itself I suspect it has at some point had quite a knock to one side of it. The hydragas mount on one side was 5mm out of square and one of the radius arms had no detectable play when jacked up and checked by the MOT station and me but when settled in certain positions was slack as hell. Aside from a new old stock rover brake cylinder failing after 400 miles all is peachy.

The next little tweak is a demister for the rear screen, I've picked up a blower unit from a Pugeot 306 Cabriolet to experiment with. It's a small self contained combined blower and duct used for demisting the rear screen in the Pug so in theory should work just as well on a Midas and only £15