Daimler V8 250 1968 restoration

[jehu]

Sept 17, 2022 8:49:13 GMT homersimpson said:

I never balanced the fan on any of the Jag's i've rebuilt previously and i've never seen any seperate balance weights on the fan on any other cars with stamped metal fans.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it as I can't imagine many of these weights were refitted and/or reset when water pumps were replaced when the cars were in daily use.

I guess that is the way I'll end up going Homer, with a few washers to get it as near as I can. My problem is I'm a bit of a pedant when it comes to following the manual. Do Jag's have the same counterweight on the fan originally? 
Cheers
Jehu

[homersimpson]

Sept 17, 2022 12:39:46 GMT jehu said:

Sept 17, 2022 8:49:13 GMT homersimpson said:

I never balanced the fan on any of the Jag's i've rebuilt previously and i've never seen any seperate balance weights on the fan on any other cars with stamped metal fans.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it as I can't imagine many of these weights were refitted and/or reset when water pumps were replaced when the cars were in daily use.

I guess that is the way I'll end up going Homer, with a few washers to get it as near as I can. My problem is I'm a bit of a pedant when it comes to following the manual. Do Jag's have the same counterweight on the fan originally? 
Cheers
Jehu

Yes the MK2 Jags have the same balance weight arrangement, given that the engines don't rev particuarlly high and they aren't especially a precision instrument i've never been concerned by it.  If it were high reving and highly tuned then I would perhaps consider it but an electric fan would probably be the better proposition in that circumstance.

[edwagon]

Jehu, Let me take a look at the Daimler v8s I've got here (I have 2) and I'll let you know whether there are any weights on the fans.

[edwagon]

The engine which is in bits has what appears to be a 'late' model Japanese plastic fan with viscous hub. The bolt heads are marked with metric grade 7. I haven't investigated the water pump on this one any further, but don't think this finding is very useful to you.

The parts car is pretty original looking and hasn't been pulled to bits. It is very rusty. It doesn't appear to have a balance weight on the fan, and no evidence there ever was one.

Both cars are 1964 and NZ new.

[jehu]

Thanks Homersimpson and Edwagon, I will not worry about it further and the Japanese fan assy looks like an alternative solution if there was an obvious issue. It does seem strange though that the manual gives 3 pages to it when it seems to be superfluous. I suppose it's akin to the provision of locking tabs every where on the daimler when modern high reving engines don't use any.

[voucherboy]

Sept 8, 2022 7:46:29 GMT jehu said:

May 26, 2022 18:20:09 GMT voucherboy said:

Hi Jehu, yes that's mine.  If you want some light reading material to get you off to sleep, my blog is at lootintheboot.uk 

I've read your thread.  Some up's and down's....just like the rest of us...lol. At the beginning you mentioned that you had already completed a load of work, I'm sure we'd all be interested if you have some time to write that part up too.  we all love a good story!

What an amazing rebuild Voucherboy. I showed someone the pics of your body work before you repaired; their comment was, "No self respecting garbo in Aust. would take that away." You certainly set yourself a challenge. The only welding I have ever done was the occasional 'tack' weld as an apprentice. And the last time I did that (50 years ago) was after waiting on a construction site for 2 hours for a welder to come and do it so I picked up the welder and did it myself. The next thing I knew was everyone was out on strike over a demarcation dispute. It took me a moment to realise it was because of me. )

Anyway your work is an inspiration that I am glad I don't have to do. 

Thank you Jehu, yeah, lots of work with lots still left to do, hopefully over the 75% complete mark now though.  Your welding story sounds exactly what it was like here around that time too.  Slightest thing and the union rep would blow the whistle and 'All Out!' ..lol. 


Great to see of your progress pics on here too, keep us posted. 

[jehu]

I guess it's time I did a bit of an update. Ive just been doing bits and pieces and reassembling the engine after the re-stripdown to clean out the blasting grit as mentioned above. I ended up pulling out the crankshaft, camshaft, rings off pistons etc. after all - flushing and cleaning everything from the bottom up - better sure than sorry.







I should have ordered a new thermostat housing earlier but hopefully a repair with plastibond will do the job until my next parts order.






It took me ages to work out the heater and vacuum pipes/hoses when reassembling. I never take enough photos and the new kit was different from the old.

[jehu]

A question for Daimler V8 and Mk2 Jag enthusiasts: After vacillating for ages over whether to drop out my front suspension and overhaul it, I have finally decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

The question is, where is the best place to get cheapest parts? And are the dearer alternatives (presumably genuine parts) worth the extra especially when there is often a range of alternatives of the same part? The best place in the antipodes is the Daimler spare parts club in Christchurch. They have usually been slightly better priced than UK on most things but they are a club and you have to pay for a membership before finding out price and availability - plus it is a bit trickier working out part numbers.

Comparing steering/suspension prices between SC Parts group and David Manners is an eye popping experience. I started with SP parts because I found their website easy to navigate. The first part I compared, an anti roll bar rubber bush was cheaper at SC parts at £6.20 vs £6.78 (no complaint there) - the second thing I priced was the front sandwich plate mounting - £12.00 at DM vs £37.40 or £52.49 for a genuine Jag one at SP parts. Bump stops are a similar difference - mostly about 3 times dearer at SP Parts.

The problem is I cant find all the parts I want at DM's eg. upper and lower ball joints etc. Any suggestions?

[goldnrust]

Haven't caught up with the build for a while, the engine is looking fantastic.

www.sngbarratt.com/ are another UK supplier worth checking out. Not necessarily the cheapest, but I've had good service when I've used them and the website its good with nice exploded parts diagrams for most assemblies.

Sadly the quality of some of the cheaper rubber parts is a bit disappointing. I used David Manners, and went for the cheapest option, for all my suspension bushes when I did my Daimler, and 2 years and ~2-3,000 miles later the wishbone bushes are looking perished and my second set of sandwich plates are pulling away from the backing. I think I will be trying the genuine sandwich plates next, or maybe the uprated polyurethane ones, despite the eye watering cost.

Regarding your previous post, are the paper gaskets not intake gaskets?

[jehu]

Thanks Goldenrust, that's really useful especially your experience with the cheaper bits (sorry for you). I was thinking of going the cost saving way considering I wont be doing a huge milage and not driving hard - but serious signs of deterioration after just 2 years makes me reconsider.

I just did a quick look at the sngbarratt site. It is disconcerting to see their prices vary wildly too compared to both of the other UK ones. Unfortunately it is too complicated to shop across the 3 of them.

I should have thought of sngbarratt myself as I sourced some parts for my MGB through them and found them very helpful. Amongst other parts they accidently sent me the wrong engine mounts and a telephone call later they had the correct ones freighted same day (and told me to keep the TR4 ones which a friend appreciated .

Yes I'm happy with the engine - looks pretty and I'm keen to get it back in. Of course the paper gasket must have been a spare set for the inlet - red face here!

[homersimpson]

For ball joints you can fit the later XJ6/XJ40 sealed units, thats what i've done on all the ones i've restored and its much easier than trying to rebuild the original ones.

[jehu]

Nov 23, 2022 18:58:17 GMT homersimpson said:

For ball joints you can fit the later XJ6/XJ40 sealed units, thats what i've done on all the ones i've restored and its much easier than trying to rebuild the original ones.

Thanks Homersimpson, I noticed that sealed ball joints are offered as an alternative for the Mk2/Daimler, I guess they are the same as the XJ6/XJ40 sealed units. Restoring the shimmed assemblies just for the sake of originality is a bit over the top I recon. 

Taking goldenrust's experience of cheap rubber deteriorating  and delaminating, I am now stuck with deciding which parts to order and how much to pay. Across the 3 main UK parts distributors there are at least half a dozen different manufacturers and it's really hard to know how to tell cheap Chinese rubbish from something a bit better without going to the extremely expensive alternative?

[homersimpson]

Nov 23, 2022 21:32:45 GMT jehu said:

Nov 23, 2022 18:58:17 GMT homersimpson said:

For ball joints you can fit the later XJ6/XJ40 sealed units, thats what i've done on all the ones i've restored and its much easier than trying to rebuild the original ones.

Thanks Homersimpson, I noticed that sealed ball joints are offered as an alternative for the Mk2/Daimler, I guess they are the same as the XJ6/XJ40 sealed units. Restoring the shimmed assemblies just for the sake of originality is a bit over the top I recon. 

Taking goldenrust's experience of cheap rubber deteriorating  and delaminating, I am now stuck with deciding which parts to order and how much to pay. Across the 3 main UK parts distributors there are at least half a dozen different manufacturers and it's really hard to know how to tell cheap Chinese rubbish from something a bit better without going to the extremely expensive alternative?

Its very difficult to know what is and isn't good.

I've used parts from David Manners so far on this one and the last one and generally they have been ok apart from the fuel tank rubbers that started to split.  It really is pot luck and I would probably take a view on which ones to buy based on how important they are (i.e. if they fail what happens) and how hard they are to change.

One thing when stripping the front subframe, be careful with the springs as there is a huge amount of pressure in them, I used a piece of all thread through mine with a plate where the damper mounts to the lower wishbone and take it easy, the first one I did 20 years ago (a 1966 S-Type) I used a piece of all thread that was too small and it snapped and nearly broke my fingers!

[jehu]

Yes the springs look formidable. I am planning to use 16mm threaded rod which voucherboy did successfully lootintheboot.uk/running.htm I'm hoping that will be robust enough not to lose fingers. Homersimpson, sounds like you were lucky - I imagine a spring could do a lot more damage than breaking a few fingers.

[jehu]

Well after 2 years idle I'm back into it. After my last post I decided to drop the front suspension and overhaul it. I got as far as removing the springs and then I had basically let it gather dust since then.




I managed to remove the springs without hassle using a 5/8 threaded rod.




Unfortunately I left the springs soaking in citric acid too long and they ended up pitted. I have had them reset at a spring works - hopefully they will be okay.

[jehu]

Now back to work, October 2024.
Cleaning everything is a pain, back when I did my apprenticeship (late '60s, early '70s) we had a steam-cleaner which was great for removing grease and getting things pretty clean. For the whole front-end unit it was degreaser and high pressure water cleaner, then diesel and a stiff paintbrush, then a wire brush and thinners, tedious but it gets there in the end.

[pollystag]

Been there done that.

[homersimpson]

Oct 26, 2024 3:50:30 GMT jehu said:

Now back to work, October 2024.
Cleaning everything is a pain, back when I did my apprenticeship (late '60s, early '70s) we had a steam-cleaner which was great for removing grease and getting things pretty clean. For the whole front-end unit it was degreaser and high pressure water cleaner, then diesel and a stiff paintbrush, then a wire brush and thinners, tedious but it gets there in the end.

Looking really good, when setting it up on the car I would suggest adding more shims to the top arm to give some negative camber (I think I set mine at 1 degree negative if I remember correctly) and also putting all the ball joint shims on the front of the top ball joint to move it back and increase castor as far as possible to improve straight line stability.

[jehu]

Thanks homersimpson, I've put the shims back as they were and was intending to do the setup when it's all back together and on the car, or do you think it is better to go with your suggestion now? When I had the springs reset I asked for them to be compressed by and inch and a half as I liked the stance of goldenrust's when he did his. Does the fact that the Jag is somewhat heavier make a difference?

[jehu]

So far I have left the back axle in the too hard/expensive basket, but as it's been sitting for 5 years now i expect I really should do that also. (plus the fuel tank will certainly need a flush etc.) I remember following someone's blog having great difficulties extracting the back axles - did you find that hard? - and what else should I look for? If the brakes are half as bad as the front was I'm in for an expense there as well.