I am very sorry that silence has fallen upon the green Crayford /8. Lots and lots has indeed happened.
At the end of 2012, there was a fabulous Crayford Convertible Car Club X-mas dinner at Westerham, with the former director of Crayford signing his new book on the occasion of 50 years of Crayford. It was a huge pleasure to meet David McMullan and experience first-hand what a great engineer and man he is. The meeting at a new pub right on the green at Westerham was spot-on and drifted from a great lunch slowly into a boozy evening (for me, that is).
While I showed a picture on the blog with some spare parts late in 2012, you have shurely recognised them to be the gasket of the automatic transmission oil-pan and two new hoses for the automatic transmission oil cooler that is incorporated into the radiator. Those hoses were changed easily. The oil change in the transmission, with a new filter and a new gasket, was more troublesome. In fact, it had been long long ago since the automatic transmission had been attended to and one of the four bolts that secure the oil pan to the casing snapped off. A very unpleasent situation, as the remains of the snapped-off bolt could not be extraced, not even with the generous application of heat. In the end, we drilled it out and cut a new thread into the casing. As it only had to withstand 8 Nm of torque, the whole operation proved - more or less - successful. New oil (Fuchs Titan 3000) and filter (MANN) are in and the car changes gears lovingly.
Next on the map is the huge fuel consumption we experienced (ahem) 2009 on the long trip to the south of germany. This is a matter of cleaning and re-adjusting the carburettors. I will attend to them very soon because there are plans to re-create said trip this year, for the 2013 Ornbau gathering in the mid of may. Stay tuned.
Saturday, 27 April 2013
Friday, 17 August 2012
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Endlich wieder Meilen machen
Zwar hätte es meine Gesundheit so richtig heute nicht zugelassen, aber es war nun mal alles vorbereitet und dann musste es halt sein.
Eine Runde mit dem grünen Crayford Kombi /8. Und das nicht nur zweimal über das Hallengelände sondern so richtig raus. Wie früher. Wie zuletzt 2009, bei der großen Reise nach Süddeutschland.
Nun, ganz so weit sind wir nicht gekommen. Erstmal was essen.
Und dann eine kleine Runde zur Jahrhunderthalle. Vorsichtiges Ertasten der Umgebung.
Das Auto rappelt und klappert, das Getriebe will nicht so recht schalten und hätte wohl gerne ein wenig Öl und einen neuen Filter, die Federung hängt auf Halbmast und der Motor klingt wie ein alter Diesel. Alles egal. Der Crayford Kombi /8 fährt. Mit mir.
Bester Tag seit Langem.
Eine Runde mit dem grünen Crayford Kombi /8. Und das nicht nur zweimal über das Hallengelände sondern so richtig raus. Wie früher. Wie zuletzt 2009, bei der großen Reise nach Süddeutschland.
Nun, ganz so weit sind wir nicht gekommen. Erstmal was essen.
Und dann eine kleine Runde zur Jahrhunderthalle. Vorsichtiges Ertasten der Umgebung.
Das Auto rappelt und klappert, das Getriebe will nicht so recht schalten und hätte wohl gerne ein wenig Öl und einen neuen Filter, die Federung hängt auf Halbmast und der Motor klingt wie ein alter Diesel. Alles egal. Der Crayford Kombi /8 fährt. Mit mir.
Bester Tag seit Langem.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Friday, 3 September 2010
Breaker points
After having set the valve clearances some weeks ago, I continued the little tune-up today with new breaker points. They had been delivered to my Mercedes-Benz agent who was surprised to see such an item again after a very long time. Then I visited the local BOSCH agency and obtained some special super-sticky grease for the distributor shaft.
At the car, the distributor cap and rotor were easily off, the distributor shaft cleaned and the new breaker points installed, with the gap pre-set to 0.4 mm when open with the help of a feeler gauge. The most difficult thing was to turn the distributor shaft for the contacts to be open. The car being automatic, there was no use in pushing it to and fro. The remedy was to simple slacken the distributor fastener and turning the whole distributor around its shaft. The ignition timing has to be re-set anyway. After everything was put togeher again, I fine-tuned the dwell angle by carefully moving the breaker points in the distributor and finally obtained the perfect 41-42 degrees.
After every little part of the tune-up, the engine runs smoother and the revs when the engine is idling are rising and rising. Obviously the car enjoys the care that is being taken.
At the car, the distributor cap and rotor were easily off, the distributor shaft cleaned and the new breaker points installed, with the gap pre-set to 0.4 mm when open with the help of a feeler gauge. The most difficult thing was to turn the distributor shaft for the contacts to be open. The car being automatic, there was no use in pushing it to and fro. The remedy was to simple slacken the distributor fastener and turning the whole distributor around its shaft. The ignition timing has to be re-set anyway. After everything was put togeher again, I fine-tuned the dwell angle by carefully moving the breaker points in the distributor and finally obtained the perfect 41-42 degrees.
After every little part of the tune-up, the engine runs smoother and the revs when the engine is idling are rising and rising. Obviously the car enjoys the care that is being taken.
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Heavily sidetracked
As announced yesterday, I planned to start celebrating the Crayfords birthday today with a few new parts. The actual status of the engine is: runs well, starts well, does not go beyond 120 km/h and drinks fuel at a very heavy rate.
As engine issues are always due to the carburettors, and carburettor issues are always ignition issues, and ignition issues are always just wrong valve clearances, I started with the latter. Re-set the valve clearances. Should not take more than an hour.
As if! Firstly, this car has twelve valves compared to my other cars eight. It then turned out to be a very long time ago that some garage checked or - god forbid - adjusted the valve clearances. The first adjusting nut was completely locked up. The remedy was to disasseble the rocker arm and then turn the adjusting nut with a suitable socket, instead of using the adjustment tool. The springs that secure the rocker arms are surprisingly difficult to reinstall. Now where do I know that from?
However, I adjusted my way through the twelve valves, the clearances of which were much to small. All of them. With disassembly (the viscous coupling has to come out to turn the crankshaft) and re-assembly this easy task took six hours. On the way, I also correctly set up the cold start unit (which had been renewed a few years ago) of the rear carburettor.
And finally a short test drive was undertaken and everything felt very well indeed.
As engine issues are always due to the carburettors, and carburettor issues are always ignition issues, and ignition issues are always just wrong valve clearances, I started with the latter. Re-set the valve clearances. Should not take more than an hour.
As if! Firstly, this car has twelve valves compared to my other cars eight. It then turned out to be a very long time ago that some garage checked or - god forbid - adjusted the valve clearances. The first adjusting nut was completely locked up. The remedy was to disasseble the rocker arm and then turn the adjusting nut with a suitable socket, instead of using the adjustment tool. The springs that secure the rocker arms are surprisingly difficult to reinstall. Now where do I know that from?
However, I adjusted my way through the twelve valves, the clearances of which were much to small. All of them. With disassembly (the viscous coupling has to come out to turn the crankshaft) and re-assembly this easy task took six hours. On the way, I also correctly set up the cold start unit (which had been renewed a few years ago) of the rear carburettor.
And finally a short test drive was undertaken and everything felt very well indeed.
Friday, 20 August 2010
Happy birthday
The green Crayford /8 estate turned 37 today. It made it through all those years and is now the only one left on the road, with only one remaining brother that is somewhat alive. What an achievement! We wish it all the best and a lot of happy years to come. For celebration, lets see the car back at home, where it was born, at the Crayford factory:
I bought it a number of birthday presents (a new distributor cap and rotor and new breaker points) and am planning for new ignition leads and then a major overhaul of the two Zenith carburettors. It is about time that we get going again.
I bought it a number of birthday presents (a new distributor cap and rotor and new breaker points) and am planning for new ignition leads and then a major overhaul of the two Zenith carburettors. It is about time that we get going again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)