Distributor Rebuild

The Volvo P1800 that we have came with a Bosch 009 points distributor that came looking pretty sorry for itself. We decided to rebuild our distributor rather than replace it as it about a 500$ USD part. I stripped the distributor body and pulled out the points and condenser unit along with the base plate that is inside the casing. The engine mount for the distributor was jammed on the lower shaft and I had to use a steering wheel puller to carefully pull it off. The roll pin in the lower shaft could not be removed and was jammed so we decided to just clean it with it installed and not bother with removing it as everything was in good shape.Once everything was stripped and washed in the parts washer that was not going to be replaced the distributor body could be repainted with POR 15. I was then able to reinstall all of our new parts (condenser, points) along with the old cleaned parts back on the distributor.

Overdrive Servicing and Transmission Work

Looking at the Laycock Overdrive is a challenging task due to the fact there is not a lot of information about them and that it is a 50 year electronic hydraulic gearbox. The first step I took was checking for continuity in the wiring and solenoid. After confirming that all the electrical systems were working on the overdrive including the 4th gear only switch and reverse switch. Once it was established that the electrics were working properly I moved on to fiddling around with the various plugs and screws on the casing of the overdrive I was able to drain the oil and open the service door for the oil/hydraulic fluid filter. The filter looked fine so I cleaned the gasket, door and screws and reassembled the filter housing. The second service door, for the solenoid switch mechanism that engages the hydraulic pump which kicks the gearbox into overdrive with a planetary gear set, was removed. I hooked the overdrive up to a 12 volt battery and placed the transmission in 4th gear then completed the circuit. The result was the solenoid engaged then you could see the arm move to engage the pump. Good news the overdrive is working properly! All that is left is to refill the overdrive and transmission with fluid and it is ready for business.

The next job on the transmission is the shifter linkage and gaskets along with paint. It is a pretty simple tear down of the linkage and one all the bolts, shrouds, and bearings were removed a quick wash in the parts washer cleaned them all up. The next step is to reassemble to linkage with new gaskets and shifter boot. Compressing the spring and tightening it up was difficult but can be done with two people. The transmission is ready for paint.

Drive Shaft

Two Friday ago I replaced a u joint. There are a lot of steps to do. First I had to hammer the clips lose. Then after they where lose I had to take them out with these special pliers that made the two ends come together after all of the clips where out I had to hammer out the joint one side at a time. it took half the class to get to this point. I got the new joint and point one end in at a time then put the new clip in place after the new joints was put back in you and to use a hammer and a punch and move the joint until it was start. The put the grease fitting on and pump the joint full of grease

Completion of reinforcement plates

The work on the front crossmember reinforcement plates has been completed, the only thing left to do is paint.

Welding the plates was a challenge since the plates are so much thicker than the metal that the crossmember is made of, so it was hard to find setting on the welder that would be hot enough but not so hot that it melts the crossmember metal. The way I welded it was I first ran a bead down the crack between the plate and the crossmember to seal the gap. Then I welded from top to bottom in small pieces to seal it all up.

Once all the welding was done we ground the high spots down and smoothed the welded surface down to make it easier to paint. I ran into a couple problems. I ended up burning through the metal of the crossmember because I forgot it was a lot thinner than the plate metal. I ended up grinding too far and went right through and i ended up having to patch it closed with the welder and ground it back down.

This is the side of the crossmember that I burned through with the grinder. 

On the top right you can see there is a bit of a bulge where the repair is.

Crossmember reinforcement plates

Over the past week me and Jakob have been working on the front crossmember. The first thing we did was clean the whole thing and then get it sand blasted.

Once it was sand blasted we painted the whole thing except the area that we needed to weld on. After we painted it we repaired the cracks on the top of the crossmember where the shock connects to. (The area where the shock connects to is a very weak spot on the crossmember and this reinforcement came highly recommended by other people. The reason for the reinforcement is because the metal at the top is very thin and the pressure that the shocks put on it is too much for the thin metal, as a result of this the metal bends and cracks which leaves it not structurally sound.)

We first hammered and ground the cracks down to get it all level to be welded shut. Once the cracks were welded shut I worked on flattening the top of the crossmember with a hammer and grinder to give us a good surface to weld to and so the plate sat flat and level on the tops of the crossmember.

The metal plate is made from 3/16 inch think plate steel. We first made a template of the top of the crossmember and traced it onto the plate steel. Then we roughed out the piece with the metal chop saw and did the final shaping and rounded the edges on the bench grinder. When we got the piece shaped we measured the 3/4 inch hole that we needed to drill for the shock mount. We then prepped the surface for welding and bolted the piece in so it wouldn't move while being welded. 

Both pieces have now been tack welded to the tops. They will be fully welded by the end of the week.

Once the pieces are fully welded on we will grind the welds flat and paint over all of it to seal it in.

 The left side plate tacked to the top

 Left side top view

 Right side tacked to the top

Right side top view

Welding

This week Adam and I continued practising or welding skills, cutting out pieces and welding a new one in its place. On tuesday we took those skills and used them to weld and repair a piece on the car. We started repairing the inner fender splash shield that had been damaged by rust. We started with a paper replica that conrad had made and traced that onto a sheet of thin metal, we then made the necessary cuts and bent them into shape then proceeded to weld it to the Inner fender splash shield. we put the piece back in its place and it fit perfectly.

Degreasing, Etching and Painting works

  After we did take off the parts, we started doing the exterior works.

  In my position, I degreased the parts for the first step with my partner. This procedure was not really difficult, however, it took lots of time for the preparation of wearing the safety equipments. The equipments included the safety glasses, mask, gloves and suitable clothing for sure.

  In the second step, I was etching the parts with the similar procedure of the first step and wearing the same safety equipment of the first step. The only thing that is different than the first step is, it needed to wait 10 minutes before rinsing the parts.

  The final step was to paint all the parts. It was the most complicated works of the whole procedure because you can't do the painting jobs while the humidity is pretty high.

 

Parts that we have to degrease and etch

Painting works

Another cleaning work

Painting the rear axel

Last week we started to paint part I focused on the rear axel. I had to find a away to cover the differential and how to flip the axel to paint the other side. To cover the differential I stuff a plastic bag in side and then docked taped to hold the bag in place and then I put in the bolts so the dock tape would hold. To make it rotate I put a pice of wood in both sides and that work well. James, clarence and I painted the axel. Then we need to wait 3-4 hours for the next coat. After the second coat we let it sit for the whole weekend on monday. One monday we had to clear out the differential so we put varsel into the differential and then sealed it up and just spin it a couple of times and it was clean.

MIG welding practice

MIG welding is an arc welding process in which a continuous solid wire electrode is fed through a welding gun and into the weld pool, joining the two base materials together. A shielding gas is also sent through the welding gun and protects the weld pool from contamination. 

Using the MIG welder does require you do go through a bit of a learning curve.  It takes time to adjust to how fast wire comes out of the nozzle, than adjusting your movement speed accordingly. 

There is also an adjustment to how much voltage runs through the wire. This is adjusted on how thick the metal is that you are welding.

Me and my partner practiced by cutting out pieces and welding them onto different holes to practice for when we are repairing the body of the car. Throughout these classes we are slowly getting better and I feel we will get the hang of it be the end of this week.