Time and timing revisited

What was it I said about never learning?

Back in my first year of ownership (2016-17) I did get the car back on the road with much better performance than previously. Acceleration and speed through all the gears was fine. Only exception was that top speed was now 50mph, when it had been 55mph before the work on the cylinder head (and on occasion had reached a terrifying 60mph). And there was a rather odd 'burbling' when I reached 50mph.

And yet again, I started off on the wrong foot. First and foremost, I thought fiddling about with the ignition timing would make a difference. Did it? Very slightly, but only by 1mph and the burbling was still there. Secondly, and to my shame, I wondered if it was a result of the work done the previous year on the cylinder head, including the installation of valve stem oil seals. Fortunately, I didn't embarrass my self by pursuing that theory with anyone.

Despite that niggles, Adam and I headed off to Lancashire for the 2017 Singer National Day, 200 miles each way. All went well until south of Moffat, when speeding down a hill at nearly 50mph, the engine died. Panic sets in. Open the bonnet, can't see anything obvious. Get back in the car and try to start it (more in desperation than hope). But start it did, and off we went quite happily until the same thing happened again 10 minutes later.  And so it continued the whole weekend, all the way to Lancashire and back up to Scotland.  (Mind you, we did win the 'most travelled' prize, so that was a bonus!)  Of course, once we got the hang of it we realised we shouldn't go above 50mph, unless going downhill with the engine turned off.

Back home, I tried everything to fix the problem, but it just wouldn't go away.  Not least being multiple attempts to get the valve timing right (involving lots bruised and scratched fingers with the timing chain.  But the problem was quite simple. 

In all my fiddling about I had been using this diagram from the original owner's manual.  And in doing so I interpreted the diagram as showing the exhaust valves as being the right side of the engine, looking from the front.  Yes, I know - but the diagram is actually showing a bottom-up view of the valves.  So I was setting the exhaust valves as if they were inlet valves.  How the car ran at all, I'll never know.  Once set correctly, everything was fine.

And it was only later that I found this video by Martyn Wray which explained it all very clearly, and clearly shows the inlet and exhaust valves from the top:

Every day is a learning day!

One thing leads to another

You put the car away in the autumn, with all sorts of good intentions. But as the weeks go by, other more important things get in the way (such as work, for me at least). And when you occasionally look at the love of your life (no, your Singer), you're not sure where to start and you know that when you do, one thing will lead to another and you'll be in trouble again for spending too much time on 'that car'.

I didn't touch BSG 8 (a Singer 9 Longtail) until after Christmas (don't get me started about Brexit, elections and the amount of ‘valuable’ work it created for this humble public servant - sorry, rant over). But in January I realised I had to bite the bullet and get on with moving the battery from above the passenger's feet (yes, I know - but that's another story). So, first things first, get it up on the stilts and remove the wheels. Should be straightforward enough. But not when a castellated nut falls out of the offside rear hub as the wheel is removed. How did that happen? What more should I be worried about?!?

So, being a modern chap I headed to the SOC Facebook page to seek help. And I wasn't disappointed.

First, there were no split pins in either of the rear nuts. This was quite a surprise seeing as dad had usually been very particular about everything.  What you need to do is tighten the nut to 60 foot-pounds and then slacken off just enough so that one of the slots in the nut lines up with the hole in the hub and hole in the half-shaft.  I used a pair of old (that’s very important for good marital relations) tweezers to guide a split pin through the hole in the hub, the slot in the nut and the hole in the half-shaft.  I then used a 90° pick-tool to draw back one of the halves of the split pin, and a screwdriver to flatten back both ends.
 

And then the same on the rear nearside, but didn't need to do anything on the front wheels because dad had fitted split pins in these.

Robert Elliot says he’s seen cases where the hub has been replaced and the hole in the hub does not align with the hole in the half-shaft, making it impossible to fit the split pin. If this is the case with your car he suggests that you fit a nyloc nut, clean the thread, apply loctite to the half-shaft, fit the plain washer followed by the nyloc nut and tighten to 60 foot-pounds. You should then allow the loctite to set for 24 hours before use.

Now that the brake drums were exposed it was all too clear that something had to be done about the rust that had formed over the last year or so.  This was very odd because I had thoroughly treated them all a year or so ago, including with a liberal covering of a well-known brake calliper paint.  Strangely, it was the offside rear that was by far the worst (in fact, the front drums were fine).  This time I used the POR-15 brake calliper kit from Frost, and they certainly look a lot better.  Time will tell.

But also … when scrabbling about underneath, the state of some of the metalwork clearly had to be addressed.  Again, I had treated it all thoroughly a couple of years ago, but I suspect I hadn’t cleaned and degreased some areas sufficiently, leading to some new paint now peeling off.  Fortunately, although the quantities of the POR-15 calliper treatments were quite small, they were just enough for the underneath sections (and I assumed the high-temperature quality of the paint, although unnecessary underneath, would be fine). 

Final job was to put the drums back together, but that offside rear drum again caused problems - as it has always done.  It’s consistently been the most difficult to get off (hint - screw in a couple of bolts to the holes in the face of the drum to gradually force it off - see the picture).  But even when on it was sometimes quite sticky (and, yes, the rear adjusters were properly set). So I thought I would try rotating it 90° so that each hole was presented to the next bolt round on the hub.  And that was when I noticed that the drum doesn’t sit true depending on which rotation of hole and bolt alignment is used (i.e. on one of the four alignments I could wiggle the drum from side to side slightly).  Aligning the four holes and four bolts differently and without any wiggle made fitting the drum much easier and seemed to remove the stickiness.  I do worry that this problem indicates a more serious issue, but it seems OK for now, so I’ll turn a blind eye … until one of you good folks point out the error of my ways!  I’m also wondering if the stickiness, wiggle and loose castellated nut might all have been connected to in some way.

Last observation about setting the adjusters at the back of each rear brake.  I noticed that once I thought they were set properly, after I pulled the handbrake on and off the wheel would sometimes still be ‘braked’.  Solution to that was to also pull the handbrake on and off when setting each adjuster, so that the brake drum could still rotate after the handbrake had been pulled on and then released.  Again, conscious there might be an underlying problem, but if it seems fixed, why go looking for more trouble.

Of course, ignoring problems is not to be recommended. Which is cue for a confession.  For most of last year there was a strange rattling noise from the offside rear, which I couldn’t pin down from simple visual inspection.  It’s now clear it was that castellated nut bouncing around inside the hub.  Doesn’t bear thinking what might have gone wrong (especially when competing, for the first time, in the Bo’ness Revival Hillclimb back in September).

I mentioned earlier that I’d consulted members via the Singer Owners' Club Facebook page.  So, I must acknowledge the helpfulness and good advice proffered by Keith White, Chris Allard and Robert Elliott.  But, in time honoured-fashion, they’re not responsible for any errors in execution or in the account - these are all mine.