A TCL First? '67 Rolls Royce project thread...

9 minute(s) of a 242 minute read

got the light on it (just the same as any other distributor ive seen, its got dual points though) the mark on the damper is really tough to spot but its doable... we got the timing in spec at idle (the manual never mentions unhooking the vacuum signal, just to do the initial timing set with it at idle) and you can see the advance happening from there if you rev it up.

trouble with diagnosing the weights/vacuum advance sticking is that once its already at 1500rpm the timing will just show what it needs to be at that rpm... so its kind of a circular problem - advance raises the idle which increases the advance which raises the idle, etc etc.

this is likely whatll end up happening...

emailing a bit with the distributor guru and he says $150-200 to make it new again. not a bad price given the cost of even finding another used one (early cars used a different distributor than the later shadows, i think they switched over sometime in the early 70s).

ill probably give it a go with some break-free lubricant, and see what it looks like in there if i can get it apart far enough.

to do list for this week is fooling with that distributor some more, checking the alternator warning light system, finishing the ebrake cable install, getting the front bumper aligned and permanently mounted, and i also want to give the manual portion of the brake system another bleed (the part that actually gives you pedal feel) as it seems a bit on the soft side after moving the car around a bit.

just got back from the shop after taking apart the distributor.  

everything seems to check out as far as corrosion and wear - will have pics later.

tested the vacuum advance and that moves smoothly, and the counterweights move smoothly as well and dont appear corroded. the only thing i could think that could be wrong with them might be kind of weak springs... on initial engagement the weights kind of have some slop against the springs, but otherwise the springs arent rusty or broken.

i played a bit more with the timing adjustment and idle stop and i think we may be able to mostly mask the issue by raising the idle timing up (after running through the numbers again we might be ~5 deg too retarded) so that if anything is getting stuck, the timing difference between idle and "stuck" will be much less.
right now the "stuck" idle speed is lower than it was before, and the only adjustment i made was raising the timing.

will be putting some more time into the timing and readjusting the idle tomorrow night to take advantage of this nice weather, so hopefully we'll have some good news tomorrow

5-30-2012

got the timing and idle speed dialed in again today, after some more checks... were still having the fast idle issues.  
got a chance to actually check what the timing was doing, and when it sticks it looks like it sticks to ~25-28deg, which as i recall is about full advance, all of which is making me think something may still be up with the weights, and at this point we have enough other work on the car to keep us busy if we further delayed driving it that i think its probably worth getting it gone though.
TDB on that for now though...


anyway, pictures!







interior shot... a preview of whats going to get worked on next



forgot the hubcaps!




next few weeks should be interesting, probably the last update for a bit... stay tuned

6-6-2012

radiator is out for service as of this morning, when we pulled it it did end up looking fairly gunked up and the general condition of the thing makes me think it hasnt been cleaned or out of the car ever... planning on a pile of new hoses while its apart to finish off the cooling system service. figure money spent up front on keeping temps under control is a safer bet than overheating this thing


more pics to come after the weekend, with hopefully some news/ETA on the radiator work.

6-7-2012

another random non-photo update: car used to be owned by Yorkshire TV in the early 70s.

ive got a folder full build records and warranty info coming over from the UK...


stay tuned

also made another attempt to contact the deceased former owner's son in Oregon this afternoon via the estate lawyer who handled their case when the dad died.

we'll see what happens... hoping the family wasnt totally disfunctional after splitting up the estate, and that someone is willing to give me the lowdown on the where and when regarding the car
the son didnt have an email on file with the lawyer but hes going to try getting ahold of him again. lawyer seems like a friendly/helpful enough guy so i might just ping him a few more times until i hear something from the son - even if he tells me to leave him alone at least ill have confirmed that he knows im interested in speaking with him.


update from the radiator shop as well, theyre hoping to be wrapped up with the rodding out/rebuild tonight or tomorrow morning, so we might be reassembling the cooling system this weekend if i can wrap up the other car im working on this week


too much going on at once!

6-12-2012

got the radiator back on friday afternoon but never did get around to doing anything with it. the radiator shop guys said they didnt find any major blockage in the core, just that it was looking older but had been rebuilt at some point and had some parts that were going to start leaking soon. i didnt get any shots yet of the rebuilt rad but it looks really nice!
anyway, as a result of no slam dunks with the radiator core, made the call today to just continue on with cooling system work while its all drained and the radiator is out... so... with that in mind, the waterpump is out as of tonight, along with all the cooling system hoses. will be going to napa tomorrow to see what i can match for hoses there (the RROC guys have already found a suitable replacement for the upper hose, but ill need to find a bottom hose)

waterpump itself isnt in the greatest of shape after removing it, so im going to start looking into rebuild options there as well - bearings need doing as there was some slop, and something needs to be done about the pitting on the impeller.

ive also started stripping down the top tank in prep for the radiator shop guys to take that and split it in half for cleaning and to reattach one of the internal baffles thats come loose.

anyway, pictures! from the last week or so...







water level sensor from the top tank

still need to get that damn steam valve off of there, and the screws are super soft and really well seized up... soaking in fluid now to see if theyll come off later this week. i might just leave it for the radiator shop though

this is even more grimy than it looks...

and... waterpump shots

some pretty intense buildup and pitting on the impeller...

and the hose collection! (with a couple waterpump vbelts to get while its all apart)