Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

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mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:00 pm

Not necessarily essential to my journey tomorrow but just trying to make sure things were okay, I've been to Halfords for some 'EP-90' to make sure
diff is topped up and wanted some more Ford 33F/G spec Comma AQF transmission fluid, to find baffling GL-4 / GL-5 EP80W/90W products on the shelf and Comma AQM mineral fluid with no Ford references on the label. Anyone know what I buy for the axle or transmission these days? I might just have to risk not checking the diff for tomorrow as its probably a low risk, and I've got 500ml of AQF left so I might look online for Castrol products but its so annoying that there are at least five kinds of everything now, and no info regarding our cars.

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Aug 05, 2017 4:05 pm

No worries, sorted with a local motor factor in town. He's ordered me 5 litres of AQF and added some GL-4 80W-90W gear oil to the order, which he assures me is the present day version of EP 90.

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Aug 05, 2017 6:38 pm

Well, the diff was full. A little came out as soon as I unscrewed the plug, so at least I won't be running over distance with a dry diff. Rare and pleasant to find something mechanical that I haven't yet touched on this car, all correct. (I'm assuming it's filled with the correct grade of oil! It looks newish and clean). I'm never happy though about the method of checking auto transmission levels 'cold'. Knowing mine leaks a bit just when standing, I wanted to check it before going to Peterborough but haven't had time to get it hot. Last time, a few weeks ago, it was stinking hot when I checked it and I had to add a little ATF to get the level just below 'hot' maximum. Today I've ran the car for the prescribed 'at least two minutes', perhaps three just to get it idling on minimum choke, then put the transmission through all the positions before checking the level. Way above the 'cold' max and just below the 'hot' minimum. My mind says, if something is running, it is warming up. I don't know how you can rely on a 'cold' level. I'll have to take the chance and check it when it's hot at Nene Park.

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sun Aug 13, 2017 3:14 pm

At the Heritage vehicle event in Ilkeston and got a fair bit of attention, but also picked up two chips and a scratch from people pushing past with push chairs and mobility scooters and just had two kids ride bikes between my car and a Mini, which put a scratch low down on the door!

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Morris McKinnon
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by Morris McKinnon » Sun Aug 13, 2017 7:28 pm

mickthefitter wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 3:14 pm At the Heritage vehicle event in Ilkeston and got a fair bit of attention, but also picked up two chips and a scratch from people pushing past with push chairs and mobility scooters and just had two kids ride bikes between my car and a Mini, which put a scratch low down on the door!
:mad: I bloody hate that. I was at a show today and some parents seem to just let their kids loose. Some adults are just as bad though!
One child was walking down the line of cars running his toy car along the bonnets of each car as he walked down! I couldn't believe it :rolls:

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:05 pm

Before my small but noticeable pedal bike scratch but after two small 'handbag' chips on a wheel arch, on a walk around I saw a small boy hanging on to the window ledge of a pink '59 Caddy, trying to see inside it by jumping up. So he asked his only slightly bigger sister "lift me""so she did while his little shoes scrabbled away at the door panel. Mum and dad appeared to be near the front of the bonnet (so three miles away) paying no attention. Honestly I sometimes wonder why I bother.

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lock1506
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by lock1506 » Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:55 pm

Thats why I don't like going to many shows when you have parents that don't control their kids and let them run wild with no respect for peoples cars. I was always brought up with "Look with your eyes, don't touch."

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:56 pm

Some people had 'do not touch' on their cars, especially vintage. Not sure how that stopped people pushing up against them. It just got really busy and unlike a show on a field, on the market place cars had to be boxed in and the gaps between became thoroughfares. Some locations were less risky than others but my car turned out to be in a bad location. I've been three times to this show. First time nothing happened. Second time my old dad toppled back in a picnic chair on a non-level surface in one of the overflow car parks, and needed first aid. This time I got one of the 'prime' spots on the market place and ended up in the middle of a stampede. My feelings are I won't bother with this one again, which is a shame, but it was too stressful. There's far less risk of car damage in a supermarket car park.

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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:46 pm

Just taken my old dad to the dentist in the Marina, his first ride. Terminated the ride to swap to the Volvo to take him home because one of the front brakes is starting to bind, and just noticed another chip/ding low down in the driver's door I'd not seen before. Looked at my old photos and I can't see it so it looks like it happened on Sunday and I only just noticed, or it's happened while I've been parked up while in the dentist. Unbelievable!

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balmy
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by balmy » Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:51 pm

In ten years I've never had my classic damaged!
Maybe you've upset someone........


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mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:09 pm

Oh I upset people but that's got nothing to do with it. About 8 weeks ago someone bumped my Volvo C30 while I was in a Co Op car park. I didn't notice the wrinkle in the plastic bumper till I got home but it was there. So I had it repaired at my own expense, then four weeks later someone shunted it with me in it waiting at a roundabout in Derby. It goes in again next week. The other 'dintmobile', the Marina, far from ripple free anyway, picked up those marks from herds of stampeding wilderbeast at Ilkeston on Sunday and picked up the latest damage inexplicably either outside my dad's house today (also in Ilkeston) or in a side street near the dentist, with the damage - looking like a stone hit - being on the pavement side! I'm getting as I don't want to leave the house!

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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Fri Aug 18, 2017 12:22 am

So this could have gone in the 'What Have You Done To Your Marina Today' thread but I've also got a teensy little problem (another) so I'll put it here.

The easy bits are I took off the offside door cards to gain access to the insides of the doors, and made first contact with someone recommended to me to get the dents repaired, at the following points on the car....here...
WP_20170817_14_52_08_Pro.jpg
here...
WP_20170817_14_51_59_Pro.jpg
and now here - the one I hadn't seen before yesterday....(at the bottom of the driver's door in line with the door handle)
WP_20170817_007.jpg
I've also had the car on axle stands and had all the wheels off (yes Chris, I've finally had all the wheels off, after 16 months ::): ) primarily to look for the brake noise I heard yesterday - and before, but it was worse yesterday - and straighten out my seemingly bent wheel studs. The good news is, all the brake linings are good, no hydraulic leaks, and the rear drums practically flew off. The front brakes are not binding due to tight calipers, but it would appear the 'rubbing' is due to rather a lot of free play in both front wheel bearings. I got an MoT caution on the nearside one, but I'd say if anything, the offside is worse, and that's where the noise comes from. I'd have adjusted the play out today were it not for both my manuals saying 'torque to 5 ft/lbs' when my torque wrench starts at 20ft/lbs, but then my motor trade neighbour came past when I'd dropped the front down again and said "just nip them up, then back them off". Which I think is exactly what I did on my Vauxhall Viva when I was 18. Hey ho. Another job for another day.

The bent wheel studs I tweaked more-or-less straight by putting a nut on the offending stud, and gently massaging it with my long wheel wrench. I'd also got an engineer's square to check them. Unlikely to be perfect, there were a number of bent studs on all four corners of the car, and they are now a lot better than they were. I believe the culprit for the bent studs, combined with the long chromed (but rusty) domed wheel nuts on my wheels, is this thing I found in the boot -
WP_20170817_22_26_42_Pro.jpg
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not a Marina part, is it? Looks more like a Mini wheel brace to me. It's easy to yank the wheel studs out of shape with that thing. It's not in my boot now. I've got a ratchet and socket instead for the time being. It never ceases to amaze me how many cars get separated from their original jack and wheel brace and end up with inferior substitutes. Mind you, my Volvo C30 wheel brace split, because it was made of Belgian chocolate instead of real metal....

Now the bad news. Unless my neighbour and I are very much mistaken, both of my rear wheel bearings are knackered.
What confused me, is when I took off the first brake drum, and then rotated the hub, neither the prop shaft nor the other brake drum at the opposite end of the axle turned (I thought the other drum/wheel would turn the other way), and the hub I was turning was as lumpy as hell.
I thought the lumpiness MIGHT be caused by the gears in the differential 'doing their thing' while all the other drive train bits remained stationary....
Then I turned the other hub, and that was noisy and lumpy at the hub end too.
My neighbour arrived home from his job just after I'd put the brake drums back on, and I asked his opinion, and he said "Wheel bearings. They're like a three-penny bit".

Seems odd to me BOTH wheel bearings in the axle are gone, at 27,000 miles (but 41 years) but unless anyone knows better, and can say for sure lumpy feeling hubs are caused by the gears in the diff (nah...I can't remember it from my other RWD cars in the past) then the car is going in again for new rear bearings. That isn't a job I fancy.

So then the problem is...where do I get new bearings? MGB bits?

Mick.

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Kilroy
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by Kilroy » Fri Aug 18, 2017 5:42 am

Firstly - when you turn either hub - something else must turn.
Either the propshaft or the other hub - but turn they must.

Generally, worn out rear wheel bearings announce themselves by making noises while you are driving along.
The bearings are readily available, and often as a kit which includes two seals per side.
The problem is in getting the hubs off the driveshaft taper - can require immense force.
I prefer to loosen the hub retaining nut a few turns then drive about until it loosens itself.

I often find when turning hubs or brake drums that it feels like a cement mixer is attached somewhere - but it seems that they just feel that way...

david painter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by david painter » Fri Aug 18, 2017 7:02 am

Marina bearings different to MGB. But almost sure same as a 4 speed TR7 and Dolomite, as long as its not a Sprint.
Dave

marina12
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by marina12 » Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:24 am

Noises as said: mine when driven and the bearings were on the way out made the 'warrum warrum ' noise that varied in line with speed of travel. Did try to put it off until the warm weather if there was no play in the bearing. Nastiest bit was getting the hub off the shaft. Had spares that had been separated just in case. Seem to remember replacing more often than would expect but was using pattern parts.

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