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First thing I've attempted is to improve the earthing on the starter by removing the paint from block where the earth strap is connected. I've checked everything else and there are two possibilities, one is that the starter is knackered, the second is that because the engine runs fairly hot the fan is draining the battery. I suspect its the starter but improving the cooling can't hurt any.
To address the cooling I'm adding a couple of ali plates to each side of the radiator to prevent the air flowing around it as much, it appears to do this quite a lot from what I can see. I've re-used the old plate from the side panels which once I'd gone over it with a wire brush looked a treat. To attach the ducting I've very carefully drilled a couple of holes in the fins of the rad and am riveting into them. This requires careful measurement as 1mm too far and the radiator is a write-off. Unfortunately my measurement of the position of the final hole was approx 1mm out.
I've procured the replacement boot for the driveshaft and after the problems I had with the T-40 bolts last time I've got plenty of bits to use on them and have soaked them well in WD-40.
Made up a nifty braket, ridgedly tieing the bellhousing top-bolts onto the chassis cross-member, the engine certainly isn't going anywhere now. One side effect of this is I now need to adjust where the gearstick hole in the carpet is, so that it doesn't snag on 5th and 2nd.
| Tiger Radiator | New Radiator | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of cores | 2 | 2 |
| Number of rows | 32 | 44 |
| Cooled area | 0.15m^2 | 0.13m^2 |
| Fins per inch | 7 | 13 |
| Fin depth | 28mm | 40mm |
The above seems to indicate that the new radiator will be 2-3 times more efficient than the old one!
Attacked the driveshaft, managed to get half the bolts out, the rest do not want to shift under any circumstances and are happily eating torx bits and my knuckles. Therefore I've ground the heads off, in the hope that eliminating the stress in them and getting the WD40 and plus-gas right into the thread will help. It seems to have worked to some extent, leaving just two that still won't budge.
Having bought a fancy, light-adjusting welding helment (which is fantastic BTW) I've welded some bolts on the studs and whipped the last two bolts out. Replaced the boot on the driveshaft ready for re-assembly.
Since the new radiator is somewhat shorter than the old one I've had to trim some of the shrouding to get it to fit, I've also had to add a piece of right-angled metal so that I can use some threaded rods as mounts on one side. I think the pictures below should explain better than I can.
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I think its pretty obvious that the new rad looks like a much better item yet it was under £100 which isn't far off the tiger cost so full marks to Anglia Radiators. Because its shorter I've also had to adjust the top mount and I'll probably adjust the bottom pegs as well, just to neaten things up.
Fitted the new starter, the new one is a lot more compact, it appears to be the right thing, it'll be interesting to see how it does in use.
Removed the old steering rack ready for the new one to go in tomorrow with any luck. My what a busy day its been.
Decided to remove all the old coolant hosing and replace it with nice new stuff, it looks like I'm going to need a number of reducers, angles and joints though :-(
The new starter turns out to be a short-throw and I need long-throw. So back on goes the old one for the moment, with the enhanced cooling the fan shouldn't run and so the starter will find life a lot easier.
Ran the engine up to temperature and boy does the new rad make a difference!
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