Author Topic: 1968 Series IIA Carawagon  (Read 4082 times)

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Offline PCB93

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  • Location: Cheshire
Re: 1968 Series IIA Carawagon
« Reply #75 on: August 02, 2022, 01:13:24 am »
Morning all,

Life has once again rather got in the way of the Carawagon lately; I unexpectedly ended up doing another few months' work in Hertfordshire, so have been 200 miles from the garage.  Home until early September now though, so things will begin to roll again.  I do have one update from back in March, to bring things up to their present state.

With the engine already running happily, the final thing I wanted to have a go at sorting before bringing the vehicle home was renewing the clutch hydraulics to have it driveable.  Loading it up for the journey home and moving it around when stripping down would be much easier that way, as it takes four people to push!

I made the process longer than perhaps necessary by partially reconstructing the clutch pedal box.  I'd given it a going over previously, but ultimately decided it didn't meet 'standards' due to a number of pitted areas, so decided to redo the job far more thoroughly.

Beginning the process by making a simple wooden jig to ensure everything lines up at the end:


Top 'braces' cut off, and the worst area of corrosion revealed with a spot of sand-blasting:


Pedal box cut into four parts and sand-blasted along with the top plate and pedal itself:


In any particularly pitted areas, such as here, I built up a layer of weld before grinding back to the original profile:


Reassembly begins, checking all lines up with the jig and top plate before welding:


Fully reassembled and sand-blasted again, ready for painting:


Painted and good to go again, this time rust free:


New clutch cylinders.  These were stripped out and the seals coated with red rubber grease prior to fitting:


Clutch pedal ready to fit:


In it goes.  Must admit, it felt a little daft refitting it to such a shonky bulkhead, but needs must, for now:


The old, seized slave cylinder needed removing next.  Access involved rather a battle with the gearbox tunnel fixings, which may or may not have involved an angle grinder.  Anyone know what the crystalline growth on the cylinder is?:


New slave cylinder in place:


All clutch hydraulics roughly 'plumbed in:'


With the overdrive out, I fitted a spare standard transfer gear and rear cover to provide drive in the interim:


Once the system was bled up, I had a go at running the engine and driving out of the garage.  Though I could feel the 'bite' point, there was initially quite a bit of resistance - made harder to overcome by the seized accelerator linkage; currently the choke cable has to be used as a rudimentary throttle.  After much creaking, it did get there, and I was able to edge out of the garage, then reverse back in.  Only about fifteen yards all told, but as far as I know the first the Carawagon had done under its own power in seventeen years.  A satisfying day.

Three days later I brought some reinforcements over to help roughly refit the Carawagon's roof, before driving it onto a recovery truck to finally return home after five years in storage:


Back home and having a bit of a sort-out.  I had to rearrange the garage to take a longer vehicle (previously my 88" was in there), but it's all back in and finally ready for the recommissioning it deserves:


August will be a busy month!

Phil
1979 Series III 88" Hard-top - daily drive
1968 Series IIA 109" Carawagon - project