Colt Galant 1600 GL Hardtop

[ANTHONY]

just follow your dream and if it takes years what the heck. it will be even older then and even more rare

[Kieran]

Sat in the KieranCorp Towers Garage, having relegated Hordak to the driveway, is a very, very old Galant!

Thanks again to Marcus and Jane for sorting out transportation I owe you guys one!

It's a sweet little motor

[Kieran]

Right, well it's been a month or two since my little Coupe touched down. In all that time, between decorating and attending to my Wife and my Legnum, I have managed to spend a few hours locked in my garage.

Unfortunately, I haven't got any photos, but today I managed to free the engine off, though I'm not out of the woods yet.

When the car arrived, I knew that the engine was siezed and that the head gasket was blown. Marcus however showed me that the engine *would* turn, albeit only about 20 degrees.

I've managed to work out why.... When it got to the point where the engine stuck, I notice, having removed the rocker box cover, that the cam chain was tensioning up, but not actually turning the cam. I have since (with a haynes manual, many thousand swear words and a hammer - old car repair styleeee!!) managed to get the rocker assembly off of the car and confirmed my initial suspicion that one of the cam bearings has overheated and siezed... probably as a result of an oil way being blocked by crud and mayonnaise from the headgasket failure.

Fortunnately, it's only one of them, and whilst the bearings don't have shells that can be changed, the damage is fairly minor... The cam's not badly scored and the knackered bearing (for now, just to try it out) can be milled out to remove the damage.

However, there is still some way to go before this engine is likely to run under it's own power.... Standing around hasn't helped it much, and it's very 'stiff'... but I can now (with the aid of a socket on the bottom pulley) get the engine turning by hand, and the starter motor will still try and do it too, although it's currently quicker to turn it by hand.

For now, the bores are being soaked with some thin oil to free 'em up a bit, and tomorrow I shall be squirting my oil gun around the bottom end of the motor to help the main bearings a bit. Then, provided that has the effect I want, it will be time to bolt-up the sump again, fill it up and take it from there.

But, and this is the most important bit.....

It may not be alive right now.... But it's not dead either!!

[BraindG]

Nice, will be a great day when its up and running again. Atleast its not as bad as it could have been though. I was having images of you hving to buy a replacememt engine... fingers crossed Kieran.

[ritch_w]

good onya mate you'll get there

you can always fling a Starion turbo lump at it if you get bored ....ran out of smilies!!!

[RED]

Glad to hear that you are in the thick of things already Get your camera out then lets have a looksey

[Kieran]

More good news, though it's been a SOMEWHAT(!!!) frustrating month. I've had very little time to work on my little Pap-Pap, however I have at last (tonight in fact!) got one step closer....

Okay, so when I last left you, the engine would now turn, but was stiff and a bit reluctant. Well, soaking the bores in oil, and a lot of hand turning (socket on the crank pulley bolt) has freeed everything off quite nicely. The valves seem very stiff, and certainly with the rocker assembly in place, I'm not strong enough to make the engine turn and open the valves -Though from what I know about the tension of valve springs, this is probably about right?? (Anyone who can confirm/deny this, I would appreciate it).

Anyhow. With the rocker arm off, I can spin the engine by hand using a cranked lever quite happily - Fast enough to get oil spurting out of the camshaft feeds anyway, and there's no major resistance encountered or any unusual noises, though with the plugs in, the head gasket hisses and wheezes quite badly - definetly need to replace that, but I want to see if I can fire the engine before I go tearing it down; my reasoning being that I don't want to start pulling the block/head apart if it's a futile atempt.

The problem has been that as soon as I try to crank the engine using the starter, very little happens. The starter engages, but turns the engine incredibly slowly, before giving up and stopping. After opening up the book of Haynes (yes, there IS one for this car, and it's the old-style 'Proper' manual, not the new dumbass 'Service and repair' efforts), I followed the advice - New battery (one that came with the car was knackered), then cleaned up the terminals and earth points. Still no joy. Then, after another attempt, I noticed that the negative battery terminal was warm...... Uh-oh.... that means it's been drawing a LOT of current.... Sounds like the starter is just bad! So tonight, I decided it was time to whip out the starter motor.

My God.... Remove 2 cables, undo a couple of bolts near the back of the engine and that was it - the starter was out!! I had removed it in less that 20 minutes! Imagine that on a VR-4! I'd still be removing bits to get at it!!

With the starter motor free, I reconnected the solenoid cables and bolted the housing to the main earth cable. Then, I tried it. It spun very slowly and ground to a halt after about 3 seconds... Accompanied by that 'Burnt-out' smell and a few wisps of smoke. Hmm! That'll be dead then! To confirm this, I dismantled it, and yes indeed - the field coil wires had melted and the armature looked decidedly crispy too! To my surprise, the commutator and brushes seemed fine however.

So there we have it - the engine spins freely, and I have (I think) got to the bottom of why the car is so reluctant to start!

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of 'Yellow car, Red nutcase"

[enigma]

Try bump starting it..........

[BraindG]

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of 'Yellow car, Red nutcase"

Sounds like youve been having fun there Kieran. Have you found out whether you can buy a new starter? or something that will bolt on from another car?

[Kieran]

Sounds like youve been having fun there Kieran. Have you found out whether you can buy a new starter? or something that will bolt on from another car?

Well, there's a starter motor on ebay at the moment that should fit... it's only £30 delivered so I may give that a shot. As for other cars, the engine and 'box in my car were later used in the Hyundai Stellar, so I can always rob bits off one of them I I need to.

[BraindG]

30 quid isn't bad... atleast that way your a step, or should i say turn closer...

[Wouter]

Nice one Kieran!!

Keep up the good work!!

[Kieran]

With the engine progressing nicely, and a small interlude whilst I await the arrival of the starter and some other bits and bobs, I decided to turn my attention to the bodywork - In particular, those bits with are unlikely to impress the MOT tester!!

Now, ss some of you may have seen from the early photos, the car is essentially very, very solid indeed, though the engine bay and the fronts of the chassis rails have been plated to get them through the MOT in the past. Also, as Ian spotted earlier, the vinyl roof looks very suspect around the windscreen. So, satisfied that the engine bay didn't need any immediate attention, I decided last night investigate the vinyl roof.

CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH

Oh crumbs! That does NOT sound good!! and a couple of cuts into the vinyl to inspect revealed the full horrors.... That said, it could be a lot worse! But it is pretty grim!

Here's some photos. Note that I've taken the windscreen out - The rubber was in very poor condition in several places (almost certainly what caused the onset of the grot) and so rather than prise the rubber and risk shattering the windscreen, I took the stanley knife to it!! Not the recommended method, but I was able to extract the glass without damage, and also save a complete section of rubber for matching up a spare. And fortunately for me, it's available from HERE (Click) - Pattern 1181.

I'll leave you with the sight that greeted me once the windscreen was out and I'd removed the loose rust. You may find these images disturbing!
However, I am all tooled up and ready to fire up my new MIG (Project VX claimed my last one!) in avengance!!

[ANTHONY]

can you not channel those exrta air intakes to the air filter

[enigma]

Have you considered a convrtible?

[Big Ian]

vinyl roof's "gotta luv em!"...........not
can any of the hole's be plated from behind? and what was the condition of the rear pillars, another option .....do you know of any other's that you could cut the roof off of (if better than your')

when i worked in the garage, we use to fill most hole's with lead but it's costly and a long job but well worth the end result then again if you are replace'n the viynl then who's gonna see it?

have you stripped the carpet out yet? i'd say your better stripping as much as possable and asses all the work needed, make sure it's worth all the time and effort

[D.J]

One way of getting the kerb weight down on the car.

[Kieran]

vinyl roof's "gotta luv em!"...........not
can any of the hole's be plated from behind? and what was the condition of the rear pillars, another option .....do you know of any other's that you could cut the roof off of (if better than your')

when i worked in the garage, we use to fill most hole's with lead but it's costly and a long job but well worth the end result then again if you are replace'n the viynl then who's gonna see it?

have you stripped the carpet out yet? i'd say your better stripping as much as possable and asses all the work needed, make sure it's worth all the time and effort

No, none of the holes can be plated from behind, so that's out the window. As you rightly point out, the Vinyl roof will be going back on, so to be honest, I'm not worried if my repairs look untidy. As long as the rust is cut back to bare metal, and fresh plates are welded in with good, solid welds, I'm not overly fussed.

As for the carpet, it's been up and it's not bad at all. No horrors jumped out anywyay! The rear pillars are fine, and it's only the roof skin that's crumbled. The bracing that runs along the top of the car is fine, as are the two longitudinal braces in the roof (though the nearside one has been caught on one corner).

Anyhow, I've got to grips with my new MIG and already chopped and plated one of the A Pillars. There's a picture below. Yes, my welds look terrible - they always do. I can weld with good strength and penetration, but they always look sh1te!!

I've got the bit between my teeth now!! :

[Dream Weaver]

with good strength and penetration

Alright for some !

[ritch_w]

Kieran, if i wore a hat, i'd take it off to you!!!

excellent work - keep it up!!!