The Dark Wob

Placeholder topic for now. Currently in Steve79 mums garage but hopefully transported sometime this month. Mostly down to when WorldOfCeri passes by next. No rush as I have plenty of other projects on the go, just with Spring coming up quick, I'm looking forward to buzzing around in this. So don't expect anything too exciting to happen for a few weeks yet.

I was hoping the Dolomite would be drivable by now but that's not looking likely. So I'll have to either do the work on this on the drive, cart the Dolomite down to storage over spring/summer or send this off to a professional for it to be sorted. It'll need an MOT anyway, but I'd like to get some of the key things sorted before then.

Main issues for the MOT:

• Dash clocks don't work. Battery has leaked in the original board and damaged the traces. Have another set of dash clocks here and I hope to make a good one out of the two. Something I'll definitely have to do as most mechanics won't want to touch soldering up PCBs.
• Brake pedal doesn't fully go to the top of its travel, unless you assist it by pulling it up. I believe the Rev mentioned corrosion at the top of the pedal or something that just needs cleaning odd.
• Cambelt. This one scares me everytime the engine is started. Label under the bonnet says last changed in 1998 and that's almost certainly true. Steve has done a few hundred miles on it two years ago, but I don't have the guts or will to do a cambelt roulette myself on it. Plus I don't believe they're that difficult to change.
• Possibly needs some welding on the NSF. I'll clean the area up and if it's small I may do it myself. Alternatively let my local garage pickup on it at MOT time and let them sort it if it's a problem.

So hopefully a quick project to get back on the road. That's the intention anyway as I don't have time for too much more, given the Dolomite is taking my time up and the others need fettling too (1100 front calipers and also selling it, MGB service). Likely scenario is getting the above list done so I can drive it to the MOT station and let them sort anything else out needed for that if anything other comes up.

Current shopping list:

• Cambelt + tensioner (127 or 128 tooth?)
• Aux belt
• Water pump
• Dizzy cap + rotor
• Ignition leads
• Sparking plugs
• Oil filter + oil
• Coolant
• Thermostat
• Viscous fan tool?
• Coolant drain plug
• Sump drain plug
• Heater valve
• Radio surround

Most of that probably can from autodoc as it's the cheapest place and I'm not worried about delivery speed right now.

Only question mark is if I need a 127 or 128 tooth cambelt. Searching online isn't clear on when there was a change over and to what.

Liking this.....Dunno about the E28 but I changed the clocks on my E21 because I wanted a tacho (the 316 was speedo only and a mahoosive time clock) I just swapped the cluster, plug and play, even the tacho fired straight up with no additional wiring fiddle-arsery.

Didn't realise these were belt-driven cams though - even after all these years I'd assumed they were chain like my 4 pot!

I wish they were chain driven! Would have been one less job to do.

I understand that these cambelts are pretty easy things to change though. Which is good, as I'll likely be having to do it on my driveway rather than the comfort of in the garage.

Let me know if you decide to sell it, please.

It doesn't look a hard belt to change due every 4 years or 56k only special tool needed is a viscous fan spanner. I can send you the Autodata instructions if you want. Labour time is 1.85 hours

panhard65 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:45 pm It doesn't look a hard belt to change due every 4 years or 56k only special tool needed is a viscous fan spanner. I can send you the Autodata instructions if you want. Labour time is 1.85 hours

That would be useful thanks. I have a Haynes, but having an additional source of information to cross reference against would be good.

Rev has said they're pretty easy to do and hopefully they'll be an order of magnitude easier than my Clio 172.

I can't imagine it would be much harder. That one was a bit difficult but made excellent reading.

Belts are a piece of piss. 127 teeth, round tooth profile. Belt part number is 11311711081, roller tensioner is 11311711154 and the spring is 11311267746. Set TDC with cleaning up the alloy lower belt cover and aligning the O/T mark with the TDC mark. With the upper belt cover off, the two holes in the cam pulley should align with the two 10mm bolts for the camshaft oil seal housing. Replace that as well, part no. Obviously don't move the aux pulley as you'll disturb the ignition timing - take the cap off and mark the rotor arm to the distributor body.

32mm spanner for the left hand thread viscous coupling. Water pumps are cheap. The whole lot takes me about 1hr 30. The blue Haynes 520i/525e manual is perfect.

The brake pedal is the cross linkage seizing up.

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:20 pm Belts are a piece of piss. 127 teeth, round tooth profile. Belt part number is 11311711081, roller tensioner is 11311711154 and the spring is 11311267746. Set TDC with cleaning up the alloy lower belt cover and aligning the O/T mark with the TDC mark. With the upper belt cover off, the two holes in the cam pulley should align with the two 10mm bolts for the camshaft oil seal housing. Replace that as well, part no. Obviously don't move the aux pulley as you'll disturb the ignition timing - take the cap off and mark the rotor arm to the distributor body.

32mm spanner for the left hand thread viscous coupling. Water pumps are cheap. The whole lot takes me about 1hr 30. The blue Haynes 520i/525e manual is perfect.

The brake pedal is the cross linkage seizing up.

Ace thanks. Useful to follow

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:20 pm 127 teeth, round tooth profile.

How do you know its 127 teeth? Internet has a lot of conflict between the two and also reckons the 1985 is cross over year. Not arguing on your correctness or knowledge on it, just interested to know how you know for sure its 127.

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:20 pm With the upper belt cover off, the two holes in the cam pulley should align with the two 10mm bolts for the camshaft oil seal housing. Replace that as well, part no.

Whats the part number for the camshaft oil seal? Presumably replace as they always leak otherwise?