Introducing Wlliam the '68 Amazon Estate

[swedishandgerman]

Such a shame. It really wasn't bad at all, but I do feel like a dick for not sticking my head far enough in under to have missed a little hole with a blindingly obvious yellow mark done by the MOT man in November.

Otherwise, just binding brakes. It has been standing for many months and the MOT station was only a couple of miles drive. Having driven home being very heavy on the brake pedal, I think I've cured it.

Annoying. I could have been on the road so easily otherwise.

I will, however, be changing those suspension bushes. By the time I got home, the noisy prop shaft was no longer noisy and it was definitely running better for a good drive. Overdrive not working though...

[Burdekin]

The spare bushes are packed up and my wife is going to send this week. Sorry for the delay, just hectic and couldn't get to the post office.

[swedishandgerman]

So I wheeled the old Amazon Estate down to my favourite local body shop people, Southwest Splitz http://www.southwestsplitz.co.uk/ to get the little hole in the floorpan sorted. There's a time thing involved here; firstly, I'm getting impatient and desperate to get the thing out on the road AND I have a 10 day window to get it fixed and re-MOT'd otherwise I have to pay for the test in full again.

It was nearly a 20 mile trip and I was heavy on the brake pedal to get some heat into those there front calipers to free them up and stop the binding. By the time I got there, the wheels were not hot. I need to jack it up and find out what's going on there, but I will end up sticking new pistons, seals and dust covers into the calipers. I have 2 spare calipers that I am taking with me tomorrow to a customer of mine - lucky, I work in the shot blasting industry! Brakes need to be balanced and adjusted in the proper brake shoes just touching THEN adjust handbrake after plus a good and proper bleed through

The old thing drives nicely enough. I've got used to my ultra smooth running B20A and this little B18A needs some serious 'Adam tinkering' to tune it up smoothly.

I've also got used to my gas shocks and stiffer springs. It's a bit bouncy! But I'm doing this car on a zero modifications basis.

That rubber doughnut needs to go onto the prop shaft pretty soon! Noisy as anything at certain speeds...

Re-mot at the end of the week.

A note to our man Tail - they were WELL impressed by the standard of your welding mate! A big thanks to you!

[Tail]

Just a pity i wasn't around this coming weekend otherwise i would have sorted that as well, but we still need to sort the paint out.

[swedishandgerman]

MOT: Done! Tax Disc: Done! Insurance: Done! On the road at last.... First journey was to pick up excitable twins from school. It's taking more convincing than I hoped to make my wife accept that this is a feasible replacement for her V70.

Desperately need to sort out the prop shaft which is making the old car vibrate and shake. I've checked the rubber doughnut which is intact with no perishing or anything. There is no free play in either of the UJ's. I'm wondering if there is some kind of order that the prop is supposed to line up. I can see that the bolts have been undone in the not too distant past and I wonder if it hasn't been put back together properly.

[Derek UK]

I read the other post first but my comments still stand. Even if the UJ's look new check them all, especially the rear one. When fitting it's just about possible to knock a needle out of place and still bash them in enough to get the circlips in, but they won't move freely. A pain, but take the whole shaft and centre bearing off so you can move the UJ's through their full movement.

[Tail]

Yay on the mot,glad it passed. Got some time over the bank holiday if you want to get the paint finished just let me know.

[swedishandgerman]

A couple jobs done:

Firstly, I've changed the Pirelli webbing underneath both front seats. The seat base cushion is simply held in place with 6 poppers to reveal the webbing which is attached to the seat frame with metal clips. This webbing degrades with age and goes brittle, stretches out and loses its stretchiness. The result is a seat base that makes you sink down low and no springiness.

I went to my local upholsterers http://www.apolloupholstery.co.uk/contact.htm where they charged me £4/mtr. For both seats, I got 7 metres and had loads spare.

To remove the old webbing, I simply unclipped the hooks from the seat base and cut the 2 clips at the ends out with scissors. I made a hoop and stitched it real tight, put the clip in place, stretched it taut and put the remaining clips in place. Following, I pulled it up really tight, marked the position for the end clip, took it all off and made another hoop on the sewing machine. I made an identical copy for the other seat and put both new parts into the seat frames using some muscle. Seat bases back on and the result is well pleasing; a much more comfortable and supportive seat. I have secured the webbing using holed plates and pop rivets, but stitching is clearly much better.

To finish off, I adjusted the seat height to its highest position to suit the short man that I am!

This was a dead easy job and a well recommended project to seriously improve an aged Amazon front seat.

Other, I have dropped the rear section of the prop out and put it back in so that all the joints line up. It's much, much better, but not totally cured. I've ordered a Volvo 240 prop bearing - it's a BMW part number at GSF, so indicates it's the same bearing as in at least a BMW, if not others. When I get round to it, I'll drop the whole prop out and give each UJ and proper check at the same time as changing the whole bearing and rubber doughnut assembly.

Also, I have been doing my proper "Adam style" tuning, which is to make incremental changes, try it out and re-adjust! The thing was idling all over the place and driving at part throttle openings was not smooth, so I've turned the jet out untill it was running at its fastest. Then it was good, but is doing that typical Stromberg thing of not starting well when hot, so I've turned it out further. We'll see....

Another job to do is to re-bleed the brakes. I am not convinced I have got a properly stiff brake pedal - it's better on the second strike - even after adjusting up the brake shoes and hand brake cable. I understand that the secret to successfully bleeding an Amazon with a servo is to get the back of the car very high and taking a long time to bleed.

Anyone know if there's a sequence on an Amazon to bleed the brakes?

[Tail]

No sequence it says in the Haines for the single circuit but there is a sequence for the dual circuit brakes.

[swedishandgerman]

Originally Posted by Tail

No sequence it says in the Haines for the single circuit but there is a sequence for the dual circuit brakes.

Thanks for that. I did it starting with the wheel nearest the master cylinder and ended with the one furthest. I had the back wheels of the old car as far as I could possibly get them and it's been a success. Also I took the filter unit off the servo and it was full of mank making the little hole nearly plugged