Brake failure waiting to happen!

The kink in the pipe can clearly be seen

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It was inevitable that I would end up removing most, if not all, of the components from the front end of the car, (I never know when to stop) and its as well that I did as the brake pipe above was hidden under part of the chassis. I had always felt that the car should have given better braking power and I'm now wondering if this is the reason why it didn't. The brake pipe is very close to fracturing and I would guess that the bore is now about 20% of the "non-kinked" pipe. I know of others who have had problems with fractured brake pipes so am glad to have discovered this now.

4 Days of Nitromors, various wire brushes, and wire wool

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Having removed the mudguards, wheels, and suspension, I was able to do a proper job on the chassis and am close to finishing stripping all the red paint in preparation for a dose of POR15 (black). Although the chassis appeared to be well covered in paint, its surprising just how much rust there is under the paint. I have to admit that I've found this a very tedious job but another couple of hours should see it done and then I can start to treat the metal with an anti rust solution (Metal Ready), prior to the first coat of POR15. I'm not sure how many coats of paint there were on the chassis, but on average I've had to apply four coats of Nitromors to get back to the metal.

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I've removed the pedal box. which is particularly rusty, and in doing so realised that the chassis is drilled for different positions for the pedal box. Having rather stretched to reach the pedals in the past, I regard this as something of a bonus that will make future driving more comfortable.

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The steering column has received the "stripping" treatment too and I'm a little surprised that the only way to remove the bearing located near the steering wheel is to cut the steering column in half. Not perhaps the best solution!

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Roger

Snow scuppers the engine delivery

Engine out - now for a strip and repaint

Sam finished the engine rebuild and was happy that oil pressure was up to spec so decided to deliver the engine on Saturday 18th December. The weather forecast was not good - snow expected anywhere. Sam called on Saturday morning - blizzard conditions in Banbury so no point in attempting to drive over, but would come over on Sunday. At that time, the weather in Bedfordshire was reasonable - clear sky, but cold.

I had arranged for a couple of strong young men to come over early Saturday morning to move my RSJ into position in the garage. Within minutes it was in place; a few beers changed hands, and I set about securing the RSJ and fixing the block and tackle in place. As I left the garage I could see that the sky to the north had changed to that even greyness that usually precedes snow. Within 2 hours we had 4" of snow and very difficult driving conditions. I couldn't imagine that Sam would get to me on Sunday either. Sure enough, the road conditions on Sunday were awful and so staying in was the most sensible option. Perhaps Monday or Tuesday would offer a better drive?

In the meantime I summoned up some enthusiasm to brave the extremely cold garage and remove the engine. It took no time at all - two straps round the engine; attach to the block and tackle; lift and move forward. The engine slipped easily off the drive shaft and was lowered to the floor. How easy was that?

As I wanted to change the red paint that covers the chassis and upper body I had started to strip the paint on the chassis. This was more difficult with the engine in place, but easy once the engine bay was clear. Out with the Nitromors and that rather iterative process of dob, dob, scrape, scrape. By mid afternoon I was out of Nitromors (and enthusiasm) as the cold was beginning to make itself felt.

A trip to the builders merchant for a Nitromors top up tomorrow will see me ready to continue the process but I am wishing for warmer weather.

Roger

Time to try the new dashboard

Trial fit of dashboard

I had made a new dashboard for the JZR some time ago and it had sat, for safety's sake, under a double bed in a spare bedroom. However, we had moved to our new house and a major decluttering exercise had been ordered so the dash had to find a new home. With the car being reinvigorated, it seemed sensible to fit the dash, at least temporarily.

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The existing dash was a wooden affair with veneer, whilst my new one was in aluminium. It didn't take long to remove the old dash and offer up the new one, which after some minor adjustments fitted just fine. Having spent some time on the wiring for the new dash, it really puts to shame the existing wiring, which, after the turbo related loom has been removed, consists mainly of different (wrongly) coloured wires connected by some bullet connectors but a lot of "twisted ends" covered with insulation tape. A quick Google search found a supplier who had all the correct CX500 wiring colour combinations, so an order was placed. I also ordered a new 6-way fusebox as the existing item had seen better days. My intention is to make a small board to carry the fusebox, CDI unit, and flasher unit and fit it on the panel above the passenger's legs.

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I had been rather concerned about the rewiring, but seeing how few wires there are on a standard CX500, I am now a little more confident that my rather poor skills in that area will not only make the car go again, but create working lights, indicators, horn and cooling fan!

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As I pondered the wiring, my thoughts moved to the front mudguards, as I have mounted side/indicator lights on the mudguard tops. These would need a refit as I had done a temporary job two years ago. But, thoughts of a colour change for the body were in my mind too. If I changed the mudguards I could solve the problem of the mudguards being very close to the tyres, making it impossible to remove a wheel without first removing a mudguard. A further issue is the support stay for the mudguards, one of which locates too close to the bleed nipple on the front brake caliper. Both these things need improving so I may replace the wings with either aluminium or stainless steel ones in the process.

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Talking of colour - the car is presently painted in a Alpha red of some variety and has a stainless lower half. I'm thinking of having the bonnet and tail painted in Fiat broom yellow - the colour that the Fiat Coupe was painted. Any thoughts?

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Roger

CX500 - parts are becoming difficult to find.

One rocker cover after the mop treatment

Sam had dismantled the engine and started the hunt for parts, but where had the stock of CX500 parts gone? Pistons (quality items) - virtually unobtainable; gudgeon pins - not to be had; other items - a similar story. It was obvious that it won't be that long before genuine or good quality parts just won't be available. Still, eventually, Sam found all the items he needed and the engine could be rebuilt.
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In the meantime I have been canvassing the CX500 turbo world to see if there was any interest in my turbo engine (sans working turbo of course). It didn't take long before an email from Australia appeared and the electronic conversation moved rapidly to shipping costs. I'm not sure what particular attraction there is for items I want to sell to end up on the other side of the world but a Triumph Vitesse that I restored 4 years ago, was sold to a guy in New Zealand.
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By moving to the normally aspirated CX500, I needed a few items that the turbo doesn't have - CDI ignition unit, choke cable, mechanical tachometer, so Ebay came to the rescue and the required items were bought for a very reasonable price. Although the CDI unit looked rather jaded - well quite rusty actually, it soon cleaned up and a coat of etching primer and black paint has it almost like new.
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As the turbo engine has polished rocker covers I decided that I should buy a pair (the turbo ones are quite different). Once again a bargain Ebay purchase saw me the proud owner of a pair of (quite dirty) rocker covers for the princely sum of £3.23! I'm not sure why but I do derive significant pleasure in making something that appears tatty, into a rather more presentable form (I expect Freud would have something to say about that) and some years ago I had purchased a serious bench grinder and a set of polishing mops. I set to with the grinder ably helped by a small Dremmel type drill and attachments for the areas between the fins and have produced an acceptable shine. It is a dirty job though as bits of mop, polish, and gunge from the item being cleaned/polished are thrown around the workshop, as well as over the operator.
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Obviously with a man in Australia wanting the turbo engine and other related turbo bits, I had to remove the engine from the car. Off came the bonnet, and various ancillaries, plus miles of wiring. One thing the CX500 turbo has is lots of wires. Compared to the normally aspirated CX500 it seems excessive but I guess with the electronics, fuel injection, turbo, et al, it is inevitable. Quite frankly, the remaining wiring is very poor and needs replacing.
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Not being as fit as I used to be, I didn't think I could manage to lift the 500 engine out of the car without some mechanical assistance so I quickly found a block and tackle on Ebay, and some straps that would take the weight. All it needed was an RSJ across the garage, supported on the two brick piers that were very conveniently situated right where the front of the car came to rest. A quick 1/2 mile walk in the snow to my local steel fabricators and a deal was struck on a secondhand RSJ of significant proportions, with delivery for the following day included at no extra charge. When I arrived home from work, there sat the RSJ, in all its rusty weightiness, outside the garage. With a fair amount of grunting I managed to drag it into the garage and down the side of the JZR. OK so far - that was the easy bit, but how to get it up on those piers? What I needed was some fit young men - well younger and fitter than me. Have to give that some thought.
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Roger

The prelude (AKA I hate turbos!)

The thought of owning a turbo powered JZR was sufficient reason enough to make the long trek to Stafford on a freezing winters days in 2007. Despite the shortest of test drives on an icy driveway, the heart instantly won over common sense and a deal was agreed. After a few entertaining trips "feeling my way" and some longer trips I began to enjoy the turbo's very rapid performance. After a while I began to suspect that the turbo was not functioning as it should - sometimes the expected power wasn't delivered so I guessed it might be a wastegate problem. Eventually, the turbo effect had disappeared completely so the time had come to get it repaired. What a naive statement that turned out to be. It didn't take long to discover that the IHI turbo was made specifically for the Honda CX 500/650 turbo bikes and that not only were reconditioned or new units unavailable, but that spares were unobtainable too. Calls to various turbo reconditioning companies produced a number of "can't help" responses, but one said they could help if I paid them nearly £900. That seemed rather a lot so the hunt continued.
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Eventually I found another reputable company who suggested a more realistic figure of £450 but with no guarantees. To carry out the work they would require the failed turbo and the spare that I had (the spare had rather worn bearings). The reconditioned unit duly arrived back and was fitted - great - back to the expected (exciting) performance. Sadly my euphoria lasted for about 400 miles before one brief spell of acceleration was accompanied by an alarming screeching sound. I backed off and accelerated again. Once again above 3500 revs. I was rewarded with a cacophony of noise akin to ball bearings in an empty bean can, and this horrible screeching. Obviously something was seriously wrong with the turbo so my journey home from Silverstone was very tame at sub 3000 revs. Being a cautious fellow I had snapped up a spare turbo from a reliable source some months back, but like my original "spare" the bearings didn't seem too good either. However, I removed the "reconditioned" unit and fitted the spare. A trip up the road suggested that all was fine; 2 miles - OK; 3 miles OK. Looks like it is working well. No - after 3.5 miles a whistling developed and a slight drop in power. A check of the installation found nothing untoward. Another test run produced similar results - OK for a couple of miles and then noises. I drove back home and wrote off the following day's run to Silverstone which would have started with a couple of laps of the circuit as part of the Historic Weekend's Retro Run - DAM!
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What to do now - that was the question. In the time I had owned the car I had experienced more "repair time" than running time. I really wanted to drive the little car and not spend time gazing at it in its undressed state. What about a 650 engine then - not as powerful but nevertheless it would pull the JZR along at a good rate. I called Sam Day - the Honda CX guru - and after a discussion about the relative merits we decided that a CX500 with modified heads would be the best compromise. Sam explained that whilst 500 parts were not as readily available as they used to be, 650 parts were very scarce indeed. I didn't want a "turbo" scenario all over again so agreed with Sam's suggestion.
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The scene was set - I just needed a CX500 engine now Ebay was an obvious possible source but very much a case of "caveat emptor". A call to Brian Lofty seemed a logical step and he said he would ask around. However, Sam quickly came up trumps with news of an engine for sale from Tony Simpson (Zipper). This was duly purchased, collected by Sam and taken back to Sam's workshop for inspection and rebuild.
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The story that follows is the account of what started as an engine swap and became something more involved.
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Roger