Time for an update seeing its been over a year since the LHM everywhere discovery. I took your advice Shane and bought a drip tray to take to car shows. At the FCD 18 months ago, the PO had much fun pointing out all the drip locations under the front of the car. The SM turned 50 years old during last year so I suppose the degradation of rubber and seals will just increase from here onwards. So I've been driving it quite a bit during last year even though I knew there was some LHM on the front disks. One can imagine how good the handbrake is. But the engine is going really well especially after I disconnected the start line to the Djet to hopefully stop it sooting up the spark plugs during hot restarts.
The LHM consumption has steadly increased during last year and it seems very wet up the front of the engine bay. The hydraulics on the accessory tray looked dry on top, but the whole accessory tray and the top of the gearbox are covered in LHM. I cleaned the LHM off the top of the gearbox under the steering rack and dried off the underneath of the steering rack then started the engine then wiggled the steering back and forth a bit. It seemed to stay dry. Then I looked at the HP pump and there seemed to be a shiny line of LHM sitting on the top of the pump output plate where it joined the circular aluminium housing are leaking allowing LMH to seep to the outside world between them. It must be HP pump rebuild time. I've ordered an O seal set from Der Franzose and found Budges Blogspot covering this reseal job.
Another major LHM leak area is under the LHM reservoir where it runs down the muflap and leaves a big puddle or trail of LHM between drives. The reservoir seems to have some LHM sitting on the top. Anyone know where that comes from ? Could it be leakage from the 3 small pipes that join into the rubber filler port assembly? I will have to take the LHS wing off the investigate what is going on with the brake accumulator.
I also checked my little clutch master cylinder reservoir to see how the LHM level was after I had to refill and reverse bleed it recently. LHM had all disappeared again so I put some more back in before I lose the clutch action.
Seeing we had a cooler rainy day, I decided it was time to put the front up on car stands to continue the diagnosis session and get ready to do some work. I put some car ramps under each side for additional safety and dived in underneath with a good torch. I have already put new boots on the right driveshaft and now the left driveshaft needs the two boots doing. I found the leakage drain tube from the clutch master cylinder and it looked dry. However there was LHM well dristributed under the gearbox and engine oil at the back of the engine sump on evident on all the sump bolts. I'm hoping that most of the engine oil is leaking out the camshaft covers.
Let hope for a few cooler days so I can get the LHS wing off and find out where the reservoir leak is coming from.
Here are some pictures for Shane.
Cheers, Ken
The LHM consumption has steadly increased during last year and it seems very wet up the front of the engine bay. The hydraulics on the accessory tray looked dry on top, but the whole accessory tray and the top of the gearbox are covered in LHM. I cleaned the LHM off the top of the gearbox under the steering rack and dried off the underneath of the steering rack then started the engine then wiggled the steering back and forth a bit. It seemed to stay dry. Then I looked at the HP pump and there seemed to be a shiny line of LHM sitting on the top of the pump output plate where it joined the circular aluminium housing are leaking allowing LMH to seep to the outside world between them. It must be HP pump rebuild time. I've ordered an O seal set from Der Franzose and found Budges Blogspot covering this reseal job.
Another major LHM leak area is under the LHM reservoir where it runs down the muflap and leaves a big puddle or trail of LHM between drives. The reservoir seems to have some LHM sitting on the top. Anyone know where that comes from ? Could it be leakage from the 3 small pipes that join into the rubber filler port assembly? I will have to take the LHS wing off the investigate what is going on with the brake accumulator.
I also checked my little clutch master cylinder reservoir to see how the LHM level was after I had to refill and reverse bleed it recently. LHM had all disappeared again so I put some more back in before I lose the clutch action.
Seeing we had a cooler rainy day, I decided it was time to put the front up on car stands to continue the diagnosis session and get ready to do some work. I put some car ramps under each side for additional safety and dived in underneath with a good torch. I have already put new boots on the right driveshaft and now the left driveshaft needs the two boots doing. I found the leakage drain tube from the clutch master cylinder and it looked dry. However there was LHM well dristributed under the gearbox and engine oil at the back of the engine sump on evident on all the sump bolts. I'm hoping that most of the engine oil is leaking out the camshaft covers.
Let hope for a few cooler days so I can get the LHS wing off and find out where the reservoir leak is coming from.
Here are some pictures for Shane.
Cheers, Ken