M Plate 1.8LS Saloon

[cavalier1990]

Well first thing I wouldn't recommend is buying that cheap tool from ebay, it fell apart the first time I put it under any pressure. Well what can I expect for a couple of quid!

Result of that putting on the boot clips took way longer than anticipated so I ended up only doing that tonight as was a bit frustrated with it. Had to take a trip to the old man's boat yard and use his heavy vice to clamp the bits on the boot clips, then chisel them shut basically.

Nice new shiny GM boot with proper clips and new O ring for ABS - boom!

[cavalier1990]

After struggling to remember how to build up the brake shoes I got it!



New foam on the intake shield. I also applied petroleum jelly on the foam as well for good measure. Might stop that pesky H2O finding it's way into the cabin!



Sealed up all the joins in the N/S section of bulkhead whilst doing the O/S bit where it was leaking.



This is behind where the elephant trunk mounts. There was quite a bit of rust here and best I could do without stripping entire bulkhead was this job with tape and panel sealant. For the biggest hole I used a bit of metal and sealed it over the hole, then a bit of tape to cover smaller hole, sealed round trunk and upper section above trunk fitting.



You can see in this pic just how much rust there is in the bulkhead section. Only long term solution is entire strip and weld new bits in, which I have no time for at the moment. Have sealed any holes in the bulkhead apron bit that sticks up so that water isn't getting down behind sound proofing and causing rust trap between foam and lower section of bulkhead.



O/S bulkhead section where leak was and sealed up other joins.



Discs and pads on O/S



Discs and pads on N/S

[cavalier1990]

Latest update:

Drums and shoes on
Handbrake cable on
Tank strap repaired, welded in new strip and fixed on handbrake cable mount and also found tank rubber damper that goes between strap and tank. Eagle eyed among you will see the rubber block sitting on the back axle ready to be used.

Few pics to get the idea:

These are drums I bought a couple of years ago, GM ones, they were starting to flake a little so rubbed down, rust eater and painted with hammerite. This is N/S



This is O/S drum


This is the tank mounting strap that was pretty rotten where the big rubber damper block goes. I think it must have held water in under it thus the rust. Cut a new strip of metal and welded it in. Also cut the handbrake mount off and welded it back on the new metal.

[cavalier1990]

Today's job was to finish off fixing the petrol tank filler neck. Firstly using fibre glass to fill the gaps where I'd welded the plate on, then seal up and paint with hammerite:



While I was doing that battery was on charge and I had a poke around engine bay trying to find out why I wasn't getting a spark yesterday. The only thing I could see was the coil plug pins were a bit corroded looking so I cleaned those, tested voltage and put some petroleum jelly on the contacts as well as check distributor and do the same with the jelly.

Next step was to check for spark, pulled plug out, screwdriver in the end and rest against engine. Got assistant to crank it and voila a big yellow spark flew across the sky, and only to be assisted by a loud pop of combustion resulting in a puff of smoke/steam to come out the carb. So I then got some wd40 and sprayed that down it's throat, cranked it and again got some semblance of a motor trying to start.

Since I've no fuel in it yet I will get the tank neck pipe in, fill it with fuel and see how it goes from there, now that I know we have one of the elements for combustion.

[cavalier1990]

Had a nice wee caravan holiday this week so duly dived back into getting some more work done this morning. Stuffed up with cold and tired but weather was favourable so I got on with the following:

Putting tank filler neck and rubber cover back on. I forgot about the little vent pipe so had to drop tank, route it round the N/S of tank into the metal feed pipe and jack tank back up into place.

Replace O/S wing indicator. All I can say is this was a bit of a bitch of a job. Took me nigh on 5 hours to do, no wonder hardly anyone replaces them! here it is:



Here is some of the leccy wiring had to strip out to get to it. Mind you upside - I found a little broken wire for interior light, and also dried out bit of foam that resides in aperture behind kick panel:





Summary of jobs still to do:

Rebuild interior inc. Change gearlever and handbrake boot for new ones
Paint O/S/R of sill where it was welded
Put on centre section and tailpipe of exhaust
Acquire 2 steel wheels and tyres to make up set
F/N/S brake pipe to be made up and alter 2 rear ones for correct fitting
Find out why not starting
Fit headlights and indicators

[cavalier1990]

After filling tank just under half way yesterday I found some fuel had leaked from the tank overnight. I did use the old tank so that gamble didn't pay off; it's quite rusty where the filter sits so I think must have disturbed some of the rust when removing it. I'll need to order another tank for it. Once I got the tank out I had a look at the pump and I now know the wiring to check for pump supply voltage. I tried it with ignition on and while turning the starter, which showed only about 1 volt or thereabouts.

Will need to wait until I get new tank and in meantime try and work out why I there's no supply voltage to the tank pump.

[cavalier1990]

Tank and 2 steel wheels arrived today. That gives me a set of wheels. Next job to move the breather pipe over to the new tank and install.

[GLC]

Great to see more progress on this, think those areas you repaired so far are all the same as what needs welding on mine at some point or another!

My petrol tank started leaking a few months after I got the car which was annoying as I had just filled the tank, came back to the car in the supermarket and thought there a strong smell of petrol round here. Looked around and saw the large damp patch under my Cav with petrol clearly leaking.

I agree about those side indicators being a pain in the arse.

Had the same problem when the passenger wing was removed off my car for the nearside sill to be replaced a few years ago. The indicator was removed by chopping the wiring behind the wheel arch liner then rejoined after the wing was refitted.

Also the sunroof drains were rerouted so they exit out through the inner wing area on to the floor behind the arch liners rather than in to the sills too which I think is a good mod to make.

[cavalier1990]

Today's job was to put new tank in and hopefully get car started.

I'd prepped the tank last night swapping over sending unit, pump and pipes, and got it sitting under the car with jack holding it up near enough in place, just leaving enough space for me to tuck everything in. I've still got the feed pipe to engine to tuck up and the rest is done.

Thankfully no leaks from the sender unit. When I was putting this in last night it felt like quite a loose fit. It did snap home but I'd of preferred it to be a little tighter on those lock lugs. All I done was bend the little lock lugs in ever so slightly meaning that when I twisted the sender unit into the locking lugs that they'd pull it in just that little bit tighter and make sure seal is proper.

After putting everything in I got the fuel tank filled with some fuel and gave it a go, at first I thought it was the same old problem which in a way it was, the battery was just not up to the job, it would crank for a long time but was too slow. So I got spare battery out of a family member's car and hooked that up. Result it started to fire but it sounded like the firing was happening at the wrong time. I.e. seemed to almost jam the engine when it did fire.

Double checked the timing then it crossed my mind, I bet I know what it is, one of the plug leads is in wrong plug, number 1 and 2 were on wrong, they are very similar length and easy to mix, but something kept nagging at me when I put them on.

Swapped leads 1&2 round and result, away it went. The centre and back section of the exhaust is still to go on, hence the noise, however here's a short video of it running.

https://andrew-cars.s3.eu-west-2.amazon ... rt-vid.mp4

And a few pics of the new tank in place:

[cavalier1990]

Great to see more progress on this, think those areas you repaired so far are all the same as what needs welding on mine at some point or another!

My petrol tank started leaking a few months after I got the car which was annoying as I had just filled the tank, came back to the car in the supermarket and thought there a strong smell of petrol round here. Looked around and saw the large damp patch under my Cav with petrol clearly leaking.

I agree about those side indicators being a pain in the arse.

Had the same problem when the passenger wing was removed off my car for the nearside sill to be replaced a few years ago. The indicator was removed by chopping the wiring behind the wheel arch liner then rejoined after the wing was refitted.

Also the sunroof drains were rerouted so they exit out through the inner wing area on to the floor behind the arch liners rather than in to the sills too which I think is a good mod to make.

Thanks for mentioning it GLC it's been a huge job as I wanted to fix all those little niggly things you never get round to, as well as the welding, basically more or less anything that needed fixed got fixed. I was taking a gamble trying to use the old tank as I think it was starting to leak, and of course all the bumping and banging of taking it out and putting it in likely disturbed the rusty bits, result - leaks.

As the tank is a pattern part it can take a wee bit of flexing and levering here and there to get it to fit. This one wasn't too much hassle as I remembered to bend the end lip down on the tank on the N/S as it would have hit the underside otherwise when installing. All in all really glad now it's running, a major milestone has been reached!

Funnily enough I did notice the sunroof drains running down the kick plate area in the little recess and thought mm how can I route them out away from sills, is it an easy job? At the moment all I have done to minimise water into the drains is to put vaseline round the sunroof seal. It basically stops any water going in to the drain area.

[James McGrath]

Nice work.

Get some underseal or paint on that tank and it will last for another 20 years.

[cavalier1990]

Not far too go now.

Exhaust: Have got the rest of exhaust on. Found a little leak between the joint at cat and rear section requiring resealing.

Interior: carpets, sills, kick plate and rear quarter trim at seat belt all in, just seats to fit. Also put on rubber drain covers and put plenty of petroleum jelly round them to seal from water ingress. Still to clean headlining around drivers area as is a bit mucky and some mold forming here, seat belts and on steering wheel.

Replace boot on gear stick and handbrake.

Brakes: Only got front N/S pipe to install, then bleed system.

Engine: Filled with water and anti-freeze, ran out any trapped air and checked for leaks and fan operation. Still old oil in it so will probably flush that out soon as well. Couple of things left like tying up looms etc.

Bodywork: Touch up O/S rear sill where I welded new plate on sill. Bottom of wheel arch in same area is a bit crusty so tidy this up as well. Finally give it a clean and wash down, then get my polisher out and see how it turns out.

Found a small hole in front apron behind bumper, if you look to right up behind radiator, which I will need to emergency patch (duck tape!)

Electrics: Front lights and indicators still to put in. Leccy aerial to replace too.

Slightly concerned that when the engine is running and the driveshafts are slowly turning with the engine motion in neutral I can hear a clunk clunk from O/S shaft. Hope it's just a dry shaft joint and will reset itself when start driving it.

[cavalier1990]

Oh diddums the passenger side seat belt tensioner has, at some point of seat removal and storage, fired. Now I need to source a new mechanism!

Other than that I've now got interior in place. Pics below including the passenger side seat belt. Can you notice it? There is a little yellow card popped out the belt anchor mechanism with an exclamation mark on it.

[cavalier1990]

Latest work done includes tidying up ABS wires, rerouting them, and one brake pipe at the back. Bending part of the edge of new fuel tank (gingerly!) up a bit as it was far too close to exhaust and was tapping off it when I moved it side to side.

Make up 2 good headlights out of the pile I have, fit them and then hope the auto adjusters work ok. When I plugged them in they done an R2D2 dance up and down then jittered a bit then seemed to settle. I managed to get the trims under the lights fitted without them falling off when I fitted headlights.

Fitted N/S/F brake pipe

I've also tried fitting the original rear view mirror with araldite glue I ordered from GM. First cleaning the little plate that goes on the screen, applying the glue, and then left overnight.

Nest steps are

fit the grill
get a proper battery
get front tyres onto wheels
Fill and bleed brake system
Torque up back axle bolts
Tidy up interior/boot and boot carpet back in
Wash and Polish

[cavalier1990]

MOT, tax, Insurance and back on the road. Now it's a rolling work in progress, tried polishing the drivers side just to see how it came up. Still got a little a little top coat paint to go on sill where welded. Seems to be going quite well. There is a little rattle from underneath sometime, sounds like an exhaust shield, which are not in best nick anyway.

Next jobs are finishing sill paint, polish more, tidy boot up a bit and paint over the welds so they are same colour as the rest of paint.

Think looks not too bad now

[Lowrider Dave]

Just been re-reading this thread - great work so far! I'm on the verge of replacing my petrol tank so it was nice to read that someone else had done it without much problem.

[cavalier1990]

Just been re-reading this thread - great work so far! I'm on the verge of replacing my petrol tank so it was nice to read that someone else had done it without much problem.

Thanks Dave! Liken the look of your cav too, keeps me sane seeing I'm not the only one lying under cars, smashing my knuckles off sharp edges, cursing, with a healthy dose of dirt in my eyes!

If you haven't done before and this is the original tank you are replacing with pattern tank, then I will mention that the pattern tanks don't have the bent down edges the original tank has, meaning it can be a bit of a pain to sit squarely up in the body cavity for the tank, plus the bit next to the exhaust can be very close and hit it if you don't bend it to suit - bend it like Beckham!

Also watch what way the float sits when you remove it bit of a bugga to sit back in right I found.

Andy

[cavalier1990]

Couple of pics I forgot to put up of the area in and around the coil being cleaned up. Basically just remove leaves and crud, give coil and ignition module a once over and reinstall. Also pic of battery tray rust. I treated and was supposed to take a before and after, but just have before.

Cleaned coil and ignition module


Mingin coil


Leaves and crud


Battery tray

[GLC]

Well done on the Mot pass it certainly looked worth the hassle to me! The interior on yours looks immaculate by the way too.

Sorry I hadn't replied sooner regarding the front drainage pipes from the sunroof. I didn't do the work myself admittedly but from memory it was a case of just removing the front arch liners and inner trim covers in the foot wells.

Then marking out where best to drill a hole through the inner arch / door post area. Was sure the drain tubes had to be trimmed down slightly too as they were too long by moving them. Then once in place just used a seam sealer to keep it waterproof. Also refitted those little foam pads that are located behind the arch liners too before refitting.

The hardest part was just committing to drilling holes in the car. I certainly think it helps with reducing the chance of the sills getting blocked up with crud and water etc. The first time it rained I was amazed how much water ran out from them.

I bet my Cav will want cleaning round the coils from all the dead leaves etc that have built up while it's been stood.

[btcctroy]

The filler neck is tricky to mend properly.
I had to cut the whole lot out to gain access to repair the inner arch. I could then repair the filler compartment on the bench. I did it this way to ensure all the rust had been removed for a long lasting repair.
Good effort with the repairs, if your plating remember to weld the existing steel dipping into the plate on a medium to high power setting 2-3mm total thickness
The weld will look more flatter and the finish will look less like a plate. low settings are for butting 1mm - 1.2mm steel.
This works for most hobby migs up to 150amp.
I don't mean to sound rude btw.

[cavalier1990]

The filler neck is tricky to mend properly.
I had to cut the whole lot out to gain access to repair the inner arch. I could then repair the filler compartment on the bench. I did it this way to ensure all the rust had been removed for a long lasting repair.
Good effort with the repairs, if your plating remember to weld the existing steel dipping into the plate on a medium to high power setting 2-3mm total thickness
The weld will look more flatter and the finish will look less like a plate. low settings are for butting 1mm - 1.2mm steel.
This works for most hobby migs up to 150amp.
I don't mean to sound rude btw.

Hi Troy

Regarding what you said previously, do you mean don't start the weld off the plate but just on it so it melts that first then pushes through to the original steel, looking more like a bond than a weld?

I bought a new welder, which unfortunately I never noticed that it only had a high and low power setting button (45/90 A), my old sip welder had 7 buttons, 3 high settings 3 low setting and one to select high/low, so a bit difficult to fine tune current flow now, but am somehow managing to get some good welds, others are spotty and a bit holey, or lumpy. I guess that's the joys of welding paper thin metal that is already weakened by grinding/buffing/cutting and rust as well.

My neighbour who is a weld/fabricator instructor told me to get a non-gasless welder as the flux cores aren't as good.

[cavalier1990]

Recently been stumped by this clunk noise when I brake or accelerate, and sometimes going over rough surface. Have checked all the bolts around arm, steering play, and have recently changed the top mount rubber on the O/S front.

I noticed that when I jacked car up and grabbed spring on O/S it seemed to be moving back and forth. I'm not sure if it was just a bit loose because the tension was off it but the other side never done this, nor did my other cav when I checked it's springs.

Decided to take off the strut and have a look. Couldn't really see much that would be a cause for concern but the top rubber mount, while not looking worn, it certainly seemed softer when I pressed it up and down compared to a new one.

So replaced that, however noise it still there, although it seems to be not doing it as severe but hard to tell. For instance if i was approaching stationary traffic I would start to lightly brake (clunk) then brake harder as I approached (clunk) then final press to stop (clunk again) yet sometime hear the noise if the N/S wheel goes over a lump in the road.

The noise does seem to be right in front of me suspecting the top mount. I noticed when I replaced the top mount that the space between the top mount plate and the inner wing is gone but other side has a gap of about 4mm, which is quite large and suspect then that it needs replaced too. I did have this gap before the rebuild work and never had any clunk sounds however.

Looking at the front wheels on O/S the wheel seems to be sitting back a bit, it seems offset in the arch. I don't ever remember this before as that is something I always keep my eye on all my cars. The supsension arms are relatively new, there is no play and the tyres are both exactly the same make and worn the same.

On drivers side I can not really get 3 fingers through the gap but on NS can get 3 in quite easily with a gap left.





This is really baffling me now, nothing is loose, nothing seems worn, apart from top rubber mount on N/S yet I have this wheel out of line and this clunking noise all the time. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

[cavalier1990]

In order to eliminate this clunk noise I replaced the N/S/F top strut mount. As you can see from pics below it's quite worn, plus it has a good big crack in the middle of it. You can also see how sunk the older one is by looking at the distance from the top of the dished area to the bottom, the old one is practically flat up to the top of the mount.

Changing this has certainly tightened up the feel of the car and it has certainly done away with plenty of noise when turning and/or going over rough surface.

Comparison of old V new mount. You can see how flattened the old one is compared to new one.


Cracked


View underneath of crack


There is still a clunk when I brake or accelerate so I think there was the noise from this and whatever else is causing the brake/accelerate clunk. Eliminated this so at least it is a bit better, if only I could find this other problem. I actually heard a right good crack the other day when I braked sharply. I'm starting to wonder if it's the caliper as it is reconditioned so might have a bit of space where the pads are moving back and forth when you brake.

[Envoy CDX]

Nice progress though

[Ste]

A clunk when accelerating or braking would have me thinking along the lines of an engine or gearbox mount possibly.

But definitely check that your callipers are sitting properly!!