[Simon Lewthwaite]

I hear your pain, Adrian.
My car had had the mechanism removed, presumably due to the hassle of getting it working.
I refitted it with a pile of parts from Darrin. New control wires in new tubes as my originals had been either cut or incorporated in a welded floor repair at some point in time.

The self levelling of the vehicle does not keep the lights level – quite the opposite in fact. Acceleration or braking causes the rear of the car to drop, sending the lights up, hence the need.

I think the first point to check is that your outer headlamp units should freely wobble about an oblique axis with the long screw adjusters(11 in the diagram) disconnected. Not by much, perhaps a cm of travel each way.
Part 11 clips into the recess on the top of the lamp unit. One of mine is not an especially positive clip and if I’m rough, easily comes out.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

Really helpful guys.
On attempting to drain the tank, one plug is stuck fast as Paul hinted at and the other doesn’t line up with the hole in the floor!
I have siphoned off a fair amount but its still fairly full.
Presumably, if there is a filter at the tank pipe end, it will be clogged too? or is that a coarser filter?
It looks like removing the tank would involve tilting it back so the filler tube can move out – what might be the best way to plug that tube to prevent fuel coming out do you think?
I have peered into the tank via the sender aperture and there is only some minor pitting visible but its whats at the pickup end that worries me.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

You will have to explain the cement mixer – beware, I do have one of those!!

[Simon Lewthwaite]

Mine is Gris Nacre, so pearlescent of the day. It looks different from different angles, so in some ways more forgiving. But also easy to miss a subtle difference.

I’ve got to say, however, even the incorrect touch up paint remains as good as touch up goes! In small areas of course.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

I had this problem with my respray.
Because the panels were completed over lockdown, time separated them. During which, the period colour pigments changed. Only apparent once the panels were refitted side by side. It was a very bad day.
Whole job had to be repeated. Same when I ordered a touch up pot. Doesn’t quite match.

You can, I believe, get the colour scanned?

[Simon Lewthwaite]

OK, so having moved that wire across, I now have a functioning temperature gauge!
On starting the car, the needle slowly rises until it just gets into the red zone and then, presumably as the thermostat opens and the radiator starts its work, settles back into the centre fairly quickly. Sound right? I don’t think mine is an original gauge however.

Of course, it begs the question, where is the wire that should plug into the white F spot? The one I removed from the yellow plug was, in fact, not connected to anything. I guess its not a difficult job to simply run a wire from the thermal switch to the cluster. Or see if there is one making its way…..

[Simon Lewthwaite]

The plot thickens.
Now the cylinder head is back on, I’ve been running the car for gradually longer periods, ensuring no leaks, coolant getting everywhere it should.

I’ve been held back however by the warning cluster – the water temperature light still comes on. Gradually though. It is joined by the main ‘STOP’ red light, again gradually brightening as the engine warms up. Faint though – probably why I missed it before.
I was worried the head fix hadn’t worked but, of course, those lights shouldn’t come on gradually – they should come on completely when the thermal switch triggers the secondary electric fan.
So, it occurs to me that perhaps my elusive temperature gauge wire is plugged in there. Into the white connector behind the instrument panel instead of the yellow? They both occupy the ‘F’ position. Fingers crossed!

[Simon Lewthwaite]

Hmm.
The F wire is there but was not firmly in the block. Probably no connection.
On exploring the wiring at the supp air control, the wire to the sensor broke at its connection.
So, two good reasons for no function. Hope that was it.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

Thanks Paul, Extremely helpful as ever.
I need to clarify. The big central red light did not come on ( I don’t think) It was the water temperature warning light that came on. Looking at the handbook, the big red light should have also triggered. It definitely comes on for a few seconds when first starting the car and illuminates when I press the ‘test’ button, along with all the other lights that are meant to.

That last image will be the key. I’ll run a wire from the ‘F’ connector to the engine bay and see which lead its connected to – that should identify the sensor.
The sensor on my supplementary air control is wired in.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

No, I have never seen it working.

I have a sender in the water pump housing that is not connected to anything.

The 2 senders on the cylinder head (inlet side) are of different types. One is the Bosch type with the plug in connection. The other is a much more basic and larger threaded sensor with wired connection. both of these are connected.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

Thanks Paul, I’ll dig around there!

[Simon Lewthwaite]

No, I initially thought it had to be that way around but tried the opposite – flat to the wing. But I think the main difference I found was having the thicker edge towards the opening – it filled the gap far better and was more forgiving.
I suspect it doesn’t really matter which way it goes as it gets compressed and the original way I described in post #9793 probably only works if you can achieve perfection!

[Simon Lewthwaite]

OK. Just rebuilt my front wings.

by chance, I somehow had lots of the rubbers between the glass and wings, although some were thick and some thin.
I tried mounting them both ways around and…….drum roll………its the opposite way to that which I said!

So, the rubber has a bulky end and an flatter side. The flatter side goes against the wing/StSt embellisher.
The Bulky end goes outwards, thus better filling the gap.

Again, I suspect it matters little which side goes where as it gets compressed but this way seems to fill the gap quickest as it were.
It is surprising how the glass and the wing apertures don’t seem to match until they are compressed together by the struts!
Oh, and contact adhesive holds the seal in place until the glass gets compressed.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

Next, we want to fit and test the inner handle but since that goes over (in a Pallas at least) the upper upholstery section, that needs fitting first.
My upper trim is leather and clearly has shrunk slightly. Plus, the foam padding had turned into powder. So, I refilled it with 5mm foam sheet. In retrospect, although nicely padded, 3mm would have made everything much easier!
The top of the trim section is secured to the very top of the inner door by a steel plate with 7 flat headed screws. There is very little material beyond the holes for the screws, so go carefully.

The plate will get covered by a stainless trim, so has to be put on the correct way, hopefully shown here.

Next, the upholstered section must be secured at its lower edge, by a stainless steel finisher, again held with flat headed screws. This also acts as the holder for the top of the door card

The rearmost screw can foul against the door catch mechanism (front door only) and so needs to be short.
You can see the distortion of the leather over the holes for the inner handle due to the XS thickness of the foam filling. In this case, less would have been better!
Next is the difficult job of fitting the inner handle. It must be inserted vertically, getting the flange beyond the inner door skin and then rotated to secure. In addition, the long rod from the catch need to go through the lever. Quite tricky. An alternative method is to get the handle fitted and then fit the loose long rod and finally refit the other end to the catch mechanism. I tried it both ways and either seems fine.
Now test the handle works. The back part of the handle is fixed by a kind of captive screw and require some jiggling back and forth with the handle plate to get it aligned and therefore to work
My front doors had the long rod fixed with a set screw and the rears with grub screws, so presumably, fouling can occur in certain circumstances.
If your doors are like mine, also check the rear inner handles are able to lock the catch from within and yet are disabled by the child lock lever. IN my car, the built in inner handle ‘lock buttons’ serve no purpose.

[Simon Lewthwaite]

So, the first step is to fit the door catch mechanism. These are sided and either front or back, not least because the front will have the key lock part. My rear catches also have the function to lock from within the car plus a built in child lock.
There is no adjustment in the position for these catches but is is quite easy to not get them seated properly.

Once the mechanism is in, it is possible to check the door shuts and can be opened by pulling either the short rod which goes to the outer handle or the longer rod for the inner handle. Final door alignment also checked at this point.
Next the outer handle is fitted. This has an inner plate fitted top down. Feed the handle arm over the short rod as the handle is fitted then tighten the securing nuts and washers over the inner plate (10mm socket)
To set the position, trigger the door closing cam (but dont close the door!) and then tighten the set screw (8mm socket)to fix the rod. Handle should now work.

In addition, the door can now be easily removed and refitted but loosening the bottom hinge screw (a v long screw driver is great for this, about 45cm) and, whilst holding the door, release by opening the handle. Adie Pease has a nice video showing this https://youtu.be/vnw1l-4fDX0?si=SMUxk7UBTuA4hehm
Fit the lock on the front doors – a sliding clip on the inside secures it.
Check everything works.

[Author]

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