Got my sprint on the road, anybody help with a couple of little problems?

When I picked up my sprint, it had been off the road for two years. The sills had very slight bubbling, so I repaired these, give them a fresh coat of stone chip guard a a fresh coat of peaint. I then gave the car the once over and decided that a week after owning it, Id take it for MOT. It passed with no advisories! I was extremely happy about this!
Ive not got the car on the road but have a few small issues I need to sort and wondered if anyone can help?
- I have a oil leak coming from the front passenger side of the engine bay. The oil is leaking down and running along the cross member and dripping off. It looks like its coming from around the rocker gasket. Is this common?
-Also the rear arms which go from the body to the rear axle have play in the bushes, is this normal or should I change tem?
-The wipers are quite slow. I have a spare motor, is it worth changing or is this normal?
-The car has no middle box. It pops and cackles quite alot on over-run. Is this normal?


Help/advise greatly appreciated!

These cars are so much fun to drive tho, I cant help but smile every tme im in it!

Hi, with regards to the rubber suspension bushes i would change them, the wipers are rubbish i've never had a sprint with good ones yet!! What you can use which is an awsome product is called Rainex, apply correctly and you don't need to use your wipers. It lasts for approx 1 month before it needs reapplying.
As for the oil leak its difficult to say with out photos, but it could be the front cam seal or as you said rocker gasket.
The poping thats all part of the charactor, but you may have a slight exhaust leak which is drawing air in to the system, check it for leaks. Hope this helps Lee

Mine has all 4 of those too, I think they come as standard spec

There is always quite a lot of play in the bushes anyway, hard to tell online what's normal and what's not.

The crap wipers and snap, crackle and pop exhaust are definitely normal, the leak isn't.

You might as well check the tightness of the rocker cover bolts incase the leak comes from there. You can even take the cover off and check the gasket if you want, no fluids will come pouring out. It's not necessary to torque these bolts up to some prescribed tightness either.
While you've got your socket set out, check that none of the bolts holding on the sump or gearbox inspection plate have started to loosen. These can also be sources of leaks.

Dan

1/ OIL LEAK.

If you think it may be the gasket is it the "thick paper" type (about 4mm thick)? If so remove the cover and check that some lazy turd hasn't bothered to completely clean off an old damaged one!

If the cam seal is more probable check that the vent pipe from the oil filler has not been blocked by crud in the filter. This will cause the crankcase to pressurise and force oil out the cam seals. Replace the seals without cleaning the wire gauze and watch the seals pop out again!!!!!

2/ REAR SUSPENSION BUSHES.

Now, on the racer Suds we used to retro fit short trailing arms to the rear end to stiffen up the rear suspension roll factor. We would also have a selection of leading and trailing arms, some with solid nylon bushes and some with rubber and still others with one of each. Increasing the bush stiffness increases the roll stiffness in the back end which promotes front end grip through a corner. Massively reduces understeer although not too much turn-in improvement.

So yeah, change them and get round corners quicker!!!!!

Paulus

On mine the oil pressure light seems to come on intermittently even if the guage is reading 4 (drops to just above 0 at idle) - I suspect a connection is dodgy. Where is the wiring for this to check it over?
Personally I thnik the crackling and popping on over-run is one of the best things about the car

Originally Posted by Scott1s

On mine the oil pressure light seems to come on intermittently even if the guage is reading 4 (drops to just above 0 at idle) - I suspect a connection is dodgy. Where is the wiring for this to check it over?
Personally I thnik the crackling and popping on over-run is one of the best things about the car

COR ! it's a long time ago but I think the pressure sensor is somewhere around the distributor, but I am not certain. Maybe near the oil filter. That's about the only wiring to worry about, the Cx to the little tin can.

My ole 33 did that. Crackle. POP spit flames! Standard centre box and a "Cherry Bomb" tail box!

P

Originally Posted by Paulus

COR ! it's a long time ago but I think the pressure sensor is somewhere around the distributor..

Yes.

Originally Posted by Paulus

.. Maybe near the oil filter.

Not really, i.e. it's not on the side pf the motor.
It's a reasonable size metal can that screws on near the back of the top of the motor, roughly in the middle. I stole one off a series 1 QV I scrapped, and plan to fit it to my series 2.