A new lift for the garage - QuickJack 7000TL

Owning a few different cars and working on them in the garage or driveway is as hassle. Axle stands don't allow you to get the car high enough and with more modern cars it seems where the axle stand needs to be is where I'm also try to jack the vehicle from. 

I'd seen Quickjacks receiving good feedback on Pistonheads - Gassing Station. It appeared a decent compromise between a shortened 2 post lift from Automech - Short Narrow 2 Post Lift and the portable BH Repairs - Mid Rise Mobile Scissor Lift

Sadly my garage hasn't the height for even a shortened 2 post lift and the BH Repairs Mid Rise Lift seemed a little bulky. 

In the UK, Costco tend to discount the QuickJacks once a year. They are easier to store and can be lifted individually. The lifting points can be restrictive as you need to observe the minimum and maximum range, if the jacking points are outside of this range you are stuck. They lift the car via rubber blocks included in the kit. 

For the Sunbeam Talbot Ten they aren't really suited. You could lift the car but as the front and rear bumpers are the jacking points it is dead easy to raise anyway and can be supported on 4 axle stands. For the daily barge however it is much easier.

They come in a large packing crate with the hydraulic pump, hoses and manual. Assembly is easy, you need a foot pump to charge the return air cylinder (forces the oil back into the main cylinder when lowering) but otherwise everything is included.

Once the vehicle has been lifted, the side supports lock in place and you then lower the jacks to the stop. At this point the jacks are locked in place, the hydraulics are depressurised and you can remove the hydraulic hoses if you wish. 

BMW E61 on a Quickjack 7000TL on the lowest height setting

B5 RS4 on a Quickjack 7000TL on the highest setting

They fold away flat and can be stored vertically. The hydraulic pump lives on a shelf, only real struggle is where to keep the hoses when the jacks are in use or stored.

Found a seller on ebay who offers brackets for the different Quickjack range including the 7000TL, 500TL and the 3500SLX. These allow you to keep the brackets fixed to each lift and also a hose holder. The brackets are a sprung fit on the steel rail and shaped to accept the nut on the hose keeping it all in place. 

They are 3D printed using ASA (acrylic styrene acrylonitrile), a thermoplastic like ABS, but with improved heat resistance and durability.

Mind Paradox - Quickjack Accessories

New Camshaft and Crankshaft sprockets for Sunbeam Talbot Ten sidevalve engine

New Camshaft and Crankshaft sprockets

Original sprockets on car

I'd never been happy with the timing chain setup on the Ten, it was noisy with a large amount of slack in the chain with plenty of wear to both sprockets. It also included a later Hillman rubber tensioner which seemed an odd fit having not seen any mention of it in the parts book. It did remove some slack in the trailing edge to a degree but did nothing for the wear in the sprockets and stretched chain.

Speaking to others in the club and the usual suppliers it became clear replacements were no longer available and my best option was a “used set” with less wear, downside any used set will be of a similar age.

We looked at later Rootes cars but couldn’t see anything directly compatible or that could be easily modified.   Some early MG cars came close and we looked at modifying the centre from an upgraded MG vernier pulley but just seemed overly complex.

That left us with the idea of manufacturing from scratch. For either of these options we really needed the original drawings.

A huge thanks is due to James Spencer at the https://www.rootesarchive.org/ who kindly forwarded copies of the original engineering drawings for both sprockets.

I only need 1 set but a small batch could lower the cost assuming I can sell on the remaining spares. With printed drawings in hand I approached some local machine shops, in fairness to them; an enthusiastic owner arriving in an Austin 7, waving printed drawings probably didn’t help matters but ultimately my lack of budget was the limiting factor. I’m extremely grateful for the time and ideas they suggested to simplify the manufacturing process.

20 Tooth Sprocket

   

40 Tooth Sprocket

Their main suggestion was to move away from the idea of creating from scratch and modify an off the shelf sprocket. These sprockets are available from bearing suppliers as single, duplex, triplex etc in a range of diameters, pitch and tooth count. 

For the Ten we chose a basic pilot bore which leaves almost enough material to turn it into what we need.

Chatting about old cars with an even older friend, while being ribbed on the lack of progress re-wiring the Ten, my poor life choices and general state of the garage the discussion moves to sprockets.  “Oh, why don’t you speak with Dafydd at DGL”, if only he had said this at the start!  

20 Tooth Blank

40 Tooth Blank

Dafydd’s plan was to re-create the drawings in CAD, remove the bulk of the material on a manual lathe before finishing on a CNC Milling Machine.

4 further sets are available to purchase. Price at £200 + £10 UK postage per set. It includes both the Camshaft and Crankshaft Sprockets. I'd recommend sourcing a new timing chain, the chain is not included,  Happy to post abroad if required.  

Email jollysoutherner@gmail.com

Fuel Gauge repair

 

The fuel gauge is located within the oil pressure, ammeter cluster. The fuel gauge has never worked since I owned the car. The wiring to this has always been suspect and suspected this was probably the main issue. 

The gauge is held in the back of the cluster by a couple of screws. The printed cover on the gauge is held in place by a couple of burrs, I tried lifting these without success. I ended up drilling them out to release the cover.

On removal it is clear someone has been here before as the bobbins are facing the wrong way, suspect someone has loosened the bobbin coils and they rotated snapping the wires from the soldered joints.

Thanks to MGA Guru for the image below. 

With a steady hand and a pair of magnifiers and dental hook we measured the resistance across each part of the gauge and re soldered the joints. The wires are tiny.. I can't even see them without magnifiers.

Cleaned the contacts with emery paper and then re-assemble. 

150 Ohm resistor. Showing signs of heat but still functioning

Testing 

Fuel tank sender repair

Fuel gauge hasn't worked since I purchased the car and the re-wire is an opportunity to fix. Fuel sender is located in the top of the fuel tank and fixed with 6 allen head screws. Fuel sender is lower than the top of the tank so expect a flood of fuel if the fuel level is above this. 

The float on the sender was stuck but freed up easily enough by moving it about. The resistance reading were very erratic. Taking off the cover and cleaning with a contact cleaner got it working and apart from a new gasket being needed this was an easy fix.

 

Neighbour has 3d printed a TPU gasket which is resistant to fuel. 

Resistance tank full = 90 ohms
Resistance tank empty = 5 ohms

It is important to connect a 0v wire to the sender body ensuring it is at the same potential as the gauge 0v. 

Dashboard

Some success cleaning the dashboard with Bilt Hamber Surfex-HD. Sprayed on at 50% and watched the years of brown tobacco and other gunge come away. Overall quite faded compared to the reverse.

Soft Aluminium Cylinder Head?

 Soft Aluminium casting? 

Part of the issue I had when torquing the head initially was the fear of stripping the threads on the studs, when tightening down it never felt quite right as if something was giving. I assumed this was the head studs on the threads but on closer inspection I'm wondering if the head had gone soft (is that the correct term?) with a straight edge you can see indents where the washers have pulled down into the head. Was the 1st failure partly down to the head not being tightened correctly. 

Cleaning a Hillman Minx Cast Iron Cylinder Head

 The clean up.

A gentle ribbing from others in the club I'm fitting an heavy Minx cylinder head to a Sunbeam Talbot Ten I can cope with. The car needs to work, absolutely pointless owning something you can't drive. The Minx head also has a take off for a heater and a pocket for a water temperature gauge which I can make use of.

The head was somewhat corroded but thankfully didn't show signs of heavy skimming in a previous life. It needed a clean and I considered Electrolysis but wasn't sure it would clean the internal parts of the head. 

I found a video by  Beyond Ballistics -  The Ultimate HOMEMADE Rust Remover (Better than EvapoRust) which looked promising. After testing on some scraps of cast iron and rusty tools with great results it seemed the only best option. 

  

Image copyright  Beyond Ballistics

   

Cautious not to damage the head I kept checking, after 3 hours you could see the rust starting to lift and after 7 hours it was showing real progress.

  

In total the cylinder head spent 20 hours in the mixture.  Result is fantastic considering the minimal effort required. It has also loosened the sludge inside the cylinder head which I could flush out with a hose. 

Next was a trip to Ivor Searle for the lightest skim possible.  Ivor Searle seem to get very mixed reviews but the machine shop side have always been helpful to me. 

The engine re-build part 1

It happens... We all mess up at some point.... Don't worry about it... Can you fix it?...Didn't you check... Safe to say I didn't check anywhere near enough.

Car hasn't run that well since purchase. Difficult to start (too much static advance?) and stalling when coming to a stop were the main issues and a healthy dose of black smoke when accelerating.

Experience suggested start with the basics of ignition, new distributor cap, leads and plugs. Check the timing and start afresh.  

I checked the NGK catalogue not knowing if the correct plugs had been fitted to the engine ordering the correct set.  

Checked the clearance through spark plug hole with a cable tie while turning over the engine, "yeah that seems fine" and fired up the engine. 

Car no longer turns over.... The realisation you've messed as the car uses short  plugs and you've fitted long. 

Engine removal

Say to say the engine suffered from a few leaks as anyone does as they approach 80 years old. It needed doing anyway so although annoyed I'd messed up it was an opportunity to fix a multitude of other jobs that needed sorting from oil leaks, failing coolant hoses, wiring bodged and broken bolts etc.

With everything stripped down the hardest part was releasing the cylinder head. A couple of days soaking in PlusGas, blast of MAP gas and gently working the studs I managed to remove them all. 

With 4 bent exhaust valves, a spark plug thread stripped from cylinder 3 it was a mess. Plus the existing damage of head gasket blowing across cylinder 2 & 3, corrosion on the edge of the head gasket firing ring and generally not sealing it wasn't a pretty sight.

At this point the cylinder head is pretty much scrap. My main concern was how much valve clearance I would have once the head had been repaired and then skimmed. After 80 years of a unknown number of skims until we get it back I won't know. 

A trip to Cambridge Rebores and we agreed on welding to repair the corrosion, an insert to fix the spark plug followed by a skim.  That meant I could pull the engine out and try to tidy up the block.

The block had numerous sheard bolts and existing helicoils in place. Some of these stripped on removal and were replaced. Engine hadn't been with anti-freeze judging by the sludge present. 

I didn't strip the block down fully, it was obvious it needed a re-build but the engine was running before I broke it so a case of knowing when to stop digging.

 

Part availability - Unlike our Austin 7 finding parts for the Ten is very tricky with only a couple of suppliers. Dave at https://sunbeam-talbot-spares.co.uk/ came up trumps and supplied a full gasket set along with a new set of exhaust valves. Very satisfying removing the original Rootes waxed paper

New studs to replace the stripped and corroded originals.  

Both the inlet and exhaust valves were lapped back in. It was clear none of the valves were sealing which gave me hope of a decent gain.

Tappet clearances.  The  "Handbook of instruction" is clear on the process. Unlike any modern car the handbook is actually helpful!  

Check every 3000 miles. Inlet clearance 0.010 in & 0.015 in on the exhaust with the engine cold. The best method of checking this clearance is to turn the engine for half a revolution after the inlet valve has closed, when both valves will be fully closed.

If adjustment is necessary, unscrew the locknut and turn the tappet screw until the correct clearance is obtained. To prevent the tappet itself from turning during this operation insert the small steel strip, provided in the tool kit, between the two tappets. Recheck the clearance after the locknut has been tightened down to ensure that it has not altered.

Trial fit

With the head gasket in place on a new gasket I could trial fit the head and get an indication of how much clearance I would have. Dave at https://sunbeam-talbot-spares.co.uk/ was able to supply a thicker head gasket than I had sourced from ebay. My thinking was any clearance I can gain will be a bonus. 

Research suggested 2mm of clearance should be enough... We had 2.2mm on the highly accurate blu-tack without the head being torqued down. The head gasket is made up of sandwich of Copper, Asbestos and Copper, measuring the old head gasket at 1.7mm, less the skim & how much it will compress. Close call, need to torque down and then gently turn by hand. Main issue is the spark plugs so planned to fit an extra sealing washer to give me some additional clearance. 

At this point I found STAR - Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Register.

 https://sunbeamtalbotalpineregister.co.uk/

A hugely knowledgeable bunch who gave me some info on torque settings for the cylinder head.  The general advice was 35 - 40  ft/lb, much more you are likely to strip a thread. 

 

With the rest of the parts cleaned up it was re-assembly time. The water jacket cover had been repaired previously and was a mess. The oil filler and fuel pump mount was somewhat warped, wasn't convinced it would seal or possibly crack when bolting back on. Held it flat on some 80 grit and it came it well, previously it was stuck on with a mass of silicone. 

Crankshaft and Camshaft Sprockets 

A combination of worn sprockets, a non standard length chain, additional rubber tensioner from a different car there wasn't much I could do. I've searched everywhere looking for an alternative or old new stock with no luck. Unfortunately it is a case of re-fitting what I have. The club have said the side valve engine will run and run so don't be too worried about the state of the timing gear.

      

Worn sprocket with tooth damage

Update 01/10/2025 - New sprockets now available
Sunbeam Talbot Ten Repalcement Timing Sprockets - Crankshaft and Camshaft

Re-fitting

Compared to a modern car it is a doddle to re-fit the engine. Clutch aligned with a spare gearbox input shaft and then ready to lift back in.

  

Conclusion

Overall not really any better than before. After a few trips it was clear the head gasket wasn't sealing with small bubbles appearing along the edge of the cylinder head.  The valves had also been slightly impacting with a slight mark in the cylinder head. 

Options available include a new aluminium cylinder head casting which STAR have re-manufactured, another 2nd hand head or look to remove some existing metal from the existing head to create clearance. 

The STAR club came up trumps and suggested checking spares container as there may be an old cylinder head you can re-use. The club have an annual spares day and got to put some faces to names and after much help from other members found a spare block, pistons, piston liners, bearing shells and a steel cylinder head. Price agreed it was back home with the loot.

Now a new aluminium cylinder head would be nice but at £1000 I just can't justify it. Its not expensive for 1 off re-creation but I just don't have the budget. Once I re-build a new engine however it would be a perfect.