| Author | Message | ||
     Glenn Amer Yet to post message Username: recordo Post Number: 1 Registered: 4-2005 |
I just wanted to thank you all for the wealth of information available on this forum. After owning SRH1964 for two years I changed all the diodes in the a/c system and now for the first time have cool air blowing through the bullseyes. Makes the car much more enjoyable to drive! I just have one silly question - why do the bumper overriders need oiling? I have the original service book, but does anybody reprint owner's manuals (are they available on CD-rom?) Once again, many thanks for the amazing information I have gleaned from this site. You've made my ownership of this vehicle much easier. | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 718 Registered: 4-2003 |
The best place to buy the owner's manual is from the RROC Inc in the USA. By the way, I used to know this Molong car, and the last owner had a 1971 T-Series not unlike ours too. Is the car still registered KF011, or did Kevin keep the plates ? RT. | ||
| Glenn Amer New User Username: recordo Post Number: 2 Registered: 4-2005 |
Thanks for the info Richard. Kevin must have kept the plates cause when I got the car it was registered STQ-876. thanks again, regards Glenn. | ||
| Phil Black Unregistered guest Posted From: 210.50.248.117 |
Hi Glen. I have SRH2281 so our cars are very similair. What do you mean by oiling the overiders, are you talking about protecting the chrome with something against rust? (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| William H. Trovinger II Prolific User Username: bill_trovinger Post Number: 200 Registered: 8-2003 |
Glenn; Reprinted owner's manuals are always for sale on eBay also. Regards, Bill | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 719 Registered: 4-2003 |
There are two points each side at the rear which benefit from sticky, heavy grease on chrome bumpered Shadows. Apply grease so you cannot see it of course. It is not scheduled, but is common practice: o Overrider wells, o Brackets on the rear corner bumper sections behind and at the bends. This all prevents corrosion, as these are the points which can rust. I have seen many Shadows with rusty overriders and rotted-through corner sections. RT. | ||
| Glenn Amer New User Username: recordo Post Number: 3 Registered: 4-2005 |
Thanks again for the advice and comments. I appreciate your help. Regards, Glenn. | ||
| Glenn Amer New User Username: recordo Post Number: 5 Registered: 4-2005 |
Good morning everyone! I have just read and re-read all the sections on the Shadow accumulators. Mine were replaced by the last owner in 2001 (from Pleiades). I am getting the r.h. side light flicker when I am parking the car (which involves about a 400 point turn in my tiny apartment garage....). Do you think the accumulators would need replacing after four years? What do you reckon the life span of an accumulator is? thanks again for all the help and advice. regards Glenn. | ||
| Bill Coburn Grand Master Username: bill_coburn Post Number: 401 Registered: 4-2003 |
Well Glen the best I can claim was some accumulators I did in the early eighties on a '72 Shadow and in '03 and some 40,000 miles later they had dropped from the original 1000 psi to about 300 and 450 psi. Being the Shadow I (sic) I was able to screw on my little adapter and carefully recharged them back to their original pressure in situ. This is to my knowledge exceptional. Another Shadow II has an accumulator that so far we have been unable to seal at the rim for some reason and that lasts about 6 months and they have to be pulled off to re charge them. The Achilles heel is the diaphragm and despite the most stringent care in manufacture the material they are made off will aerate so that when set there are tiny bubbles of air moulded into the diaphragm. When the accumulator is fully charged and fully pumped up it can get to 2800 psi and the nitrogen gas works very hard to get through that 'rubber'. And get through it does, into one tiny hole then to another etc etc. It is totally unavoidable and in fact owners often wonder how on earth their brakes need bleeding when no-one has been near the system. What they are bleeding is a very small amount of Nitrogen that has managed to get through the diaphragm. If the gas pressure is allowed to get very low, the hydraulic pressure can force the diaphragm hard into the base of the accumulator where there is a hole for the charging valve. The Factory cunningly made the edges of these holes quite sharp and they can work like a doughnut cutter and punch a hole through the diaphragm. To fix this the accumulator has to be removed opened up and a new diaphragm fitted. As you have a Shadow I the trick is to carefully remove the charging cap in situ, prise out the plastic sealing ball and if there is brake fluid in the little hole your diaphragm has had it. If not get your friendly Nitrogen man to slowly recharge it to a 1000 psi and quickly wack the cap and a new sealing ball back on and you should have good use for quite a while. The message I would tactfully pass on is use only genuine diaphragms. | ||
| Glenn Amer New User Username: recordo Post Number: 6 Registered: 4-2005 |
Dear Bill, thanks for your reply - I sincerely appreciate the time and effort you've given me. I wish I knew blokes like you in Sydney! As the accumulators are less than four years old, I'll try re-charging them first and see how they go before replacing them. thanks again Bill, regards, Glenn. | ||
| Bill Coburn Grand Master Username: bill_coburn Post Number: 402 Registered: 4-2003 |
For Glen and the System. I thought it would be interesting to those those who might be tempted to set up a charging arrangement for the accumulators to know what is involved. To re-cap, the 'I's you can get at - just, in situ not so with the 'II's. The latter you will see are angled into the engine and even with an angle adapter are very inaccessble. The pressurising is relatively simple, the outer cap and label are removed and usually there is a soft plastic ball jammed into the exposed charging hole. This has to be replaced with a new one after charging. The ball is prised out with a sharp bodkin or skewer, the adapter on the end of the charging valve is screwed on tightly and the nitrogen cylinder valve opened. Between the hose and the cylinder is the important bit - the regulator. Like any oxy/acetylene setup it has two gauges, one to give the pressure in the cylinder and the other to give the pressure between the regulator and the accumulator. Between them is the secondry valve that lets the nitrogen into the accumulator. The latter valve is slowly opened and the secondry gauge will start to read. If you open the valve quickly the force of the nitrogen will blow the ballbearing, spring and circlip off the seat of the charging valve inside the accumulator and you will have to pull the whole thing to pieces and start again! I take the pressure up to a bit over 1000 psi since even the best of charging valves leak a bit and this gives you time to get the charging hose off, plant the ball in the hole and screw the cap on. The whole thing is then immersed in a bucket of water to look for leaks. Safety. There are more myths about this procedure and accumulators than about Nessie and Loch Ness. I have only heard of one casualty and that was a mechanic popped a socket onto the lower part of the accumulator and by some extraordinary chance managed to screw the two halves apart in situ. The end result was that the bottom half embedded itself in his face and he woke up dead. This defies common sense since the moment the thing started to unscrew the gas would exhaust - still it is a good cautionary tale. There was a story of someone removing the bolts on the top of a suspension tower on a Spirit. Apparently it hung on to the last bolt and then snapped off. The top landed in the middle of the street in the next block!! As we often say 'engage brain before fingers'!. Thanks to a friend who wanted me to live a longer I now have a piece of large steel pipe welded to a thick plate which has an appropriate sized hole drilled in it to take the charging valve. The accumulator sits in this while being pressurised. The otherpoint to watch is rusty accumulators. If there is the slightest doubt about the condition of the units do not re-pressurise them until they have been opened and inspected. Apparently they can rust badly inside and hence weakened and BANG! and you are off to harp practice! Lastly the regulator. An ordinary gauge just will not work, you have to use a high pressure item. These are about $800 at last count and you will obviously do some sums before investing. Adapters of course need to be made up by your local friendly fitter. | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 731 Registered: 4-2003 |
A few points on recharging: 1. Recharging is a proper procedure, not a patch 2. Even SZ spheres are rechargeable 3. Although the in-situ recharging is a proper job in itself, the sphere-to-body o-rings on a Silver Shadow usually leak before the spheres needs recharging, so I always remove them to recharge and to replace the o-rings at the same time. 4. Silver Shadow IIs don't have the o-ring problems as the spheres are in a cooler location, and SZs have flat sealing washers which never fail. 5. SZ spheres are so cheap that they are not worth wasting the time and money on recharging. RT. | ||
| Glenn Amer New User Username: recordo Post Number: 10 Registered: 4-2005 |
This may be teaching some of you guys to suck eggs, but for other newer owners like myself (SRH1964 has been with me for two years now), I would like to warn people not to trust the oil level gauge that registers when you press the little button on the dashboard. My gauge always read full, but a closer inspection of the dipstick revealed a nearly empty sump. Thankfully I caught it before any damage was done, but thought I would pass on the warning, nevertheless. My car is quite an early one with a Cloud-like, non-sprung mascot. Guess the company thought that at least if a mascot doesn't bend, people do when they are struck... So obviously it cannot be alarmed. What I have thought about doing is replacing the original one (for safekeeping at home) with a non-genuine cast mascot. Does anybody know of a supplier or does anyone on this list make them? This car has been my daily driver now for a while whilst the XJ-40 has been in for repairs, and I always hate leaving it. I wanted to place on record, once again, my sincere thanks to everyone who has helped me with so much information, but especially to Bill Coburn for his patience and explanations. Thanks again. All this help has certainly made the car less daunting. I am a pianist and apart from changing plugs, etc am pretty useless at mechanical jobs, although I wish I could do them. But at least having an understanding means I can tell my mechanic what I need/want and that makes servicing less of a hassle, that's for sure. regards, Glenn. | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 789 Registered: 4-2003 |
Glenn, You can alarm your mascot with a microswitch underneath. The microswitch can be positioned on the edge/tip of the retaining nut. If the mascot is turned, the microswitch will change state as it moves to the flat of the nut. Likewise, if removed, the microswitch will set off the alarm. You can buy a secondhand mascot for £130 at Flying Spares, so I wouldn't bother with a substitute. When an oil level gauge sender fails they usually read full. To check, even with a full sump, and especially when cold and the oil is viscous and in the top of the motor, it should dip to 3/4 or less on accelerating with the level check button pressed. If not, it's faulty. It should also read low when driving uphill. I always rely on the oil level gauge as this simple test is accurate. Check the oil at the lights, and then drive off with the button pressed. When refilling after a change, or if topping up (rarely needed with 5W50 Mobil 1 synthetic oil), of course I use the dipstick for convenience. RT. | ||
| Glenn Amer Experienced User Username: recordo Post Number: 15 Registered: 4-2005 |
Marinus Rijkers has very kindly added some photos of my car to his website and here's the link if you're interested in seeing the car we've been talking about here. http://www.rrsilvershadow.com/EGall/ERRSS1967SRH1964.htm Regards Glenn. |
