Project Bentley

I'll be quite sad to see it go, to be honest. It's been an interesting project, and it's a lovely old bus when everything is working. It's just that 'everything working' is a fleeting state of affairs thanks to a combination of things:


  • The almost-zero maintenance it got in the last few years before Gary bought it
  • R-R/Bentley's questionable design choices and build quality
  • The age (24 years old) and the mileage (thick end of 142,000 miles)

I guess Gary will be happy to see it go to someone who will carry on doing what we've been doing and bring this car right back up to how it should be. And his wife will be utterly ecstatic to see the back of it!
 
And so it continues....gas spheres for the rear hydraulics need replacing! Getting to be like Trigger's broom this car, virtually everything has been replaced or renewed.
 
*angelic chorus*

I dunno what the fuss is about this job. Easy peasy.

Here's where we were working today. Carpets and side panels out of the boot, and behind the left-side hinge we see a sphere:



And one on the right:



Now, the first thing that the Bentley workshop manual tells you to do is depressurise the whole bloody hydraulic system. I say this is bull-****. We used up the pressure in the accumulator spheres at the front of the car (you pump the brakes with the engine off 60 times or so, takes care of it), then after letting the car settle down slightly at the rear for a few days jacked it up until the rear wheels were just about to leave the ground. This takes all the pressure of the car's weight off the system, and means you haven't got to drop a ****-gallon of hydraulic fluid out of the car. Also means that anything left in the struts won't get sprayed straight out of the top when you remove the sphere.

Simples! *squeak*

Tried to undo them with a jaw-type oil filter wrench first, but couldn't get enough grip so went out to Machine Mart and got a chain-type one. That did the trick for loosening them off. Then once the new ones were spun into their threads we used the jaws to nip them back up.

Ran the car up to the next village over and back. Rear end is definitely improved, there's a compliance there that we didn't have before and the damping is much better. Also rides a hell of a lot quieter! Think we might be getting somewhere....

Job took two hours all told (time to remove the carpets, move the battery cut-off switch, drive into town to get a chain wrench, do the work). Probably would have cost the thick end of £400 at a garage, much more than that at a Bentley main dealer.
 
I'm always impressed by your patience and perseverance with this, one day the heavens will align and it'll work perfectly - I think you should enjoy that day and then sell it the next one before it has a chance to ruin the memory... :D
 
Driving it yesterday was one of those lightbulb moments - 'oh, so that's what it's supposed to do....' :D Still think that the R-R/Bentley hydraulic setup is an abomination and they should never have deviated at all from the Citroen design, but at least now it's working as intended.

Once we've got the boot carpets and panels clean they'll go back in place. Going to keep an eye on the new spheres for a while, make sure we haven't got any leaks. Don't want a boot full of Castrol HSMO!
 
Gary did about 45 miles today all told. Another £50 of petrol has gone in, so he can probably get to the end of the road that he lives on before it runs out :D

Still, nice to have the car at the point where it can be taken out in public!
 
This is Gary, ran the old car for a fair amount of miles (shopping and just popping about) its very boreing when she just starts/runs/stops and floats along. Have to think about something to do, I'll ask James (would have gave up ages ago without James just do it attitude).:)
 
Love it. This kind of attention to detail and love is what car ownership is all about, be it a Bentley or a Corsa IMO. Wish I could afford the love and attention on my cars at the moment. The front of my car wouldn't look like it had actually hit a giant Ninja Badger then.
 
You'd laugh, if it wasn't tragic. The ol' bus failed her MOT again. This time it was the suspension levelling strut on the other side to the one that failed before (nothing like as bad, but a failure nonetheless), a couple of loose bolts on the steering rack (never have understood why a tester who sees something like that can't just nip them back up!) and one blown foglamp bulb at the back.

Strut is on it's way, same guy who supplied one for Gary last time had one ready for him within a couple of days of the call (great guy). The bulb is easy to get at, like most cars it's easier than changing bulbs on the front by a looooooooooooong way. The bolts on the rack....meh, damned if I'm lifting the front of this car up just for two bolts. The guy doing the fitting of the strut can do that when the car is on a lift.

Those struts are fun. Once upon a time R-R/Bentley fitted units that could be taken apart and serviced when they inevitably gave up the struggle of supporting a very heavy car on variable road surfaces. Then one day in Crewe, some bright spark decided that they should start fitting units that you can't service. And charge eight hundred ******* pounds plus labour for replacements.

Best cars in the world, honestly :rolleyes:
 
Car's back, fresh ticket with no advisories. Steering is lighter and more precise now that the rack is held in place a bit tighter, ride at the rear is completely serene.

Made merry with the gas pedal on the way home with it, and it didn't half take off....:eek:
 
JRS said:
Car's back, fresh ticket with no advisories. Steering is lighter and more precise now that the rack is held in place a bit tighter, ride at the rear is completely serene.

Made merry with the gas pedal on the way home with it, and it didn't half take off....:eek:
Click to expand...

So it'll be broken by now then? ;) :p
 
A Project Bentley™ update

Last time I posted about the old bus, everything was fine.

And everything was fine for quite a while
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And then it wasn't :(

I got a phone call a couple of months ago (or it might have been a text message, can't quite remember) from Gary to say that the ordinarily sensible car in his household - the 3.2 V6 Vectra - was refusing to fire up. The battery had been flattened trying to get it going, and it was showing all the classic signs of being out of petrol in spite of the fuel gauge showing that there was plenty in (no-one should really trust petrol gauges). So he and his wife got in the Bentley and went to a local petrol station to buy a fuel can (his was full of two-stroke for his chainsaw) and a gallon. The Bentley made it to one station just fine, but they didn't have any cans. It never made it to another destination.

I get another phone call that night. The car came to a grinding (literally) halt halfway around a roundabout. I went out, picked Gary's wife up, went to another garage to buy a can of fuel, took her home and got the Vectra jump-started and running (dashboard readout still showing 108 miles to empty :rolleyes:). By this time the recovery truck had finally been sent out by the RAC, and the Bentley was arriving back.

Royces and Bentleys of this era use GM's venerable TH400 3spd auto 'box. Unfortunately, much like their horrible interpretation of Citroen hydraulics, they couldn't leave well alone and changed the casing. Several times. Gary bought a 'box from a 1988 Silver Spur. It should have fitted. But no, in 1989 for a six month period R-R/Bentley decided to change the case again. Exact same internals, but the starter motor is on the other side and the shape of the mounting adapter is different. Instead, the original 'box is being rebuilt by a local specialist, the Spur 'box is going back for a refund, and the car will hopefully get nailed back together again next week.
 
What amazes me is that in a Chevy, or Buick, or Oldsmobile, or even a complete piece of **** like a Caddy that Turbo-Hydramatic gearbox cannot be hurt. At all. Doesn't wear out, doesn't break*. When the balloon eventually goes up and Happy Fun Time With Nukes™ arrives, all those cheap-as-chips GM trucks with TH400s will work just fine in the aftermath. Put it in a Royce or Bentley, charge an incredible amount, and you don't even make it to 150,000 miles on the odometer before it lunches itself.

* - I exaggerate, of course. They do break on occasion, especially when a driver acts like a complete ape with no mechanical sympathy at all. But they built eleventy squillion of these gearboxes, and the number of them that go wrong when modified and stuffed into a non-GM vehicle makes me weep.
 
Nearly done

Hi this is Gary, it was a bit more dramatic when she broke down. As I was on a major junction it really brought the area to a standstill, the police came to help blue lights the works. Every one who new the car and me phoned my wife to see if I had been pulled buy the police. When the low loader arrived it blocked the road completely. The car also even when in park started rolling to the police car (imagine the insurance claim) Its a big car to hold back. I managed the get to the parking brake in the nick of time. any way the box has been rebuilt and is in the car just a few bits and bobs to fit and she's back. There is nothing left of the car I bought. But I still love her (the bitch). I will drive her as a daily drive from now on. TTFN
 
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