I'll sort some out. Not much has changed since the last lot of photos with the body, though - still stands out as a chestnut red 2½ ton behemoth with a delicate little gold stripe up each side!
Project Bentley
- Thread starter JRS
- Start date
I'll sort some out. Not much has changed since the last lot of photos with the body, though - still stands out as a chestnut red 2½ ton behemoth with a delicate little gold stripe up each side!
The way you posted that I was expecting to read it caught fire and was a catastrauphic ending to the story.
It still is catastrauphic, but I am happy to read the Bently will still live again. Loved your thread and your comradery and friendship that has kept it alive. A labour of love and devotion to a 2.5 ton land yaught that cant be questioned. One day I will have such a devotion of my own. At the moment I can barely afford to keep my daily looking neat and tidy
It still is catastrauphic, but I am happy to read the Bently will still live again. Loved your thread and your comradery and friendship that has kept it alive. A labour of love and devotion to a 2.5 ton land yaught that cant be questioned. One day I will have such a devotion of my own. At the moment I can barely afford to keep my daily looking neat and tidy
Man of Honour
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I'm glad to hear that the Rolls Royce will still be kept, it's long past the point where walking away would be the sensible option. Good on you and Gary for carrying on and I hope you can get it fixed and enjoy a few months of (relatively) trouble free motoring. 
Getting a to-do list together for when the old bus is back on the road:
1) Headlight wiring, drivers side - need to re-do the earthing
2) Bumpers - get them remotely presentable
3) Drivers door - get the door card back on tight
4) Passenger front door - fix the lacquer underneath the handle
At some point I'd like to do the main door seal around the drivers door, but a) I suspect it's a pig of a job and b) I also reckon that the seal in question would be phenomenally expensive.
1) Headlight wiring, drivers side - need to re-do the earthing
2) Bumpers - get them remotely presentable
3) Drivers door - get the door card back on tight
4) Passenger front door - fix the lacquer underneath the handle
At some point I'd like to do the main door seal around the drivers door, but a) I suspect it's a pig of a job and b) I also reckon that the seal in question would be phenomenally expensive.
In a fairly unsurprising move, the Bentley decided that she didn't want to come home just yet. The mechanic who's been working on her was test driving and making sure nothing else was wrong....when something else went wrong. The car is now sporting a broken Woodruff key in one of the rear hubs.
Now, this wouldn't disable a car with a limited slip differential because you'd still have drive to one side. Alright, not ideal but at least he could move it around and get it back onto his lift inside the workshop. And given that this is a Bentley Mulsanne S, which was a bloody expensive car back in the day, you'd expect the manufacturer to fit such a device. After all, they increase safety, and winter usability, and improve handling, and....well, you can see where this is going. Of course Bentley used open differentials on these cars. Why would they spend money on a proper diff'?
End result is that all the power that the rebuilt gearbox is sending out is being used to spin one side of the diff uselessly.
At this point I'm pondering....well, several things:
Mechanic is checking to see if he's got a key that'll fit, if he has and can get it all nailed together again today and test it (no way in hell are we taking it back if it's just going to break down again straight away) then I'll go pick it up later. If not, it'll have to be next week.
Now, this wouldn't disable a car with a limited slip differential because you'd still have drive to one side. Alright, not ideal but at least he could move it around and get it back onto his lift inside the workshop. And given that this is a Bentley Mulsanne S, which was a bloody expensive car back in the day, you'd expect the manufacturer to fit such a device. After all, they increase safety, and winter usability, and improve handling, and....well, you can see where this is going. Of course Bentley used open differentials on these cars. Why would they spend money on a proper diff'?
End result is that all the power that the rebuilt gearbox is sending out is being used to spin one side of the diff uselessly.At this point I'm pondering....well, several things:
- One of the rear hubs has been apart before, when that previous mechanic had the car for over half a year stuck in his workshop. What am I bet that the key has broken on that hub?
- Maybe that key has been weak for a while, and the rebuilt gearbox is transmitting rather more power and torque to the back?
- If point 2 is correct, then once it's all back together I suspect this car will have some actual speed to go with all the noise that it makes at WOT.
- If someone invented a time machine, I could use it to go back and beat the entire R-R/Bentley design team senseless with their own slide rules. Special attention would have course be paid to the **** who did the rear window demist.
Mechanic is checking to see if he's got a key that'll fit, if he has and can get it all nailed together again today and test it (no way in hell are we taking it back if it's just going to break down again straight away) then I'll go pick it up later. If not, it'll have to be next week.
Yeah....probably shouldn't even joke about that sort of thing. On the plus side it's already completed one journey with the mechanic driving, without blowing itself back to Narnia
Picking the car up in the morning. Needs a good clean (very dusty) and my to-do list from post #12. But that aside, we're back to working again.
For now!
Picking the car up in the morning. Needs a good clean (very dusty) and my to-do list from post #12. But that aside, we're back to working again.
For now!
And she's home!
Took Gary over to the garage earlier, where he handed over an eye-watering amount of readies. God bless Bentleys eh? 'cause no other bugger would....
Gearbox has been rebuilt. A new Woodruff key for the spinning hub has been made and fitted (oh, point 1 from my earlier post was wrong - it was the other side). And as of ten minutes ago while typing this, tested thoroughly by Gary who took advantage of the tighter gearbox and torque converter and basically drove like a hooligan all the way home. We can now confirm that you can get wheelspin up through 2nd gear in the wet!
Also learned a few new things about the car. There's always been a bit of noise under deceleration that I assumed was the diff' (English car makers have never been able to do silent differentials in my experience). Nope. Turns out that the gearbox was broken a lot longer than first thought, because that noise is completely gone now. Also, the changes are a lot smoother - 2nd-3rd was always a bit on the violent side, now it's smooth as butter. If Gary can contain himself and drive sensibly, then I think it'll get better fuel mileage now. And it's probably going to be a bit quicker if that journey was any indication!
At any rate, Gary's now back in love with it. And he's going to have to keep it a while now with the amount spent
Took Gary over to the garage earlier, where he handed over an eye-watering amount of readies. God bless Bentleys eh? 'cause no other bugger would....
Gearbox has been rebuilt. A new Woodruff key for the spinning hub has been made and fitted (oh, point 1 from my earlier post was wrong - it was the other side). And as of ten minutes ago while typing this, tested thoroughly by Gary who took advantage of the tighter gearbox and torque converter and basically drove like a hooligan all the way home. We can now confirm that you can get wheelspin up through 2nd gear in the wet!
Also learned a few new things about the car. There's always been a bit of noise under deceleration that I assumed was the diff' (English car makers have never been able to do silent differentials in my experience). Nope. Turns out that the gearbox was broken a lot longer than first thought, because that noise is completely gone now. Also, the changes are a lot smoother - 2nd-3rd was always a bit on the violent side, now it's smooth as butter. If Gary can contain himself and drive sensibly, then I think it'll get better fuel mileage now. And it's probably going to be a bit quicker if that journey was any indication!
At any rate, Gary's now back in love with it. And he's going to have to keep it a while now with the amount spent
Man of Honour
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Excellent, glad to hear it's back and working. Good luck with fixing the other niggles as well, that's sure to occupy a fair chunk of time.
Right, been for a drive myself now.
It is unbelievably good.
The 'box and torque converter are now so tight that if you merely glance at the throttle it just spins a wheel (Goodyear Hydragrips on the rear, a misnomer if you ask me). In normal town driving it is utterly silent, you can have a whispered conversation. Give it some beans, and all hell breaks loose. It's going to be hard to resist doing that, now that the speed matches the noise output!
It's a bold statement, but I think you'd have to go a long way and spend a fairly tidy sum of money to find a similar model Royce or Bentley as good as this. Though of course, a fairly tidy sum of money has been spent on this one all told....
It is unbelievably good.
The 'box and torque converter are now so tight that if you merely glance at the throttle it just spins a wheel (Goodyear Hydragrips on the rear, a misnomer if you ask me). In normal town driving it is utterly silent, you can have a whispered conversation. Give it some beans, and all hell breaks loose. It's going to be hard to resist doing that, now that the speed matches the noise output!
It's a bold statement, but I think you'd have to go a long way and spend a fairly tidy sum of money to find a similar model Royce or Bentley as good as this. Though of course, a fairly tidy sum of money has been spent on this one all told....
Hey look, oil pressure! Drops when warm, but only at idle - once you put some revs on it comes up nicely.
Took it to a nearby car park to photograph:
Please excuse the general filthiness of the car, not been cleaned since before it went into surgery.
Took it to a nearby car park to photograph:
Please excuse the general filthiness of the car, not been cleaned since before it went into surgery.