billcoleman

A couple of weeks ago I fitted a slave cylinder stiffening bracket from mgoc spares. While fitting I discovered that the previous flex in the bracket had become a permanent set and I had lost more than 10mm of clutch arm travel. The stiffening bracket pulled that back in and now the clutch is operating as it should. The gear shift is also much improved.
Previously, depressing the clutch was like pushing against an elastic band.
Looking at the LE500 shift tower, it is not a bad design, but there is some play in the cross gate, the mounting bracket flexes, and the stick is at least 40mm too long. So I'll try and get that lot fixed rather than fit one of the slick shifts which all look a bit agricultural.

I have also seen the way my slave cylinder bracket deflects. But I doubt that this will lead to failure, but it certainly effects the amount of travel available in the clutch pedal and the clutch reconnects with only a small amount of foot movement. I don't recall this being an issue before I changed the clutch last year, so it occurs to me that the new assembly has a heavier spring rate than the original one, so the bracket deflects more.
A reinforcement mod is on my to-do list (before the summer I hope).

Interesting comment about the age group of people driving these cars. When I was in my twenties, I was driving a Triumph Stag (That was probably the most fun car I have ever owned, and nowhere near as problematic as people claimed them to be). Now that I should be drawing my pension, I'm driving the smallest car I have ever owned (that also has the least maintenance access of any other car I can think of).
Maybe we all trying to stay young?
I would have thought that these cars would be a great attraction to the younger generation, but I have a feeling that generally, people no longer have the skills (or desire) to "fix things" (I know that there are many exceptions to this statement). Hence we are just a "throw-away society".
I totally agree about the added time it takes to do jobs on these cars (as you become less flexible), especially when you have to take so much stuff off just to see what you want to fix.
I probably will add the stiffening bracket, but I'll save that for the winter. I was quite surprised at the amount of flex (I should have made a video).

Regarding the brake servo, I bought the kit a few weeks ago and its on my to-do list.

Over the weekend I decided to re-bleed the clutch.
Absolutely no air at all and the overall operation is very good.
However I did see that the slave cylinder mounting does deflect slightly as the clutch is actuated.

I know that there is a stiffening kit available.
Has anybody fitted one?
Does it make any improvements?

The ratio of the pedal to actuator arm movements would probably be about 5:1, so if the deflection at the slave is about 2mm, then eliminating that would give full disengagement maybe 10mm sooner at the pedal.

Apart from a longer push rod between the master cylinder and pedal (which would make the clutch pedal higher than standard), there are no other adjustments that can be made.

I started my restoration project with a plan to just fix a couple of things like the ABS rings, so initially pulled out one rear hub and shaft. But that let me see just how bad the rest of the suspension was for rust.
So I took the decision to restore everything while it was still recoverable.

I replaced mine myself. As I already had both subframes out of the car and all four corners stripped down, it was a fairly simple job.
If your car is still intact, the hardest job is to pull out the rear driveshafts which requires the hubs to be removed.
The fronts are easier to remove.
Then, as Cobber said, make sure the surfaces are nice and clean before fitting the new ones.
I did heat them with a hot air gun, but they cool down so quickly, they get stuck before the final position is reached.
Really you need a tube with a slightly bigger diameter than the rings to press (hammer) them on squarely, but I resorted to tapping (carefully) to the final position with a flat punch. Be carefull not to bend them.
After fitting, give them a good coat of paint. This doesn't effect the sensing but should stop them rusting again. I also coated the painted rings with Waxoil.
If your LE500 is anything like mine (was), everything was rusted together and very difficult to dismantle.
As the hubs are removed, this is a good opportunity to replace the wheel bearings if required.

While undertaking my LE500 rebuild, I was looking at this radiator upgrade kit. But it can't be used with air con because the condenser is in the way.
However, I don't think it would have been of any benefit anyway.
After getting my car back together, I checked out the cooling system by letting it run in the driveway until the fans kicked-in due to the coolant temperature, and subsequently stopping when the temp had dropped.
Now that I'm driving it on the road, the coolant has never got hot enough to make the fans kick-in anyway.
My car does not even have the extra duct behind the fender that I have seen on other cars.
The only mods that I did were to:
1. Replace the underfloor pipes and the pipes feeding the coolant pump with stainless steel versions.
2. Replaced the little plastic tee piece with a home made stainless one (the plastic one fell apart in my hands).
3. Made sure the two vents back to the expansion tank had a very restricted, but continuous flow back to the expansion tank.
So far, no problems.

I just wanted to follow up on this to see if there is any news.
As mentioned before, I would like to replace the existing SCU with a new/unprogrammed one.
I also want to keep the existing fobs.
I have successfully read and checked the code from the existing unit in the car,

Apart from writing the security code to the new SCU and applying the various options, is there anything else that needs to be done to make the new SCU work in the car?
And can this all be completed by replacing the SCU, then writing the security code after fitting, or does it need to be pre-programmed with something else?