For the Love of my Zed! Novice vs Car

[ZedHead]

I’ve been meaning to start at the beginning but I’m stuck and i need a little help. . . I have a tube wrapped around my subframe and I need to know if i can unplug it safely withouty introducing air into fuel system?

 

[t-tony]

Introducing air into a petrol system is not a problem, in a diesel it can be but even so not life or death. Can't imagine why it's routed like that all the same. Is it common one of you breakers? @spurs fan in a coupe , @mrscalex , @Synclare .

Tony.

 

[ZedHead]

Charcoal vapour filter, took the risk and disconnected, res of the pipe fell down later, deal with that later . . .finally dropped the subframe, what a mission, had to use fancy pry bar work to finally drop it, amongst other things . . .update later

 

[ZedHead]

So at last the right pieces are off ready for some TLC

 

[t-tony]

Good stuff mate, keep doing and keep asking when you need to.

Tony.

 

[Clockwatcher]

ZedHead

All the best with your project. As Tony said, there is a huge amount of experience on this site, I have learned loads from them. Plus they are a really friendly bunch.

If you after products for treating and preventing rust, there is a lot of experience on here with different makes of products. I have been using Bilt Hamber (British). Good quality, excellent service and very good prices. https://www.bilthamber.com/. Their rust converter totally transformed my spare (sorry, wife's) spare wheel.

 

[ZedHead]

Introducing air into a petrol system is not a problem, in a diesel it can be but even so not life or death. Can't imagine why it's routed like that all the same. Is it common one of you breakers? @spurs fan in a coupe , @mrscalex , @Synclare .

Tony.

Thanks Tony, if that’s the case then is changing the fuel lines an easy job? Connections look to be copper to pipe with pipe clamp see numbers 1 & 4. And pic of mine below.

 

[ZedHead]

So . . .Introductions: I’ve bee lucky enough to have owned 3 Zeds so far, a 1.9 in Atlantic blue, a 3.0 in Sapphire black and now a 2.8 again in Sapphire black (photos below of the first 2 ownerships). The first one was swapped when i sold a motorbike to enjoy the larger engine. I could never get on with the change to drive by wire in the 3.0 and found the lag frustrating only to learn the 2.8 still had the accelerator cable making me harbour the thought of someday owning one. I had to get rid of the 3.0 due to it being my only car and having to commute 80 miles a day. THen one day i came across an ad for a Zed 2.8 in black with the cream M interior so I bought a one way ticket to Scotland and drove it all the way down to London swinging by the lake dristrict for some beautiful driving! After getting a vehicle check there were a few things which needed doing such as engine bushes, and rust was noted so after trawling through sites like this i began to see that at this age many of you were doing the rear subframe referb, paint, bushes etc and as I’m quite handy (although never in the mechanics arena) i decided to give it a go and save the money I’d have to pay a mechanic and put it towards tools and parts. ONe thing i have always done I’d to upgrade radio and speaker systems and the Zed having a soft top needed a sub to be able to hear any baselines. You’ll see the fibreglass imported sub enclosure i made in the last pic. Sadly i did not expect to purchase another Zed and as such the enclosure went with it.

 

[ZedHead]

So, condition of the current 2.8 Zed:
Squeaky rear shocks, Bushes (various) and brake lines (in a nutshell). So i bought a bunch of Powerflex bushes, read a bunch of articles, bought some Tor15 paint, replaced suspension with BC BR coil overs and got some tools.

 

[ZedHead]

Jobs currently completed:
Installed BC BR coil overs and reinforcements plates, upgraded speakers to 6” footwells, 13cm behind seat. Also had to carry out a mod to the headlight/parking light switch as it failed, seat bushes.

Besides from the subframe and brake lines there is a coolant leak I’m worried about, seems my entire coolant has drained out! The drivers seat has confused the hell out of me as the forward back switch doesn’t seem to function and i had to wire from the passenger seat to adjust. When i checked the voltage at the connection when pressing the seat button it showed 12V so no idea why this isn’t working, only know this is a failure with regards to an MOT. So once the subframe & brakelines are done I’m ghoing to need some help with the:
1 - Coolant issue
2 - seat switch issue

Another issue i have which may be reasonable normal is the gearbox show signs of oil around the area it attaches to the prop shaft. Not sure if an easy service of seals is within my capabilities (ie getting the gearbox off and changing the clutch which is also squeaky).

Phew, so, it’s always been a dream to learn a car and to be able to do some of these things and by golly did i get the lemon to learn on. Just hope the engine is still good with that coolant leak?!

 

[ZedHead]

So now you have the backstory . . . So hopefully you’ll understand any obvious questions that come out in the future.

 

[ZedHead]

Questions: (for now)

1) Paint for underside of car? (Preferably a spray paint due to ease of use)
2) replacement pads and discs for front and back? (Drilled and ported, redstuff, vs other, seems to be topical, for reasonable price)

 

[ZedHead]

Question 3) Does this spare look too far gone?

 

[Mazza]

Hi @ZedHead and welcome to the forum.
Where in the country are you located?

 

[ZedHead]

Hi @ZedHead and welcome to the forum.
Where in the country are you located?

Gatwick area, thanks for the welcome

 

[t-tony]

Question 3) Does this spare look too far gone?

Hard to tell from a picture but to be fair a lot of people ditch them and the carrier and carry a tin of Tyreweld or similar.

Tony.

 

[ZedHead]

So, progress today:
1) removed calipers and sensors from subframe
2) Using drill and metal brush wheel removed rust from . . .? Front under engine scrape thingy?
3) removed rear brake pads
4) removed brake hoses

 

[ZedHead]

 

[Mazza]

Question 3) Does this spare look too far gone?

Mine was worse by the look of it , but with a bit of cleaning, anti rust and black topcoat came up ok. It will spend most of its life under the car anyway

 

[ZedHead]

New Questions:
3) which diff bolts should i undo? (Torque or bolts directly to diff)
4) what work can be done on the diff while its out besides a good scraping down and painting?