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All sorts of Technical help bits and pieces
Torque each nut in the exact order shown, to 15ft lbs, then stage by stage, to 20, then 22lbs, and leave for a bit, while you clear up and have a coffee. Then tap around each stud with a hammer and a short length of broomstick etc and in the above order again, tackle each nut in turn, backing it off a fraction, then smoothly torquing to 25lbs.
Fit the valve gear etc and fill coolant, run the engine to temp, switch off and leave overnight. Next day, remove valve gear and, in order back-off and re-torque each nut again, this time to 27lbs.
The reason for this is that the metal mesh in modern gaskets is made for today's gasket requirements of much higher torque, and doesn't crush into shape so easily as in old gaskets. Because of the engines being alloy we cannot overtorque too far, but 27 lbs has never caused me any problems.
Some gaskets now have a red line of silicone around. They are meant to be run for a short time dry then torqued to set the seal. That is something I don't dare do, so you're on yer own there!
BUT one thing I would emphasise is that revisiting the head seal to retorque after 200 / 500 miles seems folly to me. If it's not leaking by then it won't, unless you disturb it, and if a leak has started, it will not be stopped by a retorque, but will merely grow and become a problem over the next year or three.
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Fitting relays is the best way to take the load off those vulnerable Lucas switches, rapidly becoming scarce.The electrical contacts in our Lucas switches are held in place by passing through the plastic of the switch. As they age, contacts get dirty which leads to heat build-up. It doesn't take much heat to melt the plastic surrounding the contact, which then droops out of place and ceases to function. The dashboard lamp switch is a key culprit, as is the heater fan switch, and woe betide you if you leave your hazards on for long!! The answer is to insert an electronic relay, easy to get for nix from any scrap modern car; choose one rated at least 10 amps. Take your feed for the 30/51 terminal from the fused side of either the white ignition-controlled feed [fan] or the red battery-controlled feed [lighting] at the fuse box, using piggy back terminals for the ones that are there already. Run a new earth cable from terminal 85, or butt into a nearby existing earth, and cut / extend the feed wire supplying power from the switch, attaching the wire from the switch to terminal 86, and the second part, feeding to the fan etc.
This chart was made from trawling through Marcel Chichak's 'extensive' [to put it mildly] yet incomplete database on Lucas distributor models used in literally hundreds of different vehicles. I may have missed some. If you want to do your own trawling the database is here:The model number for a Lucas distributor is stamped on the main body.Newbies please note: the 45D4, 23D4 ID is just a series indicating the main design characteristics, not the identifier of a particular distributor. There are many, many different 45D4s for example, all delivering different performance. Its the internals that count!
These are the two 'bolts' [setscrews in fact] that you may need when replacing front wheel cylinders on Fox or Kitten. [ignore the other uses listed for these parts - they are for Mini application.]
I find Minispares by far the best and cheapest company providing so many of the parts we share with the classic Mini, although it's always worth checking out the others, just in case.
LUCAS Ignition part numbers
Quinton Hazell ignition parts are branded Ci, as they picked up the pieces when Classic Ignition reached the end. Apologies for the quality!
British Standard Wiring Colour Code. Find what wiring serves what purpose, for most british vehicles of the 20th century... HERE
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