Projekt Agnetha

After playing the Autodoc lottery a few more times I finally found a 1:1 replacement for Agnetha’s brake shoes. As a Swedish export model she has a completely different rear brake setup to the factory standard, having more in common with Ford cars of the era. Having finally got the drum brakes working again, and as a result a working handbrake (yay – stopping power!), I put up a video and immediately got a comment about the Swedish brake setup that led to an explanation that the changes were indeed made in response to local legislation and, more importantly, some scans from the Allegro Parts Catalog listing all the Unipart numbers.

Here then are the scanned pages for anyone who needs to look them up:

Having put this issue to bed at last it’s time to get the brakes fully working with a new master cylinder and rebuilt calipers – more on that soon!

Having put the old girl back together (minus brakes and displacers!) I made a video about starting her up again with the newly repaired fuel system.  Previously she had only been able to run from a plastic fuel cannister, so this was a big step to getting back on the road:

Getting to this stage was a lot of effort, so I’ve promised to only do fun and easy jobs for the next couple of months. The first job was to put the bonnet back on, clean the windows, vacuum the floor and seats, and give the bodywork a good rub down. Suddenly she looks like a real car again.

Note the two holes drilled into the front bumper just above the number plate holder.  At some time in her history Agnetha sported a pair of bumper-mounted fog lights. Although they had been removed long ago, part of the wiring remained including a rather lovely 1970s style flip switch drilled into the side of the speaker housing. I plan to replace the fogs eventually, so I attached some new wiring to the switch and fed it through the bulkhead. At the same time I removed the ugly, horrible 240V plug socket that used to be paired with the blockheater.  Nothing difficult and definitely very satisfying!

The glove box and funny little tray thing that goes under the steering wheel needed some attention. They are both made from that nasty fibre board shit and after 48 years had started to go a bit crumbly. So I gave them a good clean, painted them first with epoxy and then with a rattle can of mat black. This turned out quite nicely – I would certainly have less concern about putting my hand in there!

Before reinstalling these bad boys I’m having a think about where to install USB power and an override switch for the radiator fan. While testing Agnetha yesterday her temperature got into the red without the fan starting. Luckily she didn’t turn into a teapot.  I’ve isolated the problem to the thermostatic switch in the Montego radiator – it just doesn’t want to close. Rather than replace the switch, at this stage I’d prefer to install an override circuit instead, since it’s something I’ve been planning to do all along. It gets hot here in the summer and we have big traffic jams, so I don’t want to be praying for the fan to come on.

I think half the problem with fixing cars is psychological. It’s important to not let it turn into a job, so you have to prioritise the fun, less important stuff occasionally. Particularly true as I’ve just found a load more welding that needs doing!

Agnetha has been stuck in the garage on the blocks since November when her driveshaft oil seals gave up. Fixing the seals snowballed into fixing (almost) everything else, specifically:

• Rear drum brakes (new shoes and cylinders)
• New port & starboard differential covers, bushes and seals
• Replaced twisted starboard driveshaft
• New CV joints all round
• Ball joints and bearings re-greased
• New brake lines
• New fuel line
• New Hydragas lines
• New track-rod ends
• Steering rack oiled
• Sills welded
• Boot welded
• Floorpan welded
• Fuel tank repaired
• New fuel sender
• Cross-tube de-rusted and painted
• Upper front suspension swing arms de-rusted and painted

Getting the engine oil-tight again was more of a struggle than I expected due to the new reality of importing goods from the UK and the diff covers being out-of-stock, but we got there in the end and I made a video about it:

While there are still the not-so-minor issues of the brake master cylinder, front brake callipers and Hydragas displacer units being “INOP”, it’s time to get the wheels back on and run the engine up again. It does a car no good to sit on bricks, and Agnetha’s poor engine spent several months dry while the oil seals were fixed. The engine will eventually need a rebuild but if I can get her through a vehicle inspection without having to do that, it’ll make life a lot easier.

A few issues of note:

Bloody brakes

Ask any Allegro owner and they’ll tell you what a faff the brakes are, mainly due to lack of spares. The Swedish-specification Allegros are even worse because the rear drum brakes are not factory-standard and have more in common with Ford cars of the early 1970s, but don’t seem to belong to any particular model! I’ve tried to find out which parts are correct by asking owners in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries but the precise answer seems to be lost to time. I also tried to find out why they have different brakes but again, no-one seems to know for sure. There’s no regulatory requirement, unlike headlight wipers. The most believable argument I’ve heard is that BL Sweden simply had a job-lot of these brake components and retrofitted the Allegro in Sweden “because they could”. To be fair, the Swedish drum brake setup is a bit more sophisticated being fully enclosed with double-acting wheel cylinders and a self-adjustment mechanism. On the other hand I can’t imagine it delivers significantly better braking performance and, as I found out, it’s doubtful the self-adjusting mechanism is any substitute for just replacing the flipping shoes when they’re worn!

In the end I was able to recondition the brakes by playing the Autodoc lottery and winning 2 sets of Ford Capri/Escort Mk1 1.3 shoes and a pair of Ford Consul/Cortina wheel cylinders. The cylinders fit perfectly, but the shoes needed a little “adjustment” with a hacksaw to fit the self-adjustment mechanism. Fitting the handbrake cable was also fun: Unlike on the standard Allegro, the cable is fed inside and hooks on to a lever within the drum itself. This involves wedging it behind the Red Spring of Death – looking back I think the cable should ideally be fitted before the spring. Oh well.

As for the front callipers, they’re ok but in need of new seals and pistons. Mercifully these are available but not cheap. Same goes for the discs, which should be replaced before we do any serious road trips.

BLOODY HYDRAGAS

The Hydragas displacers are almost certainly toast, which is no surprise. The nitrogen gas in the displacers will slowly leak and they were originally designed to hold enough pressure over the car’s anticipated lifespan (15 years for the Allegro, which is pretty ambitious compared to most modern cars). This particular event horizon was already crossed in 1991 and I doubt the displacers are anything other than the factory-fitted original units. These days Hydragas displacers can be retrofitted with Schrader valves and re-gassed, but I think this isn’t the only issue with Agnetha’s displacers: As the gas pressure drops, the suspension is less able to absorb shock loading. The unions in the Hydragas fluid lines become overpressurized with every bump in the road and eventually begin to leak. As the fluid leaks, the ride height of the car goes down. Naturally the owner will want to pump the system back up, but apparently it was pretty common for garages to take one look at the spheres and default to “Citroën Mode” and pump the system up with LHM instead of the water-based fluid used in Hydragas suspension – they call this The Kiss of Death. The LHM dissolves the inner workings of the displacers, rendering them scrap. When I drained the fluid last year there was indeed some kind of brown water-oil mixture in the system, so I’m fairly sure they’ve been killed. But that’s a job for later in the year. For now we can manage with bump-stops (what’s left of them) instead of actual suspension.

As for the Hydragas lines, of course they were wrecked. Both sides had been crushed, presumably whenever the car was loaded on and off recovery trucks with deflated suspension and very little ground clearance. They were also perforated by corrosion and the starboard side had been bravely re-sectioned using fuel hose and no less than 4 hose clips (because high pressure!); I doubt that repair lasted very long. Mercifully the “goose necks” that are inside the engine bay and attach to the front displacers are in good condition, and the Schrader valves just needed a little cleaning. The damaged underfloor sections have been replaced with copper pipe and these will be attached later to the goose necks with compression fittings.

FUEL TANK SUCCESS

By the time I’d removed Agnetha’s tank and gone over it with the wirebrush it was doing a very good impression of a cheese grater. Allegro fuel tanks are pretty much unobtainium so it’s best to fix them if at all possible. I’m told they can be replaced with MGB fuel tanks which are the same shape and capacity but will ride quite a few centimeters closer to the ground. The tank was badly perforated on both the underside and top-side but was otherwise structurally very solid, especially around the sender fitting and seam, so I decided to try and fix it.

I wasn’t even going to attempt to weld it, so I did some research and decided to try fibreglassing instead. This has the advantage that it’s easy to do and results in a very strong and chemically-resistant repair. First of all I gave the tank a generous coating of red anticorrosion primer, and after putting on the final ply I gave it a quick sanding and painted it matt black.

So what about the fuel sender? Of course they don’t exist either, unless you’ve replaced the tank with an MGB tank and they it’s simply a case of fitting an MGB sender. The recommended solution for a repaired Allegro tank is to get an MGB sender and – guess what – adjust it with a hacksaw! First the filter needs to be removed and 2 or 3 cm cut from the pipe; no problem. The tricky part is bending the wire on the level sensor float so that it a) still gives a reasonably accurate reading, b) still fits through the hole in the tank, c) doesn’t break the sensor while you’re mauling it. I did fall foul at (c) and ended up snapping some of the metal tabs that hold the casing together. This was fixed by carefully bending a strip of steel banding around the case, but not so tight as to crush it! I was relieved to get it inside the tank, see that the fuel level readings still made sense on the dashboard, and that it was water-tight.

Everything was a ball-ache

The repairs I made over the winter were one pain-in-the-ass after another, and I’ll be glad if I never have to do them again. Almost everything that could be awkward was very awkard, and everything that could be straightforward absolutely wasn’t. On the plus side most of the major structural and mechanical issues are now fixed. Besides, if it was easy someone else would have got her running years ago! The next time we run Agnetha (hopefully this month) she’ll be on her own fuel system for the first time in several decades; that’s quite a landmark. Assuming she still wants to run at all, the next jobs will be to get the timing done, set up the carb and try to figure out exactly what state the engine is in. Let’s hope the worst is now behind her!

Since Agnetha’s big “oopsie” on the garage floor last November when her driveshaft seals gave out, I’ve been deconstructing the driveshafts (which unsurprisingly had worn CV joints and damaged gaters) and getting new differential covers installed with new bushings and oil-seals. The aim is to get Agnetha oil-tight again and fill the engine with oil that’s been sitting dry since the oopsie. Quite a lot of progress has been made but at the last step I’ve decided to pause things since it got a bit fraught getting spares imported from the UK. I made a video about it here:

On a more positive note the cross-tube is now fully derusted, primed and repainted. There was plenty of corrosion but the tube itself is made from pretty thick steel so it’s structurally sound.

Next up are some important but low-cost jobs that do not involve customs. Mostly welding, making new brake and fuel lines, and fixing the somewhat porous fuel tank.

After a few short test drives along the front drive last autumn Agnetha suddenly dumped her oil on the garage floor. I eventually found out it had leaked from both driveshafts and not from the gear selector as I first thought (although that probably leaks as well – why wouldn’t it?). Both inner CV joints would quite happily rattle around if pulled by hand, and apparently they really shouldn’t do that. If they rattle it’s a sign that the bronze bushings they sit inside have worn too far so oil is able to rush past and overwhelm the rubber oil seals, which are more than likely worn out as well. 

So the driveshafts had to come out. Unsurprisingly for a car that hasn’t moved in 34 years all 4 of the CV boots were perforated which already implied I’d soon be ordering new joints all round. Getting the shafts out of the differential was fairly straightforward once I’d got a set of driveshaft removal forks. These aren’t the same as the recommended tool, but worked fine with a bit of grease and aiming carefully not to take chunks out of the diff cover (more on that later).

The discs took some encouragement to separate because of a build-up of rust but only required a bit of Flammenwerfer action, a calculated amount of violence and some more action with the shaft removal forks. After removing the boots from the inner CVs it was clear they had worn a fair bit, and given the amount of effort I’ve been putting into this car, it seemed pretty obvious that all 4 CV joints should be replaced – they’re the same as on the classic Mini so there’s no issue getting spares.

Removing the outer joints was straightforward once I’d got a decent puller; these are available everywhere online for very little money. The Haynes Book of Lies says a few taps of a hammer against a drift on back of the CV joint will free it, but I think that no longer applies to cars that have sat for decades! The puller made light work of it. Just a few turns of the hub nut against the puller freed the outer joints. The inner joints, however, were a different story. 

The problem there was that the inner CV rings had become more-or-less fused to the driveshafts and no amount of hammering or pulling was going to free them. I ended up spending many, many hours painstakingly grinding the inner CV rings until they could be chiselled off in segments. Luckily I was able to do that on both inner joints without damaging the shafts. Although it was a very tedious and painful process I did manage to make a video out of it for the channel:

What a pain in the hole that was, but rewarding to have done it without breaking anything!

So at last it was now possible to remove the diff covers and see the state of those bushes and the oil seals. The covers came off quite easily with a few taps from a rubber mallet but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I finally saw the bushes. In fact I literally laughed out loud. Here’s what I saw:

See the problem? The driveshaft needs to be lubricated against the bushing otherwise it’s just going to make a screeching noise and wear out after a very short time, and you’re back to square one with leaking driveshafts. For the lubrication to work, there’s a hole in the side of the bushing. This has to be aligned with a hole in the diff cover that lets the oil in. And guess what…of course whoever did this, long ago presumably, hadn’t given it any thought at all. The lubrication channels are completely misaligned. So you can imagine old Benny or Bjorn’s face when their Allegro started leaking oil again just days after it being repaired – can’t blame Longbridge for that! Judging by the state of the diff cover they must have also used a chisel or screwdriver to pull the shafts out as they are quite mangled. Sometimes I feels like every time I remove or overhaul something on Agnetha it just uncovers another historical bodge or some kind of balls-up from long ago. Fascinating really, but also incredibly annoying.

But not to worry. New CV joints and – no expense spared – new diff covers with new bushes pressed in and reamed are on order from Mini Spares. Soon I’ll be able to reassemble those shafts as the Gods intended and get that long-suffered A-series filled with oil again.

In other news

I’ve overhauled the steering rack. It’ll surprise no one that I drained about 100ml of used engine oil from it. I wonder if that was the same mechanic that “repaired” the bushings? At least it doesn’t seem too upset by the ordeal. New boots and track-rod ends are ready to go, but the rack itself won’t be reinstalled for a while yet as there is still a lot of work to do while it’s out of the way.

Brake master cylinder. Pain in the hole. Need to get an expert Brakeversteher on it.

Fuel tank. Has lots of holes in it. But I have a cunning plan. The weather needs to warm up a bit first though. Definitely going to do a video about that.

Despite the grumbling, as I start to put things back together getting the old girl tested and registered this year seems more and more do-able! #optimism

As Agnetha sits patiently on the blocks I’ve put together a fairly complete list of jobs to be done to get her through an inspection.

So here goes:

• Replace drive shaft bushings and seals, both sides.
• Replace all drive shaft boots.
• Clean and grease steering rack, replace boots.
• Rebuild brake calipers.
• Rebuild drum brakes.
• Rebuild brake differential switch.
• Rebuild brake master cylinder.
• Clean and patch the fuel tank, replace sender unit.
• Weld sills, corners of the floorpan, passenger door and boot.
• New fuel line.
• New brake lines.
• New Hydragas fluid lines.
• Recondition/replace Hydragas displacers.
• New tyres.
• New exhaust.
• New indicator wing repeaters.
• Rebuild and reinstall crosstube assembly.
• New windscreen and tail screenwash pumps.
• New stereo – a must!
• That should be it, we’ll see.

I would love all this to be done by the end of 2024, and I think there’s a good chance. For a pro it’s probably not even a month’s work but as a hobbyist it never hurts to massively pad the auld estimates.

There has been a lot of progress with Agnetha since the last post but it seems I forgot to blog stuff again.

First of all Agnetha had another subtle modification: Allegro hydraulic components can sometimes be difficult to track down – particularly in “foreign lands”. I’ve dismantled the brake master cylinder and the Allegro Club sent me a repair kit, so let’s hope a rebuild will get that working. The clutch master, however, was a non-starter. Having read in the club magazine about substituting Land Rover Defender hydraulics since they’re very similar mechanically and spares are plentiful, I decided to give that a whirl. Apparently the components can (if you’re lucky) more-or-less bolt on to the original Allegro fittings. Then it’s just a case of making new lines, which had to be replaced anyway.

And it worked out really well. The master cylinder did indeed drop right into the bulkhead and the only slight modification I needed to do was to the cylinder connecting rod in order to make the brake pedal mate with it properly. Best of all: the clutch itself actually works!

Agentha then received a brand new radiator, cooling fan and water pump. I bought a cheap NOS radiator for an Austin Montego that was the same dimensions but with different fixings, so a little bit of careful fabrication was needed. There is an unnecessarily long and detailed video about it here:

This was quickly followed-up by another video in which we stopped the dribble from the expansion tank:

The excessive noise of an A-series engine running without an exhaust did not go unnoticed, and so yet another follow-up video pressed Agnetha’s long-dead exhaust back into action:

Following all that driving around and excitement, Agnetha unfortunately found that she could no longer holder on to her oil, and she made a little mess. I originally thought it was the gear selector seal but it turns out the left and right driveshaft seals and bushings are shot. Not a big deal! We can get that fixed early in the the New Year. Once I’d cleaned up it was then full speed ahead to get the headlight wipers working…ish:

Since she’s no longer holding oil it seemed like a good time to get her up on the auld bricks again and start by dismantling the brakes, then take a good look at all the gubbins on the underside:

As of now I’ve removed the Hydragas fluid lines, all the Hydragas displacers, the fuel line, all brake lines and partially stripped the cross-tube assembly. The Hydragas lines are knackered and need to be completely replaced, and we’ll see about the displacers. I plan to send them off for an expert opinion but budget-restraints mean that won’t happen immediately. 

The good news is that this completely dead car that arrived just over one year ago is well on the way to a complete recovery! I can finally write down all the jobs that need to be done to get her ready for a vehicle inspection and put them roughly in order, and I’ll reveal that in the next post very soon.

Like almost everything else, Agnetha’s brake pedal was solid when she arrived nearly 1 year ago. The master cylinder was heavily corroded and I thought it might not be saveable. There were a handful of different types of brake master cylinders used in Allegros over the years. Agnetha’s is, naturally, the rarest of them. It’s a tandem cylinder by Girling (so it controls two separate brake circuits: Built-in redundancy! Safety!) and replacements or reconditioned units are usually very expensive, but seal kits are available for reasonable prices so I wanted to see if I could rebuild it.

Earlier in the year I managed to remove the cylinder from the servo and disconnect the brake lines but couldn’t for the life of me remove the pistons (there are two: One for each circuit). The Haynes manual suggests shaking the body until the pistons come out, or blasting compressed air through the rear port. None of this worked of course, after 34 years of corrosion and coagulation of the hydraulic fluid, and on to the back-burner it went.

Recently I decided to have another go. First of all I filled the cylinder with WD40 and left it for several weeks, periodically topping it up. The piston would still not shift however. I ended up clamping the end of the piston in a vice and then, using part of an old jackstand, hammering the body off the piston with considerable violence for about an hour. Eventually it started to move but it needing beating to death the whole way.

That left the remaining piston. I was able to remove it explosively by sealing up all the other ports and shooting 8 bar of compressed air into the rear port. That made a hell of a bang and for a moment I couldn’t find the piston anywhere on the garage – it had landed in a shopping bag on the other side of the room!

Having got all the guts out I was able to clean the rust and check the seals. Some seals were good, others were not, so best to assume they’re all bust. The bore of the cylinder looks fine though – I think the gunk saved it. With a rebuild it should be good for another 122 thousand km, hopefully!