Hi Amir,
that is an ingenious idea. I had not considered using the spaces under the front wings!
Do you have a particular servo in mind?

...peter

Hi Peter,
The two Remote Servos were purchased from Powertrack Limited, Lockheed Servo Installation kit, I believe Part No: PT726798, at least this is what we have been invoiced. and the picture of one positioned under the wing is attached.Attachment 1676

Sorry, the picture was wrong one, I attach the right one, I hope.Attachment 1678

The beginning of the end....
 

...or is it the end of the beginning?

Whatever, it's time to finish stripping down my donor car for the engine and ancillaries for my Royale Sabre build.
I thought it best to start underneath the car so raised it on axle stands and ran the engine for the last time to warm it up before draining the oil. I also disconnected and removed the battery for safety.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7475/...e741a740_b.jpge36 Donor Strip down by marlinpeter, on Flickr

After dosing all the exhaust mounting nuts with penetrating oil spray I stopped for lunch while the oil did its stuff. Upon return I moved underneath the car and removed the entire exhaust system in one piece. The usual arguments with a load of rusty nuts but no major dramas.
I'm not yet sure if I will use this exhaust system (suitably shortened) on the Sabre but it is in good condition and has some interesting features.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8589/...22f29863_b.jpge36 Donor Exhaust system by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Cat heat shields in good nick but a bit loose so will need to be re-fixed if this system is used.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8603/...01b58a11_b.jpge36 Donor Exhaust system by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Strange device at the back which is a Vibration Absorber according to realoem

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7472/...0f222bd2_b.jpge36 Donor Exhaust system by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Back box has two routes to the tailpipes. One is only opened by a neat little flap controlled by vacuum from the inlet manifold and the ECU above 2500rpm. I believe it is to make the car quieter at low rpm.

I then made a start on removing the propshaft but ran out of light (and heat!!) so that's all for now but hopefully updates will be more frequent this year :smile:


....peter

Good to see you are still at it.
 

Welcome back to the world of bespoke cars.
Like me, I am sure there are number of Royale Sabre lovers out there waiting to see more of your build.
Had an idea which I thought to share with you;
We all try to keep water out of the passenger compartment, and one place which is very hard to do anything about, once the build is complete, is three windscreen wiper spindle and the washer jet. Moving the washer jet onto the bonnet just above the heater, one on each panel, and filling the original hole, and fitting a gutter like channel to run under the three wiper spindles, which has to be done before the dashboard is fitted, with drain pipe either side which can then be guided out through hole in the floor.
Good luck and see you soon.

Thanks for the welcome back, I'm hoping to make better progress this year! Thanks for the tip about water leaks around the wiper spindles. I had not heard about this issue on Sabres. I'll try to remember when I get to that part of my build which is some way off :lol:

Famous last words!!

But dismantling now under-way again....

A shot of the engine and ancillaries after removing front grill, radiator, rad fan and aircon radiator, etc.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8585/...e1a3169c_z.jpgM52B28 Reference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8570/...1fec69bd_z.jpgM52B28 Reference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

I've been carefully labelling up the engine loom and taking lots of refrence photo's as I remove parts.


...peter

Slowly, slowly.....
 

This week I've been focussing on labelling and removing the engine loom taking the opportunity to collect any useful parts for the rebuild. I've also been taking copious reference photo's to help my memory when it comes to re-assembly. From experience I know it can be months or years before the engine will be re-installed so just relying on your memory of where things go is not a good idea.

First to be removed was the throttle body and associated hoses....

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8738/...a92441d1_z.jpgReference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Next it was attacking the inlet manifold. You have to remove the heater fresh air scoop to be able to get to the rear manifold nuts and the fuel lines which are tucked right at the back of the engine bay.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8684/...e07b7100_z.jpgReference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7616/...64c3146b_z.jpgReference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8748/...e1854fe6_z.jpgReference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8671/...0761aab0_z.jpgReference photo by marlinpeter, on Flickr

With the inlet manifold removed I could remove all the remaining engine loom connections....The last was the reverse light switch which is mounted on the side of the gearbox and the lead is clipped to the top edge of the gearbox which makes it tricky to remove.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8663/...1ab6e715_z.jpgEngine loom removed by marlinpeter, on Flickr

And finally it was a spell back under the car to finish removing the propshaft....

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7602/...b37e562c_z.jpgEngine Loom and propshaft by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Getting closer to removing the engine in a couple of weeks time...

...peter

Sales of the unwanted parts from my donor car have been very slow since Christmas but with the sale of the front foglights this weekend I have now recovered the full cost of the car and still have a small box of parts to sell. (Including an allowance for ebay and shipping fees)

So I've got my engine for free and would highly recommend buying a cabriolet donor as there is so much more to sell :madgrin:

Engine and Gearbox out!
 

My good friend Robin (aka Martinclan) came over last Friday to help remove my BMW engine and and gearbox.

With the engine hoist at the ready it didn't take us long before the engine and gearbox was out.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7636/...af8702d4_z.jpgEngine crane and balance bar by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8725/...142cb647_z.jpgEngine out by marlinpeter, on Flickr
(Forgot to take a picture before we separated the gearbox)

The engine and gearbox are now safely stored in my garage pending the clean-up.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8739/...fffd26b4_z.jpgEngine stored in garage by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7614/...ac5c0ee1_z.jpgM52B28 Engine by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7646/...e4bced22_z.jpgEngine safely stored on stand by marlinpeter, on Flickr

We spent the rest of the day retrieving all remaining saleable parts. I've just got a few small parts left to remove and then it will be call to the local scrap yard to remove what's left.

...peter

Engine Donor gone!
 

Finished stripping the engine donor car of any useful parts....

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8703/...da122039_z.jpgDonor car stripped and ready to go.. by marlinpeter, on Flickr


....and there it was gone!

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7589/...dd4cb0dc_z.jpgDonor car gone..... by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Thanks to the local dissmantler.

Now onto organising the move of the Sabre chassis and bodywork from the lock-up. :smile:

....peter

Well not a lot of car building progress but I have managed to get the Sabre transported from it's lock-up garage to my own garage at home. This is about 18 months after I moved house and it means my house move is now complete and it's finally goodbye to the lock-up garage I've had for over 11 years.

First job was bolt the main body tub and the front wings back on to the rolling chassis so that I could get the whole lot transported in one journey. I'd forgotten how many nuts and bolts there are but here it is just prior to collection and transportation.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8772/1...de84362b_z.jpgRe-assembled for transporting by marlinpeter, on Flickr

I found a nice man on ebay that promptly collected the car and delivered it back home. Excellent service!

And here it is back home.....

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8875/1...2435c1f6_z.jpgRelocated from lock-up to home garage by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Then it was time to remove the front wings again.....

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5454/1...bfa6c473_z.jpgWings removed again. by marlinpeter, on Flickr


And store the wings in the roof space of my garage.....

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5325/1...9ffb8bc1_z.jpgNearside wing by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7682/1...e1d58ee2_z.jpgOffside wing by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Finally, it was birthday time again and my wife got me some of these...

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7735/1...bdb58ebf_z.jpgBirthday present time! by marlinpeter, on Flickr

....more soon....


...Peter

Progress Report and a remarkable discovery....

The next job was to hoist the central body tub off the rolling chassis on to a trolley that I built from surplus timber and some old supermarket wheels that I've used before during my Marlin Sportster build.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7657/1...bdbb5eca_z.jpgBody tub on trolley by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5337/1...63e45512_z.jpgBody tub trolley by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Which got me back to the rolling chassis stage where i was in January 2013 :shocked:

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7675/1...40780c24_z.jpgRolling chassis May 2015 by marlinpeter, on Flickr

It has faired reasonably well in my damp unheated lockup garage but there is some surface rust on unpainted parts. It is also covered in spiders 'poo' which is surprisingly hard to remove.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8805/1...644a6ac2_z.jpgRolling Chassis May 2015 by marlinpeter, on Flickr

I next moved on to thinking about the engine mounts so thought I would try the BMW M52 mounts and amazingly discovered they are a near perfect fit :high5: (Now the chassis was built in 1994 and designed for a Ford DOHC engine and the BMW was not built until August 1995 - how weird?)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8841/1...659ee28b_z.jpgM52TU block with M52 engine mounts by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7786/1...36e1caa4_z.jpgM52 OS engine mount by marlinpeter, on Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7724/1...69f912d4_z.jpgM52 NS engine mount by marlinpeter, on Flickr

The sump is pefectly horozontal and the only issues are a slight angular mis-alignment.....

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5453/1...8649d7fd_z.jpgSlight angular misalignment by marlinpeter, on Flickr

....and I have about 25mm clearance around the top and back of the crossmember which is a little too much as I want to get the engine as low and as far forward as I can get it.

Next job is to check the clearance with the 'real' engine as I've noticed a difference between the 1995 and 1998 sumps.

More updates soon.......

....peter

Looking good! Keep us posted peter.

Excellent progress :D Nice :)

That chassis looks even better than the Marlin one. No wonder the kits were so expensive - there must be 100's of hours of work in there....

I wouldn't have thought that the slight angular misplacement would cause any issues. One andvantage of using rubber engine mounts.
I guess that once you mount the "real" engine along with all its ancilliaries the extra weight would cause it to drop a few mm - it might even gain you the few mm that you want to lower it.
Being able to use standard engine mounts is a big benefit!

Cheers, Robin

Hi Robin,

Well it's certainly no light weight sports car chassis!!

Being able to use the standard engine mounts is certainly a real bonus (and a big surprise :shock:) so I'm going try them with the full weight of the engine before making any other mods.

....peter

At least it's on the 'heel' of the mount rather than the 'toe', you can, to could buy tapered washers to use with rolled steel Joists (RSJ's) to accommodate the taper of the flanges, not beyond the scope of an angle grinder to make some from thick washers.

Looking good! You need a little good luck from time to time.

Yes, I did find some of those 'I-Beam' tapered washers on ebay but like you thought I'd have a bash at making some, so I have ordered some thick square washers.
The material around the bolt hole in the mounts is are about 10 mm thick so I may just take a bit off the 'heel'

Drivetrain trial fitting
 

So having discovered that the standard BMW engine mounts appear to work it was time to try the 'real' M52B28 engine, rather than my bits and pieces of a gash engine.

First job though was to clean up the engine and gearbox....

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8812/1...ca12d9f5_z.jpgEngine cleaning is progress by marlinpeter, on Flickr

Then it was out with the engine hoist and in with the engine....

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7794/1...e49897ba_z.jpgM52B28 engine installation. by marlinpeter, on Flickr

The engine will be cleaned up properly and painted before final fitting.

It was then a relatively simple task of bolting on the gearbox.....

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7751/1...39e5be6a_z.jpgM52B28 and gearbox by marlinpeter, on Flickr

So far so good, but I still felt I needed to find a way of moving the engine forward a bit to clear the central body tub. The body tub is very heavy and is a three man lift so not easy to keep trail fitting.

To move the whole drivetrain forward a bit I bought some of these Volvo engine mounting rubbers that have offset mounting studs. The studs are offset by 35mm.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8772/1...43b3fc04_z.jpgVolvo engine mount by marlinpeter, on Flickr

They look a bit odd but seem to work OK.....

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7795/1...6ce83ce0_z.jpgVolvo engine mounts by marlinpeter, on Flickr

....more fitting trials this week......

....peter