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Oil pump priming..... weird bolts?

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 4:54 pm
by Gibson
The bolt heads on the oil pump cover on my tvr 4,3 lump are like nothing i have ever come across before?

anyone know what they are?

I have my big tub of vaseline here ready and waiting to go but cant get the cover off? (hahaha)

What are the other ways to prime the pub? if i remove the dizzy will it need retiming afterwards?

Can you pour oil/ squeeze vaseline into the oil pressure sender hole?


also my oil pump appears to have two senders. am i right in assming the TVR had an oil light and a pressure gauge? and that the bigger one is for the gauge?

The sender for the oil light, should this show connectivity to earth when the engine isnt running? because mine doesnt?

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:06 pm
by softdash3.9
Are they male Torx?

phot might help :wink:

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:10 pm
by Gibson
Should have thought about it earlier sorry its pitch black outside now lol so no chance of photos as the car is put away.... only just thought of asking on here.

And nope lol i have torx male and female sockets and drives. They have far more "splines" than a torx bolts. Almost like when you have a normal socket with 2 hexagons in it so it will locate onto the bolts more easily (but is more likely to round them off)

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:15 pm
by softdash3.9
The will be 12 point bolts, standard spanner will fit (12 point of course :wink: )

My rocker cover bolts on my RRC were 12 point heads

Could be AF rather than metric

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:17 pm
by Gibson
I tried metric and AF sockets over them and couldnt find a single one that fitted....?


Any answers on the other questions? Mostly the oil pressure switch i think that is borked and dont want to try and prime the engine with a switch that is scrap as it will render my efforts useless as i wont know if it has primed or not....

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:25 pm
by softdash3.9
My Vitesse has 2 point, oil light and pressure gauge.

Might be worth a look through Rimmer Brothers website, they normally have good exploded diagrams.

The oil pressure switch should earth out with no pressure.

Pump can be primed by removing the distributor and use a long rod (with a slot in it to pick up the oil pump drive) in a drill to spin it up.

If you set it to TDC, mark the casing on the distributor then remove it, you should be OK putting it back :wink:

I'm sure if you do a search you should find some information :D

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:39 pm
by Gibson
did a search already. Couldnt find any more info than "remove distributor, fashion extension, spin till pressurised"
No mention of whether it is possible to do it without retiming the distributor

But thank you that is the info i needed to for the oil pressure switch, it is not earthing when the engine is not running so is probably borked!

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:45 pm
by Gibson
Im not saying its not on this forum somewhere.... just that i totally failed to find it! :lol:

By the way is there any difference between the dizzys on the PRE and SEMI serpentine loom? i have now sussed all the sensors out on that loom but there are alot of left over plugs that dont appear to correspond to anything on my engine....

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:30 pm
by ged
Hi,

As already said they should be 12 point.
Some you can get with a 1/4" drive 5/16" AF socket & the rest with a 5/16" AF ring spanner. They can be awkward to get at especially with the engine in situ. Personally I don't bother with Vasoline. I oil the pump on assembly & use a priming tool in my drill. So far I haven't had one fail to prime.

Regards Ged

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:42 pm
by Ian Anderson
Mark the Dizzy to the block with a straight fine pentel pen line.

Take Dizzy out and prime with drill

Reassemble and realign the line you just made

Timing should be correct ot at least extremely close - perhaps need to move the spark wires around as TDC on 1 may not be in the same place when you refit

Ian

Re: Oil pump priming..... weird bolts?

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 12:21 am
by DaveEFI
[quote="Gibson"]The bolt heads on the oil pump cover on my tvr 4,3 lump are like nothing i have ever come across before?

anyone know what they are?

Dunno what they're called, but a normal 7/16ths A/F ring spanner will fit them. Or a bi-hex socket it there's room.

That's if they're the same as my 3.5.

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:59 am
by Will Reeve
I was worried but as others said a standard socket fits them OK! I replaced with standard hex heads just in case. I hate reusing those types of bolt head!

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:36 am
by DaveEFI
Will Reeve wrote:I was worried but as others said a standard socket fits them OK! I replaced with standard hex heads just in case. I hate reusing those types of bolt head!
Think the reason for those heads is they're smaller in diameter and production tool sockets wouldn't fit a hex head one on all of them?

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:57 am
by Will Reeve
I remember there was one which was a pain to get out, even on the stand, wouldn't like to try on a engine in the car! You can also get Allen key head ones which I remember thinking might be an easier option. eBay sell both in stainless! My originals were quite corroded as well.

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 1:01 pm
by Gibson
Piece of cake to get too on my car....