Bentley Garage Day

Today we had a Bentley Garage Day. It was fun. We did stuff.

Four of us got together on a mates driveway and worked on our Bentley cars.

We helped each other out to fix a few niggling things on our cars.

And lucky for us we had Richard Tracey, the Bentley expert from SpurParts Pty Ltd as the brains trust on the phone to call if we needed help. +61452558112 was on speed dial.

Richard Tracey also supplied the parts and technical help that keeps these cars on the road, thanks Richard.

Here is a quick look at Bentleys.



In attendance was a 1972 Bentley T, 1988 Bentley Turbo R, a 1989 Bentley Turbo R and a 1990 Bentley Turbo R.



First of all it was quite interesting comparing the slight changes to the 1988, 1989 & 1990 Bentley Turbo R cars.

Most people would not be able to tell the differences, but with a few covers and panels off, ECUs, wiring, dash layouts and the like were ever so slightly different. The most different was the 1990 car, as there were more updates between 89 and 90 than 88 and 89.

There were differences between the 88 and 89 cars as one was UK delivered and the other Australian delivered.

After the decent look around of 4 Bentleys in the drive way, it was of course time for a beer and a good chat.

Finally we got around to actually doing something on the cars.

We had a few projects.


1. Fix the drivers side window on the 89 Turbo R. It was ridiculously slow to go up. Like 5 minutes. Something was wrong.

2. The 90 Turbo R headlamps were rubbish and needed changing, and the cruse control did not work.

3. The air conditioning on the 72 T did not blow cold. That's not Australian.

4. The 88 Turbo R was used as the parts donor car to test the 90's cruise control, and we did not get to actually fixing anything on it! Next time.


Let's dive right into fixing the window on the 89 Turbo R.

Luckily one of us knew how to take apart the door. It's quite a step through process, which I'll detail here so other people can learn.


Firstly take the metal cover plates off the window switches and the door handle to expose the screws.



Try not to loose any screws or the finishing washers for them.



Then undo the screws and take the door handle and window winder switches off.



Next up undo the two screws that hole the under part of the arm rest one, then remove the under part of the arm rest.

Be careful of the wire in the arm rest. That's for the light that lights up the place where you hide chocolate bar wrappers.



This exposes the bolts that need to be removed to take the arm rest off. Do it.



It should now look like this.



Then there are a few screws on the inner of the door pocket, as well on the lower front of the door card on the carpet.

Take these screws out, then easy off the outer door card by prizing it off. It is held on with popper things (technical term).



This exposes some more screws for the inner door card. Remove them and it comes off.



Next up this the removed of the black plastic part.



Hands are the special tool to use. Be careful of the wire for the chocolate car wrapper light.



It's really good having so many Bentley drivers in the drive way. Many hands to make sure we don't do a woopsie.



Here is how it looks with the door card removed.



There is also a special place to put the parts. Front seat mate.



What is cool is that number on the door card. Yep, that's my VIN number 26160.



Then now it's time to check out the motor that winds the window up.



Remove the winder motor with the bolts holding it in place. We were careful to leave the chain alone.



Richard Tracey warned us it would be quite gunky in there. He was right.



Then we separated the black motor from the gearbox mechanism to take a look at the condition of the plastic coupling.

It looked like this.



We then got the new one out that was supplied by SpurParts Pty Ltd.

Part number UD71409. Window motor gearbox coupling.



Here is the money shot.

This is the new one next to the destroyed one in situ in the mount.



This is how much it was destroyed. You can tell why the windows where bloody slow!



Then it was simply a matter of replacing the coupling and regreassing the gearbox.



Here is a video of the motor spinning with out the gearbox, then with the gear box and finally the finished product.

Windows that wind up at normal pace!




On to a new car. It's cool seeing four Bentley cars in the drive way.



Next up was switching out the headlamps on the 1990 Turbo R.

This issue was that they were crap. The car does a lot of country driving with the high beams on, and the ones fitted were not good.

What is great about a Bentley Garage Day is you can just compare the issue to two other cars.

Well, simply the wrong lights were installed. They were sealed beams by a different brand then the others.

Here they are with the headlamp surround removed.



We got the new normal H4 Cibie headlamps from SpurParts Pty Ltd.



Now comparing the sealed beam on the left to the normal lamp on the right.



Here are the sealed lamps. These were just not as good as the normal ones.



There are two long bolts that hold the plastic surround to the car. These are accesses from under the bonnet and once removed the surround can be moved to the exterior of the car.



Here is the finished product of the new headlamps. They look better, and better still function so much better!



It now matches the other two Turbo R's in the drive way.



Now onto some cool air for the 1972 Bentley T.

Luckily one of the guys has the equipment to re-gas the AC.

It was a matter of plugging in the pipes.



And setting it up properly. I probably should have looked more at what was going on to provide better commentary.



Then I think it's a matter of letting the gas out of the canister into the in let tube of the car.



The car was then turned on, which I assume then sucked in the gas.



Well it worked and the car now has cold air!


Finally it was to test the cruise control of the 90 Turbo R.

It did not work. So the plan was to change out the ECU with another of the Turbo R cars to see if it was the ECU that was at fault.

So the ECU from the 1988 Turbo R was removed.



And placed into the 1990 car, as it is the same cruise control ECU.



Unfortunately the cruise control still did not work. So that means it is not the ECU that is at fault.

Here is a photo from the test drive to see if the cruise control worked. It's a nice view.



This simple test was much better than buying an ECU.

It's the benefit of having 4 Bentley cars in the drive way to test and compare things!



It certainly was a really good and productive day.

There was even a Bentley Blockage caused on the street. The Jag had no chance.



Thanks to the follow Bentley drivers for putting it on. We need to do it again sometime.

And thanks again to Richard Tracey for the parts and technical support from SpurParts Pty Ltd.