2012
Friday, 19 October 2012
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Newer is not necessarily better
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Points, condenser. New coil, dizzy cap, rotor arm.
Turned the key and VROOM.
12 miles driven. Initial impression is positive.
Needs a wheel alignment and balance (Friday).
Ron is going to pick up my bumpers from Carl the Idiot tomorrow. Only took him 4 1/2 months.
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Back together...but..
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Having reinstalled the seats yesterday only putting the speedo in and the bonnet back on remained for today.
After an initial successful start of the engine I put the speedo back in. Took a little while to work out which light was which, but it all went easily.
However after this the engine just woundn't start. Dead as.
There was a good 12v at the coil but absolutely no spark. Eventually I put in another distributor; started straight away. Somehow I've managed to fry the brand new Pertronics Ignitor. I've never even driven the car with this one in..
Now, of course, despite the timing being spot on, the bloody thing won't idle. Bitch. I suspect that the "El Crappo" electronic ignition in that dizzy has been damaged too.
Thoroughly annoyed, I have put the bonnet back on, given her a quick wash and put her back in the shed, in disgrace. Tomorrow I'm going to get a standard coil and a set of points and put the old (good) Lucas dizzy back in.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
and the engine...just starts!
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Chris Alan and Martin came over to start the engine today.
Martin checked that I'd put all the wiring back correctly. Alan checked everything else. Chris just looked bored.
Martin insisted on Start Ya Bastard. Mostly because he likes ether.
After preflight checks I turned the key and after about 5 seconds it just started.
Anticlimax.
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Tuesday, 09 October 2012
Please be seated
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Got the seats back from Alan the trimmer today. They look fantastic.
Hopefully I'll get them back in on the weekend.
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Monday, 08 October 2012
Sunday, 07 October 2012
Pop the carbs back on, Sir?
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Daylight savings started today, so I was already an hour behind the 8 ball when I got into the shed. Plan today was to finish the strapping for the wiring, put the carbs back on, reinstall the radiator and fill it.
The wiring was easy, but when I got the carbs down off the shelf I realized that I hadn't bothered to remove the remnants of gasket from the manifold. It quickly became apparent thet they weren't going to peel off easily either.
Eventually it took me about an hour with scrapers, razor blades and a soft wire brush to get the manifold clean, but in the process a lot of crap had found its way into the airways. Realising that I had to get it all out it became obvious that I'd have to separate the manifold from the carbs and blow it out with compressed air. Which I did. After all there's only 12 nuts holding it all together. 5 minutes work.
That done, and remembering that the bottom row of 9 manifold to head nuts are tricky to get on, I decided to take advantage of the extra space and bolt the manifold on first, then bolt the carbs to that.
See? Here's the manifold bolted on. Isn't it pretty? Took 5 mins.
The next step was to mount the carbs on those 12 studs, and fit one spring washer and one nut on each. Plus the return spring brackets on the front 2 carbs. Now the top nuts are a doddle, as is the front one at the bottom.
BUT. A BIG but. The other 5 are almost completely inaccessable and the rearmost one is also impossible to see and nearly impossible to get a spanner to. It took another 2, maybe 3 hours to get those 5 nuts on. I had to magnetize a variety of screwdrivers, cut a spanner in half to tighten the rearmost nut, and I simply couldn't get washers on 2 of the studs at all.
Moral of the story? Yes putting the carbs and manifold on in one piece is a little tricky and last time took me around 30 minutes. BUT it's much easier than trying it this way!
Friday, 05 October 2012
and some more..
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All of that lovely plated front suspension is back on. Fitted the new rear braided brake hose, and some new Greenstuff pads for the rear.
Brakes and clutch bled.
The home stretch.
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Having returned from a week's holiday I'm raring to get the car finished.
The first job was getting the reaction tie plate and torsion bars back in. As this is a job I hadn't done before there were a few teething problems, but with some sound advice it all eventually went smoothly. The two good bits of advice I got were to put the bars in from the front, sliding them back to insert them, and to loosen all of the bolts on the tie plate to allow the tear drops in, THEN tighten everything up. I'm reasonably confident that I have got the torsion bars in correctly, but as insurance I have fitted an adjustable reaction plate in case final adjustments are needed.
From now on the reassembly should proceed realtively smoothly, as I an simply reinstalling parts that I have already put on before. Ron came around to help me put the exhausts back on yesterday, and today I have reassembled the front suspension, torqued everything up and bled the brakes and clutch.
With luck I may have her back on the road in a week or two.
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