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Progress tonight two backwards one forwards

JPSmit

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Interesting night tonight. LOST was on so of course it was shop night. Took the carb off again and took it to a motorcycle shop around the corner to get a guide for the choke cable (Thanks Mark for helping me realize it was even missing), so, I decided to get the choke reinstalled and the carb back on. Filed the guide (cable stop) to fit, and then spent the next 1 1/2 hours getting the cable attached right. Turns out the bracket that held the cable in place was binding on the bolt holding the air cleaner on. A smaller air cleaner bolt and getting rid of the bracket finally did the trick and it appears that the choke should work perfectly. Now to wait for the new water pump and repair the throttle linkage and she should be ready to run.

What made the repair tonight interesting was that when I got my car certified a year ago (this to make it road worthy on Ontario) I asked my mechanic - who is an LBC mechanic to do three things in addition to the certification. 1. give it a once over to make sure all was good. 2. Figure out why it was running out of gas rather than accelerating properly. and, 3. hook up the choke on the SU.

He did all this. Last fall I removed his solution (a plate over the carb opening) when we discovered the line from the float to the carb was leaking letting gas out and air in. In fairness to the mechanic there is absolutely no way he could have seen that. Tonight I took off the last of the hardware he installed to hook up the choke - it just wasn't right. Now, I'm not disparaging my mechanic or any mechanic - God knows you all on this board have saved my bacon more than once, and, I would use this guy again in a heartbeat. It is just interesting to me that there comes a point where you are intimately enough acquainted with your car that you know what it needs and what to do. I wouldn't have expected that of myself.

I'm out of town till the weekend, so, we'll keep you all posted next week.
 
A few little things tonight - lubed the passenger window and it seems much better - I found some food grade dry lubricant in a rattle can and it is great! Fixed the errant screw on the glove box bracket. traced the short in the accessory fuse to the cigarette lighter as I suspected. Removed the carpet in the front as the Clutch MC leaked over the winter. good news is that it was DOT5 so the paint is fine and it is under warranty from Moss. Cleaned up the shop a little. Horn doesn't work which is odd but it may just be that I disconnected a wire and didn't reconnect. It's a semi lieu day tomorrow so I'll look in the daylight. Weather looks to be warm by the end of the week so hopefully....
 
some progress today, got an extension for the control rod (thanks Mark)and 3 feet of threaded rod if that doesn't work. Found out that the plastic end of the control rod where it attaches to the accelerator cable is called a Hiem bracket - who knew?

Tomorrow I will be getting the new water pump, new Clutch MC (warranty) and new lighter. Have the rad out and ready to drop the new pimp in so, hopefully we are on track to be driving this weekend where it is supposed to be in the mid 70's.

Think I may see if I can get a water cock braised to the bottom of the rad so next time it won't quite be the mess on the floor.

we'll keep you posted.
 
Hi JP,

I switched my fan to the 10 inch Hayden electric fan from Moss. It took me most of one day to install, had to make brackets to tight to tie it to rad. I like it, keeps the temp at 160- 180 works perfect and efficient. Great for city driving. They claim hp increase and better fuel economy. . Just an idea, IMO actually a useful upgrade unlike many of mine.
The electric fan is 100 % hidden from view, you really need to look hard to find it.

Good Luck
Phil
 
I thought about it for a couple of minutes and then thought, why? The car runs nice and cool already, new rad, clean engine, new hoses and tonight a new water pump. Everything is reinstalled and waiting for fluid tomorrow perhaps. Bumper is back in (it has to come off to get at the lower bolts to remove the rad) rad, pump, hoses - all there. Tomorrow new clutch MC, linkage for carb and I'm good to go. I'll have to put the grille on but want to get a couple more ground wires run first which means I have to get some bullet connectors. Anyway, tomorrow or Saturday - vroom vroom!

Besides Phil, mine has paint :devilgrin:
 
So, elsewhere you will see that we are running and happy, but, wanted to mention the water pump. So far, I know there are British, American, Canadian, Chinese and Italian sourced parts. Now we officially have a part from India. I was looking at the pump and thinking that the casting kind of looked like it the sand had been formed by hand. It wasn't rough as in bad fit, just rough. Course then I looked at the old pump casting and it was way worse. So, every step is a step up. (This thread, not at all to disparage Indian workmanship and please don't respond thusly) If anything it is a commentary on how much different the appearance of parts is/was that many years ago compared to today.
 
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