August 26th. Speedo, exhaust and fuel pump.

After Gertie's successful test drive last Monday night a couple of minor jobs came to light that needed attention. One was the knocking exhaust and the other was a non working speedometer. Another job that had been on the list for a long time was the noise from the electric petrol pump.

I already knew what was causing the issue with the speedo. The thread in the housing that the angle drive screws into was knackered and so the angle drive just kept falling out. Luckily a second hand one came up for sale on ebay (complete with angle drive)  and I was lucky enough to win it for the grand total of four English pounds!

 

To fit this I had to lower the gearbox down, and so decided to do the exhaust at the same time. While doing the speedo,  I also noticed what was causing the exhaust to knock. In the haste to put Gertie back together I must have put the gearbox crossmember on the wrong way round. One side is lower than the other side to allow for the centre section of the exhaust to pass through. Having it the wrong way round loses about 6-7mm of clearance. (see pic below)

With this turned round I also set about fitting a new shiny exhaust bracket that I'd recently bought. The bracket bolts onto the side of the gearbox and hopefully stops too much movement.

 

 

The last job on the agenda was to sort out the electric petrol pump. This is mounted on the inner wing via a metal bracket which holds the pump. The 'metal on metal' fitment was causing a lot of vibration and making the pump very noisy as well.

After going through the spares bin I found two twin studded rubber mounts. (Similar to engine mounts, but smaller) I fitted these and then turned the ignition on to see if it was any quieter. It was a lot quieter-it wasn't working at all! Then I realised that the rubber mounts in between the pump bracket and the inner wing had taken away the earth. So, with an earth lead made up and fitted in place the pump was working again. It was a lot quieter too.

By the time these jobs were done time had gotten away from me so a test drive will have to wait for another day. I did start the car up for a few minutes and let it idle and the exhaust wasn't knocking on tick over like it had been, so things sounded promising.