The plan for today was the mighty task of awaking 'Red Shed' from her 23 year slumber. This car has been dry stored all that time so no doubt we would find a few surprises along the way. The first job was to knock up a temporary exhaust system so that should she start, she wouldn't turn everyone deaf in the process.
My friend Gavin (Iggy on the forum) had nothing to do and so was my willing volunteer for the day. With the temporary downpipe and two centre boxes in place, the next investigation point was the petrol. The fuel line was inspected and found to be blocked solid in the short outlet pipe that exits the bottom of the tank. A piece or welding wire and high pressure air line resolved this and the pipe was refitted. (after replacing the short rubber link pipe which had perished as well)
Even with this done we still weren't getting any fuel up to the pump so we blasted the airline down the main fuel line only to find that this was blocked solid too. The welding wire performed its task again and once more a blast for the airline cleaned that out as well.
We were now getting fuel (Fresh fuel as well) up to the pump but no further. The spare fuel pump robbed from the 10CR/RBRR spares box was fitted, but this was causing us problems too. After rebuilding one good pump out of two we were now getting fuel up to the carburettors.
Next on the agenda was to fit a battery and see if we had a spark. Excellent! We did! A very good one at the points, but very hit and miss at number one spark plug. The spark plugs were removed and found that the gap was massive on all of them (I reckon about 60-70 thou!) and the electrodes had all but disappeared!
I fitted the old iridium sparks plugs that were in Gertie until recently and then we were sparking when and where we should have been. The big moment came, the choke was opened, the key was turned and after a few turns of the engine, she burst into life! A bit too much in fact as she immediately went into full throttle. I quickly cut the engine and then found that the throttle return spring was missing. A temporary one was found and fitted and she was started up again.
The engine sounded really sweet. No nasty knocking or banging noises so that was good result. A sticking clutch quickly freed itself and I even managed to move it forward backwards a little bit.
We didn't run it for too long as we discovered that the rear carburettor was leaking petrol and the water pump was leaking too. (fully expected)
removal of the carbs on Sunday showed that the metal clip holding the twin floats had broken off of the carburettor body and the floats were just resting in the bottom of the chamber and therefore not cutting the fuel off when needing to.
So a spare carb needs to be sourced along with a better exhaust system and a water pump as well. A quick check of the electrics showed that everything was working with the exception of the windscreen wipers and this only turned out to be the switch which has now been replaced.
A very successful day then! It feels quite good when you awaken a car that was last run in 1989 and we retired for the day with a real sense of achievement. :)
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