I'd been trying to find a fitting that I needed to screw onto one of the existing fittings that's on the inlet manifold for the twin 40 carburettors. I'd been really struggling with this, so the other alternative was to try and get the original fitting undone and replace it. The problem was though that this fitting looks like its been on there for many, many years and the alloy manifold and metal fitting had probably fused together.
After speaking to our metal work expert at work, he advised soaking it overnight in GT85 and then heating it with a blowlamp before attempting to undo it. So, Friday night I left it soaking and Saturday morning I got some heat on it. Unfortunately, the gas in my blowlamp ran out but luckily, I had managed to get a fair bit of heat on it before it did. My ratchet still couldn't get it undone, so decided to risk it and put my extra-long bar on it and hope that the alloy didn't crack. I was relieved to feel it turn a fraction and then just kept putting light pressure on it until it relented and released its grip. Good result! New manifolds are over £200, so I really didn't want that kind of expenditure at this time of year. Or at any time come to that!
With this now removed I could now fit the replacement that I had picked up from Keith Halstead. I was pleased I managed to get this done as this was something that had been nagging at me since I bought the carbs. All I need now is for the new throttle pedal to arrive and then I have everything I need to make the conversion.
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