Saturday 1st April - Fire up day!

 Richard was due to leave early this morning to head back to Worcestershire, but instead decided to hang around to see if we could get the car running. We did, but we had a few failed attempts before we got it right. The first was a petrol leak due to me missing a connector that I should have tightened up, the second was a fuel pipe from the PRV to the pump that burst under pressure, so that was replaced, and the third one was one of the return pipes from the pressure relief valve that needed mating to the return to the fuel tank. 

With all of this cured, we then had an issue with the wiring. (Also my fault!) With this corrected we then primed the Lucas fuel pump. For some reason we couldn't get the fuel pressure up to where it needed to be. (105psi) It tuned out that my pressure relief valve wasn't up to the job, but luckily, Richard had a refurbished one with him and lent me that. With a small adjustment we got the pressure up to 105psi, so we could now attempt starting the car. 

We cranked the car over for some time until we finally bled all of the air out of the system at the injectors and started letting petrol through. The injectors were then nipped up where they meet the injector pipes and the car was then running. It sounded good and was running ok. Richard was happy with that and left to make the long journey home. It was now 1.30pm. 

Dave and I carried on and made one or two minor adjustments. It will need to be driven really to see how it performs, but I will need to do a few 'tidy up' jobs before I do that as well, so for now we called it a day. Dave was going home back to Derby early Sunday morning, so we really didn't want another long day in the garage. We were done by 3pm, went out for a carvery and enjoyed a couple of pints in the evening. 

I was pleased with what we'd achieved, but the snapped stud in the cylinder head had cost us a hell of a lot of time. We should have had the car running Friday morning and out for a test drive the same day really, but hey ho. This is the joys of owning old cars I suppose. I'm looking forward to driving it though, and all being well, it will be taking part in the Club Triumph Historic Counties Rally in three weeks time!