Back on the road?

When I refitted the Weber carburettors three weeks ago I had hoped I would be able to put the recovered seats back in the car. Sadly tough one of the new harness sets was faulty and I am still waiting for the correct item. As it is taking far to long in my opinion, today I made the decision not to wait any longer and put the seats back in. This does mean however that I won't be able to fit the new harnesses for the time being, as the mounting points for the shoulder straps are inaccessible with the seats in place.

But I wanted the car back on the road so I could see how the refurbished carburettors would perform and if this would finally cure the engine's problems. So in between various rain showers I refitted the seats, now covered in splendid McBeans tartan 😎 Although rather straight forward it did take well over an hour to refit them, mainly due to the lack of room inside the car to access the various bolts. Especially the rear inward facing bolts are a bit of a pain. The fact that the rear mounting points need two plastic spacers between seat and mounting frame doesn't help. But with the help of a plastic wedge, some string to lower the spacers in place and a small make-up mirror the bolts could be fitted correctly. It certainly was well worth the effort ...

With the seats in place it was time to see if the engine would be willing to fire up. Not really. But after several attempts it reluctantly spluttered in to life. Not very strange as it has sat dormant since early November last year. What was a pleasant surprise was the fact that the engine almost immediately idled fairly smoothly, even without the aid of the choke. So after a quick inspection around the carburettors, revealing only a small leak caused by a slightly loose fuel union bolt, it was time for little test drive. After warming up the engine and gearbox carefully it became clear that the engine's problems might have been solved. The engine clearly picks up much better and pulls pretty good. But I didn't have enough time for a decent test drive. Plan is to do some more checks and driving over the coming Easter weekend, but for the moment rather pleased.