FHC resto nr. 71; Fitting fuel filler and happy birthday

Another smallish job on the car completed. This weekend I found a bit of spare time to fit the fuel filler neck and connect it to the tank. Over the past few weeks I had been searching through my spare parts in search of a decent filler neck hose to use between the filler neck and the fuel tank. But I only found one, and that was badly damaged. So in the end I opted for a more modern approach and ordered a 300mm long piece of universal ø51mm diameter flexible fuel hose from a motor sport outlet.

Another "problem" I encountered was the non vented large diameter fuel filler cap. When I bought the car it came with  a rather bodged rear deck replacement from a later model, so with the small vented filler cap. As a result of which the original "breathing" device (part #158526) was missing. Luckily I found a separator canister (part #UKC2257) from a US specification PI car I broke a few years ago. Which should do the same job. And it turned out that the mounting bracket for this canister was fitted to the inside of the fuel filler shroud of my car's body:

With all parts ready it was time to fit them to the car. I had mentally prepared for a few frustrating moments because there is very little room to manoeuvre inside the shroud. But I had hoped that at least the universal hose would slide onto the tanks filler tube easily (as it did on the filler neck). Of course it didn't!

With the later type of filler neck you can assemble the filler neck and hose to the tank, and fit the everything from underneath. Sadly with the early type the filler neck has to be fitted from above. Which means the filler hose has to be slipped over the tanks tube in a very confined space. Took me well over half an hour to get it on. Time for the next challenge, fit the canister and the various hoses and tighten all hose clips in the now even more confined space. But got everything in position in the end. Only had to turn one hose clip after I took these pictures ...

I also had planned to fit the panel to close of the filler neck shroud, but I remembered just in time that I needed access to the space for fitting the left hand rear shock absorber! And just for the records, yesterday was the cars 42 birthday or should I say registration day, as she was first registered on October the 6^th 1976!

Reconnaissance LTV Nachtrit 2018

Yesterday I finally got the SU carburettors on the DHC set up correctly, using the emission tester from a friends workshop. Turned out that it was running pretty rich at almost 7% CO, but that was easily rectified by turning the adjustment nuts 3 flats up. Which gave a reading of just above 3%. Synchronising them brought the CO level to 3,5%. With an idle speed of circa 1000 rpm. Result! Sadly the homeward journey turned into a shower dodging contest. So it was kept short ...

But today the weather forecast was much better, so I used the reconnaissance for the 30th edition of our Nachtrit, which will be held on Saturday the 27th of October, as an excuse to take the DHC for a drive in the country. And it turned out to be a rather enjoyable day, clocking up well over 300 kilometres all together. A few pictures of some of the areas we will be visiting this time;

And the car behaved quite nicely. Most noticeable is that since fitting the slightly richer needles, the engines temperature is running slightly lower than before. So that looks good. And another trip planned for this Sunday!

FHC resto nr. 70; More small jobs

In between solving the DHC's carburettor's problems, and with no motivation at all to finish the heater, I carried out some more smaller jobs on the FHC. First of these was collecting the refurbished parts for the headlight mechanism for reassembly:

Putting them back together was a rather straightforward job. Though I was surprised it took me a fair amount of time, mainly caused by the fact that all the threaded holes needing careful cleaning with a tap. This was to remove the powder coating that got in there despite all threads being plugged during coating. But after spending a few relaxing hours outside, and enjoying the fine late summer weather, the headlight mechanism platforms and headlight bowls were back together:

Next came the rear quarter grills, together with various small parts to fit them and for the head lights. Again back to the shed to search through my spare parts. First to select the best pair of rear quarter grills:

Followed by a search through my many boxes with various small parts. Not too bad a job when you can combine it with some nice weather!

These were all taken home for a much needed clean up. Rather time consuming but also very relaxing and rewarding to do. With everything cleaned it was time to fit the rear quarters grills, but not before fitting 2 pairs of newly fabricated air extractor flaps to the B-post together with two small plastic spacers to help keep the rear of the grills in position:

Followed by the grills themselves. This is turned out to be a bit of a fiddle with the small plastic T-bolts and nuts. At least I didn't lose any of the small (M4) nuts, to secure the grills with, in the depths of the car's interior!

And to finish off on a very rainy day, I fitted the drain plugs to the rear underside of the front wings:

New carburettors - final take (5.1)

It had to be something simple! This morning I visited a friend's workshop, for some kind of second opinion on the carburettors. And after coffee and vlaai we started with a few checks. His verdict was that the throttle disc of the front carburettor wasn't aligned properly. Which also meant that fine tuning had to wait till this was rectified. After some more coffee and vlaai I headed home to do some household shopping, after which I made myself comfortable to remove the carburettors again to check the alignment of the throttle disc of the front carburettor. Well there was nothing wrong with the throttle disc. It was nicely centred and moved freely. But by the time I found that out I already had found the culprit for the problems, this small piece of tissue paper:

Rather embarrassing really! While fitting the carburettors for the umpteenth time I almost forgot to remove one of the gags of tissue paper I had stuffed in the two manifold ports to prevent dust from entering. But with the front carburettor loosely in place I noticed my error. So I just pulled the carburettor back a bit and pulled the gag of tissue paper out. And I didn't notice that a small piece tore of and remained behind on the two lower mounting studs, where it got wedged between the carburettor flange and the manifold mount. And here, soaked in fuel and preventing an airtight seal, it could provide extra air and fuel. But it could also prevent the throttle disc from closing properly. Resulting in the problems mentioned in the previous two posts on this subject. I knew it had to be something embarrassingly simple!

With the carburettors again in place it turned out very simple to set the idle speed at around 950 rpm. I won't set it any lower as the idle will become rather lumpy. This being caused by the by now ancient Triumph Tune TT10204 Fast Road (280° duration) cam shaft that is fitted to the car's engine. Hopefully I'll be able to fine tune the carburettors within the next couple of days and see how the car runs now!

At least I am now again rather experienced in removing and adjusting SU carburettors and have gathered a lot of knowledge on SU working pressures, needle valve closing pressures, fuel pumps and so on. And I have learned not to use tissue paper to keep dirt out, but to use cloth rags in the future. But also to take my time to carry out  certain jobs, and not rush them!