Well, after more than a month, I picked up the car on Christmas eve.
The sight under the bonnet was unbelievable! Everything pristine
and how it shoulda been. I should point out that the insurance co
wouldn't come at paying for respraying the engine bay so I had to pay
for that, also the rebuilding of the generator and checking the regulator,
amongst many other extras not covered by insurance.
The rebuilt generator is putting out 15A even when the headlights are on
now that the relays are working properly. The new SU's look great and
have been installed with proper fibre spacers and Al heat shields.
The restorer also put in nice new breather lines, removed the old
double-acting fuel/vacuum pump and re-routed the fuel line. He also
installed a pressure regulator in the line to take care of excess
pressure from the electric pump.
On the vacuum thread - I found that the wipers died with very little
provocation, so first thing was to install a V*l*o vacuum tank with
a t-piece in the line. This looked like 12 plastic tennis balls moulded
together. It helped a little, but not enough to keep
them going up hill. I now have 2-speed BMC motor (?Mini) and Rover
3000 wheel boxes to get a full sweep from side to side. Mounting the
motor was a bit of a bugger under the dash, so now the glovebox
won't fit. (I don't wear gloves, so thats no loss!).
After Christmas we went away on the boat, so haven't driven it much.
This morning was cool and wet, so it was a bit reluctant to start.
I put the generator back at the urging of the restorer as I need to
have it on for Group Na racing. I'll see how it goes - if the battery
goes flat on me again, I'll put the alternator back on.
A happy new year to all our readers,
paulr
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