This will be an update and a musings post all in one.
When I look back through this blog and think about the things we have done with Lizzie over the last 5 years, something breaks before, during, or after. We have had fuel pump issues before a drive-it day, head gaskets going during or after a long run plus many little niggles. The big one was the gearbox failure, which decided it did not want to work anymore during a quick run around the village.
So, with the trip to Gaydon rapidly approaching, the possibility of issues has been playing on our minds. Several test runs have been undertaken and each time some small niggles have become apparent. The upshot of finding these niggles now, is we still have time to rectify them.
A bad knock when going over bumps – oh no – broken spring? bad shock? no, thankfully it was just the spare wheel jumping about, although a couple of loose securing brackets on the spring were found and rectified.
Another issue was signs of fuel seepage out of the carb. Everything seemed tight where the carb meets the manifold so not there. There were signs of seepage out of the top gasket of the carb, let’s have that off then… yep, the gasket was soaked in petrol. A replacement was sourced from our stock for fitting. Whilst I was there, I checked that the float still floated, it did but there were signs of sediment at the bottom of the chamber. This was sucked out using a pipet and any remaining sediment was wiped out.
Now for one of those bad “please don’t be that” moments. We had come back from a run (to top up the fuel tank, which also allowed us to gauge the fuel consumption – 30.31 mpg! – for a 68-year-old car, which for test purposes has not been driven that gently, I am happy with that, let us see what the trip brings the MPG in as) and I thought she was running a little fast. So armed with a screwdriver I attempted to adjust things which worked to a certain degree. After a couple of stalls, she started to run rough and overheating. She was put away with the investigation to be a “tomorrow” problem. But I couldn’t leave it at that. After an hour I went back, whipped out her plugs, and did a compression test – 75psi across the board. Phew – not the gasket. Plugs back in started her up, still sounding rough. Hmm… with her running, the HT leads were checked, and suddenly she was running sweetly again. The downside of this is Lizzie has taken another chunk out of my thumb!
On the last trip, the screen washer refused to work. We pulled over and found the smoking gun, the connector had been dislodged, a 10-second fix!
There is only so much we can do to prep her for her trip on the weekend without risking further issues so nothing else will be getting done before the trip but (anything more serious than tightening a nut will have to be deferred or if it is serious enough, we won’t go). I suspect there may be some stuff to do when she gets back on Sunday night.
Whilst this has been going on, we have been quietly watching a series on YouTube by a chap who goes by the moniker MartsGarage. Mart has spent the last year or so restoring a 1955 Anglia, although Mart states many times he isn’t restoring the car, he is repairing it. The series has helped us understand how certain components are repaired, etc. so it’s been a very useful exercise.
Anyway, the weekend is approaching. We have checked the tent, sleeping bags, etc. so they are all good for our Saturday night camping at the British Motor Museum. A shopping trip to get supplies will be made on Friday evening so on Saturday it will be to load up the car and hit the road! We have a couple of go-pro style cameras (not go-pro as we don’t have that sort of money) which we hope will capture the journey and a video produced.
I am looking forward to seeing some more 100e’s at the weekend and I hope we can reunite Lizzie with her own kind, as we are yet to photograph her with other 100e’s.
