CONTACT, IGNITION

I was going to title this post, BLEEDING BRAKES, but events have overtaken the blog.

Well the brakes have been bled and the pedal travel is minimal, great! My new, one man brake bleeding tool arrived as well as the 12mm banjo for the back brake. The tool was only partially useful. but this was because almost every joint leaked, so initially I was sucking air rather than brake fluid down the pipes. I then pumped the brake pedal to push the fluid down the pipes and when I started to get a bit of pressure fluid started to spurt out of the T junction to both front brakes, I had to disconnect and move a few pipes and cables so that I could get a 10mm spanner to the T and tighten all three connectors, then it started to leak from from the left calliper, another half turn there and all was tight and leak free.

The back brake was easier with just the one calliper and Alan of Triking had previously advised that I remove the calliper from the wheel and turn it so that the bleed nipple was at the top. Good advise, the air bled out easily and apart from mopping up the spillage the job was done.

I connected the cable to the handbrake leaver, but there is too much slack in the cable, so I will have to cut off the nipple at the calliper end and solder on a barrel one at the correct distance. I also need to buy some P clips so that I can fix the brake cable firmly in place.

Having got as far with the brakes as I could, I removed the bonnet and engine cowling, which allowed me access to the right side carburetter. I think the leak from the carb was because the bottom of the float chamber wasn't fully tightened, certainly I couldn't blow air passed the float needle when I lifted the floats. I put it all back together, refitted the carb to the engine, turned on the ignition and the pump started to make its whirring noise and no petrol leaked out.

I couldn't resist it, although the car is still on trestles, with a fire extinguisher in hand, I pulled out the choke, and pressed the starter button, there was a pop from the left carb and a cough. I pressed the starter button again and with a little pump of the accelerator pedal the engine sprung to life and settled down into a steady tick over, fortunately it seemed quite stable on the trestles.

It was noisy at the back end, in fact one of the fish tails dropped out of the silencer as I hadn't tightened it properly and it will definitely need some stuffing in the silencer boxes. The garage quickly filled with exhaust gas, so I switched of the ignition and waited for the garage to clear. I started it again, first prod of the starter button this time and a quick check of the warning lights and instruments showed me that all was as it should be. The only warning light still glowing was the green neutral one.

Yippee!!!What a result, almost a bit of an anti climax really, as it was so quick and easy, but that made a good change. I have decided to leave Marjorie on the trestles whilst I finish off connecting the hand brake and wiring up the rear lights, but I have still got to ordering them yet and with Christmas fast approaching I don't expect to get much more done until the New Year.

Aplogises for not having taken any photos of the first start up, not sure how that would have worked anyway, but I am sure there will be plenty on launch day, in the meantime I can relax in the knowledge that Marjorie has the power to go and the ability to stop.