I've been meaning to update my progress for a while now but a few niggles with the car had kept it in the garage but now the weather has brightened up and the show season has started I felt it time for me to sort a few things out.
Last month I took the car out for a local Rover meet I regularly attend and whillst on the way I expreienced what I first thought was fuel vapourisation but the car was running at a normal temperature and it wasn't a hot day by any standards. This continued on and off for a few miles and then disapeared allowing me to get to the pub. However on the way home it kept cutting out and I had to park up in a lay-by. A quick phone call and Graham Ransley (GrimV8) rode over from the pub to have a look. The new fuel filter I fitted at the end of last year was full of a lot of debris from the tank and we came to the conclusion that some dirty fuel had got into the carbs. With VERY light throttle and a maximum speed of thirty I was escorted by Graham on his Hayabusa and part of the way by a friendly Mercedes Benz Ponton owner who pulled over to help
This little episode propmted the much delayed task of relocating the fuel pump to the rear of the car. I removed the N/s carb and cleaned out the float bowl and flushed the rest of it. It would appear that fitting a 99p fuel filter from the NEC Car show was a false economy. The filter element had come detached and allowed the fuel and all the debris straight into the carb :roll:
I had delayed the relocation of the fuel pump because all the while the car was running, or not on very warm days, it seemed a lot of work lying under the car. Basically I was feeling lazy. Later I found out that my facet fuel pump was a 'pusher' not a 'sucker' so was really struggling sitting behind the N/S headlight. As I have rearely used the reserve tap on the car I decided to leave the reserve tap where it was and plumb the pump into the main fuel line therby loosing this facility.
[/url]
Using some angle brackets found in the garage I made up a mount and drilled and tapped some holes on the O/S panel behind the spring.
I had been running the petrol tank low and as I couldn't remove the main supply pipe I readied my fuel can and cut the pipe. All was good until I realised that the 5 litre can wasn't going to be enough :shock: With fuel now spraying everywhere I ran round the garage looking for a suitable container. Clearly there was more fuel in the tank than I realised
I decided to fit a filter before the pump and simply connected everything up to the original plastic pipe to the front of the car.
Due to the proximity of the metal fuel pipe under the manifold i decided to remove that and run a hose from the tap and over the top of the N/S rocker cover, again with another filter to be safe. Hopefully this route being in a 'cooler' location.
Another little modification I wanted to make was to fit some bigger air filters after reading Stinas thread and Rockdemons recommendations. I purchased the K&N style filters from Amazon and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I'll be honest I'm not overly concerned about the better airflow but fancied a slightly louder induction noise ( thats the boy racer in me coming out). They give a nice grumble under light throttle and sound quite throaty when you accelerate quite hard. I will leave them for the time being to see if I'm totally happy with the extra noise.
As a result of all this work the carbs needed a bit of re-tuning. As some of you will be aware after I rebuilt the carbs last year I decided to fit richer needles (BCA) and didn't noticed any adverse running problems other than shocking fuel economy. This was to be expected really so I decided to fit the original BBV needles. I didn't feel like tackling the tuning this time as the kickdown cable needed readjusting as well after I tightened up the throttle linkage. I was getting quite harsh gear changes and having to completly lift off to get 3rd gear
A massive thanks to GrimV8 who booked me into his workshop, Brooklands Motorcraft in Potters Bar(
http://www.brooklandsmotorcraft.co.uk) at short notice to give the car a once over. I had actually balanced the carbs pretty well and the dwell angle and timing was fine. After some fettling and tweaking, adjustment to the kickdown cable and a couple of test drives the car now runs perfectly. The idle is smooth as are the gear changes which are seamless with 3rd achieved with no lift off from the throttle.
Another little improvment I've made was to replace my black 'ET' headrests for some buckskin headrests. I found a pair of teardrop ones on eBay and for £20 and some cleaning I think they look a lot more subtle. I may in the future recolour the 'ET's.
Left on the imminent to-do list is to replace my rear springs. I have ordered these and some new rear shocks as the ones I fitted were some NOS ones but I think had been left sitting on a shelf for years.
I have been left with one problem since draining the fuel tank and that is a duff fuel gauge.I suspect the float is stuck after draining the tank but thought it best to check the gauge as well. I have shorted out the wires at the rear and didn't appear to get a response from the gauge, the temperature gauge does work by the way, so I removed the gauge this afternoon and wired a battery to it. The needle does move but very slowly and only went about halfway, I was expecting a full deflection.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?