I was up at 8:30, quite a decent lie-in by recent standards.... Got all the stuff to service the Cortina and do a few other jobs ready and waiting.
Well, Em says "can you baby sit for a bit while I get a few things?" sure. So 3 pm I start on the Cortina....
My friend Steve punts up in his Minor. He's had new tyres and the fitter has put the nuts on so tight he can't get them off with his wheelbrace to renew the rear brake cylinders.
No problem for my mighty breaker bar, har har.
So we hung about and drank tea and tinkered with the Cortina while a very small person watched...
She won't be allowed to sit on the cars for long...
Haynes manual is there because Steve didn't believe I could remember the spark plug and contact set gaps off the top of my head. Which I could! ta dah! I was wrong on the timing though so it was worth RTFM... (I thought it was 6* BTDC, thats only correct for the 1600 though....)
One of the flippin' HT leads broke leaving the contact on the old plug, so (Halfords and anywhere else being closed by then) stole one off the Buick. The old plugs were obviously OLD and quite grotty but an acceptable colour indicating reasonable mixture, so I never touched that. The points were burnt to a crisp. The rotor arm and cap looked decent if worn and I had the parts so I replaced them and the condensor as a matter of course.
two problems I've been havimng are some pinking and the revs sitting too high on idle. I cleaned up and lubed all the linkages assuming it to be something to do with the autochoke but seems to have been a sticking return spring/lever. We'll see how that gets on next week in commuting.... I checked and set the timing with a dial back strobe, and reset the idle speed after.
Test drove the car and it drove spot on, still seems to pink a little but only at full throttle and reasonable RPM which makes me wonder if its leaning out rather than preignition. Its even maybe a little retarded now...
Car is sadly too low for me to get the oil drained without jackign it up (can;t on the gravel drive) so that will wait until I take it up for its MOT and I can nick the use of the ramp for a oil change.
Lubricated all the hinges and catches, check all the misc fluids... by then we were losing the light so just gave it a quick wash and called it a day.
Not exciting, not ground breaking, but just a nice bit of tinkering and about the first "work" I've done on the cars in a long time except for service etc on the Mazda which really doesn't count.
And good fun. And the car runs better for it.
Anyone else do anything much today?
Well, Em says "can you baby sit for a bit while I get a few things?" sure. So 3 pm I start on the Cortina....
My friend Steve punts up in his Minor. He's had new tyres and the fitter has put the nuts on so tight he can't get them off with his wheelbrace to renew the rear brake cylinders.
No problem for my mighty breaker bar, har har.
So we hung about and drank tea and tinkered with the Cortina while a very small person watched...
She won't be allowed to sit on the cars for long...
Haynes manual is there because Steve didn't believe I could remember the spark plug and contact set gaps off the top of my head. Which I could! ta dah! I was wrong on the timing though so it was worth RTFM... (I thought it was 6* BTDC, thats only correct for the 1600 though....)
One of the flippin' HT leads broke leaving the contact on the old plug, so (Halfords and anywhere else being closed by then) stole one off the Buick. The old plugs were obviously OLD and quite grotty but an acceptable colour indicating reasonable mixture, so I never touched that. The points were burnt to a crisp. The rotor arm and cap looked decent if worn and I had the parts so I replaced them and the condensor as a matter of course.
two problems I've been havimng are some pinking and the revs sitting too high on idle. I cleaned up and lubed all the linkages assuming it to be something to do with the autochoke but seems to have been a sticking return spring/lever. We'll see how that gets on next week in commuting.... I checked and set the timing with a dial back strobe, and reset the idle speed after.
Test drove the car and it drove spot on, still seems to pink a little but only at full throttle and reasonable RPM which makes me wonder if its leaning out rather than preignition. Its even maybe a little retarded now...
Car is sadly too low for me to get the oil drained without jackign it up (can;t on the gravel drive) so that will wait until I take it up for its MOT and I can nick the use of the ramp for a oil change.
Lubricated all the hinges and catches, check all the misc fluids... by then we were losing the light so just gave it a quick wash and called it a day.
Not exciting, not ground breaking, but just a nice bit of tinkering and about the first "work" I've done on the cars in a long time except for service etc on the Mazda which really doesn't count.
And good fun. And the car runs better for it.
Anyone else do anything much today?