April 1st, 2017

Spend: £9.00

 

Paul (@black st) offered to come round to see if the car was running on all cylinders and if it did, use his synchrometer to balance the throttle bodies.  After unplugging lead no 2, it was quite clear that the problem lied there.  A quick trip to Halfords to pick up a set of spark plugs was made, but they made no difference.  New coil pack ordered, but it may well be the leads.  Also had a listen at a rattle when the engine was running and this was attributed to the starter pinion gear not disengaging.

 

April 2nd, 2017

Spend: £48.01

 

Coil pack arrived from Amazon, so quickly swapped the old one out, but it made no difference.  New (old stock) Motorcraft leads ordered.  Tidied up the electrics and cleaned the cabin so I can put the seats back in.

 

 

 

April 5th, 2017

Spend: £5.00

 

Had a spare few minutes before dinner and installed the shift lights into a permanent position

 

 

April 6th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Seats back into the car and torqued up the rear wheels.  Just need to fit the rear tonneau cover again and then the rear is completed.  If only I could say the same of the front

 

 

April 8th, 2017

Spend: £156.10

 

A beautiful sunny day and here I am again, on the drive, dismantling the car 

 

 

The HT leads arrived last night, but the seller had send the wrong type.  No point in post-poning the inevitable so drained the car of coolant (and managed to catch most of it as well!) and petrol and got the engine out in a fairly straightforward matter.  Getting the old flywheel off was a different kettle of fish.  What a pain.  But eventually managed it and installed the new Retro-Ford flywheel.

 

 

Now just waiting for the clutch to arrive and then we can put it all back together again!

 

April 14th, 2017

Spend: £139.89

 

The new leads and clutch arrived earlier this week, and with it being Good Friday, Paul and I picked today to get cracking and get that darn engine back in.  And back in we got it.  It is so much easier having someone around who's a crack at mechanics.  After everything was connected back up, we refilled it with coolant and switched the ignition on.  Pressed the starter and ...

 

 

 

After lunch spend the afternoon getting scuttle and nose cone on.  Need to cut filter hole in the bonnet and then get it a MOT!

 

 

April 15th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Tightened up the headlights, fitted the tonneau and did a quick run down the road.  Oh boy, does she fly!  Googled for a local MOT place open today and ended up at Nene Auto Repairs who was able to fit me in on such short notice.  After a nerve wrecking 40 minutes the tester handed me the piece of paper signing it off for another year...

 

 

April 17th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Dash off again to rotate the shift light as it was showing from right to left, instead of the more natural left to right.  Also programmed it to the new max revs (7500).  Then had a look at the speedometer and added a bridge between terminal 8 and 6.  A test drive later shows it is still not working.  Will need more tinkering.

Finally I made a template for cutting a hole in the bonnet where the filter can protrude.  Lots of yellow dust later I got it nice enough for now.  Need new edging as the one I have is for thinner panels.

 

April 19th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

More fettling to the speed sensor and all of a sudden it works!  Finally able to see what speed it's going at.  Now just left with the fuel sender not doing much and the "misfire/hesitation when lifting off" issue.  The latter may not be so easily resolved  

 

April 22nd, 2017

Spend: £2.89

 

New edges arrived and I widened up the hole a little more so the filter fits better through it

 

 

Spend the afternoon at @black st who was fitting his new diffuser.  Pwooah, nice!

 

April 23rd, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

Butchered my old fuel level sender and put it in the place of the (incorrect) level sender on my new pump.  Now I can at least see when the tank is empty!

 

April 29th, 2017

Spend: £6.70

 

The day before the big day!  Cleaned the car (first time since it was parked up last year) and tidied up the interior by re-fitting the tunnel top and carpet.  Also tested a little bit more with the idle screw using @Trevturtle's magic box plugged into the MBE 956E ECU.  Seems to be mainly to hesitate around the 2800-2900 RPM range, but not if you sort of accelerate past that.  But cruise into that range and you will suffer.  Fingers crossed we can get rid of this at Stoneleigh tomorrow...

 

 

April 30th, 2017

Spend: £0.00

 

 

Sun, lobster, knackered.  Just some of the words I would associate with this years Stoneleigh.  Not seen it so busy as this year.  Bring on the next!

 

 

 

Last month: £  5640.45
This month: £   367.59
            ----------+
Total:      £  6008.04