Spurred on by Patrick's SVA pass, I worked on my car today. Its getting a little chilly, so time to refresh the anti-freeze. The first lot had got pretty murky so I had put some radflush in a few weeks back to get rid of all the rust and gunge from the engine which sat empty for nearly three years.
Whilst I had the coolant drained, I fitted a new bottom rad hose as the one previously fitted was from the donor. (Anyone wanting to copy this design should note that this hose is in fact a Thermostat top hose with about 10mm trimmed off. It fits the 35mm plumbing pipe and radiator bottom outlet perfectly)
I also fitted the temperature sender for my temperature gauge.
Next job was to fit the extra spacer between the brake servo and master brake cylinder. Thanks to Stuart for the idea and Robin for the design plus Patrick for posting the drawing. (Pictures on my Flickr site)
I had a little drive up and down to test the brakes and it worked a treat.
Whilst running the engine to re-circulate the ant-freeze, I solved my misfire problem.
This has been bugging me for the last few weeks. By listening to the injectors by the old technique of a long screwdriver resting on each injector and the handle pressed against one ear, I discovered that injector number 6 was not firing. I first suspected the connector on the side of the engine beneath the inlet manifold but that didn't seem to be the problem.
Then I tried a sharp tap on the side of the injector while the engine was running. That instantly fixed the problem, the injector started up and the misfire was gone.
Engine and exhaust note now sound much smoother.
I had had the injectors utrasonically cleaned before I re-assmbled the engine, so I assume that this one was just a but gummed up from not running. I'll keep an eye on this one incase it is faulty.
I also, fitted the hose clips in the steering rack to limit the range and stop the front axle uprights hitting the front shock absorbers.
I few test drives up and down the garage block confirmed everything worked fine but there is more work required to get it to self centre from full lock.
Some pictures here.............
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peters-bmwmarlin/