[Mick O'Malley]

Originally Posted by Mick O'Malley

.....she should be on her maiden voyage on Saturday to Castle Combe Lotus Day

Well, my optimism was misplaced. Once the spanking new Weber was sitting happily on the manifold, I realised that I'd not only need a new aircleaner, as the DCD one wouldn't fit without surgery, but also the throttle and choke cable attachments would need modifying as well as the fuel supply run. Back to the keyboard: new air cleaner and a brass right angled union for the fuel hose purchased. I swapped the throttle quadrant from the DCD, and by carefully bending the outer choke cable clamp bracket, improved the run in a way that meant major bonnet surgery in that area could be avoided.



As there was no provision for crankcase fumes to be fed into the induction tract, I decided to run a hose from the outlet on the rocker box to a catch tank. An old 1litre Castrol oil can lent itself to this so I made an open topped ally box to hold it, which I tech screwed to the bulkhead.



I'd noticed that there was an oil leak from the fuel pump which didn't respond to tightening of the mounting studs, so I ordered a new one which arrived yesterday. Before fitting I thought I'd check the tightness of the six screws which hold the top on and two were loose! I attached the new air cleaner (lucky I had a supply of M5 nuts and washers, you'd think for £80 they'd chuck them in!) and offered up the bonnet. I felt tip marked the areas requiring surgery and set to with the jigsaw. Some dressing with a rat tail file was also needed to clear the vacuum pipe attachment and the choke outer.



Before at last firing her up, two weeks later than anticipated, I checked the water level in the radiator and realised I'd forgotten to make provision for the overflow. A search of my 'might come in useful' store unearthed a plastic Asda 700gm peanut butter jar and a Youngs Bitter beer kit tin to hold it. I M6 bolted the tin through its base to the frame behind the grille (with a penny washer to spread the load) and used my newly acquired stepped drill bit to cut the hole in the plastic jar's lid. I found a bit of 6mm hose, clipped it to the overflow stub and cut it to a length that would let it suck the overflow back. Job done, very fiddly but satisfying .



No further predictions!

Regards, Mick