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Staggering Shenanigans - Fixing a mates Stag page 6


richardthestag

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long day

 

by the time mr flappy disc had done his stuff the hole was a whole lot bigger. lots of bodges too *

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and North Devon weather was at its best

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cut out all the crap

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post-3439-0-98592400-1495314400_thumb.jpg

 

Now just to plug up that hole

 

the patch was made up on the bench

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then weldage in

post-3439-0-68435500-1495314632_thumb.jpg

 

* In 23 years of ownership I have not done no weldage on the botttomish

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After finishing up the nearside thought I might just have a prod at the drivers side - bearing in much how much bodgage I found etc

 

Driver side was worse, for the filler! fecking load of it. all been there for 23 years + who says bodging doesnt work lol

 

Here it is all cut out and cleaned up. not all that was filler, but there was a load of rusty hole so I decided to cut all the inner sill rust out

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new panel trial fitted

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i really love "upsidedown welding" NOT

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Done

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knackered

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arghhhhh

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Stag can haz MoT

 

Yay

 

no advisories

 

Minor panic last night getting screen washers working.

 

emissions test show clean stag running

 

post-3439-0-85542800-1495615454_thumb.jpg

 

To celebrate I have new main beam headlights to fit along with chrome bezels for all four lights that I have owned for 7 years now but never fitted.

 

Also plan to clean up that engine bay a bit this weekend. Bought a selection of plastikote and Hycote rattlecans in various shades of creamy white for the inner wings - to colour match to the triumph white of the body. 

 

Not looking to eat my dinner off it but at the same time I dont want folk ejaculating Gah! when I open the bonnet.

 

worst thing ever has to be the Stag Mafia moaning about minor modifications yet their engine bays are so laden with chrome tat that they can be seen from the fucking moon!

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Junkman, on 24 May 2017 - 11:39 PM, said:snapback.png

I keep saying this, but most people dismiss it.

The Stag V8 is the best sounding of them all.

and 

 

The Reverend Bluejeans, on 24 May 2017 - 11:37 PM, said:snapback.png

I watched that first vid three times. The Triumph V8 really does sound glorious.

 

however bad it gets, stirring the gears on a run makes the little hairs stand up on my neck. Main reason why I have been unable to sell it for the last 2 decades. Mine has a standard spec but stainless exhaust which does crackle rather than woofle. It does have slightly larger bore tailpipes than standard factory peashooters. A popular upgrade in Stag circles.

 

I will never get tired of that sound. 

 

when cruising at legalish speed through France (of course) the wind noise just about covers the rhythmic beat of the exhaust. and because the engine at those speeds is operating right in the power band, pick up is more than adequate.

 

Mate followed me through the Telepeage getting onto the A28 near Rouen a couple of years back. I was brisk in setting off once the barrier had lifted, no need to spin up the tyres like a hooligan, and the hapless Jean-Claude complete with two mugs of coffee, gun and silly hat tripped over the kerb watching me and not where he was going   :D

 

My stag was auto (BW35) originally and that makes an even better sound but doesnt allow for double-declutch shenanigans 

 

The only real issue with high speed runs (and not the vindaloo type) is that although the top speed is over 120 you have to be very fucking brave to get anywhere near that. Feels like the front wheels are barely touching the tarmac. and that is like the vindaloo type

 

Found that out a few years back buzzing a D-Type Jaag which I recall being one of the RW jobbies on its way to support the XJ220 campaign at Le Mans. D-Type buzzed me back shortly after with some serious interest return on my payment, holy shit it was fast. I dont go anywhere near 3 figures any more, it is not what it is all about anyway.

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The only real issue with high speed runs (and not the vindaloo type) is that although the top speed is over 120 you have to be very fucking brave to get anywhere near that. Feels like the front wheels are barely touching the tarmac. and that is like the vindaloo type

 

Air dam required? Anything over 80 and my old 124 coupe used to get disturbingly light at the front. The Ovlov 164 seems a lot better though, maybe the combination of good power steering and a boat anchor up front helps.

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The only real issue with high speed runs (and not the vindaloo type) is that although the top speed is over 120 you have to be very fucking brave to get anywhere near that. Feels like the front wheels are barely touching the tarmac.

The very same thing happens when you take a P6 to 100.

I just didn't give a shit and pressed on to over 120 in a wtf let's pretend it's 1970 moment.

And it was 1970 for a moment. Wonderful.

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this weekends shenanigans was to replace the cataract 

 

post-3439-0-86317600-1496078922_thumb.jpg

 

Unlike the saloon range the Stag grill is 5 seperate pieces and 12 concealed cross head self tappers. Bit of a sweary twat to remove

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Removal of light unit is same as anything else from the 60s through to the 80s, loosen the three crossheads that secure the chrome ring, rotate it slightly and then remove the chrome ring.

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new inner light units, and chrome rings that I have owned for a decadeish

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fitted

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tested

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Toother side 

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then looked at the grill section and decided that it was just a bit sad. Masked up the shiny edge bits to save me having to polish through to them again

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PlastiKoted satin black, but not happy with two of the smoll bits that I will strip right back to bare and do again post-3439-0-57092300-1496079311_thumb.jpg

 

Car resting in garage without grill, grrrrrrreat

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  • 2 weeks later...

Partly because i am depressed old fart and have been busy I have only just got around to refitted the front end of the car.

 

It is going to Classics on the Crick at Naphill  tomorrow so want it to look its best and all that   

 

https://www.classicsonthecrick.co.uk/

 

 

They has all sorts of shit going on, including a Barn Find Charidee auction for TV Air Ambulance

 

https://www.classicsonthecrick.co.uk/barn-find-cortina

 

Anyway more of that tomorrow

 

Stag Gorilla is attached by self tappers through small holes and hidden brackets, they can be a bastard to fit.

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using slithers of cut up Full Fat Doctor Pepper bottles I can lock the screw in place and make installation operations significantly easier

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Thats better, lost the Triumph Script off the number plate surround, I object to buying the whole thing with chrome and all so looking at other options, and the gorilla badge is about some place. found it eventually in a box of bits in the boot

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The badge has been in a somewhat sorry state since bought the car. 

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Used 400grade wet n dry to get rid of the nasty scuff, the marks you can still see are because the black paint on the back has flaked away

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Then 1500grade wet n dry to smooth the surface

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Then metal polish on a polishing pad on Mr Dremel

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And finially a splash of satin black on the back to fill in some of the scratches

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Can haz much improve

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Cat says "meh"

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  • 4 weeks later...

having been tied up with welding my daily driver Range Rover and being 50 etc over the last couple of weeks I really havent used the slaaag

 

nipped out yesterday as Mrs Thestag was on a train back from Ex'tur and needed collecting from Maidenhead. First pick up the lads from the tennis club, pulled out onto a clear a404 in a 30mph zone and in no time at all had some cunt organ donor on his whizz bang put put wanging it off the rev limiter as he went past me, then slowed to 20 expecting some sort of reaction. he didnt get it but I did think what a complete cunt. followed him for 2 miles with him brake testing etc for no reason other than we were both going the same way, he then got bored and fucked off probably at about 50-60 again in a 30 zone. be dead soon I expect. I do hope he has a helmet (lol) cam so I can see me on youtube. reckon he was doing 45-50mph when I pulled out onto the clear road as I could see 40yards either direction and there was fuck all there.

 

Anyway went off to get Mrs Thestag and all was extremely well. however on picking her up, three things happened. 

 

1. there was a huge twangggggggg! from the footwell. nowt seemed wrong so I carried on, turned out to be the clutch pedal return spring which it obviously does need.

2. Mrs thestag screeched like a demented lunatic every time I exercised any mild acceleration or cornering or dared to venture over 65mph "dont spoil my day" etc

3. side lights and headlights which I thought were on were not!

 

Conclusion - neither me nor Rupert the Stag enjoyed Mrs Thestag riding shotgun

 

So onto the headlights. Quick test today confirm indeed bugger all illumination

 

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Removed the column nacelle. that is a nice word isnt it? and found 0v at the lucas brown live feed to the switch. I thought it might be the switch up until this point.

Those not familiar with Lucarse wiring. Brown is direct to battery, unfused and live all the time. White is ignition controlled. Anything else is fused

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there is also a brown that goes to the back of the ignition switch which is very close by

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This is the loom connector that connects the bulkhead loom to the headlight switch, arse! unfused that too, looks like it got warm but not too warm. might look at popping a fusible link into the battery live supply so at least it doesnt go up in shmoke

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looking at the diagram, #16 is the light switch, it's brown (N) feed is from the same place as the ignition switch. Oh that is handy! Firstly I cleared all the burnt crud from the loom connector, then pulled the brown wire from the switch side of the connector. This prevents any risk of short etc. I will get hold of new bullet so I can make the connector good again. I then 

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then I committed the cardinal sin lol of connecting the lighting circuit direct to the ignition circuit. it is all wrapped up in tape and unlikely to cause any more issues than a 40 year old push lucarse connector did. The lighting circuits south of the switch are all fused but the switch is not. that I will correct

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yay, victory over Lucas the Prince of Darkness

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This is an excellent thread - I had missed a few of the posts, so enjoyed catching up. I have long maintained that the Stag's V8 makes the best sound of any V8 I have heard - so I'm another who has seen the light. I have loved the Stag since I was a child. The lady who lived next door to my grandparents had a white one like this. It was a very late one, which she bought new. It sounded glorious - better than her husband's Mercedes W116, though that sounded pretty good itself.

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  • 1 month later...

I fitted my stag with Rover 220 coupe leather seats because the foams had all but disappeared from the originals. The idea was to refurb the originals and refit. That was 2009!

 

I then got bored tripping over the original set and sold them for £25

 

Couple of years ago I decided that I wanted the original seats back in it, so bought another set with reasonable covers but knackered foams for £75... doh. Still.

 

Anyway dissolved foam is probably quite common on anything from mid 60s on when they did away with horse hair, hessian and big coil springs so this might apply to some of you folk.

 

The seat base foams were ok but the rubber diaphragm was split on both. the seat backs were very soggy as were the headrests

 

The is the seat back, as you can see no foams down either side

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start by removing the back of the seat, 4 screws and two clips

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gets you here, start by pulling the clips that secure the outer cover to the frame, being careful, it is at least 40 years old

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Then loosen the inner straps that pull the seat cover tight

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and fold the outer cover back off the frame

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probably should have put some newspaper down

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The cover itself is in good shape, except for being originally Tan and painted black, looking at VinylKote on Monday

post-3439-0-28594800-1502556628_thumb.jpg

 

Hosed and scrubbed all the shit of the frame

post-3439-0-78474400-1502556629_thumb.jpg

 

fitted it back to the base

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glued new foams into place

post-3439-0-10097900-1502556632_thumb.jpg

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Next up is the tricky bit

 

the cover has tabs of cloth sewn in along the edges of the basketweave section and half way up it. The idea is to pull these tabs through carefully and get it so that the inner basketweave sections are shaped nicely to the foam, too tight and the straps will snap, too loose and it looks baggy

 

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Here the outer cover is still loose from the frame but the traps are being tensioned by pressing on the outside, pulling the strap and clamping it on the back

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30 mins of faffing and I was happy with it

 

Then I strapped up the outer skin to stretch out any wrinkles, again not too tight nor too loose, pretty easy when you start doing it.

 

ends up like this. Chuffed with that. Just needs cleaning and painting black with Vinylkote or something

post-3439-0-90158700-1502557744_thumb.jpg

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Next I did the headrests which were very very squashy

 

post-3439-0-10636800-1502557866_thumb.jpg

 

Undid a could of screws, and pulled some clips and the headrest support came out 

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leaving what looked like a bag of loose dirt, eughhhh

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New foam is fitted inside the original vinyl cover, shaped into the corners, then the support post is wiggled back in using a spatula to get it nicely between the new foam. then clip it back together and done. see post above for finished headrest

post-3439-0-07921100-1502557867_thumb.jpg

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lastly the seat cushion/base

 

the cover is very useable

post-3439-0-24641800-1502558073_thumb.jpg

 

one stiletto hole, I will work out how to fix this, but getting access to behind it is not impossible

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The diaphragm holds up the seat foam and stops your arse from resting on the metal frame, this must have been pretty uncomfortable

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10 clips hold it to the frame, but the seat runners are in the way, I didnt remove them to start with which made it all a bit of a faff. Runners are now off the seat and painted 

post-3439-0-61074000-1502558075_thumb.jpg

 

The clips go through the top of the frame, so I had to loosen the outer cover to get access. didnt disturb the cover position nor foams :D

post-3439-0-68722300-1502558076_thumb.jpg

 

with diaphragm out of the way I could see foams were good, they are different on the seat base to the seat back.

post-3439-0-74250100-1502558077_thumb.jpg

 

new diaphragm clips into place

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runners cleaned up

post-3439-0-02721600-1502558081_thumb.jpg

 

and has can paint, etch primer followed by ford stratos silver. I only painted the bit you can see when the seats are fitted into the car. the rest of it is still tidy enough

post-3439-0-59481700-1502558832_thumb.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

Found enthusiasm and energy to move the seat project forward a step.

 

Got in touch with Kolorbond last month http://www.kolorbond.co.uk/

 

They do a product called VinylKote, I had heard good feedback so went for it. Aerosol cans need mortgage arrangements but a litre of the stuff for an air gun works out a lot cheaper.

 

To paint 2 front seats (which were tan and then black but done a bit shit) took 1/2 litre of the VinylKote. The whole order was £70 ish. a shit load cheaper than the £600 for a pair of new covers eek

 

product comes in three parts, a cleaner which is diluted and wiped over the seat covering. A prep which melts whatever colouring is on the seats and makes for a tacky surface and the actual paint.

post-3439-0-00438400-1505071783_thumb.jpg

 

Predictably all three components are nasty stuff so protectshun is required ededed

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This is it painted. now it has dried it has gone satin and looks fapin luverley

post-3439-0-03346300-1505071795_thumb.jpg

 

More pics tomorrow or Tuesday when I bolt the seats back in

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this weeks update

 

sold the old rover tomcat seats with stag runners to a fellow stag owner for £100

 

left me with a spacious cockpit

post-3439-0-77229700-1505597051_thumb.jpg

 

alas driving from the back seat is only for Hightower

 

for me 

post-3439-0-83879400-1505597052_thumb.jpg

 

post-3439-0-37922000-1505597053_thumb.jpg

 

to be honest I am chuffed, not cheap but now they are done I am finding them way more comfy that the rover seats which were too high for me.

 

costs £65 for a pair of front seats

£190ish for foams and diagpragms

£75ish for VinylKote which I am most impressed with. More than enough left to do door cards etc

 

less £100 back on the old seats 

 

Over £200 to get a presentable pair of front seats, which still have interesting "stilleto" holes etc.

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Just discovered this thread for the first time. Fascinating. I will have to admit, I didn't even realise there was a Triumph V8. Still getting up to speed with this BL history...

 

Seat foams are something I need to do on the MG. The drivers side has your bum sitting on the metal base and leaning back, your spine digs into the metal back. Uncomfortable seats does not make for a pleasurable experience.

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  • 4 months later...

Update time. done the square root of nothing with the Staaag since Kop Hill last September. 

 

Really need to use it more. Anyway connected the battery and it fired straight up first pull. yay, took it out for a drive and have absolutely no idea why I dont use it more often. Overdrive doesnt work, suspect dodgy lectrics.

 

anyway mate of mine is struggling with his stag over fuelling. so I offered to have a look at his carbs

 

Stag uses Stromberg CD 175 carbs, each with its own choke and temperature compensator. Air fuel mix then travels through a really shit inlet manifold and into the cylinders.

 

Common problems with stag carbs flooding is fuel pressure. OE pumps are NLA, replacement pumps are better geared to injection systems.

 

Needle valves in stromberg float chambers dont like more than 2psi so a fuel pressure regulator is needed. Paul had already done this. And still couldn't get his engine to run lean.

 

Firstly I checked the depth of the main jet, this should be 80thou to 110thou below the surface

post-3439-0-98413800-1516990531_thumb.jpg

 

Using my homemade depth gauge I found they were both 90thou

post-3439-0-25526700-1516990531_thumb.jpg

 

Next up is the choke modules. these have a spring loaded disc that rotates against holes on the side of the carb body. folk sometimes fit gaskets, which is a bad idea as the chokes will always allow fuel to pass through, hence a constant rich mixture.

 

Both choke module discs were very sticky on the spring

post-3439-0-06112800-1516990533_thumb.jpg

 

After this I removed both float chambers on the bottom of the carbs, the floats have to be set 16-17mm above the carb body (without gasket fitted) and measured at the corner of the float nearest the pivot.

 

these were 14mm, this meant that the float chambers would fill too much and then flood through the main jet into the carb throat

post-3439-0-47995300-1516990534_thumb.jpg

 

measured the diameter of the main needle which had worn by 2thou at the fat end. more that serviceable

post-3439-0-03126600-1516990535_thumb.jpg

 

Decided to strip the carbs down and give them an ultrasonic bath

post-3439-0-71264000-1516990535_thumb.jpg

 

I bought this unit as a cheapo but am so impressed with it I plan to invest in a larger unit that will take a whole carb body.

 

I have to fiddle with the carb body in this unit because I can only get 3/4 of it under the surface

post-3439-0-65516400-1516990536_thumb.jpg

 

20 minutes later and the float chamber vent valve is working again. this little brass pin gets pushed in when the throttle closes and allows the float chamber to breath through the air filter. 

 

edited to add - if it doesnt breath when the throttle is closed and the float is allowing more fuel into the float chamber it will flood through the main jet

post-3439-0-26410800-1516990537_thumb.jpg

 

Both choke modules responded well to and ultrasonic cleanse and now work perfectly

post-3439-0-77952900-1516990537_thumb.jpg

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part duex

 

strombergs operate on an incredibly simple concept. supporting the needle in the main valve is a piston, the top of the piston has a flexible rubber diaphragm, this allows sensitive pressure changes either side of it to allow the piston to move up and down and thus pull the tapered needle in and out of the main jet. as the throttle butterfly opens, the pressure in the carb throat changes, the piston rises and fuel is delivered past the needle.

 

There is a damper in the top of the carb that smooths the rise and fall of the piston.

 

The big downside of this design is that the diaphragm needs to be intact and oil is needed in the top of the carb for the damper to work.

 

New diaphragms are made from rice paper and I need to top up the carb oil ever 200 miles or so.

 

I failed to take any piccies of the rebuild part so here is my car, carb top is removed from one carb and the piston, needle and diaphragm in one big chunk

post-3439-0-86373100-1516992113_thumb.jpg

 

These are the pistons after a cleanse, the needle goes into the hole nearest you, the diaphragm is secured under the brown ring and the damper goes into the tube at the top of the piston. Simples

post-3439-0-05617400-1516991351_thumb.jpg

 

I do love a before and after comparison. shows that I am doing something worthwhile rather than re positioning deckchairs on the Titanic

post-3439-0-82739400-1516991351_thumb.jpg

 

sediment from one carb!

post-3439-0-85910500-1516991352_thumb.jpg

 

after cleaning everything it was a simple case of reassembly. the only things I had to set were float levels in the float chamber and set the needles in the pistons as a baseline. I tend to set them dead level with the bottom of the piston. The engine will start then the carbs can be balanced.

 

Balancing the carbs can only be done on the running engine

post-3439-0-98687300-1516991353_thumb.jpg

 

All done, Paul was well chuffed. cost me 20ml of engine degreaser and a pair of float chamber gaskets

post-3439-0-76975200-1516991355_thumb.jpg

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

3 months on and I thought I would drag it out of the garage 

 

too much stuff to do and up until recently no motivation. New meds are working so far fuck yeah

 

anyway youtoob vid tells a million words.

 

 

while I fixed the running over 2500rpm it is now a bit shit on light throttle at 1500rpm

 

needs a damn good service, new HT leads and plugs on order, the old ones are getting on for 10 years old at least

 

much more to follow.

 

needs a clean, this pic makes it look clean, it isnt

 

post-3439-0-18777200-1523213747_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

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