Throttle Cable

The throttle cable is now fitted to the carb. Haven't done the pedal end yet but its fun to stand and pull the cable by hand and open/close the throttle. I bought the standard cable from Dax which came with a single spring and a bracket which goes on one of the rear carb fixings. There was a tiny hole drilled in the bracket to take one end of the spring but it was too close to the body of the carb and the spring fouled on some of the external throttle mechanism so I drilled a new 2.5mm hole a bit further out so the spring didn't catch.

Video of clutch working:

There isn't quite enough travel on the release arm. The clutch disengages on about 90% pedal travel and when the prop shaft is turned by hand you can feel it dragging slightly with the pedal all the way to the floor. Sadly this is because my clutch master and slave cylinders are mis-matched. I've got 7/8 slave and 3/4 master so I've got less movement at the slave (onto the clutch arm) per pedal distance moved. Most people have it the other way round (d'oh!). Due to our clutch release arm being chopped by 1.5 the stroke required is slightly less (but more effort) so I reckon that 7/8 master and 7/8 slave should be sufficient, with the clutch biting about halfway down the pedal. Not ideal but I'll give it a go. The one good thing about getting this wrong is that we now understand fully how it all works, rather than just bolting the parts together and moving on to the next job. It does mean that the excellent job we did of filling the system with fluid and bleeding it now has to be repeated.

before and after

Just realised how far we've come

Final Engine Connections

Getting closer to engine first start. This afternoon I fitted the heater hoses to the manifold and water pump as I got some 1/2NPT to 16mm hose barb(whatever that is in old-man fractions) from Summit racing in the states. Its absolutely impossible to get them in the UK unless you want brass plumbing fittings, which look rubbish.

Having said that I got an absolutely horrendous looking blue anodised 3/8NPT to 1/2 hose  barb for the vacuum hose from the brake servo. Couldnt get it in chrome, or any other material for that matter. It makes me sick to look at it, piece of jap tuner crap but its all I could find that fits. The hose I've got is actually 7/16 but with much huffing and puffing I got it on the 1/2 hose barb. Luckily the air filter will cover it up when its fitted. The servo bends in a nice S shape to the brake servo so any condensed fuel will run back downhill into the manifold rather than to the brake servo.

Ah yes, I had to remove the carb to fit the hose barb thing. That was a bad idea. I almost pooped myself when I knocked a tray of screws flying and I thought one had gone into the manifold. After a full hour of searching I had accounted for all screws and washers so thankfully didn't have to remove the inlet manifold.

Heater

A good afternoon was had today, sorted out the remaining electrical niggles. The heater fan now works after rattling a bit to start with. The blades were catching on the radiator so I stood that off with a washer to give it clearance so thats good now. It only has one setting (full power).

Wiper Motor

The wiper motor has previously worked. I tried it from switch on the dash and it doesn't park. Thanks to help from the forum its because the plug on the motor is unbelievably crap. This is the offending beastie:

The park ramp on the wiper motor pushes the plunger which changes the contacts around and stops the motor. Great on paper. Unfortunately the contacts are free to wobble around all over the place so its practically useless. Solution is to get some gloop, most likely silicone potting compound or a nice blob of RTV  around the contacts at the top, leaving the plunger area at the bottom clear to do its thing.

Update: massive blob of RTV was deployed, still no joy. The switch appeared to be useless so after a few frustrating days I finally realised that although the switch in the dash was wired correctly (proper Lucas 2 speed wiper switch from Holden) It was upside down! its a wonder it did anything at all!

I slightly modified the wiper park switch with some blobs of solder to bring the contacts closer together, and close the distance to the plunger as the plunger isn't long enough to make the second connection to earth.

Amazingly it now works! Wipers reinstalled with a bit of sticky back foam wedged above the boden cable tube to stop it wobbling: