Been a while since I've had a chance to update here so have a couple rolled into one.
Have been doing a bit more of a detailed look at the rotor arm on the Trevi because it seems like there's some incorrect data out there in the catalogues.
Here are the three rotor arms we currently have.
The top one is what we believe to be the correct one. The lower two are more recent replacements. Part numbers below.
The black one appears to match the current Intermotor listing at least visually.
The difference in contact profile is quite visible.
That started to break down to the point that we completely lost spark within ten minutes of installation.
The Vemo one lasted better, and it's hard to see in the photos but it's burning around the tip too.
The one which is resulting in the best running is the ancient and probably badly worn Bosch one.
Here appears to be why.
Dimensions of the Bosch one:
That's from the centre of the mark made by the centre contact post to the outer edge of the contact tip. Wouldn't surprise me if that was a round 1" when made given it's a whole five and a half thou out.
If this is as old as the distributor cap which came off, it's probably very worn. Remember we had lost about a millimetre of the posts in the cap this is likely as old as.
Both of the new ones are noticeably shorter. I could see this with my eyes, but having instrumentation confirming it is nice.
This will have been more than doubling the effective plug gap so no wonder it wouldn't run right. We really need to find the correct rotor.
I had pretty much decided to leave that slightly dodgy connector between the distributor and vehicle loom alone as it didn't seem to be causing any issues when poked, shaken, wiggled, flexed etc...however I've changed that decision today on seeing the insulation is worn through on the underside of one of the wires and that bare conductor is visible at the entry point to the connector block.
Will get that connector deleted... it's only two wires to remake connections between if the distributor has to come out in future. Hardly the end of the world.
Oh...forgot to include the post oil-change photo a couple of days ago. This looks better I think.
There was a local classic car meet a week or so back which I wanted to make an effort to get to. This was a good catalyst for me actually tidying up the front half of the garage. The work that's been going on with the Trevi this last week or two had resulted in TPA getting a bit buried.
This is why the garage being so narrow is such a pain... it's so much of a faff to get around the car to get at things that stuff inevitably just ends up getting piled up on top of the car.
It's a good thing I'm not bothered about the finish on the paintwork.
I had a bit of a dig around too regarding the slight running issue we'd had. Decided to clean and gap the points simply because it's been quite a while since they were last done. No horror stories there, and the distributor cap posts were given a gentle clean too to scrape off the oxide layer that inevitably builds up.
A bit of investigation I think has tracked down the issue. I think we've got an intake vacuum leak! It's only a little one, but carb cleaner sprayed around the nearside base of the carb results in a drop in engine speed. It's not worked itself loose of the manifold (again), so I'm not sure whether the base gasket has issues or if it's an issue with the throttle spindle. It has always seeped fuel from somewhere in that vicinity, so might be connected.
It's not bad, and I feel I can rest a bit easier knowing the occasional carburetion hiccup is because of a small vacuum leak rather than something which is likely to suddenly degenerate and leave me stranded. I'll have a closer look soon to see if I can confirm exactly where the leak is.
Had a bit of a run round the car as well, making sure the wheel nuts/bolts were all still tight, greased up the front end checked tyre pressures etc.
All seemed fine, so off we went to the get together. I think the driveshaft coupling bolts being properly tightened has reduced the vibration at speed and seems to have reduced the driveline shunt when taking up drive a bit, though the nature of the system means there's always a bit of slop in there.
Some nice motors there, though car of the day for me was probably this little Micra.
So nice to see one (a really early one at that) in such original condition.
Speaking of things which are rarely seen as the factory originally intended...
Rather at the other end of the scale, this was also truly splendid.
Sounded every bit as good as it looked too.
The US in general was pretty well represented.
I wasn't in the only two cylinder air cooled car there either.
Couple of MGBs, not seen many actually in red. Does suit them I think.
I know a lot of people seem to hate the MGB because they're so ubiquitous, but I still really like them. Kind of surprised I've not owned one yet.
The vast majority of my photos from this meet up are on film though so it will be a couple of weeks before I get that film finished and off for processing.
I completely forgot to actually take any photos on my phone of my own car there. Derp.
After a search covering approximately 80% of the far end of the garage I finally managed to locate this nondescript black plastic case.
Plan being to let me see better what's going on with the AC on the Caddy.
Reading with the system fully equalised, having sat overnight.
Then with the engine running and AC turned on.
Yeah...the reading on the blue gauge should have dropped, target being the 30-40psi range, and the reading in the red gauge should have gone up, probably to 130-150psi.
They should absolutely *not* stay exactly where they were. What this means is that the compressor isn't pumping. Either one of the valves isn't seating properly or something has failed mechanically in the compressor. It does drop the low side a fraction when the clutch first pulls in, but by like 1 or 2 psi, and creeps back up over the course of the next few seconds.
So basically we need a new compressor.
Really glad I've found my gauge manifold though. Not knowing where that was was really annoying me. Obviously I don't have access to refrigerant so I can't charge it myself and I don't have access to a recovery machine any more, but being able to properly see what's going on is really useful.
These are only cheap gauges and would fall apart in a couple of days in a commercial setting I'm sure, but for occasional use they're just fine. We compared the readings to a set of decent quality (Fieldpiece I think) gauges back when I got them and the accuracy was spot on at least.
Will need to get the system evacuated so we can get a new compressor fitted...hopefully that (and getting it recharged for the *third* time) will finally get the air con working again.
As the Trevi is still here waiting on the arrival of the correct rotor arm that the owner has now tracked down a source of I figured it was a good time to get a couple of other minor niggles sorted.
The reason it was here last time was to resolve the almost completely dead dash lighting. Which was successful, though we had issues with quite a few scratchy contacts.
Since then while the illumination still seems fine, we were missing several warning lights.
There should be lights showing there next to the fuel and temperature gauges.
A scan over the rest of the dash showed we were also missing the indicators for the handbrake and rear fog lights.
Strip down time.
However further investigation shows the issue there to be other than in the dash. The rear fogs work, just no light on the dash.
There was an issue with the little lamp failure display too which was convinced there was always a lamp out in the offside rear cluster.
Further strip down needed to get to that.
There were a couple of spare PCBs in the boot and sure enough swapping it out for one of those (getting the ribbon cable back in was an absolute pig) got rid of the spurious lamp failure warning.
I re-replaced any lamps I put in last time given I've had horrendous reliability issues with that batch. These will hopefully prove more reliable.
We now have a full compliment of the four main warning lights on the dash during the self test.
We still have a red warning light (the big circle below the side/main beam indicator had a red and green LED in, it shows green now with the ignition on as the dash lights are all OK, and lights red to draw attention to a fault) when the headlights are turned on - though there *is* a lamp out in the front fog lights, so that may actually be telling the truth.
So I'll get that changed and see where we are then.
I may end up with the dash apart again as I'd like to beef up the ground(s) for the panel. Currently turning the headlights on raises the reading on the fuel and temperature gauges by about an eighth...to me that just smells like a grounding issue. Especially with prior experience on Fiats (and relatives) where they have almost invariably had issues with grounding in or around the instrument panel. Easy enough thing to improve though. Have to admit I'm tempted for the sake of less than £10 to add a known good engine to body and body to battery ground strap for future proofing...
It looks wacky and you'd think it was a nightmare to work on, but the dash is actually really easy to get apart. Stripping it down as you see above, changing a bunch of lamps, voltage testing to see what was and wasn't working, replacing the lamp failure module and putting it all back together took me less well less than an hour.
Finally got around to investigation of where the little bit of free play in the steering on the Caddy is. It is only a tiny bit but is really noticeable if I've not driven it for a few days.
I had a suspicion that the culprit was this universal joint at the base of the steering column.
Having an assistant wobble the steering wheel for me (requiring a helper was one reason I'd not done this yet) revealed that I was correct. There is definitely some free play between the two halves.
Wonder how much of a pain that will be to change...
Something else which had been on my to do list for a while was installation of a bit of easily removable equipment in the back.
Big plastic bin with a non-slip mat in the bottom of it. This is now basically the boot, saves stuff sliding around all over the place. It's tethered in place by the straps there for hooking the dog's travel harnesses to which wrap around the front of it and hook to each other.
Bigger than it looks, can get a week's shopping for us in there with a bit of Tetris action. Can just unhook the straps and lift it out to stow in the garage or stuff in the passenger seat when I want to take the dogs out.