Finally I managed to generate enough brownie points to take a break from building husky climbing frames.
The longer I leave this car, the longer the list of things to do becomes!
However, I had to start somewhere, and currently it's missing its gearchange and exhaust, the inlet manifold is off as well since I've taken off the old LCB in order to replace it with one without cracks. And I'd stripped the carb to clean it, and I'd noticed one of the headlamps had about an inch and a half of water in it...
So, today, I have reassembled the carburettor, removed the dodgy headlamp, and drained the oil prior to replacing the gear selector oil seal. The replacement came with an alloy collar to sit behind the seal, but it turned out that someone had already fitted one. With a chisel, rather than a tool which might not have made big gouges in the housing. Rather than remove the engine and gearbox to fit my other gearbox, I have fitted the new seal with a dose of silicon gasket and will be keeping my fingers crossed. At this point I'm more concerned with getting the car mobile again; if it leaks oil, I'll just have to keep a close eye on the level until I have more time (and better weather, since the car is out of doors) to do something about it...
Oh yes, the carb. I was a bit concerned about the float valve, since it has a bit of a groove worn in it. I dismantled the other HIF44 I have lying around to see if it was any better. It was worse, so that's something else to search eBay for, tonight.
When I removed the gearchange which was on the car (which had been the main reason for getting the car up on ramps), I found just about every moving part had wear to a greater or lesser degree. The rods had worn the housing bushes oval, and the yolk (if that's the right name for the bit with the ball socket for the gear lever) was rattling about on the rods too. A new housing, yolk, and roll pins, and used rods, were sourced, and the rods lengthened as per the build manual. Today I retrieved the steel plate that fits on the housing base from behind the bench, where it fell about six months ago, and reassembled the whole thing, together with a pair of new rubber mounts to bolt it to the car.
I've also cleared a lot of junk out of the car which had mysteriously appeared there, rolls and rolls of bubble wrap amongst it all. Plus the new gearchange oil seal, which I thought I'd lost.
Next time, oil will go in the engine, the gearchange will go on, and I'll reattach the manifolds, exhaust, and carburettor, if all goes well. I had hoped to build a towbar, but that might have to wait till later. I've also just won a refurbished rear subframe on eBay which I'll collect on Tuesday, but that's not going on unless the current one fails the MoT - plan is to fit it if/when I do a rear disc conversion; the rear damper mounts are also looking very rusty, so that's another entry on the list. Once the gearchange, carb, and exhaust are on, then I might try and fire the engine up again.
And at that stage it will be coming off the ramps that it's been on for moe than a year, and maybe (headlamp permitting) I'll try for an MoT...
I'm still hoping to drive my Gold to Stoneleigh this year. Please don't scoff.
(edit) Looking back on it, this may not seem much for a day's work, but I did have to dig out a soakaway this morning too. Not my favourite kind of job - vey smelly!