ROAD TRIP TO MID WALES

We have just returned from the most fantastic trip to Mid Wales. Jacquie and I drove up on Sunday to the Cotswold's to meet up with Jacquie's sons In Laws, Dave and Sue who we get on extremely well with. David has a couple of classic cars and he chose the more powerful MGR V8, so we should be well matched. on the way up we stopped in Marlborough and the day was so beautiful I dropped the hood for the rest of the journey, this was to be a pattern to be repeated over the next four days.

Our first day took us around Gloucester to Ross on Wye and eventually to the market town of Rhyader. This part was lovely enough, but the next day we were immediately into the Elan Valley and all the reservoirs that supply Birmingham, amongst other places.

The scenery just got more amazing as we continued onto Machynlleth for a late lunch.

 

Both cars were going extremely well and we eventually arrived at our second nights accommodation at Llanon, right on the coast, just before Aberaron,

For our third day, the sunshine was with us right from the start and we visited another beautiful cove on the way to Cardigan where our little dog thoroughly enjoyed himself, he being quite comfortable, in his bed on the back seat for all of the driving.

 

We had a very spirited drive in the afternoon, again amazing scenery across the Brecon Beacons. At last our hotel hove into view, unfortunately we had been downgraded to a lodge in the grounds, as the hotel wasn't dog friendly as were the previous hotels.

A final goodbye with Dave & Sue, over coffee in Chepstow, before we went our separate ways. Ours was a long blast down the M4 and M25, fortunately I put the roof up at Membury Services as shortly after ward  the promised heavy showers arrived. I have to be honest, Stella did miss a few beats, almost certainly electrical and I will fit electronic ignition probably sooner rather than latter. Otherwise she ran perfectly, never overheating and although Jacquie has a sore back after the seven to eight hundred mile, I found the new seats very comfortable. What a few glorious days, we will certainly be going back to Wales for some more.

 

SOLENOID STORY

When I was returning from Faversham having had the new seats fitted, I drove through a substantial hail storm and after that the starter began to play up. Previously, some times the solenoid clicked a couple of times before engaging the starter, but she always started very willingly, now I thought I was going to have to call the breakdown people, When at last she started after about twenty attempts. I think the hail storm was just a coincidence, but a day or so later Stella was back on the ramps and I eventually got the solenoid of the starter. There was plenty of information on the Forum as to how to re-condition the solenoid

So I took it apart, which entailed unsoldering to contacts on the plastic cap, I emery papered the large copper contacts and reassembled.

 Russ had told me I would almost certainly need to remove the starter to allow me to properly engage the solenoid. With the starter off I thought I had connected the two correctly and refitted both starter and solenoid to the car but as soon as I attached the last battery cable there was a horrible whirring and smoking negative terminal. It took a trip to Rus to show me how to properly connect the solenoid's plunger to the leaver in the starter. This time I got if fitted right, but sadly it still clonked a couple of times before engaging.

I decided as we were shortly going on a trip to Wales, I should play safe and I ordered a new solenoid which arrived the day after May Day. I got it all connected together and refitted to the car with no problems, except the top bolt, which is notoriously difficult to fit. However the bottom bolt is more than tight enough to keep it in place and when the gearbox is replaced latter this year, that bolt can then be fixed properly, but no more clonking, starts firest turn of the key every time.