TURN THE KEY

It was a bit of a struggle getting the pipe clips into place. Lying on my back under the car I had to resort to sticking the female parts of the clips onto the back of a short pry bar with BlueTack, so that I could get them into the right position up between the twin silencer boxes and the propshaft and push them into  the holes in the propshaft tunnel. I eventually got three new clips fitted and both the brake and fuel pipes pressed securely into them.

 With the car firmly back on the ground, It was with some trepidation that I turned the ignition key. I had previously turned the engine over via the crankshaft bolt and there wasn't a problem, but had I got the timing marks properly lined up when I changed the timing chains back in January. After the second turn it started, but with a loud hissing sound. I knew instantly what that was, I hadn't connected the hose from the servo to the inlet manifold, soon sorted and I left the engine running to warm up and she sounded fine.

Time to put the bonnet back on, I had intended to rub down and respray the underside of the bonnet, but I had run out of time. I did change the hinge arrangement so that I could just withdraw two 5mm R clips and the bonnet would come free wthout disturbing the alignment.of the hinges and this system worked well and now the whole of the engine bay looked really good, apart from the underside of the bonnet of course.

The first thing I noticed when she was up to temperature was that a squirt of water was leaking out of the joint that I thought I had soldered, nothing for it, it would have to come out and go to Aaron Radiators in Thornton Heath. Good thing now was that it was very easy to remove the bonnet. Two days later I collected the rad and reinstalled it and Stella started instantly. Unfortunately I then noticed that there was no red ignition light coming on and there also didn't appear to be a charge from the alternator.

Drain the radiator again, move power steering pump to one side, remove the stainless pipe that runs from top of engine to bottom of rad and then I could remove the alternator.The main wiring block was not fully pushed home onto the back of the alternator and I had not connected a single wire as I previously had not been able to see where it went. I could now, onto a spade connector recessed into the back of the alternator. Everything now properly connected, I again turned the key and the red ignition light glowed, good news. Stainless pipe, steering pump, all refitted, drive belts adjusted, radiator filled and now with the engine running the volt meter showed a healthy 14 volts, even better news.

Just got to check the tyre pressures and we are back on the road in time for Drive it Day on the 22nd.