t bars oot!

indeed the sun was splitting the heavens today so I went out for a wee drive with the t-bars out. Drove to Loch Lomond, Rowendennan and it was fab. Shades on windows down no stereo. Sadly the usual Sunday drivers were out in force so I never had the opportunity to blast the car through the gears but it was still an immense day out. The exhaust seems louder but then I guess it would be with the t-bars off. A grand day out though no pics as the car is manky. I'll wash it later in the week.

car runs just fine -

nice and smooth through the revs though I'll need to change the EBC slightly. It slightly overboosts then settles at a level. Shame that level on max is 1psi lower than I want to run. Must..have..that...extra...1psi lol But hey for all the difference it makes to my driving.

Was good driving the car with the window down and shades on. Was a bit cold hence I left the t-bars on but I had fun.

dizzy problems -

so I decide the distributor cap and rotor arm need inspecting as they are at least 60k miles old and in need of an overhaul - i know i know ancient technology but it does work. The units I have are Copper modified in a group buy from IMOC by the previous owner but they still need checking and cleaned up regularly.

So first issue is a flat ridge across the cap right beside the lower bolt but eventually I find a socket combination to fit it. However, some spanner monkey decided this dizzy cap needed a torque more suited to the Queen Mary not a service item and lo the bolt sheared after 2 clicks on the ratchet. Great, so now the whole distributor has to come out and get the bolt drilled.

I remove the two bolts holding the distributor but because they hadn't been moved in well a lifetime I managed to break the Oil Pressure sensor when the nut finally cracked from the dizzy cap. That trebled the service cost lol. Clearly the timing had never been altered on my car cause the dizzy was stuck fast so after smacking it with a rubber headed mallet via a block of wood I managed to get the dizzy off.

Couldn't get the sheared bolt off so eventually I had to drill it out. Luckily I managed to keep most of the thread intact so I save the distributor. I cleaned up the copper points and once the new bolts had arrived I went back to the car with all the bits and some copper slip.

Everything re-assembled real nice and was torqued with a more appropriate level. Changed the spark plugs at the same time since they are copper units having done 10k miles. The old ones didn't look too bad but they have run their course so replacements please.

Timing was set by a mate with the ole timing gun so I'm just waiting on the weather being nice before I go for a wee drive. Hopefully the judder / miss under acceleration should be gone....

Thanks as ever to the crowd on IMOC for their invaluable help and advice in getting my car up and running again. CHeers Paul for your help in removing connections and setting the timing for me.

15GBPounds in parts required for dizzy overhaul and spark plug replacement
22GBPounds in parts for replacing the oil sensor I broke trying to do the above.

111k miles and topless motoring -

ah bliss. Indeed the car has clocked now over 111,000 miles and tonight I took the roof out for the 20 minute to my parents. Bloody amazing, reminds me why I bother with the leaks (now fixed), the wind noise (still to do) and the rattles (adds character ;-) )

The exhaust was also making some nice barking noises with the occasional pop on changes and over run. Sweet

Happy sunny motoring folks