Fully paid up at last

[Chris KC]

We in fact accessed the Stelvio via the Umbrail pass which I'm guessing may be a quieter route - it was still unsurfaced at that time. Not sure if it's a harder or easier climb but my impression was there are more possibilities to pull over and cool down. I wish I could say that was a plan, but we'd just spent 4 days up a Swiss alp rebuilding the gearbox and that was simply where the road led us. Happy days indeed.

[PedigreeChummy]

Hello again all. Apoologies for the lateness of this update, but following all the sage advice on here, I finally got round to finishing off the cooling "upgrades" I was talking about...

Radiator removed, system flushed out, all put back together with new gaskets.... and no leaks (!). Two blade fan replaced with "tropical" 4 blade variety, sprayed a natty shade of "Ossa" green, for those of you who know it (a case of what I had lying around in the garage... and didn't someone tell me green fans are the best for cooling... ;o). Plus I replaced the missing felt washer from the fan shaft, and all is running and rotating smoothly. The only faff was refitting the radiator and bonnet. The rad was like a Swiss cheese at the bottom, with mounting points galore drilled left right and centre and silly me forgot to mark off the original ones before I took the rad off... resulted in much fannying around with bonnet/rad/hole combinations before I could get it to sit right and strap down.

As I mentioned, it was more precaution than cure, and maybe it's the placebo effect, but things seem to be better on the temp side... or maybe it's just the lack of that bloody rattle fooling me.

For those that mentioned the Boyce Motometer, i looked into it, but I seem to have hit a compatibility issue. My radiator cap is the Austin winged variety with the three lugs you turn through 20 degrees or so to lock it. The Motometer seems to thread through a flat-topped cap, of which I can only find the threaded, screw-down variety.... unless someone can point me in the direction a lugged flat cap.

Which leads me on to my next issue... new post required

[Duncan Grimmond]

The winged caps come up on eBay occasionally, you could cut the wings off?
I seem to remember finding one in a box of bits, it's no good to me but postage to sunny France will be pricey. If you are going to le Puy Notre-Dame next weekend I could dig around for it and bring (if I find it)...

[PedigreeChummy]

Thanks Duncan, but I've just found what I'm after... one of these


  boyce cap.jpg (Size: 40.03 KB / Downloads: 191)

[David Stepney]

PedigreeChummy. Where did you get cap that from? I too have the later quick release radiator cap and would like to have a motometer type temperature gauge.

[PedigreeChummy]

Here you go, David.

http://austinrepro.com/hose-clips/

It's not the most intuitive website, and you don't seem to be able to order on it directly, so I have sent the guy an email, and will expect to hear back next week.

The price for the Motometer is very good, certainly compared to other places I've seen them, at £55.

The rad cap is £32


The wings (if that's your thing, too) are a bit dearer here at £55... I have seen them at Seven Workshop for £41

[David Stepney]

Thank you PedigreeChummy. I have PM'd you.