Last Knockings!
A couple of jobs needed doing, one was repairing the petrol tank. I'd gone round this with a fine tooth comb 18 months ago and attended to all the cracks and split solder I could see (the tank had been lozenged in the accident and was leaking badly). It was OK with water in it but when petrol went in, there was a very small drip, about 1 drip of fuel every 24 hrs. I determined it was from the outlet, so it had to come off:
I wiggled a 4BA screw into the top hole and soldered it in place. Here it is all fluxed up:
Finally, drilled through the bottom holes and put 4BA screws onto those as well. Then sweated the whole lot together, after tightening the nuts:
The tank now holds petrol, no leaks. Result!
I hasten to add, this tank had not held petrol for four months and spent most sunny summer days out in full sun, toasting off the volatiles. Don't attempt this unless you are confident you know what you are doing!
The other job, necessary to get the car running again was a replacement condenser. I've already had a rant about the poor quality SR4 replacement items so I decided to make one up. I obtained the capacitor recommended by the "Magneto Guys" and looked around for a bit of steel tube to hold it. Found a bit of an old swing seat in the scrap pile:
I added the cap from the poorly made, modern replacement and soldered it on to my tube. I reduced the size of the capacitor by filing the corners until it fitted the tube and selected the lead from the modern replacement to be my input lead:
I sleeved the capacitor in heatshrink and soldered the input lead on:
The capacitor was inserted into its new case and "potted" in with Araldite.
Voila, a new "Condenser"!
I've had the engine running today, and covered about 40 miles. The engine is much smoother with the replacement condenser and I didn't have to walk home to recover a broken down Top Hat!
Need to finish the trim off and do some final touching up and the car will be complete.
A couple of jobs needed doing, one was repairing the petrol tank. I'd gone round this with a fine tooth comb 18 months ago and attended to all the cracks and split solder I could see (the tank had been lozenged in the accident and was leaking badly). It was OK with water in it but when petrol went in, there was a very small drip, about 1 drip of fuel every 24 hrs. I determined it was from the outlet, so it had to come off:
I wiggled a 4BA screw into the top hole and soldered it in place. Here it is all fluxed up:
Finally, drilled through the bottom holes and put 4BA screws onto those as well. Then sweated the whole lot together, after tightening the nuts:
The tank now holds petrol, no leaks. Result!
I hasten to add, this tank had not held petrol for four months and spent most sunny summer days out in full sun, toasting off the volatiles. Don't attempt this unless you are confident you know what you are doing!
The other job, necessary to get the car running again was a replacement condenser. I've already had a rant about the poor quality SR4 replacement items so I decided to make one up. I obtained the capacitor recommended by the "Magneto Guys" and looked around for a bit of steel tube to hold it. Found a bit of an old swing seat in the scrap pile:
I added the cap from the poorly made, modern replacement and soldered it on to my tube. I reduced the size of the capacitor by filing the corners until it fitted the tube and selected the lead from the modern replacement to be my input lead:
I sleeved the capacitor in heatshrink and soldered the input lead on:
The capacitor was inserted into its new case and "potted" in with Araldite.
Voila, a new "Condenser"!
I've had the engine running today, and covered about 40 miles. The engine is much smoother with the replacement condenser and I didn't have to walk home to recover a broken down Top Hat!
Need to finish the trim off and do some final touching up and the car will be complete.