So today was a good day! Kelly came over and he had some of the needed single barrel bullet connector sleeves and we made progress connecting up the wiring harness. I took care of the rear connections while Kelly managed the engine bay. It went pretty went and we were able to do some testing of the connections for the lights etc. It seems as though some of the side markers seem to use a blue rather than red wire but as long as you know this it’s manageable! Kelly made good use of the horn wiring to do some continuity tests and it seems likely there’s a loose bulb connection in the front right side marker – not too serious.

We didn’t get too far with the main harness itself but we felt safer trying to fire the engine. We had to make some adjustments to the carbs. I had managed to get the choke linkage out of line so that meant taking the carbs off again (I’m getting pretty quick at this now). Once that was sorted we worked on getting the accelerator and choke cables connected – marionette strings just weren’t going to work.

Kelly was able to get both hooked up and working but although we could get the engine to fire it wouldn’t run for more than a few seconds and by this time we had pretty much drained the battery. So we got hold of a battery charger and then tested the fuel pump which was still working fine so the fuel pump was not, in fact, the issue.

We turned our attention back to the carbs and removed them yet again and started to check the floats and the jets. The rear carb was first and not that much fuel came out. Kelly checked the float and the jet and we wondered if the jet had been stuck closed. Once checked we spayed in some carb cleaner and that came flying out the other end of the front carb so it seems that solved anything that might have been an issue. Then we opened the front carb and loads of fuel came out – more like Kelly expected. We concluded that probably meant the front carb was fine and then reinstated the carbs back on the car.

I had looped the carb overflows without a vent and Kelly thought that might be preventing the fuel from getting through and so we took that hose off and didn’t bother connecting them crank case vent either. After messing with the choke a bit we eventually got the car to fire and run! The SU’s were alive – yeah!

The car would now fire fairly well and we could start it as needed. I may have a poor seal on the rear engine cover as there seems to be a little oil leaking and also we think we were getting a little smoke coming from the crank case vent. Not sure about that – we’ll save that for Monday night.

We then got the car backed out somewhat and were able to use its own power to do this and then load the car on the trailer. This all went pretty well and just after 3PM we had her loaded and “ready to roll”. I have since just give the car a quick wash as the dust build up was getting rather dusty. Hopefully the towing will be uneventful and we can make some more progress at John’s shop tomorrow.

See video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy8fqkNqcg8

Original Fire Up Video with the Weber:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjkEFJz61f8

Well only minor activity today but I did get the dash fully removed so that I can more easily lay in the main part of the dash harness. It should be easier to lay that in now. Main tip to this was the removal of the trip meter cable for the speedo. This does NOT come off the back of the speedo itself unlike the speedo cable. The trip meter cable is secured under the dash at the twist knob that resets the trip meter. Simply remove the plastic nut holding the the knob in place and then you’re – good to go.

I did also figure out why I had no spark. In my minimal wiring setup I had broken the white wire that passes through the tach. Hooking that up she fired – sort of. Certainly didn’t run long or well but it did run so that is good news.

The only other work today was a bit of grease for the hood and trunk lid arms and the hood catch and a big tidy up so that bits are stored securely for the tow up to the Monday night meet. May get help from Kelly tomorrow on some more of the wiring and maybe figure out how to get it run better. It would be nice to have power to move this around for the trailer loading.

Well not that much activity tonight – late out of work and needed to buy a ball mount and ball for the tow hitch so I can maybe collect the tow dolly. I also wanted some T pieces for hoses and some rear end oil.

Went ahead and drained the rear end and then re-filled with the GL4 85w90 oil I got from Sears. The smell reminded me & confirmed that it must have been gear oil in the transmission. So that explained the tranny drain smell.

Check out some basic wiring to get the car turning over. Reversed the fuel pump wires and have that working off the ignition switch but I haven’t been able to get the car to fire. I think I have not wired the coil correctly and have posted a question to see what I have missed.

Anyway – still moving forward – nice to hear the fuel pump start clicking as soon as the ignition turns on – that was a problem before so already we have a benefit of the new wiring harness.

Well some more good progress tonight – Tara continues to be very understanding but I have the Sept 17 deadline in my head.

Tonight I put the manifold and HIF4s back in place, after putting the float cover back now it has the correct rubber seal for it in place, and then also got the new exhaust down pipe gaskets put on and the exhaust bolted up again so that’s all together – took a bit longer than I thought to get the exhaust bolted up but made it in the end. Also while under the car I remembered to hook up the starter motor again while I was under the car.

Also went to the rear diff and decided I’d see if the filler plug could be moved – yes eventually it did. Knowing that I could refill I decide to see if the drain plug would similarly submit to being taken out and it to was willing to cooperate. All continues to be positive. I’ll look to drain the rear diff tomorrow night and get that refilled. That should help if I tow the car on Monday night for group therapy as we have a 2 wheel dolly available I figured the rear end ought to be full with some nice clean gear oil.

Well that’s about it for today – seemed to be more when doing it than when I am recounting it here – oh well I am sticking to my 9PM deadline for stopping each night.

I’ll attached a picture of the HIF4s back on their nice manifold etc. along with the shiny blue new harness up there in the engine bay. Starting to take shape – may try and fire her up with the HIF4s tomorrow with just enough wiring hooked up.

Well some more good progress tonight – I slightly surprised myself actually. It’s still really hot and I had almost talked myself out of the new wiring harness work and into focusing on putting the carbs and manifold back now I got some of the exhaust mount hardware and down pipe gaskets etc. However, that was slightly avoiding the more critical need/attention to the wiring harness so I got started and managed to get a fair bit done.

I started with the rear harness and started laying that in working from the drivers side rear lights around and down. Ran everything up to the engine bay and have just hung the wire for now without clipping everything in. Seems to have gone OK but I still have some grommet work to do at the main cross member – no way the ones I got were going to go down the wire or even fit in the cross member holes.

Then decided that even though I was on my own, I’d try and get the main harness just laid down on the inside of the car and the engine bay wiring pushed through. Started by getting the firewall grommet on and that actually went pretty well. Did that inside in the air conditioning! Then I returned to feed this all through the firewall and with a bit of walking back and forwards to push/feed or pull and squish I managed to get it all through to the engine bay.

So, feeling enthused by this progress I started hooking up and reconnecting the wires using my wiring diagram. Got it printed on 11x17 paper and laminated for about $2.50 at work and it’s proving very useful – much easier at that size and quite readable (also laminating it made it oil proof– tested that the other day – you know me and oil).

I have been able to connect up most of the wires but I need some more sleeve connectors and maybe some of the bullet connectors also. May have to do a couple of improvisations just to keep things moving and get testing. I really just want enough wiring to be able to fire the engine once I put that back and as I now have the missing seal for the front carb float cover there’s nothing holding me back on that now.

So, that’s enough for today/tonight. Will save the main dash harness for another day and may seek help on that next Monday. I need to get the dash right off I think and although I was told how to disconnect the trip meter last night that requires some more looking/checking.

Well today’s activities were more limited but then I was able to stand in front of a fan most of the time!

I have wiped down the engine bay since the wiring harness is all out after yesterday’s work. Just some water and shop towels and it seems to have worked. I managed to get my hands into most of the corners and up front around the oil cooler etc. Even gave the “horns” a good dusting and along the fender/wing bolts area as well.

I also solved the side cover issue with a 23c bolt from Sears Hardware. They’re just down the road from me and always VERY helpful. I do like them in that store and will keep going there for sure.

I then decided I would drain the gearbox as that hadn’t been done since I got the car home and no idea when it was last changed. It didn’t look too bad but it sure did smell bad! Yikes – not sure whether really old oil or old gas smells worse. Anyway – only a small amount of oil on the floor this time as I didn’t try and drain this into a really small funnel like the first time I did this on my 77. Older and wiser (hopefully). Still I did mange to get about 3 shop towels worth on the container and floor – there just seems to be something about oil and me – oh well

Having drained it was time to fill. Thank goodness I’ve seen a bunch of posts here about a top fill gearbox – oh what fun we (I) had. I had got one of them there funnels with a tube and a twist on/off flow from Wal-Mart but the tube wasn’t going to be long enough (and man is the fill hole small). I had bought a huge syringe type filler for the 77 and used its tube to make an extension. Got everything to work OK in the end but I have to wonder how many interiors got covered in oil by someone doing this and having a problem of one sort or another during the fill process?

Well that was all the B activity for today. Have some more VB parts arriving Monday and the new harness, K&N filters and a few other bits and pieces coming as well. I guess the next big job will be getting the new harness in sometime this coming week. Now working to a deadline of Sept 17 as that is the St. Louis All British Car show date and now my trip back to England is postponed for a month I’ll be able to go. Hopefully I’ll be entering both the 77 and the 72 if all goes well.