The care package

The Pater Familias sent another of his distinctive care packages the other day - it was constructed from two empty wine casks and a lot of packing tape and was full of all manner of goodies, including:

• a non-squeaky pulley wheel for the fanbelt tensioner
• a big box of assorted electrical connectors and a crimper
• a timing light
• the mysterious missing screw for the second set of points
• an odds-and-sods socket set in an old metal case, including a 1/2" socket handle and a hand-modified square socket to use as a jack handle
• a spare carbie dashpot piston
• a radio interference supressor to fit across the coil

Almost every item was hand-labelled with little black engineer writing on masking tape, just to make sure I knew what it all was. Thanks dad!

After getting home from another long, challenging day at work (oh the joys of launching a new website!), taking Niven the 15-year-old toothless cat to the vet for his flu jab, and heating up some leftover risotto for dinner (did I mention that Niven and I are bachelors gay for the next fortnight, as Kathy is off in Oslo for a work junket?), I ventured out to the cold garage for a spot of fiddling.

First up, the radio supressor went on the coil, once I worked out which side it went on (positive is the battery/ignition side. What did we all do before Google?). But the f*%^@ng radio still picks up engine noise, and much more on FM than AM, so now I'm convinced it's the aerial ... (there's now a suppressor on the coil, another on the alternator, a noise filter in-line with the radio's power supply and a fresh ground wire earthing the radio case to the car's body. Surely that's enough!).

Next, I fixed the 'low brake fluid' warning light by dint of a few fresh connectors - strangely enough, 37 years' worth of brake fluid fumes and damp had corroded the ends of the copper wires.

A fresh spring was fitted to one of the heater flaps for extra 'sproing' when you lever the lever in the appropriate direction. (The heater, by the way, begins to noticably warm the car after about 15 minutes on these colder mornings - about exactly the time it takes me to get to work if the traffic's good. So I shiver until just before I turn into the carpark! Beryl the '75 Mitsubishi Galant is fulfilling her proper role as daily driver much more often of late - her heater fires up like a sauna after about 5 minutes, then you have to turn it off lest you pass out !)

Then, emboldened, I decided to open up the distributor and attempt to fit the second set of points. Unfortunately I was foiled straight off. The screw dad found is exactly the right thread, but is too long, so fouls the distributor base long before it's tight enough to do any good. So I'll have to lop it off before I can go any further. (Hmmm ... might need a vise for that - have a hacksaw to cut the screw, and a file to smooth it off, but nothing to grip it in as I work on it ... oh, Cash Converters, can you hear me calling?)

The dashpot piston went straight in the right-hand SU, and screws in much more securely than the previous one, which had stripped its thread and had a habit of popping loose every now and then (you could tell it had happened as soon as you put your foot down - instant flat spot, then surge).

By now it was getting late (10pm), misty and cold, so it was time to come inside. I made good my threat to Kathy to turn the kitchen into a workshop while she was away, unscrewing the two left-hand door caps and bringing them in to sand off on the kitchen table in preparation for a revarnishing. A glass or two of passable red and some nice music on ABC Classic FM helped out.

I also found a can of 'hammer look' aluminium silver spray paint yesterday, so am now all set to finish off the air cleaners the next warm weekend day that comes along.