Swings and roundabouts

It's after 11pm on Sunday night, and I have again had a full afternoon and evening of 'fun' fiddling with Her Ladyship.

First of all, I was struck with a (very) minor revelation last night. As we're going on a long trip next weekend (more on that later), the subject of Dame Zara's troublesome sound system has returned to the top of my mind. In the fullness of time, I plan to buy a newfangled stereo that I can hide under the seat (or even in the boot) and control with a remote, and to put the original Radiomobile radio back in the dash - working or not! However, for the moment we are stuck with a 70s Eurovox cassette player that makes everyone sound like The Chipmunks; and with abysmal radio reception, particularly on FM (I'm beginning to suspect my sparkplug leads). Hence my brainwave: back in the dawn of time when portable CD players were new and most cars had cassette players, one could buy a mock cassette with a playback head in it and a line-in lead to connect an external CD player. Kathy has an old CD walkman - I wonder if one can still buy these cassette adaptors?

Well, as it happens, since the more recent dawn of the iPod era, it seems they have come back into fashion, as people try to use their iPods in cars that still have cassette-based stereos. So, for a measly 20-something bucks at Dick Smith, I bought a cassette adaptor and a ciggie-lighter-powered DC adaptor. And does it work?, you ask. Well, somewhat ... The power pack does indeed power the CD player, but it's a rather ungainly box sticking out of the centre of the dash, so I have cannibalised a spare cigarette lighter socket from the spare Galant dashboard sitting in the garage, and I will endeavour to mount that in the parcel shelf. The cassette doohickey does work, and the sound quality is fine, no interference from the engine, but the cassette player still thinks it has a 'real' tape in it, and the auto-reverse mechanism kicks in every 30 seconds or so trying to change 'sides'. This wouldn't be so bad, except that (as is common with auto-reverse decks) one direction has much worse audio quality than the other, and the mechanism is quite loud. So, some time this week I'll get into the guts and see if I can disable the motors of the player - it's useless for cassettes, anyway. The larger challenge will be to see if the CD player can cope with the vibrations of the car - we tried it way back in Gussie and it was hopeless - skipped all over the place. Anyways, if I can perfect the system, it's all ready for when I buy an iPod or similar MP3 device.

The next task was to finally fit my new set of points. One of the pictures above shows one of the pair sitting on the bench, looking all shiny and expectant.

And there's a closeup of the distributor, clearly showing the post for the second set of points.

(By the way, I did get around to painting Dame Zara's aircleaners the other week, and they're looking much better, making the whole engine bay look much more presentable ...)

Anyways, the points went in without too much trouble, and I adjusted them roughly, checked that the engine started and idled, and moved on to the next thing: the cooling system.

In my previous instalment, I had filled the radiator with plain water and a cleaning solution. It was now time to empty that out and refill the system with proper coolant.

First of all, I disconnected the two hoses leading to the heater and got the garden hose ready to flush it out (thanks for the tip, Brendan!). Using the longer piece of heater hose as a drain pipe, aiming at a bucket so as not to flood the driveway and drains with coolant, I put a fair amount of water pressure through the heater, blowing out some rusty crud on the first pass, and proving to myself on the second that the heater tap isn't doing too bad a job: there's a clear flow through the heater, and the tap does open and close, cutting the flow to the extent that you could hear and feel the pressure increasing in the garden hose when it was closed.

Next job was replacing the left-hand t-piece, which wasn't too fiddly a job (pic above). I chickened out on doing the right-hand one, as that entails removing the entire carburettor from that side, and while the old one is showing some age, it's not leaking at all or in imminent danger of exploding (I hope!).

The radiator was drained of its cleaning solution by opening the tap (actually, I removed the tap, as I couldn't twist it open while it was in place - but once off the car it moved freely: typical! Anyways, it went back on with some fresh silicon sealant on the thread, so I hope it won't leak), and a fresh mix of 50/50 Castrol coolant and water was added, along with extra corrosion inhibitor and a dose of Bars Leaks.

One final 'little' job: I noticed when I fitted it the other week that the new fanbelt was coming perilously close to rubbing on the brand new lower radiator hose. Now as I was poking around further in that area, it was clear that it was actually touching and that the fanbelt had started to chafe away at the hose and its clip where it enters the water pump. So I put the old, tighter belt back on ... once I'd unbolted the fan cowl, and loosened the alternator so I could slip its belt off first ... Anyways, the old one is sound enough, and there's now a good two finger's worth of clearance between the pulley and the hose, so no more chafing.

After a spot of dinner, it was time for a test-drive. By now it was about 9pm, dark and raining on and off. I started her up and nosed down the driveway. I pretty much coasted down the little hill of Church St to the lights, but as I pulled off up Flemington Rd it was clear that something was amiss: a bad misfire on the slightest acceleration. I slipped back around the corner into Southgate St and home, chugging up the little hill at barely 20mph.

Opening up the distributor, I discovered that my rough setting of the second set of points was way off - the gap was visibly too wide. So I narrowed it down (using a cut-down laminated business card as my approximately .015" feeler gauge - my proper feeler gauge set has rounded, 'Paddle Pop-stick' ends that are too wide to fit into the Dame's distributor) and took off again, this time around Royal Park toward the Zoo. Better, but still a little hesitant on accelaration or pulling up even the slightest hill. On the upside, the temperature gauge happily tipped into the lower third of the dial after a few minutes' running and climbed no more and - shock, horror! - the heater started working to the extent that I had to open a quarter window for some cool air on my cheek.

But I have to get the misfire fixed once and for all and there's nothing for it but a trip to visit the Diagnostic Technicians. We need to be in fine fettle to make it to Beechworth and back with at least eight other V8s next weekend: it's the DLCV's annual 'brass monkey' run.