Fully charged
Ihad hoped that putting new brushes in Lily’s alternator would stop the battery going flat. However after 100 or so miles the problem manifested itself again and the starter wouldn’t turn the engine over, meaning the alternator was no longer charging. Luckily I had the starting handle in the boot, so was able to get the car going and rushed home before it got dark.
I whipped the old alternator off the car and unwilling to try to fix it again as I was going out that night, I pinched the brand new one off dad’s MGB (with a replacement to be bought, I promise!). That fixed the problem and Lily’s battery has been reliably charging ever since.
In order to prevent myself getting stuck at the side of the road again I decided to fit an ammeter. This is a reasonably big commitment: it goes directly into the charging circuit and has to handle the full output of the alternator, so the wiring needs to be done carefully. I used some thick wire with soldered connections to some robust fittings and fed the wires through a new hole in the bulkhead, with a good strong grommet to make sure they did not chafe through
and short out on any sharp edges.
Despite having recently passed the MoT I also had a rather interesting problem develop with Lily’s brake system. After being followed home by a friend, I discovered, that the brake lights weren’t coming on when I applied the brakes. Subsequent testing revealed that the lights did work when I pressed the pedal really hard, but the normal braking pressures when driving were not enough (possibly explaining how it passed an MoT) meaning the brake light switch was faulty.
I found a second-hand replacement in the loft, and unbolted the faulty one, using an adjustable spanner on the four-way brake union to hold it to prevent the brake pipes from being stretched or strained. I managed to swap the switches over easily and was pleased to find the pedal rock hard afterwards, so didn’t even need to bleed the brakes, as no air had got into the system.
Meanwhile on the Lowlight, I’ve had the engine and gearbox in and out again, to take a slice of metal from the gearbox bellhousing so as to clear the clutch pedal. With this whole assembly finalised, and looking like it would work, it’s now time to finish of the pipe from the master cylinder to the slave. I just need to put some new seals in the master cylinder and bleed it to check it actually works. I will be interested to see what the pedal pressure will be, hopefully fine.
On the inside of the car, I’ve been able to focus on slowly putting the dashboard back together, having made up the wiring loom which goes behind. The first piece to go on is the central panel in the dash, which contains the switches. Before fitting I cleaned this up in a bath of Bilt Hamber DEOX-C which removed any surface rust, before priming, painting and lacquering to get a suitably shiny finish. I’ve also managed to source a better dashboard gauge cover, as my original one had holes drilled into it for the trafficator switch, which I felt would be difficult to repair and get a good finish on. As this is one of the items on the car I’d be looking at almost constantly I felt it was a worthwhile expenditure. Ironically one of the first bits I bought for the car was the paint for these covers. Only three years later and I’m nearly ready to use it!
Meanwhile on the Lowlight, I’ve had the engine and gearbox in and out again