Hit and Mostly Miss

Lots happening in the shed, translating to not much happening on this blog.  First off, the Fulvia has been occupying me with a small fault but has turned into a huge production.

I thought the car was missing at light throttle openings like cruising down the freeway so as I was going to change over to electronic ignition anyway this was the first of many things that I replaced and it made no difference so here is a list of what was checked or replaced:

Sparkplugs replaced
Plug leads checked
Distributor Cap substituted (Thanks Garry)
Rotor replaced
Ignition Timing checked
Carburettor Float Level checked/corrected (Thanks Marnix)
Fuel pump pressure checked
fuel lines checked
Fuel tank venting checked
Carburettor Balance checked/corrected
Idle Mixture checked/corrected
Loose venturis fixed
Valve Clearances checked
Valve spring pressure checked

The alleged culprit

All these adjustments resulted in no change.  It was suggested by a certain Mr Bondini that “Are you sure it’s not the nut behind the wheel?” a comment that as it happened was very close to the truth.  I was having my doubts, was it really a miss?  I had been pouring out this tale of woe on a Fulvia forum when it was postulated that maybe my engine mounts were shot, making the engine wobbly so appearing to be a miss and that sounded about right, new mounts are ordered we will see.

The Futile Fulvia Fiasco has kept me away from the Austin 7 Special for too long but I’m back on it.  Last time I checked in the Austin was a rolling chassis, now it’s a rolling running chassis with most of the body complete see below, the timeline for the project is to be completed by December although I think that was originally December 2017, never mind I had better get my skates on.

The Austin 7 as purchased was a heap of junk, the only redeeming feature was its photo in the advertisement, the actual car was rubbish.  The process so far has been to replace or recondition everything.

In summary

Differential: renew everything except the case
Brakes: replace dodgy leaking hydraulic conversion with “Semi Girling” shoes and backing plates and replace drums with cast iron ones, new cables etc.
Front axle: Replace with lowered one, new kingpins, sexy double shockers renew all swivels.
Chassis: Box in Top hat section, sandblast and paint.
Gearbox: now close ratio
Engine… seems good?
Body frame reshaped to look less like a “Ute”, seat moved back 125mm so I can now fit.
Dashboard: Machine turned, new fake Ulster instruments Tacho and 100mph Speedo!

For the body I have gone for the bare aluminium riveted look, initially thinking aviation but the more I look at the finished product the more I think a tank sans gun turret, Oh well I guess I will not notice once I am actually driving it.