145 - PV544 Rally - Fiat Punto

5/2/2018

Amy's 145 is pretty much done now: the D-Type overdrive was known to be slow engaging, but after the oil change (20w50 used) it also started to drop out. So out it came, and in went a used J-Type unit that we had remaining, in spite of the "gearbox noisy" label I'd attached to it. We can rebuild the M41 sometime in the summer.
I suspect the estate has received a lot of car in the past, since that's the only way to explain the thinness of the paint - I must conclude that the previous owners polished it frequently.
Amy heads south from Liverpool to collect it later this week.

Emma's PV544 passenger door is all straightened and resprayed after its stressful evening on the Winter Classic, and we'll offer it up as soon as Amy gets here on Thursday.

Mike & Lorna's PV544 went on the ramps today, the biggest issue is the RHF upper wishbone failure from the Classic Safari outing in southern Africa last year. At the same time Mike wants my engine to replace the existing unit, since it's so much sweeter. There's a fair old list of shakedown issues to resolve also, then they're back on the Trans America event once more.

As for Sophie's FIAT, it had appeared that it had no heating at all: the coolant level was good, all correctly bled at the two ticklers, and the control appeared to working correctly - but the temperature was only marginally above atmospheric.
So off I went to see Ben at Spurlings, who'd suggested the matrix may be blocked - this makes absolute sense since the feed hose felt warm, but the return hose didn't. Anyway, Ben showed me how to pop off those modern hose clips, and I headed back to the workshop with header cap removed.
Perfect heating...
So I've put jubilee clips on the hoses, replaced the rad cap, and we shall see if it gives warmth tomorrow. If not, we'll try flushing the matrix both ways.

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