Cheers mate Wow, didn't know they might be worth that much! Maybe I will end up with the Campagnolos!
Had another good day getting the Fulvia ship shape today
Todays main task was to deal with the fuel smell that has seemed a constant inside the car so far. I had some ideas to follow up on from searching forums (thank god for the internet!). First up I found a missing seal on the air intake for the heater, which means the heater blower was sucking in under bonnet air which combined with old slightly drippy carbs wasn't pleasant. A few strips of sticky back foam, and a bit of tweaking of the metalwork with pliers had everything sealing nicely While I had the foam out, I used a few strategic pieces to stop rattles, the worst of which being the dipstick against the intake.
The next suggested problem on the internet was that the seal round the fuel level sender can be leaky, filling the boot with petrol fumes.
Hmmm.....
eeewwww. All round the sender was a gooey substance that stunk of petrol. So with help from my mate Ross, we cleaned up the gunk and resealed the sender with petrol resistant RTV.
We hoped that was the petrol smell sorted, so while the silicone dried we started on the dashboard. After my initial investigation of the clocks, and failure to deal with the clouding I bought some acrylic to replace the gauge faces with. A bit of tracing and dremel work later and some dash re-assembly and we were done I'm really pleased with how they look, so much cleaner looking, brings the whole dash up.
And with 4 new bulbs behind them, I can even see them at night!
Finally while searching for information about brake servo issues, I came across a link to a honda forum where members mention that a servo that causes the brakes to stick on and the pedal to go totally hard can sometimes just be poorly adjusted. It suggested that with the bitepoint of the brake pedal adjusted too high, the servo would never return to its stop, and this would cause pressure to build up and up till it put the brakes on of it's own accord. It seemed worth a shot so Ross and I shortened the brake pedal rod, dropping the bite point and re-connected the servo. We took it on a 20 miles test drive and all is well so far Before the adjustment I only made it 1/2 mile before the pedal pumped up and the brakes stuck on.
The bad news was after a bit of spirited b road fun the petrol smell returned. Investigating the boot, we found a strong petrol smell again and some damp spots on the top of the tank. I looks like someones put something like fibreglass across the top of the tank, and in places petrol is leaking through and melting the fibreglass. So the priority with the car now is to strip all the fibreglass off and fix the tanks leaks.
Also I guess I think the sump needs re-sealing fairly soon, I've only had it on the drive for a couple of days and already....
Had another good day getting the Fulvia ship shape today
Todays main task was to deal with the fuel smell that has seemed a constant inside the car so far. I had some ideas to follow up on from searching forums (thank god for the internet!). First up I found a missing seal on the air intake for the heater, which means the heater blower was sucking in under bonnet air which combined with old slightly drippy carbs wasn't pleasant. A few strips of sticky back foam, and a bit of tweaking of the metalwork with pliers had everything sealing nicely While I had the foam out, I used a few strategic pieces to stop rattles, the worst of which being the dipstick against the intake.
The next suggested problem on the internet was that the seal round the fuel level sender can be leaky, filling the boot with petrol fumes.
Hmmm.....
eeewwww. All round the sender was a gooey substance that stunk of petrol. So with help from my mate Ross, we cleaned up the gunk and resealed the sender with petrol resistant RTV.
We hoped that was the petrol smell sorted, so while the silicone dried we started on the dashboard. After my initial investigation of the clocks, and failure to deal with the clouding I bought some acrylic to replace the gauge faces with. A bit of tracing and dremel work later and some dash re-assembly and we were done I'm really pleased with how they look, so much cleaner looking, brings the whole dash up.
And with 4 new bulbs behind them, I can even see them at night!
Finally while searching for information about brake servo issues, I came across a link to a honda forum where members mention that a servo that causes the brakes to stick on and the pedal to go totally hard can sometimes just be poorly adjusted. It suggested that with the bitepoint of the brake pedal adjusted too high, the servo would never return to its stop, and this would cause pressure to build up and up till it put the brakes on of it's own accord. It seemed worth a shot so Ross and I shortened the brake pedal rod, dropping the bite point and re-connected the servo. We took it on a 20 miles test drive and all is well so far Before the adjustment I only made it 1/2 mile before the pedal pumped up and the brakes stuck on.
The bad news was after a bit of spirited b road fun the petrol smell returned. Investigating the boot, we found a strong petrol smell again and some damp spots on the top of the tank. I looks like someones put something like fibreglass across the top of the tank, and in places petrol is leaking through and melting the fibreglass. So the priority with the car now is to strip all the fibreglass off and fix the tanks leaks.
Also I guess I think the sump needs re-sealing fairly soon, I've only had it on the drive for a couple of days and already....