1979 Capri 2.0 "Ghia " - Spraying Bumpers / New TCAs

[ChasR]

If they are like Holleys, you are better off going new IMHO. They’re not massive money new and you know it’s not bad things repaired/bodged on it. Plus it should have the right jets in from new, where used, this may require investigation.

[cjhillman]

Just found a Weber 32 (advert says weber 32 twin choke) that I think is off a Cortina (waiting for details) and hopefully I could get it for under £50. It doesnt have a choke with it but, would it be worth it as it could have the correct jets? Maybe I could buy a rebuild kit and manual choke and have a better carb with this? or should I just work on the carb I have? any info would be great as i might have to make the decision later.

[cjhillman]

May 20, 2020 14:42:08 GMT Darkspeed said:

Have you done a compression test on that cylinder you ran a washer through?

Not yet no. I havent got a tester at the moment. just noticed the Carb so took my attention back to that.

[cjhillman]

Scrap the new Carb idea. Got there and the seller had sold it (had two carbs) and tried to tell me the 1600 one he had left out was the same. what a waste of time. Still furthest i've driven the Escort in a while and showed me it still like to near enough overhead when its sat in traffic.

[ChasR]

TBH, unless you plan to rebuild a new car (and hope that anything is wrong) I'd just go new, or get a rebuilt one off someone reputable. Yours looks to have seen some action in the past and most carbs now will be 30 years old, and most of the time taken off for a reason. These cars aren't really broken for spares as much as they used to be.

Almost everyone in the Stag world moaned about how terrible Holleys were. It's funny, as almost all of them were secondhand. Mine was fine being a new item.

[cjhillman]

Your all very right. I'll probably get a cheap compression tester. I thought about getting one last year anyway and they seem cheap enough plus I'll definitely know then. i'll get one ordered before I do anything else.

[cjhillman]

Compression Tester came the other day. Its been so hot I couldnt even be bothered to do this but, here we go!

Heres the kit. Not an expensive kit so not sure of its reliability.





I took the King lead off the Dizzy and put the fuel pump pipe into an old curry jar.

Had my misses crank for about 5 seconds and it seemed even across the board . No 4 maybe went a bit higher than 120 and I did do this on a cold engine.



After this I put it all back and cranked it over... fired straight up and didnt die. I left it there idling for about 2 minutes to see if the temp gauge moved but some oil from that oil gauge indecent a few pages back must still be on the manifold so i turned it off. Didnt wanted a 3rd fire. Sounds fine though, I've got a video of it i'll share at some point. I'll degrease all this soon. Really want to clean the engine bay up a bit more... makes me feel like its worth carrying on with.

The make shift gasket I made for the water choke is leaking enough that it'll be a problem and I still havent received my V5 back after sending it off for Historic classification. Still says Sorn on the Car tax checker. I'd take it round the block but I know my luck. The prop shaft will fall off next to a Police Car a street away

[homersimpson]

Compression looks ok so it looks like you have been luckier that I was with my old dads Sierra!

[kevins]

Main thing is the compressions are all the same, as above you woyld expect above 150 with all the plugs out and throttle open.

Interesting it started easily, even with the fuel pipe off you would have drawn the fuel in the float chamber in, giving you enrichment i.e. a choke.

So back to where we started, the choke needs sorting out, If it runs ok when warm and there is no play in the throttle spindles I would be inclined to fit a manual choke, even when working properly the auto chokes were never perfect, giving problems with warm starts and stop start city driving.

[cjhillman]

May 26, 2020 19:09:28 GMT kevins said:

Main thing is the compressions are all the same, as above you woyld expect above 150 with all the plugs out and throttle open.

Interesting it started easily, even with the fuel pipe off you would have drawn the fuel in the float chamber in, giving you enrichment i.e. a choke.

So back to where we started, the choke needs sorting out, If it runs ok when warm and there is no play in the throttle spindles I would be inclined to fit a manual choke, even when working properly the auto chokes were never perfect, giving problems with warm starts and stop start city driving.

I think thats what I will do. I'm thinking I'll buy a rebuild kit with new needles and then probably try and find a new choke mechanism/ diaphragm. I thought I could just buy the manual choke conversion but looks like I'd still be using the old choke diagram part which might not be right in the first place. It can't be too far off as It kicked up first (held) turn today.

Sorry i also forgot to mention maybe I did put the pipe back on with everything else before it kicked up.

I did wonder if 120 was low but it seemed really even just a tiny bit more a no1. I'm not too worried now as at least eve thing is the same. I'll be giving that manifold a scrub and trying to figure out this DVLA stuff. I would like to try check all the previous rear axle work before buying more stuff.


Didnt realise the throttle had to be pressed down. I actually said to my misses don't do that

[cjhillman]

Today I thought I'd take a look a the sunroof. I've never been able to get it to work, nor could the previous owner. I hate to say it but i've give it a good ole tug here and there to try and open it in the past thinking it was rusted shut. Today I found a little switch behind the winder handle , gave that a push and turned the handle... 




I managed to get it tilt upwards too but unfortunately the headlining suffered...




Bit of a shame but I wont loose sleep over it, I'm sure I can find more. Also I noticed a bit of white plastic that had broke under the roof mechanism.


I cleaned it all up and  re grease before I closed it up.


And I did a little fix on the sunroof seal which needs replacing (as you can see I had taped it up).



It would be nice to bat around in the old Car with the sun roof open.

[eurogranada]

As much as sunroofs are dreaded and frowned upon and even loathed by some, I just love them!

Keep them in good order, use from time to time, keep mechanism clean and lubed, clear the drains and make sure the tubes connected drain well, preferably to the outside of the car (in my Granada originally they drained into the sill area so I modified to exit underneath the car) and you should be able to enjoy it loads.

If there's already rust in corners which cause leaking inside it's a little less rosy of a story. But if determined it can all be fixed.

I love both the look and feel of driving with the roof up or open depending on the situation. Gives sort of a feeling of freedom! And I like the look as well...

Mine took loads of work, was missing parts so the mechanism didn't work properly with that little control to switch modes.

When getting a seal, make sure you get the right one. Many sold are actually too thick. But more OEM style are available if you look for them. My first seal caused to roof to push up on opening and scratched the paint (on the previous restoration fortunately).

[cjhillman]

Good to hear mate!! I too love sunroofs and miss them. My Dad had a mk2 Golf GTI when I was young with one and I had a mk5 Escort with one. Both of these were great and never leaked.

Mine seems to have some surface rust around the inside of the roof which I will sort out when I can. I think with it being a Vinyl roof Car it should have a different seal or adjustment maybe to compensate for the vinyl.
Apparently I need to replace a few things according to the Capri World Facebook so, if cheap enough I'll get fixing this while I can.

[cjhillman]

Seen as it fired up nicely 2 of 3 times I thought maybe I should just cheaply revamp the Carb I have. I'll probably stick with the Auto Choke until winter and hopefully now the DVLA sent me a V10, I should have my Historic Tax and can get out on the road.

Just want to double check in case I should buy a different kit. This one seems to have most things I would need to revamp the carb ? The Auto choke is leaking water from the crappy gasket I made so it needs to come off again before I can try use it anyway. I at least need the Gasket and a tiny Cer clip that I lost.

[cjhillman]

Bought it! Next week, getting this sorted.

[peteh1969]

Go for it you have nothing to lose and you will gain experience points in doing it your self.

[cjhillman]

Jun 1, 2020 19:01:01 GMT peteh1969 said:

Go for it you have nothing to lose and you will gain experience points in doing it your self.

Cheers man! A few of the kits seemed different here and there but this one seemed to be great. Looking forward to swapping these bits out and giving it a good rebuild.

[peteh1969]

Just take your time clean everything and go through the process several times to be sure you understand it.

Use a little 3 in 1 oil on the threads when you finally assemble it and that will future proof it a little if you need to take it apart at another time.

[cjhillman]

Big day today! After a couple of weeks of waiting for the Carb service kit to arrive, taking the Carb back off again (or being arsed to   ) , realising I needed a power valve as mine failed the "power valve test"... these two beauties landed on my door step!!




Finally its TAX EXEMPT !!!!!! and.... the power valve turned up


So i rebuilt the Carb using the Service Kit. Off the top of my head it had new:

O rings
Pump and Pneumatic Pump valves
Gaskets
Clips
Needle Valves
Power Valve
Fuel filter
Choke plastic wall/gasket
washers
Other stuff I cant think of...

This was the to half before.



I bought a big can of Carb cleaner and went to town. I used it on the casing, bowl and I removed all the Jets , blew them through/ soaked them in a container.






New Power Valve in place... which I'm so pleased works compared to the old one. I didnt know if the test would really make much difference but... It did.




A few hours later... full can or Carb Cleaner and a nice rebuilt carb.. fingers crossed.


I didn't take a lot of pics as I videoed the whole process incase I needed it or, its of use to someone else.

I really wanted to clean all the casing up to get it looking like the rebuilt ones but, I thought It would be going over the top. I couldnt find a good soda blasters close either.

Tomorrow i'm going to get it back on the Car, get it warmed up and get out around the local area hopefully. I still still had a lot of smoke coming off the oil I'd burnt onto the manifold so i'm hoping that is gone now after a bit of degreaser .

[cjhillman]

Right! here we are. I thought i'd film the start up so If it exploded I had it on camera On about the 5th crank of the key it sprung into life!! not only that It ran lovely! Very happy with that. The plan was to let it warm up to operating temp as i've never seen that, maybe check the ignition timing but most likely do a couple of laps around the local streets first. I still want to check all my work is right before I go mad. I have replaced the suspension, axle, brakes and gearbox seal since it last moved haha 

Now... in the spirit of this whole thread, this didnt happen or go to plan...

When the Car started to warm up after about 5-7 mins I noticed white smoke again coming up from the lower part of the manifold/indiscript area. I turned it off and felt a bit curse word off as I have scrubbed all this with degreaser last week to remove the oil from the oil melted pressure pipe(see previous pages in October) but, I'm wondering if its a head gasket problem now. When I walked around the Car I noticed water dripping out the tail pipe granted it has been raining a lot but, on looking up the sympsoms of white smoke, tail pipe water, watery oil (doesnt look great when i checked before I fired it up) I might have a problem here. 

I did notice when I drove it from North London to Middlesex last year smoke rising off the bonnet but when I'd pull over I couldnt see anything. Bear in mind the only trips i've done in this Car is back from Essex to North London, a little bit around North London while i did jobs (all fine), A trip from there to Middlesex (when i moved/noticed some rising engine bay smoke) and then a few trips around here (seemed fine till the oil pressure pipe)....

Anyway I made a video of the whole thing It might not be that and I guess my options now are to get it fired up again/warm. shut it off and get the compression gauge back on there.




Lastly I found an old advert last month talking about the car from about 2011. It said it someone had done a head gasket replacement on it, also someone has done core plugs and its got this massive alloy radiator on it... i'm wondering if the engine is junk. Anyway i'm speculating.

Heres the ad:



Also this is the filler cap since adding antifreeze/coolant swap :/