Finally got the new pump on the car; although the job itself wasn’t terribly difficult, the weather conspired to make it as unpleasant as feasibly possible. The only thing which could have made it substantially worse was the addition of say, sleat, or perhaps a sudden cold-snap. Although it’s chillier than it was anyway.
But, apart from the odd scraped knuckle and having to shorten a hose by a couple of mms, the job was suprisingly pain free and simple. Although the extra 20 quid the new pump cost (on top of the mini pump’s price) – that was inconveniently painful. At any rate, a quick check suggests it’s on okay and no longer leaking.
Given the weather conditions I felt it might be ‘wise’ to sort out the electrical problem which has plagued my car since the new engine was put in; that of the side light not working – new bulb didn’t solve it – and the alternator not charging the battery when the heater was on, that also was winding me up – and I deemed it to be a problem given the current weather conditions.
So – the light, that was easy enough – a broken wire to the bullet connector (mmm, lucar) had disconnected the side light. One new bullett connector, enough solder to fill the titanic and that was done.
But the charging? I found a loose connector on the Alternator yesterday – and hoped that might be it, but no. Still not working. So today I spent a happy half hour cleaning every single damn connector on a 1964 Morris Minor fusebox (courtesy of Nikki) – it really was appulingly filthy – worse than the one on the car, but it meant I could just clean it and stick the new one on in place of the old one. Much easier than trying to note which wires went where…
…having done that – problem solved. I need to find some vaseline (I had some, somewhere) to smear on all the connectors – stop them from corroding again. But still, I think we’re ready for our trip back to my parents. Oh, with Johns help, the exhaust has been resealed – pending me getting the *right* frontpipe for my car. It’s ‘only’ 80 quid.
