Right, Stef removed and stripped the carbs, confirmed it was the spring on the accelerator pump diaphragm, put everything back together and ran it up on the rollers. Contrary to my assumption that the jets were oversized, the jets actually wanted to go up a size and it was then running sweet as a nut … an indicated 110 bhp and 12.5 AFR around 5,500 RPM. Which all sounds perfectly…
TOP TIP: Late at night before going to the rollers to get your car set up, don’t whip the rocker cover off, spend a few minutes getting the valve clearances pretty much bang on, think how pleased you are with yourself that you remembered to do it, put a brand new gasket on, then get distracted and overtighten the bolts and warp the soft ally rocker cover… You’ll not be surprised…
With the MOT out of the way, the obvious thing to do was to start taking the car apart and make some room for the DHLA 40s. Thankfully I had the assistance of a mate who knows what he’s doing, but is happy to stand back and chirp in with comments like “have you thought about…” or “if I was doing it, what I might do is…”, whilst without being patronising or a…
Spent over a week trying to find the genuine Dellorto service kit that I’d bought a few years ago and put away somewhere safe so I didn’t lose it… Finally got a chance to rebuild the carbs, so spent the evening at the kitchen table following the instructions in Des Hamill’s book. My auntie tells me it was a scene reminiscent of my uncles sat round the kitchen table at my grandma’s some…
Turned out nice Picked up the carbs today and I’m more than happy with the job done by Ian at CRC Restorations. I chatted it over with him beforehand and the brief was to get them functionally cleaned, rather than focus on them being cosmetically clean – after all, they’re only going to get dirty when I use the car, so I don’t personally see the need to spend extra to…
Spent the evening with a glass or two of red and some screwdrivers, following the instructions in the book and stripping down the carbs, one by one. They’ve gone off to a local chap for an ultrasonic bath to get rid of the gummed-up petrol in the insides and ensure that when they go on the car, all the delicate little holes are the right size, rather than full of…
Among the pile of bits I’ve casually acquired over the years is this; a pair of Dellorto DHLA 40’s complete with trumpets, K&N filters, linkage and a Hiflow manifold – all for £151 from a fella about 20 miles away. If memory serves, it was one of those auctions where the seller listed it badly, with few photos, an end time in the early hours of the morning and seemingly…