Shakedown:First longish run since the new head from SAS & other repairs/changes last year.
Did about 400 mile from Sunday till Wednesday visiting friends & relative in Surry, Hants and Dorset.
A few problems emerged... typical ...
1. I had tightened the left Window motor mounting screws last week & as soon as I tried to open the window the hawser jumped off the pulleys (or some-such) and I could only open the window a half inch.. Not ideal considering that for once we have HOT weather here. So with only one window fully open it got hot & sticky in the cabin. No problem to fix, just tedious.
2. Acceleration was fine on Sunday, for 70 or so miles, but sometime on Monday a jerking acceleration became evident at around 2000 RPM, but ok accelerating from other RPM. I had this just after getting the car on the road for the first time last year (and mentioned it in earlier messages on this topic). This time I noted that it is very specific to 2000 RPM, so I'm wondering if it is some Dellorto progression holes blocked (I can't really tell if the problem is due to a single cylinder or due to all). Or is might be something resonates in the distributor at 2000RPM. Maybe that's where the second counter-weight spring comes into action.
What does the Jury think is the most likely cause?
3. My fuel gauge went to zero while in Abbotsbury Swannery, which gave me a mental jolt, thinking I had a fuel leak, but it was only the electric gauge not reading; my faithful fuel dipstick showed me I still had a half full tank. A bit later I discovered that the radiator fan wasn't running. So I checked the fuses & all were OK, then the fuel gauge and fan were working again until much later, stuck in a traffic jam on Hanger Lane.. I knew I couldn't survive a long traffic jam in this heat with no rad fan so I stopped & jiggled the fuzes again but this time it didn't fix it. So I jury rigged a 12v wire to the fan to run it continuously and got home.
So I have yet to find out what is wrong with the wiring and I feel awfully tempted to replace the classic 4-fuse box with a modern blade fusebox and also arrange that more 'services' have their own fuses to make diagnosis & road-side fixes much easier. Maybe I can get some scrapped looms from a breakers yard to get a good supply of motoring standards coloured wires. Buying a supply of every combination of colours, brand new, would be too expensive.