Recent content by Tall Ratbag

Yes, my record was 15 minutes from the car park, do the clutch, put it back in the car park, and clock off the job. I was one of the slower mechanics in the workshop at the time. The thread in the hollow input shaft youmentioned was a bit of an odd one; M7. However, the end of the clutch...

Back in the mists, Vauxhalls used to be good to work on - late 80's early 90's Carltons, for example, you could slide the heater matrix out of the side of the heater unit, just like you might do with a pollen filter.

https://www.exmoortrim.co.uk/88-109-90-110-fume-curtain.html

It could be something getting hot in the speedo. Perhaps a drop (no more!) of oil where the speedo shaft runs in the bush in the back of the speedo might help. Logic: The speedo relies on the generation of eddy currents. These currents decrease with temperature, and so, the torque acting on...

Going back a long time, we used to run some AEC trucks with DPA pumps. When the pump was about to seize up, the quill shaft would snap. The quill shaft was the deliberate weak point in the drive to the pump. A new quill shaft would get the engine running, and the truck off the side of the...

I would begin by making sure that both bulbs are correctly seated - if the bulb is rotated from where it should sit, the blob of solder on the base of the bulb could short across. So, take the lenses off, put the tail lights on, and gently waggle the bulbs, and watch to see if the brake lamps...

Sorry, yes, you are quite right.

The spacer doesn't change the final position of the pinion as it is a collapsible spacer. The pinion nut is tightened until there is the correct preload across the bearings, and the location of the bearings themselves determines the position of the pinion. All the collapsible spacer does is...

As the heater matrices are in series with each other, and the flat heater is getting hot, this suggests that the water flow is OK, and the problem lies on the air side.

The puff of dark smoke suggests the opposite of a lack of fuel. Next time it cuts out / won't start, get the plugs out quickly, and see if they are wet with fuel, .

>>I am going to move the vacuum pickup to the intake plenum directly below the carb mounting and see what happens. Yes, you need to use the large vacuum take off for the brake servo. If you measure near the throttle valve, you are not measuring the full vacuum, and will get misleading results.

Do you still have the problem? i.e., have you checked it since cleaning up the rocker pads?

It might be worth looking into fitting hardened valve stem caps. It all depends how bad the wear ridge is.

I would look carefully at the pads where the rocker contacts the top of the valve stem. If there's a wear lip on this oad, that could stop the rocker returning freely - especially if the rocker geometry has been changed a bit owing to the head skim.

I don't know about the screw, and the parts manual is no help, but, I would try BA sizes first. For the low reading, a high resistance connection anywhere in the circuit could cause this. A poor connection between the tank sender and earth, a poor connection at the large multi-plug by the...