First Service
Well I thought that I should give it a
service (As I always do when I get a new car, also fitted an alarm not that
anyone would want it in it's current condition). The engine was running a
little erratically so I thought I'd start with the electrics. When revved
the engine would drop to a high tick-over before dropping down to tick-over
and cutting out
As I've never owned an air cooled car let
alone one this old I was interested to find out a bit more about the engine.
All went well except
for the plugs (so basically the first thing I did). I did the easiest
two first and these were ok. Then I got to the third plug, hmm a bit stiff
that one, came out in the end though with a small amount of aluminium on the
thread bit concerning but not enough to warrant any major hassle . Then the
last one, bit of a problem there, took about half hour to get out, ran out
of WD40 on it so added some oil and played it a while. The method is to wind
it out till it gets tight then back in again and repeat until free, this
allows the oil to work down the thread into the plug. Eventually it came
out, not looking very good.
So Now I'm in a bit of trouble. Normally
I would have taken the head off and had a good look to see what could be
done. problem was the van is blocking my car in and I have to be at work by
6am tomorrow. So it was a case of seeing if the new plug would fit. Fingers
crossed (well everything crossed actually) I gently tried the new plug and
wound it in by hand for a few turns before it started getting tight. As you
can see from the photo the first few threads of the head were now on the old plug so this
wasn't a good sign. The plug went in though but was quite stiff (I needed a
tap to run down the thread but didn't have one at the time). I gingerly
finished off the rest of the service - leads, dissy cap, points, and fixed a
few of the broken pipes
The T-piece on the
breather from the tank was split. This was fixed by the ever useful
electrical tape
The
advance-retard pipe was too big so air was getting in via the connection
so this was replaced.
The Fan belt
was loose to I took out the last spacer in the pulley to tighten it up.
I left the rest of the service as it was
getting late so the oil change, fuel and air filters and tappets will have
to wait until another day.
So it was with trepidation I started the
engine half expecting the plug to shoot out through the battery.
The engine sounded much
better although there was still a little problem with the tick-over but I sorted that with
a little turn on the idle screw.
I gave it a run and even had her up to 75
(down hill with a long run up  ) to make sure the plug was staying put!
I'll finish the service in a couple of
days when I know its ok, although a new head will probably replace the
existing one at some point as both of the plugs on that side showed
problems.
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