The Dark Wob

fried onions wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 1:56 pm Yes indeed, though I still can't summon up the courage to try and start it on the handle.

From experience if you use the correct handle (which is absolutely vital) things designed to start on a handle are usually normally ok, after all breaking a new owners wrist isn't condusive to repeat sales or good publicity.

Just keep your thumb the same side as your fingers..

The late Mother Honda used to start our Land Rover 2-1/4 petrol Carawagon on the handle when required. She was only 4'10".

Eddie Honda wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 8:56 pm The late Mother Honda used to start our Land Rover 2-1/4 petrol Carawagon on the handle when required. She was only 4'10".

See that's the sort of woman Labour needs as a leader!

All that's left to do is remove the valve rocker gear, push rods then obtain the engine crane from my brother's to lift the cylinder head. In the meantime I cleaned up the inlet manifold.

It is water heated and someone suggested to use a citric acid solution over a month to clean out the water jacket. I can certainly give it a go and trial it on this inlet manifold before using it in the engine block.


With good engine access I can attend to so much more, like the rest of the core plugs I should've done all at once, leaking gaskets and perhaps even paint the block in its Rootes engine blue.


Lovely bit of alloy, that.

These sort of things always look like proper car parts to me rather than the plastic ones that seem to have come off some large scale airfix kit.

Picture the scene - you have a long drive in the darkness, you pull over to rest and check the engine. There might have been a fault forcing you to stop. You've no torch and you need both hands free anyway. You open the bonnet and this is what you see:


A murky outline of indistinct shapes. Not to worry, though, because at the flick of a switch it is flooded in light!


All controlled from the little toggle switch by the fuse box. I had basically installed it some time ago but only now did I fit a suitable switch. All parts from autojumbles. The lamp is a Lucas L740 to which I fitted a 21w festoon bulb. I believe these lamps are meant to be side markers for commercial vehicles, and you can also get them with half the lens red, which would be ideal to mount red side forward to act as a warning to approaching traffic. I'm that pleased with this little setup I might well do it on all my cars.
It's great for if you've a dim garage too, for routine engine checks etc. As it runs off the car's battery the cost to run is nil.

Will you not cast a shadow over the engine as you stare hopefully into the abyss, though? Maybe a magmount on the light? Cracking idea, though, much better than those shitty fucking LED fag-ends that always shit their batteries when you most need them.

I work over the wings usually, due to the inline engine most stuff is at either side. If I work at the front I always catch my swede on the bonnet.

That's a bloody good idea.
At the risk of being a smartarse could you not fit a switch like in a MGB boot that switches it on when it's opened?