February 2015, take 2. Not the usual headlight problem.

On one sunny day I decided it was time to fit the driving lights under the bumper.  These are some Hella Comet 450 lamps that I have had on several previous cars and give a good amount light from a small (ish) square lamp.  They would operate via a switch from main beam to give a nice bit of extra light down the road and would have the additional benefit of being there immediately if I used the "Flash" on the column stalk. No wait for the main light pods to rise.  I had already installed the switch and wiring ready when I did the relays for the headlamps so it was just fit the lamps. Easy.
YES and NO!
Yes, the lamps were dead easy.
No, when I tested them I found the left headlamp would only give a faint glow.   Bugger!  I had apparently upset something during the work.
Obviously the usual earthing problem then?
No,  when I checked the earth connection was all clean and tight because I had redone those when I put the car on the road. The headlamp pod also went up and down perfectly but the light stayed dim.
Undid the white plug in the engine bay and it was all good at that point so this meant the fault could only be between the connectors there and the light unit itself.
Cutting a (very) long story short I found an old bodged joint in the pod just behind the headlamp cup. Same problem I had on the other side - see previous blog post May 2014.  It was the old story of problems caused by someone doing shoddy work on the car previously, probably when it was resprayed.  Fixing the fault took me most of a day and required taking out the whole headlamp and lift motor assembly.  That battery cut off switch I recently fitted was worth its weight in gold as you could just disconnect the battery with the headlamp in the up position to work on them safely.

Hella Comet 450 Driving Lights fitted.

February 2015 - Cold and wet weather causing lack of enthusiasm.

I should have been getting on with stripping the rest of the good parts off the old red car but the weather has been cold and wet causing me to experience a marked lack of enthusiasm with spending time in the garage.  It got so we actually booked a last-minute week in Fuerteventura and had a good time eating too much and being blown about there. Windy yes, but 20+ degrees instead of 5 and we had never been there before. Our tour guide on a day trip turned out to be from Ypres and was a rally fan so I spent ages chatting to him but that is a whole other story!

Back on planet earth I had been getting an irritating drip from where the Kenlowe sender goes into  the top hose on car.  I had replaced the little rubber saddle piece they supply but it was still dripping so I got fed up and decided to change to a Revotec in-hose type instead.  These are very neat solution and are fitted into the hose and don't leak. 

Revotec adjustable thermostat  fan controller. No drips! 

and new blanking plate at right side of the radiator.

When I was doing this job I also added the side blanking boards at each side of the radiator. They close the gaps and encourage air to go through the radiator instead of round the sides. The standard ones are made from fibre board and had fallen apart with age but I found some nice aluminium replacements which do the job nicely.  I then painted them mat black because they looked too shiny!

Left side blanking board fitted

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Another little job done at this time was to fit a battery cut off switch.  These are very cheap and simple to fit as they just bolt onto the battery terminal.  Its handy if the car is parked up for a while and should help prevent the battery going flat. You can easily unscrew the knob and take it away as an anti-theft device and it is also very handy to disconnect the electrics when working on the headlight motors. Turns out this was going to be useful later.

Battery cut out switch fitted.