Re: 1750 GTV reborn

[Matthew Killick <m.killick@domain.elided>]

Greetings

Its about two weeks since the GTV went back on the road after its 7 year
layoff.  The new owner has run up about 1000 miles, and I've been debugging
it.  The main problems have been with the hydraulics/brakes (not
surprisingly), and getting it to idle correctly.  I have also been tweaking
the doors and steering geometry.

The brake/idle problems threw up a new one for me.  The car was backfiring
on deceleration, as well as being very unstable at idle.  I checked and
found that the cam and ignition timing were all spot on, and there were no
vacuum leaks around the carbs.  When the owner twigged that the problems
only occurred when the brakes were on (clever chap), I was able to diagnose
it as a servo problem.  Shore'nuff, disconnecting and plugging the vacuum
pipe to each of them in turn showed it to be the rear circuit.
Disconnecting and plugging the pipe from control valve to main diaphragm
showed the control valve to be faulty.  Popped the top off the control
valve, and the small diaphragm was split.

Fortunately, the servos on this car are good ole ozzie PBR (VH44) units.
Reconditioned units are locally in stock at $210 each.  Twenty minutes with
the yellow pages found someone willing to supply a diaphragm for $26.  Job
done.  

Owners report: "I just love to drive this car".

Next week, I'm off the UK for a month, so the extended warranty (normally I
give 30 miles/30 minutes) runs out.  He's going from Perth to Melbourne,
via the Nullarbor Plain (of course) and the Great Ocean Road, and he's on
his own.  The Nullarbor crossing is about 1200 km with no habitation
between Norseman (WA) and Ceduna (SA), just a roadhouse every 200 km or so.
 And the Great Ocean Road?  Alfa territory.

Cheers
Mat
Theakston's dreaming

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