AHU58 - Progress Report.

Feb 2nd 1998

Over the weekend, the Kestrel saw it's first work since about 1985! The first thing we did was to see if we could get the engine moving!
We drained the sump, and put some flushing oil, checked the plugs (not too bad considering), and distributor cap.

In order to get it going, we needed some petrol - in comes the new petrol pump. Once fitted, we put some petrol in the tank, and float chambers, and attached the battery.
The engine turned over, by hand, but none of the controls did anything. Haha, there's a Battery Isolator switch, which don't work!

Once removed, the fuel pump, and starter motor worked, along with all of the other electrical parts still attached! After sitting in a shed for nigh on 20 years, the car turned over first time, but did not fire. We finally traced it to the Coil's earth wire, and got a spark off of the HT leads.
Having done that, we tried again, but to no avail - the original HT leads are all knackered, and new plugs are also needed. We also couldn't get the fuel pump to work.


The Inlet side of the engine, showing not a lot!
The Central Lubrication thingy has now been removed.
After deciding that the carburettors needed cleaning - the accelerator linkage to the 2nd one was jamming - we removed them. We also removed the Starter motor, as it didn't seem to be turning the engine over very fast - we got it going faster with the handle!

After some hard work, we found that the brass rod at the end of the accelerator linkage (the one with the Brass disc passing through the middle) was jammed, and fractured.
We finally forced it out, without damaging the rest of the carb, but it needs replacing - any help...!

After a while, we realised that it wasn't going to start without a lot of work, and money, so we gave up! On to the Rear Axle....
We started on the Brake Drums. However, the brakes were locked on - even though the linkages were in the off position. After a good bit of hammer bashing they came off, unharmed!

We managed to remove all of the rear axle, with a bit of brute force, except for the Offside Brake rod, which refuses to leave it's hole in the Torque Tube, despite moving fine.
We've also got to try and fix the hand-brake, as it currently refuses to shift. However, from above it's covered by a dodgy looking transmission tunnel (non-original), and from below, about 20 years worth of spiders..... (also non-original!!)
Everything was moving freely, and the worst problem is going to be rubbing down & re-painting!

As we'd got the axle out of the way, we decided to remove the fuel tank as well. This came out nice & easy, and is completely intact (thank god!).


The inside of the boot, showing battery well. In amongst all of those leaves, is the fuel filler pipe, currently partly an old shampoo bottle....
The interior of the car - the wooden props are keeping the body straight, theoretically anyway...., and the gear-lever, and hand brake both need new chrome.

E-mail me at ab6rnm@bath.ac.uk.

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Last Updated 5/2/98.