The joys of working on 45 year old cars.
When I identified the heater wasn't working a few weeks ago now I carried out one or two checks. The control was operating the levers but there was no hot water to the heater pipes from the engine bay.
I had actually missed a crucial bit here as I wasn't familiar with the 2000 heater system and I now know it's a stuck heater valve and there is no lever actually attached any more.
Not realising this though I contacted Chris Witor, talked it over with him and he suggested it was possibly the water return pipe connecting the inlet manifold to the water pump. As it looks like the original it could easily have become full of gunk and be restricting water flow and it isn't something I would like to have fail on the 10 Countries Run either so I ordered a replacement.
I removed the old pipe which was a bit of a faff as it runs between the exhaust manifold and the block but once I had it off the car there was a kink in it but other than that it didn't look too bad. Obviously I still replaced it with the new stainless steel pipe which should last another 45 years!
Of course that sounds easier than it was to do especially when things like ratchets, clips and olives fall on the floor and have to be found/retrieved.
Having completed this I then started the car to make sure there were no leaks and was pleased to see there weren't.
Strangely though the electric fan started immediately but cut off after about a couple of minutes. Getting the car thoroughly up to temperature it didn't come back on though as expected. I switched the engine off, restarted and the electric fan came on.
I'll have to investigate that next.It could be because the car isn't being used and old cars don't like that. For example petrol came out of the front carb float chamber too but a tap on it cured the sticking valve. Regular use tends to make sure these things don't happen.
