Fire up BRP!

Yes, here are pictures of a full engine bay with an engine that runs!
Last week was "the click of death" and as I said I needed to check the earthleads and starter motor connections. Well I cleaned the starter motor connections and then moved on to an earth lead next to the battery.

This seemed a bit small though and then I noticed the large earth lead dangling in the engine bay - ah ha! That was quickly bolted on to the engine and BRP fired up after a few sessions of turning over.

Success but by 'eck there was alot of smoke and quite a bit of a rattle.

The smoke and the rattle died away and then thanks to Kevin who checked the carbs and timing BRP actually ran relatively smoothly on tickover at about 1000RPM. Then it was time for a quick run down our street and all was well, the clutch hadn't even stuck.

Thanks Kevin for sticking with it for the last year!

Now though I still have to make a decision as to which car to use on the HCR on April 2nd/3rd. There's only 4 weekends I can work on cars before then really and BRP needs an MOT and taxing along with what might be called "recommissioning". Allied to this with a reconditioned cylinder head that needs looking after for the first few hundred miles makes me wonder.

Meanwhile, PMW has an MOT, is taxed and has now proved reliable (if not without a few difficulties!). This car needs a pair of rear shock absorbers (already have a spare pair of Spax and just bought all the bushes), a ball joint (bought this week but I bet the job will be a pig) and relays for the headlights (all the gear bought, just needs doing).

There is a lingering concern about a "rumble" that might be propshaft or driveshaft UJ issues but then again all those suspension problems can't have helped driveline smoothness!

I think I'll be fitting the Spax next weekend to PMW and see how we go from there but it's looking to me that PMW will be the car for the HCR.