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28th February 2009.....Spent the morning working on the estate as I wanted to check it over. I completely cleaned out the carb and blew it out with an air-line. I then checked the plugs and points and gave them all a good clean, (saying that they were okay really). I then tried to change the fuel pipe but the stuff I had was the wrong size so I couldn't do it. The last thing I did was check the timing. Now under instructions from Spot I changed these slightly and I must say she has lost some of her 'jerkiness'. (Is that a word?). What I've now noticed is that if I pull the choke out very, very slightly the jerking disappears, so I still think there is a fuel problem, but she is running much better. After that it was back to the garden and all of Sunday was spent on it as well. I won't bore you with it but it is progressing. Hopefully I'll have a week off at Easter and see if I can finish the garden then all my weekends can be what weekends were invented for......working on Viva's.
21st February 2009.....I broke the estate yesterday by parking on a big grass bank at school and it's pulled the exhaust pipe apart underneath. I managed to get her home okay but when I went to work the next morning she sounded like a Sherman tank. Still the neighbour's needed to get up early. Saturday morning it took me just 20 minutes to clean up the pipes and clamp it all back up again, no trouble. While I was underneath I found that the reversing light cable had come off so put that back on again.....they still didn't work though. I wired in the cigarette lighter and that works okay now. I then had a play with the ariel for the radio but can only get only station so that will need further investigation. The CD player works fine so I will just have to put up with the Eagles for a while. Luckily I can sing along to these songs as I know all the words so my passengers get a free concert when they come for a drive with me! The rest of the weekend was spent in the garden laying crazy paving and sieving soil. I did spend some more time welding in the evenings and I am getting better. I managed to weld up a half inch hole no trouble. It was on very thick metal mind. I'm also trying to get the welder spot brought up to work, but I think it will need a new torch and cable.
13th February 2009.....I have been working in the garage most nights still scraping the bottom of 'shorty'. I have also used some white spirit on it and it's coming up very clean. I will take some more pictures perhaps over the weekend and post them up on Monday. I also want to get some more pictures of XLN on here so if the weather is okay I'll try and get some of her as well. Well it's our anniversary tomorrow so I'll need to spend some time in the garage with SHW. As you will be aware I got her on Valentine's Day, I would never forget our anniversary! Must speak to the wife to find out when ours is!!
7th February 2009 .....I can't work in the garden because of the snow...what a shame! The only downside was I had to put DHR out in the snow to get XLN in the garage. I'm growing to like XLN more and more every day. I've always fancied an estate anyway and she hasn't disappointed so far. She's been out in all this terrible weather but starts first time, unlike the old Astra. I wanted to have a look at a few problems she has so put her in the garage on Saturday. It's the only spare day I have again this weekend. I started by trying to get the fuel gauge working. It goes straight to full as soon as you start and stays there. Now this either means I have the first car which never needs to be filled up...or the gauge is knackered. I have a hunch it's the later. To get to the gauge in the estate is a right bugger. You have to unscrew all the metal rods that run along on top of boot floor covering. You unscrew the two brackets that hold the floor covering down along the boot edge. You then have to remove the side panels on both sides and the rear shock covers. This lets you remove the floor covering, then you can get to the false floor. Once you remove this you can get access to the tank. So I took the cable off the sender and the gauge still read full. I then put the cable to earth and it went off. So this means...I don't know, I'll have to ask one of the lads. I put everything back together and had a look at the temperature gauge. It's not connected and there is no sender. I have one of these so will have to find out exactly where it goes and put it in. Another call to the lads. Next I had a look at the switch on the dash that doesn't seem to do anything. There are two wire to it. One goes directly to earth but the other is a small black which goes into the wiring loom. Reading the manual it says this should be on the wiper switch. Someone has put a wire from the switch to fuse 2. Another call to the lads. Next I decided to stick the gold stripe down the side. This I managed to do without calling anyone. She does look better now. It's funny what a difference a stripe makes. I wanted to tackle the door locks but ran out of time and DHR was covered in snow which I wanted to brush off before I put her to bed. As always, lots to do but so little time. I need to retire!
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