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Feeling much better in November I went to take her out for a spin amid severe weather warnings that a storm was coming with 80mph wins that were blowing trees down. All was OK in Tamworth but after about 3 miles the skies started to get darker and the winds were picking up so it was back to the garage after just a 4.5 - 5 mile ride. That said it was enough to warm her up though and blow away all the cobwebs.
What did amaze me was how quick she started up as I was expecting it to take a few turns and so by chance had my mobile phone on record. She usually does start up really well though having left her for so long I was curious.
On her journey she ran really well reaching 50 mph with ease with room for more if I pushed her. On a colder day she always runs much better which is evident when you get to a junction and ease off the throttle. On a warmer day you have to blip the throttle to keep the revs up at a junction but on a colder day she will tick over with no problem. I’ve adjusted the tick over though she still seems to do the same thing.
One thing I have been meaning to do for a while is change the HT leads though the ones on Lucie have a copper core rather than the newer silicone core leads. As a result the leads also unscrew into four parts. After talking to James at CHG Performance, he brought along a reel of Beal ignition cable for me to cut off what I needed. Cutting off five short lengths, I made up new HT leads, screwed them all into the distributor cap and then went round to the garage.
Having made a note of where the leads went, the cap was put back on and leads attached to the coil and the spark plugs. I then jumped into Lucie and turned the ignition switch and she wouldn’t start so I immediately thought, the firing order is wrong. I checked my diagram, all seemed ok and then I checked all the leads were screwed down tight into the distributor cap and the coil. I turned the key again and this time she fired up second time.
I then took her out for a run and she ran wonderful with no signs of any hiccups, that said the temperature was only around 6 degrees celcius and as mentioned the car does run much better on a cold day. I took her for a spin for a couple of miles and she seemed most happy with the new HT leads and so it was back to the garage in the warm.
I was also going to replace the spark plug caps and got some NGK spark plug caps though they were right angled and just didn’t sit right so I have ordered a set of straight Champion ones that are the same as the ones currently fitted.
Elvis Payne. Nov 2009.
Go to December 2009
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