Capri - Restoration (2) White 1972 1600 XL [21]

After the weekend break I was keen to get in and finish all the little bits and hopefully, have the motor running. Well, today, turned out to be NOT A GOOD DAY! In fact, I nearly got the axe out again. I was ready to do not very nice things to the Capri. I was attempting to put together all the hoses that link up the heater & the automatic choke on the Weber carbie. It is a plumber’s nightmare! I also thought that I should check if the new distributor with the side leads would clear all the hoses. It fits well if it is turned towards the front. I was then attempting to tighten the alloy Y junction that inserts into the inlet manifold & connects the heater hose & the choke hose, when, guess what? It snapped, leaving a small section of thread in the manifold. This was great news!! Just what one needs to happen? There is nothing worse than a hard to get part breaking (I had been concerned about this junction as it fairly fragile). Fortunately there was a fair bit of thread left on the junction & I thought I could re-use it. The next bit was getting the broken piece out of the manifold. I decided to take the carbie off again to get better access. Fortunately, with a bit of tapping on a screwdriver in an anti- clockwise direction, I managed to remove pieces of the thread & then the whole section, which wasn’t very much, came out. The thread looked a bit stuffed. The thread on the junction itself was broken unevenly so I tried to clean it & file it even but it did not want to screw back in. No matter what I tried I could not get it to screw in. Another plan of attack was needed. I ventured down to see my neighbour, KH, to see if he had any suitable brass fittings. I came back with several bits, including one with a tapered thread, which screwed in without any trouble. Anything else I tried would not take up with the thread. That was one alternative but for the moment, I needed to do something else as it was starting to annoy me.
[The pic on the left shows the corroded Y junction. The pic on the right shows the bottom inlet where the thread broke].



The next job was also one of the worst things to do. The handle under the dash that opens the bonnet has been broken ever since I bought the car so as I had the instrument panel out, it was a good time to fix it. Any job under the dash of a Capri is not good for a middle aged bugger. It requires one to lie across the seat upside down & try & remove two little clips that have been on for 40 years. I final got them off & found the original handle was much more substantial than the one I was about to replace it with. It seemed to do the job so I hope it works for a while. Putting the little clips back on was another lesson in patience, especially when you are upside down, deaf & your glasses keep falling off. Finally they were back on & that was enough for the day.