Bertie,
with the engine warmed up and ticking over, direct a few drops of petrol onto the 'choke pull off' device. If the engine speed alters noticably, the diaphragm's probably failed, which is game over for the gizmo.

Another method of checking it is to feel whether there's a strong pull on the wire 'hook' when trying to move it towards the front of the engine with the engine ticking over. That one's probably more in keeping with any Health & Safety regulations applicable in your location...

You will need to seal the mounting holes in the carb lid as well as the vacuum drilling hole when removing it. For the former, some M5 nyloc nuts under the original cross head screws works, for the latter a small self tapper...

ken.



[quote="bertiewhite I'll have a look at my choke pull-off device tomorrow which might help a bit more??[/quote]

Thanks Ken. For the benefit of others who may not even know about this (like I didn't), what effect can a failed device have on the engine?

Bertie,
the punctured diaphragm is the source of an air leak, which can affect the tickover and slow running mixture.
Once the leak is cured, the idle speed and mixture will need adjustment, of course.

ken.

I tried both methods Ken and although there is a slight pull on the hook, the idle speed dropped noticeably when I dropped some petrol over the device. What I've done for now is cut a suitable piece of gasket material to block the hole inside and then refitted the device until I can get into the garage next week and do it properly. It'll give me a chance to see if it makes any difference on my drive back to Lincs tomorrow.

After spending a couple of days tinkering and addressing a couple of small issues, I made the first steps towards turing the Bedouin into a camper last night.

After half an hour of drilling out pop rivets last night, Belinda is now topless. I removed the useless flimsy false roof freeing up an extra foot of headroom space and it's quite amazing how more airey the cabin feels now with just the top roof in place. Just to get an idea of how I'm going to fit out the interior, I sat on one of the wheel arches and was able to sit upright without my head touching the roof. Because of this I'm thinking of going with the idea of a seat down the nearside which folds across into a bed with a cooker/sink on the offside as opposed to one bed across the wheel arches.

In order to ease myself gently into the conversion process, a piece of plywood board has been fixed above the front seats to provide storage space - also in the future, it'll provide somewhere to fix a small drop down tv and also a car stereo. It's just a shelf at the moment, but I might look at closing it in to make it more like a locker.

That's what we did in the Acad - panelled over the extra cab roof space, put speakers in it, and a stereo in one of those plastic under-dash DIN holders, angled so that the windscreen end was about flush with the panel. Worked very, very well indeed - the speakers were perfectly positioned for maximum audibility at Vmax, and you could use the stereo controls without getting out of bed. There was also a CD changer above the shelf - but the control for it was left on the dash and got a little overly moist...

I haven't been ale to upload any pics this week from work so I've had to wait until I'm home to get the latest pics of Belinda on the site.

First of all here's a pic of Belinda at her first meeting. I thought it was quite fitting that she was camped next to Uncle Ken, the man who has been central to her rebirth.



The next few pics show the roof removal:





The next shows the extra headroom that has been made available by the removal of the false roof and also, the shelf that is going to form the base of a locker above the front seat:



and the final pics show the interior space that I've got available for sleeping in - it's roughly equivalent to a van. They also show an existing couple of holes in the floor which I presume are for a gas bottle. Underneath the hole is the rear of the chassis top plate that would be used for the rear floor on a standard floor. As I aleady have a small hob with a built in gas bottle that I intend to use I think this space could be used for a leisure battery.

I've been getting on with the seats/beds over the last fortnight in no particular rush. Last week I thought about taking advantage of a load of free wood in the form of broken pallets and managed to build a single unit but although it was strong, the method of construction made it quite bulky and heavy so it was back to the drawing board. Being a carpenter by trade, my Dad said that the best method of construction would be to use 1 and a half inch square sawn timber to make a frame so off I went to the local timber store and I managed to get 8x 2.4m lengths for £18 which I thought was quite reasonable. By carefully using joints to join the timber at the corners and by notching in supports, this makes for a very strong yet lightweight structure. I've also got hold of some very lightweight tongue & groove panelling to clad the boxes with. The hardest aspect of the build so far has been getting the tops of the seats and galley to run parallel to the bottom of the windows as the floor actually slopes down towards the front seats and I've been told that van floors do this as well. In the end it's just been a case of measuring everything properly and to keep offering up the units into the intending position at regular intervals.

After a lot of planning, drawing and visualising in my head, I've decided to go for an L shape for the seating down the nearside & behind the seats with a permanent galley along the offside. In order to make the seats into a bed, I'm going to use slats fixed to fabric strips that pull out along rails that will be fixed to the seat & galley. I intend to hinge the top of the seats in order to provide storage space underneath but I'm unsure as to the best method of access to the inside of the galley. I've already got a hob for the galley but am investigating the possibility of a small sink so I might cut doors into the side of the galley or just hinge half the top of the galley work surface.

Anyway here are a couple of pics of the initial stages of construction although they're a bit more complete by now:





2 quick points:

1. I've been cutting large pieces of neoprene-like half inch foam to act as insulation along the sides and intend to use the same stuff to line the roof as well. I don't know if it will help to keep the warmth in but it's worth thinking about it at this stage of the interior build.

2. The dimensions, position and arrangement of the seats & galley have been pretty much dictated by the removable panel in the floor. This houses the spare wheel so obviously will need to be easily accessible. I did think about relocating the spare and bringing the units closer together over this panel but it would be such a waste of space to not use this area and I would still have to put the spare somewhere.

Sweet Imp there I must say

It's my mate's racer.