A quick update on the car...
I was driving the other day when I heard a loud clank and then scraping noises. The front-right shock-mount had broken off (welding). I pushed the shock into an upright position and limped home. Sorted out the shock-mount, then when I wanted to go test it I made it to the street corner before the thrust bearing came off again.
So I took the gearbox off, again, this last weekend and found that the one spring holding the bearing on had come off. I made sure to hook on the springs properly this time. I'm hoping it stays on now!
While the gearbox was off I decided to cut off the exhaust making it a twin-pipe instead of a 2-into-1 at the back. The muffler was ugly, and the exhaust was forever in the way when working on the car. I replaced the plugs as the car started missing badly, and I played with the H30/31 PICT carb a bit as it was overfuelling quite heavily. What a difference this made! The car now revs clean and strong, with no black smoke and no hesitation. The open exhausts also sound a fair bit better than the previous setup, and it looks better.
I need to replace the mechanical fuel pump with an electrical one asap. It's leaking and electronic fuel pumps just work better cause I can hear when there is an issue with fuel then.
It's been a bit of a frustration with the car, but I just have to go through everything and fix/replace what is faulty. It stood for 10 years, so there are bound to be teething issues. I'd love more power, but to find a set of IDF Webers seems like a very costly exercise
Before I cut the exhaust...