Sunny's airbox was rattling around like a box of pebbles and the catches were useless as they were just hanging there - turns out the PO hadn't fitted the o-ring that seals it at the bottom. Not surprising as it's NLA... thankfully people make so many O-rings for so many things, no problem getting another one. It's a 4mm x 160mm one which I found from a trawl of the forums - they'd even provided a
nice Amazon.com link so ordered from there. American but didn't take long to get here anyway. Should have ordered a couple but with some 303 it should last years anyway.
Had another look at the parts manual and it does look like someone had replaced the awful tin Sherpa / FX4 cover with a Land Rover one so that's good news - no idea what'll be underneath, will be fun finding out what belt / idler pulley it needs!
Big Red's fuel return line - Turns out it was indeed a 7/16" UNF connection, so fitted a bit of PTFE tape on it and the hose is nicely hooked up now on that end - have been messing about testing it (into a jerry can) to make sure it's worth the effort of drilling the tank, I think it is making a difference as Red's a lot happier when I let the choke off again - but still died after a few minutes idling. Still, small steps.
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Took Red's airbox off and although I don't think the filters were that old they were pretty bunged up (should have been the first thing I did really....) so I've ordered a couple more. It's a strange looking contraption with lots of patches, don't think it's the original P6 one as that looks quite different from the pics I've found, plus it's offset which I can't quite understand. But anyway, got the part number off one of the filters, a Fram CA641PL. Couldn't find those online, but did find a good site that lists all the compatible ones, from a Mann C1530 (found them on Amazon for £4 each inc delivery, nice) to a K&N E-2330 (way too expensive til I know it's working tip-top). Tried it without the airbox or elbows and again, seems a bit happier (hardly surprising really!) idling, but again dies after a few minutes. Pretty sure the idle's too low but not being familiar with the engine or the settings, best look that up then, and while I'm at it better understand how the choke works on these things (carbs being witchcraft to me at the moment).
[photo of airbox to go here
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Took a photo of the nearside carb - tucked in under the bonnet edge so apols for the crap quality, it's a stretch getting the camera round there!
All looks a bit crudded up and rusty, matches my hunch that the carbs need a total refurb... SU are £250 a piece though to get them done (for starters) so we'll see about that in a couple months I think! At least I figured out where the throttle idle screw and fast idle screw were, and the piston lift lever, so that was a useful lesson!
Fast idle cam doesn't look set up right though from the SU drawing I found.
Had a squint down the intake and the piston looks a bit mucky as well (although not as bad as I'd half expected!) - at least the damper's got some oil in it still! Ordered some carb cleaner so will have a go with that first to see if it helps a bit.
While I was at it, checked the vacuum advance on the distributor - no movement at all. Not hugely surprising as the vacuum module looks rusty as hell. Looks like £45ish for a new one - ideally I'd send the whole thing off to the Distributor Doctor but looking at £250 there as well. All in good time. The distributor cap was obviously nearly new although looks a bit cheaply made, as is the rotor, a red-top although I doubt it's his make! No idea what kind of setup is on it, PO said he'd swapped it for electronic, but can't make much more out of it other than the leads are definitely on correctly. More reading to be done...
