Had a spare hour this afternoon so got a bit of tinkering on the Cavalier done.
Surprisingly the heater blower motor had freed up while it was stewing in penetrant, so I quickly threw that back together for testing.
This was then left to run under careful observation for half an hour or so. The bearings are a bit grumbly so I think it will want replacing long term. It's definitely working on both speeds though and seems to be shifting plenty of air on both speeds.
While staying in the vicinity to keep an eye on the blower to ensure it didn't burst into flames I was successfully able to free off the temperature blend flap in the heater box, so the temperature control now also works properly.
I've confirmed that it does actually supply hot or cool air properly depending on the position as well rather than just the lever moving and doing nothing. The action has come back pretty good actually, which I wasn't banking on as the linkage was quite crusty.
Didn't even get much by the way of junk out of the vents.
I think a new set of heater hoses should probably be on my shopping list.
Mmm...crusty. Though after 44 years I think we can forgive that and say they've done their time.
Think in the interests of reliability I'll be looking to change all of the coolant lines. I need to pop the aux belt off and check to see how the bearings in the water pump sound, as something is making a bit of noise, most noticeable when the engine stops. Reckon it's either the water pump or the alternator.
Spotted this light in the boot somewhat at random.
Initially this caused a bit of head scratching as I couldn't immediately find the switch. Turns out to be quite a tiny little thing hidden behind the nearside hinge mount.
It's a little normally closed switch which is pressed by the hinge as the boot lid is closed.
Initially this was resolutely dead. Turned out we had a poor contact on the power supply lead, in the lamp holder itself *and* at the switch. Once all of these had been cleaned up we had a working light.
Of course having established the light worked there was a very important test to then be made.
Excellent, yes the light does actually turn off when the boot lid is closed.
While not massively bright it is actually useful.
Upgraded with an LED lamp like I used in the boot of the Jag I reckon that would work pretty well.
While the windscreen washers did very briefly work, they immediately died. This turned out to be because the reservoir was full of slime. No surprises there then.
This was left soaking for several hours with a dishwasher tab in.
This didn't really do anything so it's been left with some bleach in to see if that will do anything to it.
I have also bolted my temporary tail pipe on, just need to come up with a hanger for it and I can tick that off the list of things I need to worry about for a while.
An order of about £200 worth of miscellaneous bits and pieces has gone into Autodoc. Given that none of my local factors could find anything beyond the oil and filter (or bother to actually pick up the paper catalogues) so the internet it was to be. Beyond this order the items I'm aware of still needing to pick up before we can think about taking our first tentative, 10mph test run round the block will be a pair of front brake calipers (or at least a rebuild kit if I'm really lucky), a set of tyres and I think I'll just plan on replacing all of the coolant lines.
Sure we'll find plenty more things to add to that list once we start digging!
Oh...wiper blades. See? Told you I'd have missed something.
