Few little bits and pieces done this afternoon, but nothing particularly ground breaking.
The Trabant has never been particularly fond of idling smoothly (even by two stroke standards), but it was definitely better after changing the blown head gasket. Today I had the thought of using an IR thermometer to compare the two jugs to see whether both cylinders were properly contributing. Imagine my surprise when I pointed it at cylinder number 2 and realised that the spark plug was moving.
Yep, it wasn't even finger tight and I was able to turn it about two turns tighter by hand. With that tightened up the idle seemed to be a good bit better, though I've not actually done a test drive to get it properly back up to temperature since. Wish all fixes were this easy.
On the Rover I had a few small things I wanted to look in to (as I didn't feel up to wrestling with the oil pump housing today).
The windscreen washers worked once but have resolutely refused to do anything ever since. Think I'm going to have to give in and just buy a new pump there as everything *seems* fine and it's not full of slime, it just refuses to pump. I think the little rubber vanes have probably either gone too hard to work or have perished. Plus the motor only seems to run about 50% of the time unless I whack it with a screwdriver. The bottle is cracked and can't be filled more than about 1/3 anyway so hopefully I can find a whole replacement for not stupid money.
I knew something was up with either the headlight switch, circuit or way the switch was hooked up. This was because as soon as you clicked the switch to the first notch, which should be side lights, you got side and headlights - exactly the same as when set to the correct headlight position.
Yes, that would do it.
With this jumper wire removed everything appears to work normally. Though I'm guessing the switch has proven to be intermittent in the headlight position once warmed up. Can't see any other reason you would do this.
I've removed it for now (not least because the gauge of wire isn't even close to being up to the job) and will investigate further at a future date.
I had also wanted to have a look at seeing if I could sort the handbrake switch as currently the brake warning light on the dash only comes on via the float switch on the reservoir, and it should also work when the handbrake is on. I know the lamp itself does work as I've tested it.
However I failed at the first hurdle - how to get into the centre console far enough to find the switch. I'll need to consult a manual to confirm where the fixings are so I can get it apart without breaking any bits of brittle, near 50 year old plastic.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
