Project Pickle - when the mildly annoyed pixies escape their confinement (part 14)

The majority of this post wouldn't have been possible, if I hadn't been a huge clumsy fence post and had not accidentially cut through most of the rear light loom. 

Let's start with the good stuff: all idiot lights are back in action, even after fitting a new ignition barrel.

But the tail-lights remain somewhat elusive. So as a first measure, let's replace all the old and mostly mismatched fuses in the fuse box. (Polite hint towards the previous owner(s) - a correctly chosen fuse could have saved you from burning up that ignition barrel...)

Rear fog light cable was a bit worse for wear.

 

Then here's a bit of a speciality of the 1983 and 1984 SJ410s as they had to have an additional warning light for the diff-lock and 4WD mode. Unfortunately all the holding tabs were broken off, so generous amounts of hot glue now keep this one in place. 

Whilst rummaging under the dashboard I found a (broken) trailer light relay that was causing serious issues with all the switch gear.

 With it removed the front lights started to working again as intended, but nothing on the back.

Continuity testing my way quite literally from the taillights forward, if the stop right above the gearbox where I had to repair the transmission tunnel in a few spots and had cut out some rusty metal.

Using up what was essentially my complete supply of alligator leads, I was able to reconnect all connections and proving that even the issue with the diff-lock warning light was related. 

 Except all of this was a bit weird... because the Diff-Lock wasn't engaged and the switch shouldn't have triggered and why did I have no reverse lights?

Luckily it wasn't too hard to pull out the whole rear light loom to the front and find out what's wrong with it.

It wasn't neither the bulb or the taillight...

... it was one of those cases of bad luck (and bad design). As the diff-lock and 4WD warning lights were afterthoughts for specific markets in Europe, apparently nobody bothered much to check whether the wire colors were already in use or not. Turns out I mixed up two cables and the permanently live diff-lock warning and the switched via ground reverse light switch both use the same wire colors.

Believe me, when I say that this felt like a very, very long weekend until I found the fault.

Project Pickle - some assembly required (part 13)

 Whilst waiting for the new regulator there was plenty of other things that needed to be done. First one being the weather strips on the doors. 

Next the rear bench seat (please note that this is a pre-1985 vehicle so no rear seatbelts).

Consoles for the BMW front seats and then the seats themselves. 

With the Maruti Suzuki front fenders the headlight mounts are exactly mirrored. Surprisingly the stock reflectors have a corresponding tab for this setup as well. 

... and then the whole front came off again, so I could flush the block and "install" a new radiator.

 

Let's just say, the claim of the seller that a Maruti 413 radiator is exactly the same as the one for a 410 is right only to the extend that you can actual "install" it. But it will not sit straight at all. Still a lot better than the old one and it'll be hidden behind the grill anyway. 

I don't quite know why, but a black engine bay just looks the part. Much better than have it painted in body color. 

With the tailgate now being from an even early SJ410 (clearly recogniseable by the lack of stamping on the part below the body line) fitting the spare wheel to the rear door was completely out of question as these were reinforced at the factory on later models, because they were just too weak to hold the weight. So a couple of M10x1.25 stainless bolts closed the holes. 

The main reason why I swapped all the door locks wasn't so much because they were a bit sticky, but primarily because the ignition barrel had shorted out internally and was by no means to be considered reliable anymore. As it wouldn't exactly take a genius to hotwire one of these little Suzukis, as even the color codes make it pretty obvious how it is done, the only challenge that remains is how to get them out and install a new one instead.

 The next one might sounds trivial, but this was in a way the biggest victory on that very day. Not so much because it was such a monumental thing to achieve, but because it was the one failure that broke me on the Lada. There's a working hood latch.

And lastly installed the door locks and fresh, basic military model, door cards and sprayed the insides with cavity wax.

 Next up: make the blinking lights blink again and make sure the angry pixies stay put in their cables. 

La Macchina - working to make the old girl look good (part 2)

Underneath all the California 3 parts is a little Guzzi T3 that is trapped and just wants to be set free. With all the more hideous bits removed, a T5 fuel tank, a T3 California bench and a classic T3 read mudguard found its way onto the bike.

 

I mean, Guzzis are huge, but they also have this line from the seat to the tank to them:

 

Now there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the T5 tank, but when I found an 850T tank for the kind of price you can't say no to and it was red, actually it was R-O-S-S-O, one can't say no, right?

 Of course I also installed running boards and stock shift- and brake levers instead of the forward controls.

As usual, the uniball-joints were hopelessly worn and the whole gear-selector mechanics were completely loose and maladjusted. Luckily those joints are standard industrial Lego and are quickly replaced.
 

 The fuel tank needed a good rinse as it smelled of varnished petrol.

And while I waited, I got rid of the riser bars, trimmed the handlebar cover and put the bars in a more sensible position.

The 850T tank mounts by being hooked under two bushes on the headstock, which of course were missing.
 

Whilst these were missing, there were two mounting tabs for the Cali 3 tank underneath that were in the way of things. (They used to be where the shiny bits of frame are.)

On the subject of work on the frame, the rear mudguard had to be properly mounted, but as it came from a 1000SP it was missing the correct mounting locations and two more spacers, which I quickly made on the lathe.

In the meantime a new hazard-light switch arrived in the mail and guess what, this was the secret ingredient to make all the lights work. 

With some of the most pressing cosmetic issues being tackled and apparently even getting very close to being road legal, it was time to go from "running" to RUNNING.

The blued downpipes told me two things: First now the old girl was running properly on both pots and secondly the ignition is timed hopelessly late. Unfortunately it's impossible to see in the picture, but I adjusted the timing so the marks would be on the bottom end of the sight window giving it a bit more initial advance to help with things.

Then there's a huge difference between adjusting Guzzi carbs by ear and using some actual vacuum gauges on them.

I'll let the video speak for itself.

And with that, I can now turn towards making La Macchina road legal, so it can pass the inspection and get registered. Which means tidying up the whole electrics, making a seat mount, installing indicators and a tail-light and bleeding the brakes.