The Contessa

[lancianut666]

Good work Frank...I have the boot and the oil seal to replace so will be venturing under the coupe when the engine is back together.
Clarkey

[frankxhv773t]

The boot has to go on from the inside end of the input shaft which means removing the selector housing and dismantling it all. Access is restricted with the exhaust and suspension in place but it is doable. Whilst in there you can extract the three gear selector detents and clean those. Mine were quite gummed up.

[frankxhv773t]

For a bit of exercise I took the Contessa for a run to Bletchley Park to join the Flavia 2000 consortium meet up. The 45 mile round trip is the furthest I've been so far. She is embarrassingly noisy, not at all ladylike. On the way home through Woburn deer park we ground to a standstill seeming to have run out of fuel but having set off with a full 58 litres in the tank that was unlikely. It turned out to be a blown fuse for the electric fuel pump. I thought I was carrying spares but must have got through them all. Thankfully I found a bit of metal I could wedge in the fuse holder till I got home, not ideal but I needed to get home to walk the dog. Five amps seems very little for a fuel pump fuse so I'll have to check up on that.

[lancialulu]

5 amp is what is specified for Facet, but 20 amp for Bosch and I suppose anything in between

[frankxhv773t]

Looking up online suggests the Facet only draws 3 amps max so why a 5 amp fuse keeps blowing is a mystery.

[frankxhv773t]

And to add to my fun the handbrake has malfunctioned. The ratchet won't hold the lever in the on position. I don't anticipate it being a major problem. It's very accessible and I have a spare one if needed.

[frankxhv773t]

For a week or two the handbrake would fly off if you so much as touched it till eventually it wouldn't stay on at all. The pawl didn't seem to hold on the rack of the ratchet mechanism. My spare hand brake is rather tatty so I tried swapping in the rack from that but still had the same issue. The pawl mechanism seems to be riveted into the lever so I couldn't easily swap that. Just fitting the tatty spare hand brake has worked though so she is back in action.