Portuguese Aprilia

[Mic]

And two more photos.

[simonandjuliet]

As I said in my email - she looks wonderful !

Well done, now you just need to use her everyday for a month to iron out the niggles and get used to her ......

[Mic]

Wheels should be back and round by now, yet another bank holiday got in the way.  Meantime here is what you get from the Portuguese old car club (old car rather than vintage or PVT) which clears you of any MoT for a few years.

[Mic]

Thermometer.  I know the Aprilia did not normally have one of these but always a good idea and can get a bit hot here at times.  One hundred last week!  Although this is not normal in the north.  Too hot for small motoring dog.

So I have purchased a nice Metron gauge with a bracket but not sure where the sensor should fit into the radiator and I cannot look right now as obviously car is not with me and the workshop is closed for the weekend.  Any advice much appreciated or even a photo.

Generally there has been a delay in sorting out the wheels as until the car could be driven it was not clear that they needed trueing up.  The work has been done in Braga and wheels are at last back with the fettler for repainting.    I go to check again on Monday.

[davidwheeler]

I have tucked mine into the header tank on the right.  There is not a lot of room with the distribution pipe in the way.

[Mic]

Thank you, David. Just what I wanted to know.  The Metron thermometer is really a nice piece of kit. I only hope it works as good as it looks.

[Scarpia]

the take off for my temperatuage gauge is on the thermostaat housing just above the heater outlet.Gives maybe slightly different info but there is not much space to fit something.Header tank is more common i think but wherever you place it you just need to learn what is normal and then reconise when there are variations.

[simonandjuliet]

William, is the brass bit on your thermostat housing new or re-machined - it looks perfect ..... mine is now clean and shiny but much more worn and rounded !

[Mic]

Much obliged, folks.  Now, not having had the car in house for a year, apart from one night, I am really not sure if there is a thermostat, which is poor admittance.  Anyway, I go to see tomorrow, with the thermometer and can get things sorted.  Meanwhile photo printed out to take along.

[Scarpia]

the whole unit(housing and screw top) is made new from scratch using the old as a pattern, the old was beyond repair.

[Mic]

At last!  Aprilia TR-10-36 is here and on the road after almost a year of excellent work, regrettably not by the hands of this old and decrepit ***.  It was collected yesterday evening and now we need to drive round to show up any problems to be sorted.  Currently in the garage and under the cover I had for the Sunbeam, which is a bit vast and there is room for both Aprilia and a tent I think.

I drove back from the workshop and godson Carlos then took his wife for a short spin on the nearby by-pass to give a real run.  He says he got to 110 but I have no idea how accurate the speedo is.  I will tell him to take it a bit easier!

The car drives really well and I continue to be amazed at the gearbox, how quick and easy are the changes both up and down. 

Suspension seems OK.  Our roads are a bit duff, especially the minor ones, with more holes by the day but we also have what they call parallelo, cobbles or pavé to us.    Will take it easy over these and also take a slightly roundabout route from here into town as here the terrain is very steep and to join the main road entails a major hill start, not kind to the clutch.  In any case it can take ages to find a break in the traffic; two minutes this morning, fortunately in the ‘modern, ‘just waiting for a gap.

Oil pressure goes up to max on starting but drops only to the left of the centre section when warm.  Fettler is keen on Metalube and has added it to Carlos’s Megane and another car but not yet to the Aprilia.  Any ideas or opinions on this?   It’s new to me.

The wheel worries that were holding things up turned out to be balancing.  They were not satisfied with what they could achieve but I have yet to do a drive on a smooth, fastish road to form an opinion but from my drive yesterday does not appear to be a major problem.

More news as and when and I promise some more photos when I can find a more scenic location than a car park field.  Meanwhile have a look at the first entries on this topic to get an idea of where we started and how much needed to be done.

[Parisien]

Wonderful news Mic.......hoping shes everything you hoped for, do put up a few pics and keep us up to speed how she runs over the coming months


P

[davidwheeler]

Oil pressure sounds fine to me - what oil are you using?   I use a semi-synthetic 10-40 in mine and see no need for additives.   Pressure goes up with engine speed of course but drops to under 1/2 way on tick-over when she is hot.  At speed it is usually well to the right of centre (unlike its owner!).

[Mic]

Oil is 20/50. 

So last evening we went to the club dinner and were able to see that the pressure seems fine.  As you say, oil pressure on start goes to maximum and at idle drops to centre of the middle sector when cold and then drops left but nothing too severe, just to left hand edge of middle sector of the gauge, as she warms up. A few days ago fettler João checked using another gauge and was getting reading of 1.8 kg/cm. so I guess these original gauges are not all that great.  To save you folks looking it up that is 25 p.s.i.  Water temp normal.

Of course I am discovering a few odd things to be done, one door lock not effective, instrument lights only partly functioning and we need to check the headlights (I have stayed with 6 volt) although not easy to really see how effective the beams are last night as all the roads en route are brightly lit, except one or two lights that are off because of 'austerity.'  Like just across the road.  Thanks Merkel.

More news as we progress.

[DavidLaver]

You know the lights are bad when you can see your car's shadow where the headlights are pointed.  All the more so when the shadow is street lights not from some modern car with light output beyond the pain threshold. 

With modern use lights are so much less important than when it was new.  Roads are bigger and better lit and markings and signs are better and - if you were in a screaming rush to get somewhere - you'd be in another car anyway.

An idea for you - better bulbs.  Depends if you like the warm glow of a curly hot wire.  A friend ran a 50 year old car though last winter with a poor battery and no charging and would rather charge it every night (street parked so battery out and indoors) than give in to LED tail lights and so on.  This site lists some of the temptations he wouldn't give into - there's lots more like it.

http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/

Have fun !!

David