And in the early spring...

I had a problem fitting the new earth lead as it attached under the alternator in a really awkward place. The Tuscan is really difficult to work on and having to unbolt the main bonnet and remove the airbox to get at everything is a real pain. In the end I left the old lead in place and fitted the new lead from the back of the A/C Pump to a threaded spigot on the front cross member of the chassis, which has solved the starting problem.

The next thing was the service bonnet clip broke on the drivers side. It looked like they were going to be hard to source but Clever Trevor had just one costing £4 including P&P, which arrived the next day. It was not exactly the same but I made one good one out of the two.

My cars always seem to go wrong at this time of year?

Anyway. driving the Tuscan in the sunshine makes it all worth while. People really seem to appreciate this car, which I think has a lot to do with the colour.

Tuscan won't Start

I have had the Tuscan's first real problem.It was running fine but one cold morning the starter would not turn quickly. Immediately suspecting the battery and having no documentary evidence of how old it was I replaced it with a Varta Type 72, 630 cranking amps and 70 amp/hour with 5 year guarantee from MultiCell for £74; which was slightly more powerful than the old battery. Once fitted I turned the key but the starter still turned very slowly indeed - ohhhh dear!

I knew the car had had a new starter last May before I purchased it, but it had all the symptoms of a duff starter. I took off the very large air cleaner box and checked all the positive connections, which looked good and the starter was indeed new. I phoned Racing Green TVR who were really helpful and they told me that the starter motors rarely fail and mentioned the engine earthing to the chassis can be a problem.

I used a heavy duty jump lead attached to the exhaust and the negative terminal of the battery to make an earth connection and sure enough, the starter turned faster and faster until the engine fired - Bingo!

I have ordered a new earth strap £11.50 and a couple of spare 100 amp fuses and will fit them as soon as I can.

Spring is almost here

Well the Tuscan has been used most weeks through the winter. I left the lights on one time as there is no warning buzzer, which flattened the battery. The RAC came and jump started it, but a few weeks later the battery died, so a new one was purchased. You have to take the front wheel off to change the battery and the car is very low, so it had to be pushed onto about 3cm of wood, so that I could get the trolley jack under.

I have also had a puncture in a rear tyre and due to the very low profile tyres and the hydratrak differential, I didn't notice, the car simply seemd to make more noise. This meant I ruined the old tyre and had to have a new one fitted, costing £185.

I had a slight misfire when accelerating hard and so fitted new Spark Plugs and Magnecor leads, which cured the problem straight away. Due to having to remove the big bonnet and the fact they are under a cover, which has to be unsealed and resealed it takes a lot of time and so the total cost was £170.

We are booked into another track day at Marham airfield in April, with the Piston Head guys, so this will hopefully be another good experience. There are some really mental cars going, so it should be a good laugh.

I think my rear discs have got a little thin as I can detect vibration through the pedal, so that will be the next job, before Marham.

I have also had an annoying problem with the heater ECU connector not making a good contact for the Heater Blower Fan and subsequently not much heat to demist the windscreen. The Fan draws a lot of current and had eroded the connector pin on the ECU. I carefully built up the pin using solder and made up a little brass tube about 2mm long to fit over the pin so the connector sat tightly on it and now everything is fine.

The Chimeara has been off the road since November. I would like to do quite a lot of work to the chasis and suspension but this will have to wait until the summer.