I had been stuck waiting for parts to enable me to finish the engine rebuild on the Rolls-Royce 20/25 tourer and ended up having a friend make them for me. This meant I could fit the water pump, which unfortunately leaked. I removed it, split the 2 halves, fabricated and fitted a new gasket and with it back on the car and the cooling system filled the leak was fixed. Yesterday, as it has been sitting for quite a while, I removed the top of the Autovac, drained the stale fuel and filled it with fresh. With the battery charged I thought I might as well see if it would start, I set the hand controls (ignition and hand throttle both down, mixture set to strong), switched on the starting carburettor, pushed the starter & it kicked off straight away. Result. Sadly there was a bit of a fuel leak, someone had previously made a pigs ear of the pipe union at the fuel filter. I've fixed this now and got the bonnet and under-trays back on and front brakes connected so should be able to take it for a test drive next week.
