Anyway ... moving on. The rear housing and rotor are good. Ok, so the housing is missing chrome here and there but, if you recall, the compression numbers made for very good reading. These later 12a's are very resiliant. Missing chrome doesn't necessarily equate to missing compression.
Rather nice flash bounce lighting effects here. Not intentional but still quite funky
So, no real surprises there then. The front is another world, all carnage and evil. It transpires that it is also, unfortunately, down to me and not an act of God. I spent a few days fooling about with pretty colored vac hoses and changed them around a few times (you may recall if you follow this thread). This necessitated the removal of the blue box several times and several times again.
At some point during this process, I mislaid the very small washer which goes with the retaining nut (wingnut no longer present). I was very careful with this washer, lest it should find it's way into places it should not venture. So. I was somewhat alarmed when said washer went awol and had a good look down thru the carb just in case ... and held my breath upon starting it up. And sigh of relief when it started ok.
A bit beat up here. Not all bad news though as a nice street port job will extend past the damaged area.
Something's taken out the edge of the apex seal
Something evil going on here

That's rotor lightening but not in a good way
Evil stuff ... all mother of damage and toasted housing
The culprit! on the left outer edge
Can you tell what it is yet??
I knew what it was as soon as I saw it ...
The remains of the small washer from the air cleaner! I obviously didn't look hard enough. It must have sat in the secondary inlet until they opened sufficiently and then some sort of dark magic has occurred.
So boys and girls, the moral of the story is ... be fecking careful when you have the top of the carb exposed. If you suspect anything has gone down there, remove the carb completely and have a good look around. It may cost you an inlet manifold gasket but that's a small price to pay. Ask me how I know
