New acquisition - first things first

[Christian van den Bo]

Hi all

I've recently acquired a "new" '94 UK Cappo with service history up to 40000 miles in March 2000. It's now coming up to 68000 on the clock, and has done less than 1000 miles in the last year (no idea of intervening history).

Planning to give it the full 60000 mile service (timing belt and all the fluids) as well as a new clutch and some attention to the dreaded tin worm.

Would anyone care to recommend anything else I should do to it?

Thanks,

Christian

[Murray Betts]

Glad to see another one with a new caring owner, got to keep these things on the road!

I'd suggest giving the rear brake calipers a going over. No need to get inside unless seals are leaking, but check the condition of the sliding pins and the rubber seals on them. Reset the handbrake mechanism (try a search, but in simplest terms wind the caliper pistons back into the calipers by rotating them, loosen off the handbrake cable at the hand lever end by looking inside the gaiter and loosening the nut on the end of the cable, check the levers on the calipers are fully back against their stops with the return springs, pump the footbrake pedal a few times to get the calipers to self adjust, then just take the slack out of the cable using the aforementioned nut).

Brake fluid and engine coolant change would be recommended too (as you said). Might be worth a new thermostat, they do sometimes fail and don't cost much.

Let us know what you find.

[Christian van den Bo]

Thanks Murray - I've ordered the thermostat now. Will add that to the big box of bits for my mechanic!

I'll take a look at the brakes a little later too. For now, they seem to be working pretty well. No funny noises, no pulling to either side, lots of brake pad left all round, though the rear discs look a bit scored. It seems there's not many rear Cappo discs out there, though there's loads of front discs to choose from.

[Murray Betts]

Yes, front discs are common with other Suzuki models, rears are unique to the Capp as far as I know. Main issue is that they do so little work that they don't really clean themselves. I find that brown surface rust gradually builds up and polishes, so every so often I take them off and rub down with some pretty coarse alum oxide paper, something like 80 grit seems to work well. This brings them back to bare shiny iron for a while. If they're scored or deeply corroded in parts you might be able to have them skimmed, I'm sure the manual gives the minimum thickness.