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Mjit

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Posts posted by Mjit

  1. In the last paragraph I was just giving a baseline of where the needle sat driving fast/slow/in traffic with the fan running full time, so an indication of when the thermostat opens/how low it CAN go and also context for how much hotter it's new position is. If it had been 1/4 with the fan on 24/7 moving to 3/4 would be quite an increase. Just moving 1/2 to 3/4 is much less of one. And there's no point me fitting cooler and cooler switches to get the needle to the 1/4 mark as, on my car, it's never going to happen.

  2. So managed a good first run with my new fan controller fitted  as it seems to be working so thought I'd give details, in case anyone was interested.

    Car's a Spitfire Mk IV with a 'fast road' spec. engine and full width rad.  No mechanical fan, just an electric 'push' fan.

    Fan control was via a Rovotec adjustable controller (in the rad. exit to water pump inlet hose) that basically had it comming on at 3/4 and switching back off at 1/2.

    Fan control is now via a Stoney Racing 30mm/95°C controller from eBay (in the same place as I had the Rovotec one).  This seems to come on just over 3/4 and switch off when back down to 3/4. This seems stable and I've not had any running issues - though part of me wonders if a 90°C switch might not be better, as it's in the rad. exit rather than the recommended inlet hose (but probably only better for me looking at the gauge, not necessarily for the engine 🙂).

    And out if interest I only discovered the Rovotec controller had died en route for a weekend away last Bank Holiday, which resulted in a pit stop at a Halfords to buy/hack in a mechanical switch. This meant a lot if driving with the fan left switched on, even when not needed and like that the needle just sat at half way. Logically this means (on my car and with the individual temp. sender fitted to it) the middle line must be 82°C (or whatever temperature the 82°C thermostat fitted in my car is actually opening at).

  3. I think for most of our cars an electric fan set to 65°C is rather crazy and way too low a temp.  I mean you're probably running a themostat that doesn't open until 82°C so you'd literally just be cooling the water sat in the radiator.

    The Rovotec fan controller I had on my Spit. died during lockdown and I've replaced it with a simpler system with swappable, fixed-temp. switches.  Their guide is to aim for a switch-on temp that's 12°C to 18°C hotter than the themostat opening temp.  I seem to remember the set-up for the adjustable Rovotec controller was something similar - set 'stat to hottest setting, get it up to temp a the needle past the middle line, set 'stat to coldest setting, then when the needle drops to the middle line turn the 'stat hotter until the fan kicks out.

  4. 21 hours ago, Bob Horner said:

    I'm off to Le Mans with the Club next month...

    You'll be early then -  the Classic's not till July.

    Or are you going out for the 24hrs in June and just staying there till the Classic rolls around?

     

  5. That's a SH605031 with a 500469 in parts book terms.  Also worth getting a 5/16" crush washer off eBay - in case it turns out yours HAS been done properly and so you need to refit the external feed.

    From memory the advice on testing it I recieved on here when I bouth a 2500S with an external feed fitted was:
    1. Remove from head/fit blanking screw+washer.
    2. Remove oil pressure switch from 'T' piece/remove 'T' piece from block/refit oil pressure switch direct to block.
    3. Remove rocker cover and wipe up any sitting oil.
    4. Start and run the engine for 30s-60s.

    If the external feed was just bolted on you should start to see oil weaping out of the rocker shaft, as it's still getting supplied via the internal oilway, so you're good to switch off/refit the rocker cover/get on with your day.
    On the other hand if things stay bone dry at the top of the engine the external feed was fitted properly and the internal oilway blocked off and you're now running without rocker lubrication!  Switch off and swap everything back to 'T' piece and external oil feed+oil pressure switch at the block end/external oil feed+crush washer at the top - and then get on with your day.

  6. A pair of "Crunch CS46CX 6"x4" speakers will fit in there - though annoyingly I can only see US sellers listing them on eBay right now.  One of those listings gives the cutout hole 5.5" x 3.46" which I think was a little smaller than the Triumph hole.  Other, probabaly more impirtant dimension is the 3" mounting depth, as the fuel tank seams eat in to the space and stop most modern speakers fitting.

    Like Pete I think only 2 of the screw holes lined up but the speakers frame was still sitting on top of rear deck metal, so supported and with the parcel shelf trim on top no rattling or anything.

    I would offer to go out and check...but have rear seat belts fitted and can't face the faff of unbolting them to get the trim off :)

  7. I've never seen inside one but guessing it would be a bit of compressed, bent metal which would be a pain to re-create... but what about tweaking the CAD model with a little internal recess you could stick a little high power magnet into instead?  Probably a lot easier to engineer and just as effective.

    • Like 1
  8. There's not classic lowering block but it does look like there's something odd in there.  The spring box lower plate should just sit between the lowest and second lowest spring leaves (it's basicually just a flat piece of metal with a hole in it that sits over the other end of the spring locator 'peg' you can see poking out below the spring in Colin's picture).  Yours seems to have a piece of old rubber or something in there too, which is why you have such a big gab between the lower plate and the top of the diff.  The only piece of rubber around there should be above the top leaf/under the spring box lid.  And I don't think that's goinig to change the ride height, as the spring eye bushes are attached to the end of the lower leaf and that's going to be in the same position with/without that pad (classic lowering blocks go below the bottom leaf).

  9. What happens if you try putting the car (engine/handbrake off) in 4th and push it forwards?

    What SHOULD happen is the car moves but with a lot of resistance and everything from the wheels to the crank rotating - but you wouldn't have an issue if that was happening.
    If something's gone seriously wrong inside the gearbox I'd expect it to not move, or make some horrible noises doing so.
    If it moves/the prop turns but with more resistance (due to spinning the cogs in the gearbox, so not a huge difference) than when out of gear it would hint towards a clutch issue (somehow the input shaft isn't connected to the flywheel).
    If it moves/the prop turns but exactly the same as when out of gear it would hint at a gear selection issue (no matter where you put the stick it's not moving anything inside the gearbox, which stays sat in neutral).

    When you say "I can select any gear without depressing the clutch pedal" do you mean you can just slip the stick easilly and freely in to any gear/between any gears, or say you can't go in to 4th but if you slip in to another gear it will then go in to 4th?  Engine off you should be able to do the latter as most gears will be near enough to slip in and sync. themselves.  A few will bulk first time though as they happen to fully align tooth-to-tooth, but picking a different gear will jiggle things enough that when you go back to the first gear it's no longer quite tooth-to-tooth and will jiggle thenselves in.  If it's completely free and you can slip in to any gear at any time I'd be looking at the selector forks - could be something's wrong there and while you can move the stick around to your hearts content it's not actually shifting things inside the box, so not actually meshing the gears.

    • Like 1
  10. On 17/04/2022 at 22:31, Peter Truman said:

    considering the trim is Anodised Aluminum, the windscreen frame is steel and the trim is structural in that it holds the soft top on would you use Ally, monel or steel pop rivets?

    Don't know if it's different on the 1/2/3 but on the IV/1500 the trim is in no way structural!  It's literally just a shiny strip of metal riveted to the top of the windscreen frame to make it look nicer when the hood's down.

    The hood 'pins' don't clamp to the trim but just pass through it and in to the windscreen frame proper and clamp to that.

  11. I wonder how many old men sat about in pubs back in the 60s/70s making the exact same statements about new cars, but in that case referring to our cars.  I mean if your car nostalgia was pre-WW2, maybe even pre-WW1 I'm sure things like all cars having the pedals in the same order would make them 'all the same'.  And as for being robbed of the true driving experience and involvement, well "Never mind this new-fangled synchromesh for me it all went wrong when they took control of the advance off of the steering wheel!".

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  12. Worth adding some bracing to the shell pre-dip even if there are enough drain holes, in case it's just the filler/chicken wire/paint holding the A posts or something together.  In the worst case it could result in the tub just foling in on itself.

    And for drain holes I seem to remember a few years ago someone on here getting their chassis galvanised and adding extra drain holes.  No reason you can't add some strategic extra drain holes to your tub pre-dip and you can then decide to either keep them or plug weld them when it comes back.

  13. 40 minutes ago, NonMember said:

    I would have thought the most likely is that the pull to the left has nothing to do with tracking, which is now spot on.

    To keep the steering wheel centred, you should have adjusted both track rod ends by the same amount. A toe gauge can only measure the total alignment of the pair, it cannot tell you which is wrong (since there's no really meaningful definition of that). Similarly, a bit of extra toe-in won't cause steering bias, just tyre wear (even, both tyres).

    Actually with a Trackrite you're actually measuring the scrub angle of a single wheel at a time, not as a pair so I don't think you ARE meant to adjust both sides?  They certainly don't mention that in their own "How to use a Trackrite" video on YouTube! (But then all the YouTube videos seem to start with cars with correctly set tracking and just go "There you go, the Trackrite shows the tracking's correct!")

    I'm actually wondering if the issue is that I've been getting the car 'settled' by driving back and forth while holding the steering wheel in the 'straight ahead' position and just releasing it for the drive over test.  Perhaps to 'settle' everything that should be back and forth hands off, so letting everything go to the 'pulling slightly to the left' position, and THEN set up the Trackrite/drive over it hands free - both lined up with the tyre (so 'pointed slightly left' for a d/s wheel with too much toe in to drive down its centre line) and with the body (so the same toed in d/s wheel will start on the centre line but roll off slightly to the left of it).

    Assuming it's dry again tomorrow lunch time that is :)

  14. So my 2000 has always had a slight steering pull to the left and as I needed to replace the track rod ends I thought I'd give my Gunson Trackrite another go...

    1. Car on basically flat, reasonably smooth, solid surface concrete car park.  Drive back and forth in a straight line a few times to settle everything, then with steering wheel centred pop zeroed Trackrite in front of/in line with the d/s wheel, then drive slowly over not touching the steering wheel.
    2. Jump out and shows a little bit of excess tow in.
    3. Tweak d/s track rod length and re-test and showing more or less zero.
    4. Check p/s wheel and also showing zero.
    5. Got for a test drive and...steering wheel now offset to the left and steering still pulls to the left!

    Just retested with the Trackrite and still getting zero on both front wheels.

    Driving over I can see the steering wheel rotate to the left as I go over the Trackrite, if I wobble the Trackrite with my hand it slides easilly and smoothly from side to side, and pushing the car over I can be sure the Trackrite's in line with the wheel and I drive over it in a straight line.

    What exactly am I doing wrong - or are they just another Gunson tool that should stay on the shelf, like the Clickadjust?

  15. I've done something similar on my Spitfire, but rather than hacking the heater box about I went for adding some plumbing "Y" pieces into the screen vent hoses to feed both the screen vents and dash eyeballs.  Takes a bit of squeezing in and the plumbing "Y" pieces needed a bit of sanding to get their o/d down to match the hose i/d but just about fits behind the dash.  Only issue is that just highlighted how asthmatic the aging blower is so on to trying to source/fit a modern motor/fan - along with wiring in a hazard switch to the dash and turning into a Covid hermit which means I'm actually back 3 steps and trying to get the starter motor to turn over and bring the beast out of a 9-ish month slumber...

  16. If you're really lucky the veneer will be fine and it's just the lacquer that's peeling...and it will all peel off cleanly.  Having done this some bits will peel of easilly/others will stick like s**t to a shovel - and no matter how careful you are trying to use a heat gun to soften/separate it you'll end up with some singed veneer/some that comes off with the lacquer.  Or you'll try to sand the lacquer and end up sanding through the veneer somewhere - played that game too.

    Either way you'll probaly ending up with a reveneer job at which point it's eBay for a good length of "American Walnut Veneer" (non-burr for original look + easier to work with) then follow the instructions at https://www.frost.co.uk/how-do-i-re-veneer-my-cars-wood-trim/ - for the original/non-gloss finish at step 11, rather then "Polish the veneer to a high shine" you go over it with very fine (0000 grade) steel wool, lubricated with clear wax polish.

    Having done this on a big saloon:

    1. While not technically difficult by god does it take an age, working through all the sanding steps!
    2. It's hard to clamp some of the curved dash parts evenly so tend to get the odd area that doesn't stick - but you can usually work some PVA glue in with a craft knife and just clamp those areas till it's all stuck.
    3. For gauge holes I found cutting through the hole, across the grain first, then lots of cuts from the line to the edge with a craft knife, then roll/fold then in to the hole from the front with your fingers, before finally filing them from the front through the hold till they dropped off worked OK.
    4. Sanding curved panels, especially those with thin areas around gauge holes is a real fiddely PITA, especially trying to alternate grades of sanding by 90 degrees!
    5. With the Rustins just really slap it on rather than trying to brush a smooth surface as you would with paint.  It flows and self levels really well - and you'll end up sanding loads of it off anyway so might as well get to that point sooner rather than later.
    6. Try to give the Rustins a week between last application and sanding so it's fully cured.
    7. Try to buy a roll of veneer, or failing that multiple (and more than you think you'll need) sheets from the same auction so it's all the same bit of tree and all the same colour.
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