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GrahamB

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Everything posted by GrahamB

  1. As John states, The advantage of phosphoric acid is that it leaves a protective layer of phosphate. I have used the Machine Mart rust remover which is phosphoric acid based and costs about £8 for a litre.
  2. Some of the additives used to improve the rubber were found to be carcinogenic resulting in bladder cancer affecting the workers These additives have now rightly been banned.
  3. Sorry wrong car; I thought I was still on the Spitfire 1500 thread.
  4. The heat shied is a standard part, part number UKC8372
  5. I perform all my own maintenance apart from major welding work, it is part of the "fun". I would not be able to justify keeping the car if I was spending £100s a year on garage labour charges. How many TSSC members maintain their own cars? I would expect at least 75% judging from this forum. If the question was posed to the Porsche Owners, then I would expect a lot less than 35% do their own maintenance as suggested in Colin's post.
  6. I have some very old EP gear oil. I use it to oil the trunnions but use more recently purchased oil in the gearbox and diff.
  7. Whatever happened to remoulds? I can remember then in about 1980. Tread may have been good but what about the carcass.
  8. I have had the same experience. I had to use the new sockets with the new bullets. Old and new do not mix.
  9. How long does it take the battery to go flat? If you have a 30 AHr battery and it lasts 15 hours you are looking for a current of 2 amps or 24 watts so it will not be a small bulb. As it has been converted to an alternator, has it been connected correctly? Perhaps the field coils are permanently live.
  10. I read that back in the 1970s, someone built a twin Mini engined special for Autocross. To overcome the gear change issues, the front gearbox was manual and the rear was an automatic. I do not know how well it performed.
  11. GrahamB

    Offside or right

    Back to Viking times and boats without a rudder, steering was performed by lashing a modified oar to the stern of the boat. As most people are right handed, this modified oar or steering board (Starboard) was attached to the right hand side of the boat. With the oar sticking out on the right, you had to moor the boat with the left hand side against the harbour, (port) wall. You still board airliners through doors on the port side.
  12. I once had a problem with a car which I had fitted with a Weber carb. On cold damp days after travelling for about 10 miles, the engine would lack power and drink fuel. I finally realised that it was icing of the jets. This was cured by constructing a shroud to direct air from above the exhaust manifold towards the air filter. During my investigation of the cause, I used a thermocouple to measure the under bonnet temperature. Whilst driving along, the temperature was close to ambient but as soon as I had to stop in traffic, the temperature rose by more than 20 degrees and any ice promptly melted.
  13. I just removed the wheels, put them in the back of my wife's car and delivered them to the tyre fitters. That way I was sure the wheels would be fitted correctly once I returned home. You just need enough axle stands.
  14. To add my understanding, and perhaps more confusion. With No1 at TDC and the rotor arm pointing away from No1 contact in the distributor cap, the exhaust valve is about to close and the inlet is staring to open. With normal valve clearances, both valves will be very slightly open so no gaps between rocker and valve stem. By opening the clearance up to 1 mm for both valves, although the rockers will have started to move, there will still be a measurable gap, which if the cam is timed correctly, will be exactly the same for both the inlet and exhaust valves. If the gap to the inlet valve is smaller than the gap on the exhaust valve, the timing is advanced.
  15. Temperature gauges are only an indication, not an accurate reading. My 1500 runs at about 1/2 scale but I would say that anywhere between 1/2 and 3/4 when idling in a garage, with adequate ventilation, is normal. I set the mixture by adjusting both jets to be level with the bridge. This can be done in situ by removing the dash pots and the piston. Then lower each jet by two complete turns of the jet adjusting nut, clockwise when viewed from above. Run the engine to achieve normal operating temperature then ensure the choke is fully off and the jets are fully up. Adjust the settings one flat at a time to optimise the running. If the engine cuts out it may be that the throttle set screws, as apposed to the choke fast idle screws, are not properly adjusted. When running with the choke out, screw in both screws equally until the engine speed increases very slightly. Then, with the engine upto temperature and the choke pushed in, back off both screws equally to get an acceptable idle speed. After this you may need to re-synchronise the throttle openings but at least it should be running.
  16. On starting the engine, oil will travel along the pipe compressing the air until the pressure of the air equals the pressure in the oil at which point the oil can no longer advance along the pipe. The gauge will then record the air pressure but that is equal to the oil pressure. A narrow bore tube will damp down any variations as the flow of the oil up the tube, or down the tube as the pressure reduces, will be restricted but the effect is likely to be small.
  17. My understanding was that prior to adopting the American Unified system after the war to simplify exports, the threads used were mainly Whitworth, a coarse thread, and British Standard Fine (BSF). Whitworth have different hex sizes to UNF. (I have a 1/2" hex drive Whitworth socket set inherited from my grandfather). These sizes would have been used on pre 1950 cars rather than pre 1960. For comparison:
  18. I agree, UNF and UNC plus 1/8" NPT. NTP is very similar to BSP but not not the same. Do not mistakenly force a NTP thread into a BSP tapping !
  19. I had a similar experience and discovered the earthing strap (3) was missing. Any piece of wire that bridges the insulating disc will work; I think I used a piece of solid copper wire extracted from a piece of mains cable. There was better access than it first appeared making the task relatively easy.
  20. I had a set fitted to a previous car in the '70s. There is a cone held in place by a light spring which is clamped in place when you tighten the bleed screw. They worked very well and made one person bleeding an easy task.
  21. I used to drive a milk float as my father owned a dairy business. No speedometer as it could not exceed 30 mph. I once sheared a drive shaft by switching into reverse whilst still going forward. Back in the 1960s you could pass a driving test in a milk float and get a full car licence. However, I passed my test in a grey 948 Herald.
  22. GrahamB

    Coil

    From your previous post, I presume this is a 1500 Spitfire. There should be a pink/white and a yellow/white wire to the + terminal of a 6 volt coil. The pink/white is a resistive lead to drop the 12 volts to 6 volts during normal running. The yellow/white is connected to the starter solenoid to boost the power during starting. There should also be a second wire, slate/white, to the negative terminal which sends pulses to the rev counter. I hope I have the colours correct, they are a bit difficult to read on my wiring diagram.
  23. My father bought an Escort van. As it was mainly for light loads, he requested a higher geared differential. However, they did not change the speedometer drive which lead to serious errors in the recorded speed and distance. So if you do change the differential, also consider the speedometer drive from the rear of the gearbox.
  24. Many regulations state that the device must be supplied with instructions and warnings in the language of the intended market. The manufacturer does not know where the device may end up so they include every possibility. To save paper and printing costs, the text is sometimes in a very small font as the regulations do not specify that the words must be legible to the naked eye !
  25. I bought 5 litres of the blue antifreeze concentrate and dilute it to the required concentration when needed. I have never used the 4Life coolant as nearly every year I have to at least partially drain the system to replace a hose, remove the inlet manifold or replace a seal. On my Spitfire I have yet to find a method of draining coolant without contaminating it so lasting 10 years is purely academical and the standard antifreeze is a lot more economical.
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