Andy Moss

I remember seeing some of these cars with a long flexible breathed tube just hanging down toward the sump. Without being terminated. Guess you could re-route the breather pipe.

Oh - could be the scroll seal on the gear box if that is over filled. Check that first.

Main oil seal. Likely that somebody has tightened the sump screws too much and distorted the centring of the oil seal. Either that or the oil seal has gone. Either way - it’s a gearbox out job to fix. I did mine the other Christmas. Lots of fun.

If you can’t smell the difference - maybe have a Covid test. I hate the smell of hypoid gear oil. Dismantled an old coil when I was a kid. Even to this day it turns my stomach. Give it a sniff.

Get a good Payen gasket set and you can use a little sealer. I like to spray the gasket with the copper spray a gasket. Works a treat. Others may disagree with thus approach though.

Use gas welding then! I have found welding a nut on is best too. Even better if you can spot blast round the stud before.

There are lots of buyers guides out there. In my view rust is the most important thing to look out for in the usual places (sills, floors and bottom cornered of inner and outer wing, lower A and B post, front of the bonnet in both corners) - use a magnet to look for filler). Look at chassis for any corrosion (particularly the where the front out-riggers joint at the front of the floor area). Look at door shut lines, for signs of poor repairs (should be even). Engine need to look for tapper rattle on start up, sign of weak oil pump. See if you can move the crank pulley, as there can be wear in the half bearings. Drive the car and look at the drive way to see how much oil it is dropping (most cars drop some). On the drive, check it goes into all the gears smoothly and doesn’t jump out of gear. Listen for whines from engine, gearbox, rear axel and wheel bearings. Whines from the clutch release bearing (when clutch is pressed) and merely annoying. Check it stops ok and does not pull to one side and that steering is not vague (may need new suspension bushes). Inspect springs for corrosion and shocks for leaks. Look at rear of car and if it leans to one side, the rear spring has sagged. Look are fuel lines for corrosion bulges brake hoses. Check oil to see when it was last serviced look are tire ware to see if it is even check body work for defects and hood (If fitted) for tears. Check lights, instruments, screen wash/wipe, horn, heater (including flaps in foot well). Sit in seats and see if the foams have failed (look for crumbly decaying foam under seats). Lift carpet and check for musty smell which is sign of water ingress. Smell inside of boot for fuel leaks. Check paint round brake and clutch master cylinders for puckering which signify a fluid leak. Check under battery for corrosion. Ask if trunnions have been oiled recently. Check tyres for cracks and uneven wear (poor suspension geometry). Inspect exhaust while running for visible smoke and over rich mixture (smells of unburned petrol). Bound to have forgotten something! cheers.

Have ordered new RPM and Dwell meter after the Draper one broke. Need to have advance curve with same equipment before I start making changes. Incidentally, I got a draper one from Halfords, which would not measure rpm and flicked between random numbers. Took it back - it was awful.

added the following - curves - seems that the decel curve wrong. wonder if I could play with the dizzy at each rpm to find mid point between too much advance and too much retard and try to tune to that curve. I guess this is best done when the car is under load, so trip to rolling road might be best.

I have done the high to low curve and here is the result. I have also set the advance at 2000 rpm to ~16.5deg as that is mid way between the WSM limits. This gives a idle advance of about 11degs, which is lots more then the 6deg nominal. Off to see how badly it pinks. Smile. It goes really well, but has a slight pink at about 2500. should it really be ok at idle with 11 degrees of advance? I’m really quite puzzled.

The courier April/2020 shows the black line on page 31 for the 123-ignition distributor, note this is a Mk4/1500 curve. Posted for interest only. adv_curve_v2.fig

I took the base plate out of the dizzy and inspected the springs and weights. Weights were free to move, but I over cleaned, oiled and worked them around to check for any as you do. Naturally, I over oiled it so will wipe the excess off the garage floor tomorrow. Checked the timing again, but not rechecked curve as it might be thought anti-social at 10pm. Noted that my draper tacho meter has died, so rev-counter accuracy will be used for the next curve. Also made a slightly softer advance spring that should increase the rate of advance. Might have a crack at trying to change the rate of advance in the lower revs by changing one of the springs. Alternatively, I’ll book a slot at the local rolling road and spring a cash haemorrhage. Smile

Thanks for your help and advice. I will take a look at the springs and see if the weights are sticking. Thanks for your advice. Smile.

Nigel, Thanks for your reply and I totally agree. It’s quite retarded and not really wanting to retard by much more unless that’s ok for modern fuel. tend to use 97 octane, ie super unleaded. Perhaps somebody has a standard car that has had a rolling road session. I’m tempted to book a session. cheers amo

I have measured the advance curve of my Mk3 Spitfire and find that it is a bit on the edge of what is described in the workshop manual. Has very faint pinking (pinging) in the mid range, so was going to retard a bit. Plotted how it matches the specification that was likely to be based on 4 star petrol and may be significantly unhelpful, but I do not know. The car is completely standard and has new carbs and dizzy was reconditioned recently (no play in shaft), dwell checked too - all fine. Car goes ok and I have no real complaints at the moment. Interested in other peoples experiences and how this curve compares. Was considering a 123-Ignition as per a really excellent article in courier magazine, but not sure it will be really that worthwhile. What do you think?

BO needles fitted. The mixture seems ok at higher revs, but at idle the mixture quickly becomes rich, which seems to worsen with the duration that it sits at idle. As I say above. I think a combination of not reading the colortune well and other factors did not help. The engine runs well and I have advanced the timing to about 7degs BTDC from the factor spec of 6. This just avoids pinking and responds better on acceleration during road tests. Has anybody experimented with the needle positioning in the pistons to reduce fuel metring at the idle point? The pistons do not sit on the metal bridge at idle, so further adjustment could be achieved by moving the needles. They were originally set with the needle shank at the same level as the inner piston area, I have had some success with repositinging the needle slightly.

Jets are returning ok and I have checked them. I don't actually know what it was, but seems to have gone away. Mixture always ends up stinking at idle. Thinking of pulling the metre needles a little further out of the floats inside the SU. Cheers for you help Andy

Rocker breather diafram was very tight and not moving on the overrun. I freed it off and it seems to have helped. I can get Bunsen blue on both, but the exhaust still smells rich. Are all of these cars like this. I've had this one for 15 years and I don't remdmber it not smelling a bit of unburned fuel. Air filters were off so I could balance the carbs. Do you have any other ideas?

Changed the fuel pump. Could I be miss reading the colour tune. Yellow rich and I need to see Bunsen blue. Baffled!

Setting up spitfire mk3 with adu257 carbs. Colour tune in front and rear carbs. Rear carb has Bunsen blue, front carb is yellow. I have wound the jet up to the top and still yellow colour on front carb. Checked metering needle centred has click when piston falls Checked float chamber to ensure needle valve seals ok and float level is correct. Changed the front carb for a previouly known good one. Same problem! Baffled! Could it be the after marker fuel pump forcing petrol part the needle valves. Everything is new and barely covered 100 miles since overhaul. Should I try changing the fuel pump?

Thanks for the info guys. Thanks to Colin also for making me laugh.

I have been wondering what the history is behind the variation in stop/tail lamps fitter to the mk3 spitfire. There was a change to a different type for a short period. I would like to know if these L847 lenses were fitted to other cars or whether it was a mistake at the time. Does anybody know?

Are you sure it was the stud that slipped. Sometimes the nuts are made from cheese and the thread strips inside them instead. Are you sure it's not just the nut, as this happened a couple of times for me. Cant remember if I replaced both stud and nut when they failed.

Sometimes clunks happen because somebody has worked on the suspension and not fully tightened up the suspension before lowering the car to the floor as per the manual. Then they struggle to properly tighten the the unions because of poor access when lowered. Another thing I've seen is the Wong diameter bolt in the lower rear trunion, which was worrying. Good luck finding the fault.

I guess you could get water in your fuel, but I wonder how. If it's a closed container with a breather at the top, which is designed to allow some air so fuel can flow out, then it could allow water in the atmosphere to enter the tank, but I expect it's not really a problem unless it condenses. Do you have a particular problem?