JohnD
-
Posts
4,840 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
105
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Store
Events
Posts posted by JohnD
-
-
How have you wired the fan?
Sounds as if it's from the ignition, so that the volts available for the coil drop off due to fan demand and the sparks fail.
JOhn
-
Petrol on tarmac?
I had a small leak, while working on the car on the drive.. Spilt maybe quarter pint?
Next day, the tarmac had a small area, the size of your hand . with no tarmac.
Just a hole with gravel in it.
The petrol had dissolved the tar, and washed it down into the ground.
Had to dig out the gravel and patch it with some cold cure tarmac.
John
-
Steam cleaning?
Not the wet steam, wallpaper remover style but proper Live Steam, under pressure and more than boiling hot.
But where you could find such a service, I have no idea.
John
-
Two ways to safely vent to the tank.
1/ Run a hose from that tank vent tube as high as possible above the tank and then down and out through a hole in the boot floor. This will prevent any fuel splashed into the hose from escaping, and in the unlikely but dangerous situation of inverting the car, will put the opening above the tank, so fuel will not run out. As long as the end is outside the car, little or no fuel smell.
2/ Buy a "Fuel Non-Return Valve", insert it in the hose and exit the hose as above, without the long route. The valve will allow air to get in and prevent the vacuum, but not allow fuel to get out.
Plenty to choose from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Fuel+non-return+valve&biw=1816&bih=1019&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=b09DVdzPOpPKaJCqgZAG&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg
John
-
Just restarted my Vitesse after a new engine fitted - and the solenoid was dead.
Turned over well if jump leaded straight to starter, so replaced the solenoid and it works from the starter button.
I don't have an ignition switch - the button is wired to replace that function of the switch.
Took the old one apart to see why it failed. It's rivetted together, and small bolts could replace those, but I could see nothing that could explain why it didn't work.
Ho-hum, nothing lasts for ever.
John
-
What symptoms or signs make you think it needs to be rebuilt?
And if it does, DiY is so much more satisfying, and you can put a "Built, not Bought" sticker on the back!
John
-
Captain,
Let's just run through the pros and cons.
Pro - a servo lets you apply less pressure on the pedal for the same braking effect.
Con - you get the same braking effect.
A good idea for those with a weak or arthritic right knee, but no advantage for anyone else.
JOhn
-
1
-
-
Try with the engine hot.
Taking in the OP, "is it just going to stress me every time I drive the car and spend more time watching it than the road." isn't there a better, cheaper plan?
The OE pressure switch doesn't trigger until the pressure is less than 5psi. That is VERY low and damage may have happened by that time.
But switches that trigger at 25psi give a more useful point at which to get worried, so fit and forget, until the light comes on or stays on!
Suitable switches less than £20, juts a bolt on.
JOhn
-
Long thread on this on Club Triumph Forum recently.
The way to stiffen a structure is to add air - in other words make it bigger and wider, so that a space frame is the best addition.
But in fact a good body (apart from a convertible one) will make a Herald much stiffer than its chassis alone, but instead of using rubber or other non-rigid material on the chassis-to-body mount points, use a solid material.
An article by John Thomasson many years ago in Courier discussed chassis stiffness, and proposed a couple of mode, one practicla and one less so.
Suggest you dig that out. Is the "Technical Index" still available? If not ask HQ to find it.
JOhn
-
Ah! Silverback! Alors, quelle tristesse!
She is no longer, having surrendered forcibly to the Savage Hun on the 'Ring.
The automobile that I conducted around Reims-Gueux, and Les Essarts-Rouen is the Son of Silverback, SofS.
John
-
66lbs/ft? How long ago did you calibrate your torque wrench?
Unless it was very recently, and you have a micrometer wrench so that you can set it so accurately, the actual tension will be no closer than 10% of that notional figure. At best!
Micrometer wrenches cost!
I calibrated my standard wrench recently, after bit of a problem and found it was under-reading by 30%!
Calibration: You can buy a digital torque gauge, that fits between the wrench and the work, or set the gauge in a vice: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3pc-Digital-Torque-Wrench-Adaptor-Set-Electronic-Digital-Display-1-4-3-8-1-2-/171668867943?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27f8430b67
OR, send your wrench away to be calibrated: http://www.calibrate.co.uk/torque/?gclid=CjwKEAiAveWnBRCzjqf4zpuUkGYSJABcoZbHGpThCFmXQpboT_E4HA7vgj5VLWPTEOJfiBDmO5iZ1RoC1brw_wcB
You will note from that site that even after calibration the toll cannot be better than 6% accurate. So your head could be anywhere between 62 and 73lbs/ft
OR, do your own check. Clamp the wrenches drive shaft in a vice, so that the handle moves in a vertical plane. Measure a point on the handle, so that you can hang a known weight on it at a known distance.
Say the handle gives you a point 18" (1.5ft) from the drive, and you can hang a known weight there, say 12 kgs (26lbs) (a 2L saloon flywheel). That's just under 40lbs.ft. Set the wrench to 40, hang oyur weight - does it click? Spot on!
JOhn
-
Yes, I did. Same thing last year and it was OK. Found the receipt for the old battery in the cars history file, it was just shy of five years old. Wasn't a cheap one either.
Andy
So presumably the year before that, and before that, right back five years, you let the clock discharge the battery in winter.
Running a lead/acid battery down and leaving it there is the worst possible treatment. They are designed to discharge by giving a very large current to start the car, and then be immediately recharged by the dynamo/alternator system, which is also designed to provide a high recharging current to get the battery fully charged again. Lead/acids are not designed or intended to run electrical equipment for long periods.
If you must have a clock, fit one that has it's own internal battery, like this one: http://www.meandmycar.co.uk/retro-dashboard-clock-p-383.html?osCsid=pk142dbao8502l4no9mqb09931
That runs off a 'pill' battery, the kind that runs hearing aids or, believe it or not, watches, and is designed to run continuously for long periods on its own charge.
In the same way, leaving a car over winter and starting the engine every week or so is not what that was intended for, either! Most of the wear of an engine occurs at start up, when it is cold and there's little or no oil in the bearings. Combustion produces water, so the exhaust system gets another load of corrosion. Oil that never gets up to working temperature accumulates water, leading to engine corrosion. 15-20 minutes of quiet running in the garage (I hope you remember to open the doors, else you may be corroded by CO poisoning) will cause all this.
The alternative is, as advised above, to buy a trickle charger. Look after your battery, and don't abuse your engine!
John
-
Despite many hours on charge, the battery on my Spitfire 1500 appears not to have survived the winter lay up. Even the clock had stopped. Does anyone have recommendations for a replacement, please.
Andy
"Even the clock has stopped"
Do you mean that you left the car unused over winter - with the clock running?
Experience is never cheap.
John
-
In that case why does the MSA publish BOTH an online newsletter AND a quarterly magazine?
At no added cost to licence holders?
A few sums:
Annual TSSC Membership £46, so at most the Courier costs £3.80 a month. Add 77 pence for VAT (£9.20 a year)
So the Club membership would rise - if the tax avoidance advice is correct - by less than £10.
The cost of printing and distributing the Courier - I must guess at. Postage £1? Printing? £2?? How many? - again no idea of current membership - 6,000?
That's £18,000.
Of course the Editorial Team must stay in post! I've no wish to put Bernard and his colleagues out of work, so no savings there.
Cost of 'printing' and 'distributing' the Courier online - £23/month. I repeat: Twenty Three Pounds. That saves £17977 a month.
But I could have - probably have - got those figures wildly wrong.
So let's do it backwards.
Each issue of the Courier Online costs £23.
Divide that by the membership - again I have to guess, but at 6K members that is 0.4 of a penny per copy, on your screen.
Whatever the cost of printing and posting, that has to be at least 90% less - I mean it costs a tenth online
VAT is twenty per cent, on top of the current cost, so the saving would be about 70%.
Our Treasurer needs to examine his calculations again when the costs of online publishing are so very, very low.
John
-
I know I'm boring about this.
I know that I annoy the TSSC administration by going on about it.
And I know that many TSSC members like to have a printed copy of the Courier.
But when online publication is so very, very cheap - cheaper than you would believe - and the TSSC isn't rich, it has to be considered.
The Motor Sports Association, that regulates four wheeled motorsport in the UK, publishes a quarterly magazine, "MSA" printed in full colour just like the Courier.
It also publishes "MSA News", a monthly newsletter, ONLINE. YOu can rad the latest issue here: https://www.msauk.org/assets/msanews580215.pdf
The"News" is published for them by a company that specialises in online magazines, ISSUU.
You can read about their services here: http://issuu.com/pricing?entryPoint=ycpt
Look at that bottom line: $35 a month, £23, not per copy, but for a magazine as big as you like, as often as you like, sent to as many people as you like.
A magazine that opens itself onto your PC screen and imposes no advertising that you do not want to carry.
And will link to all the social media that the TSSC now prefers to the message board format.
I'm sure that the TSSC's admin are aware of how ridiculously cheap is online publishing.
I just thought that the members, at least those who own a PC and use the message board, should know too.
John
No connection with ISSUU, or online publishing
-
A new thread here shows up yet again the Club's attitude to this message board. http://forum.tssc.org.uk/index.php?/topic/316-rip-herald-chassis/
It's about a Herald chassis that is so far gone that it is irredeemable, even to the professionals. And the pros include a whole packet of pics showing all the faults, a valuable learning aid for new or prospective owners on what to look out for. But each is either visible as a thumbnail, or a full sized pic that has to be individually seen. No possibility of leafing through them all in a size that is visible.
Contrast that with another well know Triumph site.
http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl/Blah.pl?m-1394015515/s-16/#num16
Not just one or two pics on the restoration of a very rusty Acclaim, bu THIRTY TWO! All fullsized and easuly leafed throguh to fuind any of especial interest.
THAT is how to post pics, not this miserly, post-it-on-yer-gallery aand we'll let you look at them one by one!
I know, boring.
I'm off again - I only dropped in to see how the Club's corpse was doing.
JOhn
-
1
-
-
I've told this story before, but ....
People obsess about heat getting into the car, and thinking that the gearbox or the exhaust pipe is the source, with putting expensive thermal insulation inside the gearbox cover. Not so. All that heat comes from the radiator at the front, and gets inside the car around the poor sealing of the cover the the bulkhead, and the many holes in the bulkhead that are often unused and left open/
I can say this with confidence, because once upon a time I built a Vitesse with a radiator in the back. Silverback was a cold car. Even on nice summer days, my hands would get cold! There was no heat at all coming through from the gearbox or exhaust pipe.
Soundproofing, I can't advise you on, but instead of expensive thermal insulation, pay strict attention to the sealing of cover to floor/bulkhead and to sealing all those little holes in the bulkhead!
John
-
1.6-3.2mm toe IN
-
Vizard can show you how to do it: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12986341/Tuning-Standard-Triumphs-Vizard
Many decry his opinions and mods, but they seem to do me proud. And as he suggests. more than half the work that gives a benefit is in the inlet and exhaust ducts, niot just in the chambers.
He says, and I agree, that a drill just won't spin a stone fast enough to cut cleanly and quickly. An air-driven die grinder will drive the tool at 14,000 plus rpm, which will also allow a burr to work. Burrs cost more than stones but last much longer and work much quicker.
And if you do work on the chambers', it's essential thereafter to measure their volumes. They must be the same, within 0.5mls, and only then can you know the Compression Ratio, and how much to skim off the face to compensate for the metal you have taken out, or to increase the CR.
JOhn
-
1
-
-
Useful, online engine building guide: http://www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/engine_building.shtml
John
-
1
-
-
Joachim,
A number stamped on the head in the factory tells you what it was intended for in the factory.
How do you know what has been done to the head ever since?
You measure the chambers. Easy to do so, with a burette and glass cover square. Then whatever reshaping of chambers and skimming of the head that has been done since, you can be certain what their volume is. Measuring the stroke volume of the block needs merely the measurement of bore and stroke, simple to be sure of the numbers. Then you can work out the CR.
If you need more detail, may I suggest my own article on this?: http://www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/skimming_your_head.shtml
JOhn
-
But where will I keep my emergency chocky bickie?
Oh, stuff it! Why dos this site may pictuires so bloofy diifucult?
I've uploaded obne to my galley.
HOW THEW DO I PUT IT HERE? IF THATS THE WAY YPU WNAT US TO UPLOAD PIC WHY DON'T YOU PUT A BUTTON FOR DOING THAT, INSTAED OF "CHOOSE FILE", WHICH IS JUST AN INVIATIONT BE SNUBBED WITH "TOO BIG"
boG OFF!
-
WooHOO!
Please note. In that pic, I attributed the table to John Thomason, of "Spitfire & GT Originality" fame, some of whose data I added. That's wrong.
The author of the excellent articles "Suspensions Sussed" was Carl Heinlein, then a TSSC Club Officer.
John
-
Hope this works.
JOhn
Polycarbonate windows
in Bodywork & Fittings
Posted
Buy your polycarbonate as sheets and cut it yourself.
Mark out using the original glass as a pattern, and as Clive says, it's quite soft, and easily cut with say an electric, or hand jigsaw.
Cut it slightly oversize and trim with a Surform plane.
But if you want to save weight by swapping glass for PolyC, you need to remove the winder mechanisms as well, as they are weighty.
And devise some means of holding the PolyC in the door.
Side and rear windows can be bolted to the flanges that used to hold the rubber seals, with a strip of closed cell, self adhesive foam ("draught excluder") between PolyC and flange. You could use a squeeze of mastic, I suppose, if you like cleaning up the mess afterwards.
Strange - I know exactly what you mean by the fly deflector, a strip of perpsex across the bonnet, but I know also that all the best Le Mans replicas and original cars today do not have one.
John