yorkshire_spam

I have a fairly standard brake set-up on the 1500 Spitfire apart from the M1144 compound pads. As far as I can tell my limiting factor/bottleneck in braking is not the brakes, it's the adhesion/grip of the tyres. My setup provides good progressive bite, square braking, reasonable front/rear balance. If I push the pedal hard enough I can lock the fronts.... at that point really what I need is grippier tyres, not more braking.

The 1850 in the Dolomite is running GREAT in traffic and slow driving, but the temp climbs under heavy load/higher speed. I'm looking at a recon rad to perhaps address the issue. The Spitfire 1500 doesn't seem the least bit bothered, but then I have fitted the wider rad and an oil cooler.

Never managed to get the eezibleed to work myself. I use one of these instead: https://www.wilcodirect.co.uk/product/tool-kits/vizibleed-diy-single-bleeding-kit-er-b16/ER-B16 It doesn't push the fluid through, but it does allow you to bleed them on your own.

What I found slightly odd when I was shopping around was that "Protection & Performance" in Lancashire could fabricate and fit a roll over bar with diagonal and a horizontal bar for belts etc. to a custom design for about the same money that Rimmers would sell me a new Safety Devices bar. You'd have thought that customer work fitted to the car would have been much more!

I've sourced a second hand Saftey Devices bar for the Spitfire, my plan is to have a diagonal brace welded in and then fit it when we do events like European road trips etc. just for a bit of extra piece of mind. For general everyday pottering around on UK roads I don't think I'll bother.

Welcome and best of luck finding your motor.

I think some of the European ones had dual circuit with a PDWA too.

Cables are in a kind of Y shape, it's possible for the cable that runs across from 1 drum to the other to be tight, but if the link that runs from that to the leaver itself is slack then you'll still have long travel on the handbrake leaver

Most of the adjustment for the handbrake is the cable adjustment - once the adjusters are set right the foot brake should be good (hard to tell as so much braking effort is at the front) but the handbrake can still be rubbish if the cables are too slack.

So here's how I do it.... Back end jacked up and weight of the car on axle stands under each upright. (Wheels off!) Disconnect the handbrake cable at both drums. For each side in turn: Adjust until the drum binds, then back off 1 "click" Reconnect the handbrake cables each side. Use the hand brake cable adjuster at each drum to take up any slack in the cable. Check that the drums are not binding - it they are back the cable adjusters off until they are free Try the hand brake... Regardless of the amount of travel, does the hand brake lock the drums up nicely? Assuming it works.... If the travel on the handbrake is too much or too little, remove the tunnel trim to get to the adjuster just behind the hand brake level. Slacken/Tighten to adjust travel on leave. Refit all the parts!

Slightly longer with the bonnet open I'm afraid...

More like this?

Sorry chaps, you are quite right. I'd say it was a "senior moment", but probably just simple incompetence. Cheers, Sam

I think, but I'm not sure that it might be the same as the volvo one... https://www.sw-em.com/Smith's Tachometer.htm

I've got a spare if you want one?

Oli, Twin SUs (assuming that's what you have) are not that bad, there are plenty of online guides. For example: http://sucarb.co.uk/technical-h-type-carburetter-tuning-multi Ideally you need some way of measuring airflow. You can get fancy meters for this OR just use a listening tube as per the linked guide. Essentially once idle airflow is set, lowering the jet makes it richer, raising the jet makes it weaker on each carb. Cheers, Sam

One annoying complication - the screws holding the face are in different positions. 12 and 6 on the electronic tacho and 9/3 on the mechanical.

No idea about the tacho, but on the Smiths speedo the needle is just push/pull fit.

There are 2 wedge shaped panels that fit either side of the rad (standard width) to hold it into the frame, if you have a wide rad you don't need them. Careful though, they are not the same, if you fit them the wrong way round (as the previous owner of my 1500 had done) then the rad sits too high and rubs the inside of the bonnet. I think I have the ones from mine still attached to the scrap radiator - yours for the postage if you want them. Or "pop" up and collect them sometime. Indeed.... no bump stops on my Spitfire 1500!

Wide rads seem to have shot up in price since I got mine. A friend of mine in Belgium has just replaced his wide rad and it was cheaper for him to get an alloy wide rad than the standard!

Good result! You should be proud! On my 1500 Spitfire it's always a chore to tune for the emissions test - it drives like a bag-o-crap when set-up for the test (no power at all above about 4K rpm.) I need to try some different needles to see if I can get it closer on tick-over but still keep the top-end pull.

On my Spitfire 1500 almost all the fuel hose is 1/4", there is (if I remember rightly) 1 section at the rear that's 5/16" (I think between the solid hose that comes out of the tank and the next rigid section, but I'm working from unreliable memory)

I cut the wrapping off the spitfire loom and replaced all the higher current associated lines (head lamps etc.) with thin wall (then re-wrapped the loom), along with that the old fuse box in the engine bay is now redundant as there's a fuel and relay box in the passenger footwell.

I think the biggest issue recently has been the sale of hose marked r6 or r9 that was nothing of the kind. I had "new" "R9" pipes crumbling in 6 to 12 months and as a result imported a role of Gates Barricade hose (1/4 bore) a few years ago. None of the Gates hose I've fitted has needed replacing - although I keep an eye on it it's far more "fit and forget" than the other rubbish I was sold. I could be wrong, but I don't think the Gates hose I have is rated for the pressure of an injection system though. only carbs.

Is the swing axle set-up the same as the Spitfire etc? I think the bearings are the same? If they are then yes, they are standard bearings. I managed to pick up some NOS bearings kits that had RHP bearings in, but with the bearing numbers you should be able to get decent quality from a bearing factors (although you'd have to source seals etc separately if needed) According to my Spitfire notes: Outer GHB117: RHP LJ1 or SKF RLS8 1 x 2.1/4 x 5/8" Inner: B-168 (needle roller bearing)