johny
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Posts posted by johny
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Certainly make sure the handbrake cables are not under tension with the handbrake released (this should always be the case) before tightening up the adjuster. The handbrake lever should then only need to go 3 or 4 clicks to fully apply the handbrake. Dont forget to adjust both the cross cable AND handbrake cable to maintain the central pivot (which also has its own adjustments which may have been fiddled with.....) around the 90º position. Finally I would argue that although the brakes can be fine our handbrakes are always going to be on the weak side especially compared with a modern......
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well I would adjust the handbrake as the manual says....
Also theres someone on ebay who sells custom made extenders for our rear drum handbrake operating levers so that shows how common it is for owners to feel their handbrakes are poor!
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with that spark going from cap centre post to the lead terminals I dont think marigolds are going to do so its got to be a pair of rubber North sea diving gloves🤗
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ok let us know how it goes...
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As you say little chance of home machining success but with the Vitesse/GT6 drums at around 100 pound a pair incl delivery (and then they might later go oval) its probably worth a go! Good point on the flange running true though....
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with the power Nicks system seems to be putting out hed better be careful doing tests like that😂
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Somebody on another well know site has been running with a bolt in the drain hole with no problems. I think the drain was necessary as this inlet manifold isnt water heated and with a downdraught carb on cold mornings a considerable amount of fuel could condense out before the manifold warmed up sufficiently. Now that our cars tend to avoid cold weather its not such a problem....
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my original drums have definitely benefitted from machining so it seems new and old all have the potential to be or go out of round.....
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trouble is you wont know if theyre out of round as well until youve put em on the car and then its a bit difficult to ask for your money back......
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Ive wondered if the drum cant be bolted the reverse way onto the hub flange (it should still centre correctly) and then rig up an electric hand drill with grind stone (possibly on a pillar assembly mounted horizontally?) so that while an assistance spins the halfshaft steadily by hand the drill can be moved in slowly to surface grind the braking surface.....
Got to be worth a go😎
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Perhaps we'll get some other feedback from someone..... I believe back in the day there were lots of places capable of doing this machining but now its cheaper to replace than repair so if theres any left theyre difficult to find and probably not close by.....
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Fraid the fact that a new set have gone out of round seems to back up my theory Mark. I cant believe theres many manufacturers of the replacement drums now so all available are likely to come from the same source and be prone to distortion. I went to a local machine shop who had a big lathe and they did the pair for a very reasonable 20quid (reckon they underestimated the work). However they couldnt guarantee the results as they had to use the centre hole in the drum as the datum for centering the drum in the chuck. Apparently they didnt have to skim a lot of metal off but it had been enough to cause the intermittent rubbing.....
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I had this on my Vitesse and the replacement drums for it are much more expensive. However I believe cast iron can distort after being cast so should be left for sometime before machining but in many cases this isnt done so after installing your new drums they can later become oval again.
In the end I got my original items turned in a lathe which has brought about a great improvement even though the machine shop found it difficult to do without the correct mandrel. Probably something suitable could be made using part of an old halfshaft so that the drum could be reverse mounted and then machined perfectly concentric......
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yes it looks like on the original brass radiator the inlet pipe was formed into a curve which hasnt been matched by the welded aluminium chinese version. Perhaps the aluminium pipe could be re-welded at the same location but directly angled towards the thermostat outlet?
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I would have thought that your Spitfire 1500 has the 'swing spring' back axle set up in which case you can only use 4 studs to fix the spring to the differential casing. Anyway 4 studs is enough to keep everything in place and as you say the other holes should be sealed up....
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well Ive never tried turning my engine over with the dizzy cap off but maybe it too would track across the inside. However with a good rotor theres a much easier path to take so this never occurs in normal operation which why I suggested the possibility of a duff rotor....
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Have another look at Paddock site as its not very clear but they do stock both engine types bearings (not sure about there being different widths of main bearings used for the same crank though.....). You can tell the difference because unfortunately the earlier bearings are all loads more expensive than the later ones☹️
I take it youve really assessed the state of your engine as, unless its had a catastrophic failure, Im surprised any of these cars have lasted enough miles to need a rebore!
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Well I think Nick has already tried a new cap so theres only really the rotor and coil left to change. In theory shorted turns in the low voltage side of the coil could change the transformer ratio so giving a higher voltage on the spark side but those resistance readings seem to indicate that its healthy.....
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I wonder if theres a problem with the rotor arm? You dont say its been replaced and if it had a very high resistance the spark may well take another route and track across the inside of the cap.....
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I believe the problem is that the original hose is corrugated to absorb movement between the engine and radiator and if its replaced with a straight item this forward-backward flexibility will be lost so possibly putting stress on the rad pipe or even the rad mountings. Dont think its going to be easy to find a corrugated hose of exactly the right length.....
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As I understand it the problem occurs 'when the starter is engaged' so its almost as if the voltage isnt dropping enough during starting! Hence 12v+ are still being applied to the 6v coil even while the starter motor is operating. Have we got a 24v battery installed😵
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Hi, I cant quite get my head round what youre explaining. Turning over on the starter motor with strobe connected to no1 spark plug you see the timing mark in 3 positions on the front pulley at 120º to each other and then once running theres only one mark showing at the correct position?
Then you say you 'took the distributor cap off and could see sparking from the central rotor contact to the #1 ignition contact' without the cap in place????
First check is to measure the resistance of the coil both low and high voltage sides and let us know the results....
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In the end I found going to a 0.75 master cylinder was the only way to get the pedal feel I wanted....
Spitfire 1500 rear brake drums and shoes
in Braking System
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Ha I do hope the op gets the same result😉