chrishawley

Hi Chris, Have you made any progress with this? There's a lot that can be said above door-fit on Spitfires/GT6s! Firstly; OE panel fit was never that good. If one looks at Triumph's original publicity photos from the 70s one can see panels alignments that look hideous by modern standards. Secondly, as commented on by other members, is that poor sill replacement can be a problem - further compounded by problems with the floor pan and rear wing if these have been worked on. A relevant check is to use a long straight edge (a six foot steel rule is ideal) and check the straightness of the full length of sill from the front right back to the rear wheel arch. Both in plan (side) and in elevation (bottom edge) the structure should true to within a couple of mm. Concave or convex deviation is all too common on repaired cars. Then there's the matter of doors which have been repaired. Doors which have had full skin replacements can (often) be distorted so worth inspecting for witnesses of this. The shape can also be lost if repairs have been made to the bottom of the door and/or lower lip. Best detected by removing door cards and inspecting for evidence of welding from the inside. But less of the doom and gloom! To adjust the doors one has to bite the bullet and then engage in a lot of trial and error. Remove the striker plate, remove furflex door seal and protect all edges with masking tape. Slacken off all six fasteners which attach the door to the hinges ( four bolts and two countersunk, croos-head, setscrews). This should allow the door to move on and out but also pivot (top moves out while bottom moves in and vice versa). One has to be prepared to push and shove and make repeated attempts. If there is insufficient adjustment all is not lost. One additional factor can be hinges which have been replaced. Some aftermarket replacements are too thick on the face which bolts to the scuttle. On one car I had to skinny off 3mm off both to get the door to sit inwards far enough. Conversely one can add shims under these faces to increase the adjustment - Even just a 1mm paper shim under the top hinge will throw the bottom of the door in quite a bit. Hopefully some or all of the above might produce a satisfactory result. Once the alignment is correct the striker and furflex can be replace and adjusted/remedied as required. I hope all of this is some help. My only other thought is not to engage in cutting/welding or panel beating until every other avenue has been explored. Good luck Regards Chris

Dear John, Thank you very much for the photos. With the help of these I set to and found a workable arrangement after a few hours. Many thanks Chris Welwyn Herts For the possible future benefit of other readers here’s what I came up with: 1) Affix all four eyeball vents in position; two in the dash and two mounted toward the inner ends of the parcel shelves. That give the start and end locations of the ducting (the start being the lower outlets on the heater box). 2) Left hand side is fairly easy. Affix (original bracket or cable tie) Y-piece to lower left hand corner of heater box with ‘Y’ pointing skyward. Connect heater box outlet to Y-piece with a ‘U’ of ducting. With a fairly long piece of ducting, connect on arm of the ‘Y’ to the parcel shelf vent in a broad inverted ‘U’. Connect other arm of Y to dash vent in a broad curve. Plenty of space so exact lay of the ducting not critical. 3) RH is bamboozling until I worked out where the Y-piece goes. It sits, very snuggly, between the outer side of the steering column and the inner face of the glove box with the ‘Y’ pointing along the line of the steering column. No brackets, just a snug fit. Thus: a) remove glove box/pacel shelf, b) affix a long length of duct to stem of Y-piece c) feed duct over the lower steering column and affix to heater box d) trial fit glove box and adjust position of Y-piece so it sits with snugness in the curve of the inner face of the glove box and against the steering column. Remove glove box. 4) The upper arm of the Y connects to the dash vent with a long arc of duct which will sit loosely above the glove box when the latter is refitted. 5) Now the hard bit. A really long bit of ducting now goes from the lower arm of the Y-piece back over the steering column (under might be possible as well) and then bends in a really tight ‘C’ to connect with the eyeball. The is hard, and involves a lot of squidging, because the column brackets, speedo/tacho/odo cables and wiring are all in the way. Best done with speedo and tacho removed. Trial fit glove box and instruments and adjust position of duct as needed. spitfire001-1.webp spitfire005-1.webp spitfire007-1.webp spitfire008-1.webp spitfire009-1.webp spitfire011.webp spitfire012-1.webp

Hi, Did you get a final solution to this? I'm rebuilding a MkIII; I've got the left side worked out but the right is beyond me. Any further info would be much appreciated. Regards Chris

Problem now solved so thanks for the advice. For the benefit of anyone encountering a similar problem here's a summary: Problem: CDSE150. Poor running. Colourtune showed extremely weak mixture to cylinder 6 with intermittent bursts of over rich running. Result: Fuel needle valve probably sticking in the closed position. Thus replaced with a new item. Float height found the be incorrect (23mm in inverted position) corrected by bending tab to 17 - 18mm. Running now much improved with better colour on the Coloutrune; but still unstable at slow idle. Dashpot cover removed: Diaphragm found to be incorrectly seated in that tab on the diaphragm not located in the corresponding recess in the body, with potential to create an air leak. Diaphragm repositioned. Now runs wells with good slow idle. Solved. This isn't the last of the work as I'm not sure that I have the most suitable needles and distributor set up. But that can wait until the car can have it's first road test.

Thank you for the pointers. Advice about the timing duly noted. I'll swing it back to, say, 12 degrees BTDC (static, not strobe) and leave it there for the time being. My plan of investigation for tomorrow is examine the gaskets, float needle and float. Let's see if that leads anywhere.

Hi, I'm interested to know whether a solution was found to problematic rear carb. I have a similar situation which, in brief, is: GT6 mk3, 2.5l engine, CDSE150 carbs from a triumph 2000. Timing set at 4 degree ATDC on strobe. Point at 40 degrees dwell on meter. Tappet clearances set when engine rebuilt but not adjusted subsequently. AIr flow on carbs balanced on meter at idle. Current issue: Engine starts ok on choke. But with no enrichment (choke 'off') very unstable and rough idle. Idles at 1000rpm (ish) but then will do a burst of a few seconds at 2000rpm then drop down. To investigate I put a ColourTune in cylinders no.1 and no.6. No.1 shows a good blue/yellow combustion. No.6 six shows a very faint and very blue burn but will periodically 'flare up' to give a strong very yellow burn with fast, 2000rpm idle, for those few seconds. My impression is that the rear carb is drawing air ok but is fuel starved but provides a burst of fuel intermittently. I'd very much appreciate any wisdom or experience in how to proceed further in investigation and remedy. Cheers Chris Beds/Herts. Spitfire 1500. GT6 Mk3.