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Simon Underwood

TSSC Member
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About Simon Underwood

  • Birthday 27/10/1959

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    East Sussex
  • Cars Owned
    Spitfire 1500

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  1. Thanks, I thought it had to be one piece, but the drawings make it look like two.
  2. I've got a copy that was given to me by my Godmother after her husband died. Superb book, highly recommended!
  3. In my ongoing bid to rid my 1975 Spitfire 1500 of the noises it shouldn't be making, I've moved on to the rattling noise that's coming from the fuel tank. It's quite unpleasant and seems to resonate at certain engine/ road speeds. I've had the sender unit out, and you can knock the tank and the rattle is still there, so it's not the sender. I'm wondering if it's the fuel pick up pipe touching the inside of the tank, or the nut not being tightened enough, allowing the olive on the pipe to vibrate in its seating, which I'm going to check over the weekend. The thing that confuses me slightly is that, according to the parts drawings I've seen, the pipe appears to be in two parts, the straight part inside the tank, and the shorter pipe with the 90 degree bend on the top of the tank. This seems strange to me, shouldn't it be just one pipe? Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks, Simon
  4. Minchins, not surprised. They do have some good cars there, but the prices always seem to be a bit on the ambitious side.
  5. There's a thought- I wonder if there was a range of blocks that had been machined differently, and the knurled adaptor was specifically for those particular blocks?
  6. The toe is a lot better now, so I was able to get Hedwig out of the garage and start to investigate. The first photo is the 3/4" adaptor screwed into the block. I measured the distance from the sealing face on the block to the outer end of the adaptor, and it was only 4.5mm. Given that the same distance measured on the two filters I had was 10.5mm, this would appear to be the reason the filter blew off, as less than half the threads in the filter would have engaged with the adaptor, and there aren't that many anyway. The second photo is with the adaptor removed. I tried screwing the adaptor into the filter first, but only got about three turns when when screwing the assembly into the block. The third photo is a comparison of the new 3/4" adaptor with the original 5/8" adaptor. I've positioned them so that a comparison can be made as to how they sit in the block. What I found was that if I put four washers on the 5/8" end of the new adaptor, that would still give exactly the same amount of thread going into the block as the original adaptor, so that is what I did, as shown in the fourth photo. I then fitted the filter, and got five full turns on it. Started the car up, no problem, checked the filter tightness, started it again, let it warm up, and the filter was still in place and no leaks evident. I'm not completely sure what conclusions to draw from this, as most of you don't seem to have had this issue, so any thoughts? P.S. Thanks for all your help, Clive.
  7. Latest update- I haven't been able to do much this weekend, owing to a family birthday yesterday and a broken toe this morning (the two things are completely unrelated, by the way). I measured the distance from the sealing ring to the inside end of the thread on both the filter that blew off and the new one from Clive, and they are both 10.5mm, so I'm guessing that perhaps we're not looking at filter inconsistencies. I tried fitting the new filter, and only got about 1 turn this time before it started tightening. Checking the adaptor length, both the original one and the replacement 3/4" one are the same, so any 5/8" fitting filter, from the Club, Rimmers etc etc is going to have exactly the same issue as the 3/4" ones I'm trying now, as I've found. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that there must be some kind of an issue with the machining of the block, either the mating face for the seal, or where the adaptor screws in, although it's interesting that the filters used to be supplied originally with a male fitting or an adaptor, implying that the adaptor should be fitted to the filter first. I'll post another update when I'm a bit more mobile. I'm thinking a couple of washers behind the adaptor, to bring it out a bit further. Thoughts?
  8. The moment of truth will be tomorrow or Sunday. I found a couple of interesting things whilst digging around on the web, though. There's a guy in the States who's put a video on Youtube about fitting an oil filter to his Spitfire, and encountered a lack of available threads when tightening the filter (this was with the 3/4" adaptor), and fitted a 1/4" spacer behind the adaptor to bring it out further. Mind you, he took the adaptor out with an easy out and had clearly left some swarf in it when he screwed the filter on! Also, Clive, I was looking at the oil filter thread on the CT website that you'd contributed to, and I noticed that one of the contributors to that had had a filter blowing off incident as well, and someone else had screwed the adaptor into the filter first before fitting it to the block, it might even have been the same chap. My theory, a theory that is mine, etc etc, is that the oil filter fitment after the oil filters with the male fitting ceased to be available is a bit borderline, and modern filters can be a bit of a gamble in some instances depending on the manufacturing tolerances of how far the threaded base is fitted into the canister, which would affect the distance between the hole and the seal. Perhaps the thickness of the seal can vary as well. This doesn't seem to affect the great majority of engines from what I can gather, but mine seems to be one of the ones it does. As an experiment, I put my old oil filter back on, no problems at all. Watch this space.........................
  9. I fitted the 3/4" adaptor and the Mann filter, and all seemed well until this morning when the car spat the oil filter off again and covered the driveway in even more oil. There only seems to be 2-3 turns of the filter until it tightens up, and I'm wondering if the threaded mounting should protrude from the block more. Is it meant to have a washer behind it? The other thing I'm wondering is if the oil pressure relief valve isn't working correctly, which is probably the more likely thing. Any ideas gratefully received. Simon
  10. Many thanks, Clive, the 3/4" adaptor was easy to fit (once I'd gone out and bought a long reach socket to get the original one off) and the Mann filter you recommended went on with a satisfying number of turns, and Hedwig didn't spit it out like she did with the cheap 'n' nasty ones. Simon
  11. Yes, please don't go, Clive. I've replied to you on Messenger. Simon
  12. For the second time, I’ve run into a problem with the way the mounting thread has been cut (sloppily) in a replacement oil filter for my Spitfire 1500. The filter was purchased from a well known purveyor of Triumph parts near Lincoln, but the first time it happened, it was a Halfords own brand filter a couple of years ago. What happened on both occasions was that when the engine was started after the oil change, the oil filter flew off and a large puddle of oil appeared on my driveway. Both these filters had tightened up after only a couple of turns, so with not many threads keeping them on, they couldn’t stand up to the oil pressure. On the first occasion, I had actually bought two filters at the same time, and the second one went on with about 5 turns before it tightened, and worked perfectly. I should have been suspicious about this later one, as exactly the same thing happened. I was able to partially rectify the situation by putting the old filter back on, but obviously this isn’t ideal. I see that Halfords appear to be doing Crosland, Bosch and Mann filters if you do a search on MG Midget 1500. Anyone got any recommendations? Simon
  13. Thanks chaps, it was James Paddock. Simon
  14. It's been a while since I posted anything on the forum, in fact I'm not sure I've posted anything on this one, it was all on the old one! I notice that another contributor (mishmosh) had bought a manifold from a Chester based supplier that I assume is the same one that I've just bought one from. I actually got my local garage to fit it, and they've had a hell of a time with it. The manifold pipes were bent incorrectly to the extent that the mating faces couldn't be bolted to the head because the pipes were hard against the engine, and the mounting holes wouldn't line up. After a lot of work, they managed to get it on, but it still won't seal properly against the head, which means it's blowing. The only reason I got this was to avoid the manifold to downpipe gasket problem, but this is now seeming like a small price to pay given this problem. So, I need suggestions. Do I: a) Go back to a standard system and live with having to change the gasket occasionally? Get a better 4 branch manifold- recommendations as to ones that actually fit? I hoping the Chester based supplier will take the other one back- I'm thinking they should, it's certainly not fit for purpose. Simon
  15. Thanks, good idea, Pete, although the bolt doesn't have a head any more! I'll try it by locking a couple of nuts on it. I think when I do get the thing out I'll fit some 5/16 studs in the fixings with the help of some Loctite and use dome nuts on the studs when I fit the hardtop again, should make things a lot easier Simon
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