Darren Groves

Thanks for the suggestion. Butterfly opening OK.....

No air filters fitted, so not that. Top cover seems a snug fit, so thinking that's probably OK, but will re-check tomorrow. Diaphragm lug located OK in carb body and are nice and thin, I have the old ones so can swap back to see it if makes a difference. "two holes in the bottom are not engine facing" - which 2 holes are you referring to Pete?

MK1 2L Vitesse with Twin CD150 Carbs. The carbs have been stripped, cleaned and had new O Rings & Diaphragms fitted. Pistons on both carbs lift and fall freely. On idle the car is nice and smooth but when you increase the revs the piston on the front carb lifts as you'd expect but the one on the rear doesn't lift at all. What's the most likely cause?

Try rotating Propshaft and drive shaft flanges 180 degrees one by one and take for a test drive. No logical reason why this should work, but has done a couple of times for me.

H&H Supplied the part, £23ish delivered. Cheers

Their website is run by TSSC, so best let Garth know, but may just be local to you as I've just been on their and not had an issue.

Hi Roger, The Rev counter will with them today, should have it back by the middle of next week. All to do with the number of pulses per rotation, so they can adjust easily apparently. Got a little more done yesterday, located the fuel filter & pump on the rear outrigger and run a new 8mm fuel line down to the front of the car. Apologies for the poor quality photos, my phone was struggling in the light.

At last week's Club Night I got the first bits back for the inlet manifold from fellow member Alan Brace, who is kindly helping out. This bit is the flange that attaches to the throttle body and a slightly reduced tube diameter from the main plenum. I forgot to take a photo before I welded it, which is a shame as it was very nicely made and I was worried my welding wouldn't do it justice. Didn't come out too bad. The Rev counter came back from Speedy Cables, it works but at exactly half speed. Simple fix apparently but does mean it has to go back. On the plus side the recalibrated speedo was spot on, matched the Sat Nav exactly.

Hi Roger, Well, the 5v for MS I got from Nick Jones's schematic for his tacho fix: And the 12v for MJ I got from the Autosportslab Installation Guide which reads: Using the Tach Out on the MJLJMany tachometers can accept the signal emitted from the Tach Out on the MJLJ module. This Tach Out signal provides a 12V pulse for every ignition event. You may use this to provide the signal to compatible tachometers, or to provide a signal to a separate Engine Control Unit, data logger, or other device which requires this signal. I would just wait and see what you get, many people don't have problems even, you may me lucky. Cheers Darren

Hi Roger, I believe MJ is a 12v output, whereas the MS is 5v, so therein lies the problem. You may get lucky or the Tacho Driver from the coil pack may work, lots of people have success with this, it's just that I didn't. One downside to Speedy Cables is that it's a 4-5 week turnaround, so not so speedy.... Will be interested to see how you get on with your 02 sensor. Cheers Darren

Hi Roger, It was a RVC type. They charge £80 +VAT & P&P. Darren

Thanks for the replies. I think the gear in the shaft is fine. If you removed the cable from the dizzy you can see the cable connection spinning quite happily and if you pop your finger tip on it, it continues to spin. If you connect a cable to the dizzy the speedo end is spinning, but apply any sort of pressure to this and then it stops. I hoped this was the cable end rounded off, so tried a spare cable but with the same result, so concluded it was rounding of the female connection on the drive. I could glue the cable into the dizzy drive I guess to see what happens, bit of a bodge but might see out a few miles. I guess there's always H&G Ignition who do the refurbs for the club shop, they might be able to help.

Hi Roger, I've been following the U/J story, glad that is sorted. Yes the Tacho worked fine with Megajolt, but no luck with the Microsquirt I'm afraid, I tried all the suggested fixes but nothing worked reliably. In theory the Tacho Driver I bought from Trigger Wheels should have worked, this is the same set-up that's mentioned in the Megamanual, this gave the best result, but still very patchy. In the end I bit the bullet and sent it to Speedy Cables who can convert to read the tacho out signal from the ECU, I had a speedo I've been wanting to send for calibration anyway, so seemed the simplest solution. Turnaround is 4-5 weeks though, so will not know for sure if it works for a bit. You may be lucky with your tacho, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't even if the set-up is the same. All the under dash wiring is done and excess run through the the engine bay and I have fitted the modified fuel tank, so can't do too much more until I get the flanges made for the inlet manifold, but a local TSSC member who is a retired engineer and has a lathe in his garage, has kindly offered to help. Keep us posted with your install, we may both need a little moral support as we go through it!

Car is a Vitesse 2L MK1 with a Lucas Distributor and Mechanical Rev Counter. The rev counter doesn't work, the problem is with the gear in the dizzy. It turns, but if you hold the cable at the rev counter end and you apply some resistance it stops spinning. Tried a different cable, same thing. So I am guessing the female part of the gear that the cable inserts into has rounded and wont turn the cable when there's any kind of resistance. The gear looks simple to change, but doesn't seem to be available anywhere. Anyone know of a source?

When I had the standard speedo in it did over-read by just over 5-10% which was fine, but this one is at least 20% so is a bit too far really. Managed to find something that worked very well.

Good idea Clive, was having a similar thought with one of these....

I have a Spitfire 1500 speedo in my Herald, so it reads about 20% too high. I am going to send it off for calibration, but I'm having difficulty getting a small pointer on the end of the cable to count the number revolutions for 6 rotations of the wheels. The cable has the plastic shroud/clip on the speedo end and the cable is quite deep set within it, hence the difficulty. Anyone done this before with this type of cable and have suggestions on how to do this? Darren

Don't know a Tim Walker, but Overdrive relays are available from all the usual traders.

I haven't been completely idle with the EFI conversion, but I am still to get the flanges made for the inlet manifold, however good news on that front as a local member has kindly volunteered to have a go at making them for me on his lathe. Onto what I have done - Now the amount of wiring needed to do this shouldn't be underestimated, especially if you decide to tidy up big chunks of all the other wiring you've added over the years. I'm pleased to say that apart from the rev counter wiring (more on that later) all the under dash wiring is done, some to do under the bonnet when I start fitting injectors and the like, but inside the car for now it's pretty much there. The replacement fuel tank is now welded up, tank sealing kit used to ensure any pinholes in my welding are closed up and the outside treated with POR-15 rust preventative paint, which doesn't look too bad given it was brush painted. I've used this paint a few times before and it really is very good. Goes on well and dries to a rock hard finish that won't chip or peel unlike the pretty useless Hammerite. I've been running the car on the new ECU (Ignition only) for a few weeks now, and it's doing a good job, but one niggle is that I can't get the rev counter to work properly. Now the ECU does have a 'Tacho Out' wire, but it's a 5v Square wave signal that isn't much good for the old electronic Smith's Rev Counters. If I use the Tacho Out wire I get a low reading that won't read over 1200rpm, the EDIS also has a Tacho Out connection but the Rev Counter does nothing when connected to this. Adding various resistors as suggested proved unsuccessful as did Firmware updates to the ECU. One fix that should work is a coil driver, this grabs a signal from either side of the coil pack (The Ford Coil Packs are actually 2 coils in one unit). More success with this in that when it works it's accurate, but it only works sporadically. One last suggestion below from Nick Jones, his own homemade creation which has been working on his car for many years, so hopefully this will do the trick for me. I should of been able to report whether this was successful or not but I managed to lose a pack of Transistors in the garage somewhere, which I'm bound to find once the replacements arrive in the post! Electronics makes my head spin a little, so this has been rather taxing on the old grey matter, but kind of fun in a strange way. If all else fails Speedy Cables will convert your old Rev Counter to modern internals, but it's understandably not that cheap to do.

Compare the arch clearance on the 2 rear wheels, OS is very low compared to NS.

I've never used the POR15 engine paint, but have used plenty of their other products and they've always been very good. My last lot of engine paint was an eBay jobbie and it was fine.

The earth straps on the Herald are normally a short lead from Battery to Body and another at the front from Engine to Chassis. I just added another from where the existing one mounts on the body, round the back of the battery and connects to one of the Bellhousing to engine bolts, this ensures the engine is well earthed. I think the 1500 Spitfires had this as standard. I done this as my starter seemed a bit sluggish on occasions, since doing this it's been fine.

Done this on my Herald, definitely worth doing.

Or turn the battery clamp up the other way, the thinner part will be at the top and further away from the terminals....

Www.autosparks.co.uk