cliff.b

Lol

To be fair, this isn't the first forum I have read that references holes, KY jelly & socks on hands in the same thread 😁

I think I need to check out my grease gun. I inherited it from my Father and it appears to work ok but maybe not under pressure. I pumped maybe a dozen times and no grease exited anywhere lol

I've been thinking about this overnight and despite my concerns about the design, I couldn't see how this happened. Surely any lateral forced would be taken by the "boss" that protrudes through the backplate? However, to gain confidence in the brakes after the problems I had experienced I had been making repeated heavy braking from increasing speeds prior to the noise starting. This clearly caused the drums to get very "warm" as the paint on them had blistered so I am thinking, could this have happened due to expansion of the bolt heads forcing the adjuster away from the backplate?

Decided to grease these today, as I was looking at the brakes and gave both sides a few pumps of the grease gun but I sort of expected old grease would emerge from somewhere, which it didn't. So I'm wondering, how do I know how much to pump in? Can you put too much and should it emerge from anywhere if you do?

Yes, that's what I thought. I assumed the studs would have been threaded rod into a tapped hole, not a bolt cast a few mm deep into some dubious looking "metal". Apart from the failure that has occurred there is very little to stop the bolt turning if any degree of force was applied tightening, or more likely un-tightening in a few years time. If it lasts that long, of course. I do intend to contact Rimmers. Ironically, I could have bought more cheaply on E-Bay but decided that I would rather get brake parts from a known company. I suspect I would have actually got exactly the same thing, No doubt made in the PRC to look like it's supposed to but without regard to functionality. Hopefully their new aircraft carrier is the same lol

Exactly, that's what I found so amusing lol. Like the wife of a friend of mine many years ago thought she was being very clever & lowering her gas bill by leaving the airing cupboard door open to use the heat that was in there to help warm upstairs 🤔

Well I thought the brakes were sorted but it appears not. Developed a nasty noise from the o/s rear and a reduction in braking performance. Took the drum off this afternoon and found the brake adjuster was rubbing against it. The retaining studs had pulled away from the adjuster (see pic). The nuts weren't overtightened and I removed the bolts from the backplate easily using a small spanner & screwdriver. I'm trying to remember for sure but I'm pretty certain this is the adjuster I fitted a couple of weeks ago from Rimmer's.

Many thanks for all opinions. As it turned out the gaskets were the least of my worries. One of the mounting bolts wouldn't tighten down on reassembly as the carb thread was stripped, sorted with a longer bolt & nut for now. After re-assembly I had a petrol leak from one of the short flexible pipes that takes fuel to the front carb. It looked ok superficially but on removing the covering the rubber was completely perished and obviously moving the connecting pipe had split it. Replaced with new hose and then found that there was petrol dripping from the front carb now. Replaced that one as well but still dripping which I found was due to the connection from the float chamber to the jet being loose. Obviously that issue was already there and I hadn't noticed which probably explains the slight whiff of petrol. In hindsight, probably a good thing the first obvious leak led me to find it. Other fuel hoses look fine but will now be replaced ASAP. As with various other things I have found on this car, I struggle to understand why so much attention to detail has been applied in some areas of its restoration but so little in others. I have come to the conclusion that it was completed by a different person, but irrelevant really as I bought it expecting work to be required.

Changing my air filters with standard Spitfire 1500 airbox and it only had gaskets between the box and the carbs. Just wondered if it should it also have gaskets between the filters and the box and are they supposed to be fitted dry or with some gasket sealant?

My ex wife was like that but after we divorced and she had to pay her own bills she changed completely. She even invested in a new lower wattage kettle to save electricity lol

I seem to remember my Dad mixed it with creosote to paint the garden fence.

I had not heard of Dinitrol so checked it out and see there are various products offered for different purposes. Any thoughts on what is best to use as a preventative measure inside sills, doors, rear wings, chassis members etc when there is currently no obvious rust present?

Yes

Yes, many thanks 👍

Ok. I'm new to the forum, how do I pm you?

Ok, thanks. Not far from me so I will arrange a convenient time to collect one if that's ok?

I have realised that the spare wheel in the Spit I have recently bought won't actually fit the car, so I am currently without one. Looking for any wheel that will fit & can be used as a temporary spare.

That's what I was thinking 👍 Around each hole there is a very thin layer of something black & a bit greasy. Could this mean they have already been treated?

I'm just fitting a variety of open & closed grommets to holes that either have something going through the bare metal or are just unused. Just wanted to check if the 3 holes in each outer sill are supposed to be left open for drainage or not?

Just a follow up to close this off, I have now found & remedied multiple brake faults at each corner necessitating replacement of both front calipers & pads, freeing off both seized rear brake cylinders, replacing rear shoes, a sheared brake adjuster & several missing cotter pins, tightened weeping brake joint, corrected significantly maladjusted hand brake & carried out copious bleeding. Ironically, the only thing that didn't appear to have a problem was the master cylinder which was my first guess for causing the issues. I am pleased to report that the brakes are now working pretty well and I will just make a final adjustment to the rears after they have had a chance to bed in a bit. So many thanks for all advice offered. I have reminded myself of several things that I had forgotten over the years and have learnt a lot of stuff that I never knew in the first place 👍

That's interesting as based on your calculations the total change in toe is 1/16th of an inch and I think you said that is the tolerance for adjustment. So I guess it could make sense that one shim would move things by the same amount.

Ok, after a bit more checking I have been out for a test drive this afternoon and everything feels so much better 👍. The car drives & pulls up straight "hands off", so I presume everything must be reasonably aligned. I drove again where I had the problem originally and while I could definitely feel that the surface wasn't good, there was none of that lack of control that I felt before. Has removing the shim made the difference or tightening all the things that should be tight but weren't tight enough? I really don't know but I'm going to drive it now and see what other issues crop up 🙄. Many thanks for all assistance given.

Lol

Absolutely helpful. My only previous experience with car suspension has been replacing parts that needed it, so a bit of a learning curve. But already now know significantly more than I did last week. And regarding the tolerance for the rear toe, as it is set by shimming, rather than being infinitely adjustable, I guess you can only get it as near as the optimum number of shims will allow. Before removing the O/S shim, I held straight edges tightly against each rear wheel with bungees between both sides just ahead and behind the wheels. I then measured the distance between either end of the 6ft straight edges and the measurement towards the front of the car was 4mm greater. So slight toe out? After removing the single O/S shim the measurement is now 4mm less at the front than the rear, or a total difference of 8mm. I presume removing or adding more shims would make a similar difference. What I don't know is how this amount of change measured over 6ft would equate to actual toe measured as intended at the wheel?