cliff.b

I found I did have something straight in the garage. I measured between the doors & it's 1484mm immediately behind the wheels & 1488 at the front end (near the bonnet.

Planned to check the rear toe situation today but I cant find suitable straight edges at the moment. However, I have made a quick visual check of where the shims are placed and the OS gap appears significantly larger than NS. It looks like a solid block about a quarter of an inch thick. I will investigate further later and hopefully check the toe but just wondering if this amount of "shimming" is within the range of what is expected?

Oh well, guess it will remain a mystery until I get to inspect everything more closely. Incidentally, although off topic from my original question, are there any differences between the Dolomite 1500TC engine and the Spit?

Unfortunately, I have no idea who carried out the restoration work. I bought the car last week off a guy who bought it "restored" last year but it rapidly became a non runner. I think I have to assume it wasn't checked after re-assembly and do it myself.

The body was removed from the chassis during the restoration work so am I right in thinking that the rear alignment should have been checked/corrected after that?

I have been trying various pressures to see how it feels but today, when the issue occurred I was running 28 front & 30 rear. On normal road surface it felt good to me. I might try lower and go back over the same road, perhaps a bit slower this time 🙄

Thanks. I will have a read.

I have checked a lot of it at the front when I was changing the calipers. Many of the bushes, nuts, bolts etc. looks new, but I agree, I need to look at everything. I'm not seeing any noticeable play at the wheels when I turn the steering wheel so assumed the steering UJ, bushes & rack mounting are OK. Does this seem a reasonable assumption? I haven't checked anything at the rear yet but will do so when I replace the brake shoes.

Thanks. Now corrected 👍

Thanks, Clive. There's nothing about the shocks that lead me to think they aren't standard. The ride doesn't seem hard. The springs also appear standard although of course the lower profile front tyres slightly lowers the front of the car. Could that be causing problems. One thing I have noticed, despite the pressures being higher than you suggest I can actually rock the car laterally from side to side due to the flex in the tyre side walls.

The Spit 1500 I bought last week is now running & braking well enough for some proper road testing. Covered about 60 miles today and all going well until what I can only describe as some "weaving" set in. Considering the issues I have already found I thought something was about to come loose and stopped immediately to check everything out but all seemed ok. So drove off again tentatively and all fine until I hit a patch of badly repaired road and similar again, although not as bad but that's probably because I was travelling more slowly. So I would be grateful for any opinions as to whether this might be due to 1) The tyres that the car came with. (185/70 rear 185/60 front) or the tyre pressures. 2) some other suspension issue. 3) They all do this but I have forgotten over the last 40 years since I last drove one. Since I realised nothing is falling off I have just driven through it ok, it's just a bit disconcerting.

Aha, I noticed yesterday that the engine block number is from a Dolomite, so guess the gearbox could be as well. Did Dolomites have 4.11 diffs?

Thanks for all your help 👍

Pic of my speedo attached. So does this mean it's the correct Speedo?

Agreed. I know the tacho may not be accurate and besides, I'm only glancing at it so in reality, it was roughly 3000 rpm. Likewise, the GPS was varying between 54 & 56 (which of course could have been 56.9) But all this has alleviated my main concern that I had a low ratio diff fitted and no overdrive which I would find a problem at cruising speeds. I will identify the diff in due course but as suggested, sorting the Speedo is more urgent. Although I can mount the GPS Speedo from my pedal bike temporarily.

Just to update, I have tested again with GPS and Speedo is definitely reporting about 15% slower than actual at all speeds. Dividing the GPS speed by the reported RPM gives approx 18.5mph/1000rpm which I believe is correct for the car. And if my maths aren't letting me down, I calculate that if the diff was about 4.1 the Speedo reading would be correct. So I think something has been fitted from an older car that had a diff with that sort of ratio. Happy to have got to the bottom of this now and explains why the test runs made before I found this seemed fast for the speed I thought I was driving at. Thought it was just being so low to the ground and all the noise lol

Ha ha.

Oh, I see. Makes sense. Anyway, brackets now swapped over with the Brake cylinder now on the re-inforced one.

Found the delete option now 👍. Think the volume of my posting is mainly because I have raised 3 separate issues in different threads and all have had quite a lot of responses, all very informative 🙂

That sounds like a good idea. Didn't realise it was available as only joined last week.

I took a picture but couldn't make anything out. After making it brighter it is a bit more legible but still not sure what I am seeing

I will have another look next time I jack it up.

If that's the case then good news as far easier to resolve 👍

Ok, many thanks with all your assistance with this 👍

Ok, thanks for the explanation. So I will need to see if an actuator for the standard MC is available if I want to use it?