Stratton Jimmer

After using the Sixfire without a hitch over the last two days, I was heading for Castle Combe today where the TR Register were having a track day. Only got half a mile when a wisp of smoke appeared from under the steering column. Pulled up in my local pubs car park and had a look. Undid the two screws to drop the shroud and reveal the wiring to the ignition switch. Something there was very hot and it turned out to be a joint made by a PRO Tap Splice Connector. Gave it a wiggle and tried to start the engine but it would no longer fire. Luckily I had my multi meter in the boot. Checked for volts at coil and found none. Checked at ignition switch and there were 12 of the little darlings. Turned the ignition off and tested for resistance. There were 39 ohms between the ignition switch terminal and the splice carrying the lead to the coil. Given the coil is a 12v one at 3 ohms. This meant that the coil was only getting 3/42ths of 12 volts. That's 1/14th or slightly less than 1 volt. I hot wired it (don't ask!) and drove home, abandoned the Sixfire and went to Combe in the Golf. Later this afternoon I ripped out the splice connectors of which there were four and soldered up a couple of joints and choccy blocked one. All is now well again. Beware the splice connector my friends!

Mine are plywood.

If the diaphragm is not punctured, give it a soak in some clean petrol and re-use it. Only replace them if holed.

It was the rotor arm that did for me a couple of weeks back when out in the GT6. Fourteen miles with no problem then suddenly no spark at the plugs.

From a post dated 16 Feb 2022. Posted February 17, 2022 by me in answer to the question "How thick were the gaskets?" Only about 3mm. Self cut gaskets from sheet.

Went through there two weeks ago and there were no significant delays. Just asked my son who drove through there yesterday, he says it was fine.

I have a warning triangle.

I was on Cirencester Way in Swindon. It is also not a good place to break down. The Green Flag Technician had just recovered another driver to the Formula ! service centre two hundred yards from where I was stranded. It was very lucky on my part that he was so close as rush hour was just kicking off.

Out in the GT6 yesterday and having covered about 14 miles with no problem I was a mile from home when it suddenly cut out. Naturally I was in the worst possible place, on a duel carriageway with no hard shoulder and the nearest refuge being 150 yards away, up hill. Checked everything and nothing seemed obvious except no spark at the plugs. Called Green Flag and after five minutes on the phone they advised that I would get a text from their recovery agent so I sat on the armco and waited. No call but a Green Flag van pulled up with me some seven minutes later. He towed me to the safe place and we collectively examined the engine. Fault quickly diagnosed as being the rotor arm. Had a spare set of leads, spare plugs etc with me but no rotor arm. The Green Flag driver ran me home where I found a spare, returned me to the car and then followed me home, just in case. Great service from Green Flag, a very knowledgeable driver / technician who expressed his pleasure at having the chance to work on a "decent car". How's that for great service!

Yes - as shown in the two photographs in my post of a minute or so ago. One picture shows the carbs without filters and you can see the bracket to which the spring attaches. The second shows the spring in-situ with filters on.

The choke mechanism on the GT6 (HS4) has a return spring which I'm guessing the PO fitted. I took it off after reconditioning the carbs but put it back on as I was having the same issues as described. If needed, I will dig the car out of hibernation and take a photo. Let me know...

You are not alone with this problem. My Mk3 GT6 has HS4 SU carbs and plays up just the same. Quick squirt of Bradex and she fires up a treat and does so for the rest of the day with no problems. Two days later, she won't start without a squirt of Bradex. I rebuilt the carbs which, when I bought the car only had a choke on the front carb but now has it on both. It made no difference. One thing is that once she has fired up, opening the choke does what it should. I use E5 Super and the car runs well on it. The comments about the coil are valid - the six volt coil gets a twelve volt feed from the solenoid when starting. Please check that that is the case. It wasn't with my car but is now. It does start better than it did although, as I say, a shot of Bradex is still required but less than previously. My Spitfire six, has had HS6 SU previously and had no starting problems and since swapping over to a pair of CD150SE and following Pete's guidance as above, has no problems. Definitely lock off the temperature compensators!

Exactly what I have.

Out in the Sixfire the other week I rounded a tight left hander and a road speed related ticking noise started from the nearside rear. Got home and removed the back wheels to inspect the drive train. Nothing untoward found so I scratched my head and was casually rotating the offside brake drum when I heard a faint tick, tick. Close examination revealed the nearside exhaust hanger hook had rusted through and broken away from its U bolt. The hanger was dangling adjacent to the prop shaft flange and making contact with the securing bolts as they rotated. Slackened off the U bolt and undid the chassis mounting bolt to remove the hanger which I then repaired by drilling out the rivets which held the broken metal hook. I made a new hook out of a bit of stainless (ex-washing machine back cover) I had lying around and secured that to the strap with a pair of M8 Allen head bolts. Put it all back together and the back end is once more as quiet as a mouse. It sometimes pays to investigate thoroughly and there's a lot of pleasure in mending something yourself.

I had a tyre band failure on my old Land Rover Series 2A and the description given for this fault matches exactly what I had. My boss was driving behind me and flashed me to pull over. He pointed it out as it was plainly visible from behind while all I had was the noise and imbalance.

I picked one of these up from a stall at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway's vintage weekend for £7.

Steps as described in Haynes: 1. Disconnect battery earth. 2. Remove driver's side parcel shelf. 3. Unscrew and remove column-to-flexible coupling pinch bolt. 4. Remove nuts and spring washers from column forward retaining bracket. 5. Remove the forward support housing and felt liner. 6. Detach the horn, indicator and light wire connectors AND the ignition wiring plug to the steering lock. 7. Unscrew and remove the two cap screws which retain the column rear bracket. Withdraw the clamp halves and upper screwed plate. 8. Withdraw the column complete with the tie bar.

Haynes says that the steering column has to be removed first. It then suggests that it may be possible to remove the shear bolts by using a suitable small chisel and tapping them round. Then it says that if that method fails, drill into the heads and use a stud extractor.

I never had any cooling problems with my Vitesse back in 1976 which was a really hot summer. Here's a photo showing the spots as fitted. That's great aunt Florence Angelley sat in the passenger seat.

Aircraft fuel tanks are particularly prone to bacterial contamination and in order to prevent this, radioactive 'slugs' are mounted in the tanks.

Craig and I have opted to postpone for one week and so our next meeting is now at Devizes on Saturday the 18th. All other details are as first posted.

Giving due consideration to the prevailing weather and the high levels of salt that are being deposited on the roads at the moment. We are in discussions about postponing this meeting until later in the month. I will update the forum as soon as we have reached a decision. Unless advised otherwise, do not turn up on Saturday!

John is absolutely right but beware of overheating the copper. If you take it above 900 F (480 C) it can become brittle and be prone to fracturing. ( I did listen to my lecturer in metallurgy whilst at college in the 70s.)

£6 per half metre plus p&p. I bought some from a local merchants only this week (Swindon Car and Truck) for £9 per metre with zero p&p. It pays to shop around.