Morgana

I removed the PO's random assortment of metric and imperial nuts bolts and washers as it was a complete pain to remove the seat - one arm stretched all the way under the car to get to the bottom fixing, and another all the way into the car to get to the top. With the original captive nuts it's a breeze just undoing from the top. If the nut cage is distorting as you're tightening up, I'd think you'd got it cross-threaded as the friction of the nut pulling up against the underside ought to counter any rotation up to the tightness required, or you've got a damaged cage to start with. If forced to cut it off, with a hacksaw blade it oughtn't take more than a few minutes as the screws are only 5/16". The front fixings are square captives rather than the J-type. I believe I have a bag of those from when I did mine if you need some.

I don't buy from Amazon for a variety of reasons, and when a Rimmer's order arrived by one of their vans I queried it. They said they use a variety of bizarre couriers, but if I want them to send by Royal Mail just add it to the order notes. Very helpful.

Have you called the special Club number for PJ? I had a very unhelpful time with them until I tried that and got a very helpful person. More details in this thread.

This isn't period literature Colin - this is a new book written by an oil man. It enables you to pick an oil that will perform better than the handbook's specification, simply because they didn't have any better formulations at that time. For example he explains why a manufacturer specified a particular oil for his various cars (I think they go from a 1920s Rolls Royce to a 1990s Porsche via an Austin 7 etc.) and what properties they were concerned about when they specified it for a particular application. The Rolls has various lubricants with vague specifications like 'light' or 'heavy', but he is able to explain what he uses now and whether it has shear inhibitors in etc. How to choose which modern oil will perform the same job better and over a wide temperature range, and what to look for when choosing.

A shame your local chaps weren't interested. We're lucky enough to have a garage that not only advises on good tyres in the actual sizes required, but there's an old chap who knew the wheel nut torque from memory! It's so easy to get flummoxed with endless information online when everyone has an opinion, so it can be very helpful if it's possible to find a willing, caring professional as the number of tyres they see will be orders of magnitude greater than the rest of us.

You could well be right. I certainly heard about it from one forum or another, but a search didn't throw anything up here so it's probably my Google-fu to blame.

The subtitle is: "Choosing the right oils and greases for your antique, vintage, veteran, classic or collector car". From all the discussions on here the subject of how to choose oils, greases and lubricants available currently from specification sheets made decades ago is still of great interest. I recommend this comprehensive book, which explains the history of lubricants and how they came to be defined; followed by what the specifications mean and how to decide which are relevant to your application, with comparisons of US and European standards. Available to order from Smith's, Blackwell's etc. or direct from the publisher Veloce here. Here's a photographic example of the level of information contained within. No more confusion about ZDTP or GL-5!

I don't think anyone has mentioned that the measured battery voltage diminishing when the charging current is removed is not indicative of a fault. In fact, voltage is one of the less useful means of interpreting battery health as it can't be evaluated with any reliability during use. The charging voltage of approximately 14V will not be maintained once the charging impetus is removed. What you're measuring at the battery terminals is the alternator's output potential. The battery is only charging because the voltage being applied is greated than the resting voltage per cell. To use the water analogy, the alternator is creating a higher head of pressure which is letting the 'water' pour into the battery. When the sluice gates are closed, the measured reading will reduce and settle until it attains the resting potential per cell, which will be around 2.1V. If the measured battery voltage is less than about 11.9V after a period of resting, then there is certainly a battery problem and its reduced capacity from deep discharging or simply age means it's time for a new battery, since each cell (six in a 12V lead acid battery) can't maintain its charge. Somewhere between that and 12.7V will be the normal range depending on battery age, chemistry and temperature. Any leak great enough to cause issues with battery capacity and starting after short period of a day or so will certainly show up in a test light arrangement. Consider the amp-hour capacity of the battery and it would have to be a hefty draw of the order of headlamps to drain a battery below cranking capacity in that space of time. I use a little MES bulb and holder (the sort from school science experiments) as I have some on hand, with crocodile clips. With everything turned off, such that you would expect no battery discharging to happen, disconnect the earth lead, and clip or hold one bulb lead to the battery negative terminal and the other to a good body earth. If the bulb lights, there is a circuit drawing current. Applying the same bulb to each circuit in turn will reveal the culprit.

No need for exactness - if it maintains the revolutions one would expect when, say, changing up a gear then it would be a way to check fuel is being delivered in sufficient quantity rather than draining the float chamber faster than it's coming in which would indicate poor fuel delivery. Just methods to logically discount what might be causing the problem without unnecessary specialist test equipment. Have you checked for Pete's dreaded rubber slivers behind the needle float valve? Mine played up no end a few months ago and I had to whip the carburettor cover off to blow through the valve half a dozen times between Bristol and Cornwall before it cleared due to some random gunk. Is there a leak at the exhaust manifold gasket? I had a problem with 'gutlessness' I put down to a lack of enough back pressure after it improved greatly when the leak here was fixed. I ended up making my own bronze nuts as the brass ones available were not keeping tension on the studs, and the bracket to hold the exhaust to the gearbox was missing allowing vibration. As Pete says, there is very little to go wrong with the Solex and my experience has been one of incremental improvement including flattening the base where it had warped from excessive tightening of the mounting nuts, allowing air past the manifold gasket, and getting an original fuel pump to reduce the wild overpressure of fuel coming in that was overwhelming the needle valve.

The capacitor prevents arcing which is a good thing all round, not just for the reduced points erosion. It means the time taken for the charge to decrease is greatly reduced, so there is a single spark rather than a drawn-out arc which not only stresses the coil but makes timing irregular. In other words, the primary current changes much faster, meaning the magnetic field in the coil collapses more quickly, which leads to the induced secondary voltage being instantaneously higher. Result? Better sparking at the plug and no arcing so erosion, burning and pitting of the points is greatly reduced. If you think of arcing as being the same process as arc welding, you can imagine what that does to the metal's surface.

Partner's MGB has a Lumenition that broke in lockdown with an intermittent fault. Testing the system out of the car with a drill to represent the rotor revealed that the sparking plug started sparking erratically after a while, which was traced to overheating in the infrared module that monitors the pulses. The Lumenition type has two infrared elements, an LED emitter and a detector, with the rotor breaking the beam between them. Instead of shelling out for a new one, it turned out to be possible to rebuild the circuit into the same mounting bracket casting, using very 1970s matrix board and through-hole rather than surface mount components for improved heat dissipation.

Does it maintain higher revs? If you keep it at 2000 for a while does it stay there? If there is a lack of fuel then the float chamber won't be topped up as quickly as it's being used and it'll choke out after a period at higher revs. Have you got the Solex? If the hose mentioned above is pliable, take the pipe out of the carburettor and see if it squirts a good volume while turning over on the starter, and doesn't tail off after the first few revolutions. Listen for air leaks. You can spray WD40 around the junctions of the carburettor to see if there are any bubbles or a change in engine note indicating air getting past a gasket. Rule out all of that, and I would think it's time to clean out all the carburettor orifices.

I have a softback one for oily hands and left in the leaky boot; a hardback for clean hands and a genuine workshop manual for desk use only. Haynes have really shot themselves in the foot with the modern manuals printed on newspaper. The photos are almost illegible from the high contrast and bleed.

I've just replaced my Desmo Boomerang glasses with convex NOS from Oxford Minor Parts. Previously as both were flat and on the wing so non-adjustable by the driver, it was like looking down a telescope and they were entirely useless so I'd never used them.

That's the spirit, Colin! Even when something works, when I know it's a bit of a bodge I am always hankering to do it properly... Next up are the acme screws that ought to be holding on the fuel tank instead of the strange collection of roofing screws the PO left me with.