John Bonnett
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Posts posted by John Bonnett
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Hello to all
I need to purchase a new ignition coil which I will purchase from the club shop as I believe in supporting the shop whenever I can. Can someone explain the difference between a ballast resister ignition/coil
and a system without.
Regards Andrew
Hello Andrew,
A coil that uses a ballast resistor operates at a voltage lower than 12Volts. On starting, a second feed provides 12Volts to the coil which gives a stronger spark. Once the ignition key returns from the starting to running position, the coil feed reverts to the lower Voltage. So if you have only one wire on the +ive terminal your coil will be non-ballasted and if two, ballasted. Unless of course you have an electric tacho which is connected to both contacts. Another way of checking is by putting a meter on Ohms between the +ive and -ive contacts of the coil. It should read 1.5 for a ballasted coil.
Beat me to it Pete!
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Quite a few people along the way have questioned the wisdom of downsizing the engine from a lusty six to a puny four but do you know, it not only works well but the considerable weight saving has made the car infinitely more pleasurable to drive. The steering is light and sharp and the way the car devours a series of bends puts me in mind of my Caterham, it is that competent. One huge factor in this department is the amazing grip afforded by the Michelin XAS FF tyres. They were of course specially designed for motor racing and were the control tyre for the Formula France single seater series in the 70s. The car corners on rails and feels totally secure. Not only that, they look right on the car. I see no reason to go wider and load up steering effort when we have the XASs which deliver in every department. I remember that one of the few people to endorse the small engine route was Dave Pearson who said that he had known a few people who had done the same thing and none that he knew of regretted the downsize. I could have course fitted a Zetec and type9 box for a fraction of the cost of a modified 1500 and gained huge power, weight and reliability benefits. It has been done before and I know Clive is delighted with his Spitfire conversion. I was fortunate enough to drive a T6 Le Mans car with a 150bhp Zetec and that experience will stay with me for a long time. But I guess I am just stubborn because I want my car to be totally Triumph and not to be thought of as a Special.
So, having done close on three thousand miles in the car after one or two hiccups along the way I'm very happy with the specification which does work very nicely. In case it might be of interest to anyone else here it is;
Suspension
Fully polybushed (Blue)
Rotoflex but with CV conversion.
Gaz adjustable dampers all round with adjustable spring seats on the front.
Rear uprated rear spring having all six leaves at a quarter inch thick.
330 pound inch coil springs on the front. 9.5 inches open length.
Thin anti-roll bar 5/8?
Tyres
Michelin XAS FF 155R13
Engine
1500 specification to be announced
Gearbox
Three rail GT6 close ratio box with overdrive.
Differential
3.89:1
Weight
with half a tank of fuel
Spare wheel and tools
820kg
It is sobering to note that each wire wheel and tyre weighs 17.9kg and I have five of them! And that's not counting the weights of the spinners and spline adaptors.
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Hi john
Thanks for the info. I've got 1 mm steel in the garage so that's that problem solved . Luckily the rusty section is only single curvature so fabrication shouldn't be to onerous . I'm going to include a drain hole so that this doesn't happen again.
Cheers
Alan
Sorted then Alan. Well done!
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1mm thick Alan. You will find this quite easy to shape with a hammer and a vice. If you need double curvature a hammer and a shot bag. If you can, joggle a 1mm step all round the patch and then offer it up from underneath. On the top you will have a flush joint which will look really neat. This should also help avoid distortion.
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Hi again Back to this subject - I have now got new hinges and have manages to get the door and old hinges off (they and not the pins are knackered) Anyway just a quick question - In what order do you put the hinges back on to the doors and A post? IT seems that they are all adjustable in terms of position but once the flat philips head bolt is in place I wont be able to get at it again easily. Please can you advise on best way to put back and to align the dorr
Thx
Aidan
I'll dive in Aidan and may be corrected. But this is what I have done. Fit the hinges to the door first. You will note that two of the bolts are accessible with the door shut and the centre one which is countersunk isn't. You can fit the countersunk one later or just leave it loose for the time being. With the hinges fitted to the door offer the door up and start the screws into the A post. You should be able to latch the door at this point to locate temporarily. It may drop when you open it so adjust to suit. When you are happy with the shut, tighten the screws. If you then slacken the four exposed bolts two on each hinge which secure the hinges to the door you should be able to adjust the door in the vertical sense ie you can move the bottom in or out as required. Once done tighten and then when the door is fully open you should be able to fasten the two countersunk screws. This is not a five minute job and takes a bit of fiddling around to get the best shut lines and latching.
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Lining up for the start of the Coupe Florio speed hill climb
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PS I don't think it works for small files. ie 75kb. I think re-sizing only works downwards and not upwards.
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The result of the rolling road session was hugely disappointing but not unexpected. The engine produced 68.50bhp at the wheels at 5000rpm. After that power fell to 61bhp at 5500rpm. But we now have a benchmark for comparison when the engine is rebuilt with a decent cam and a pair of new Webers.
But on the positive side equalling my friend's time in his 160bhp Lotus Cortina and beating the likes of an E Type, Mini Marcos, TVR etc with a fraction of the power speaks volumes for the way the car handles and goes round corners. Pure Chapman!
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For the record, as the old site has been lost, here are my cars. The first two, Old Blue and Silverback, have gone to the Great Garage in the Sky, and now I have Son of Silverback, or SofS. Currently engineless - blew two last year, and then ruined a block in the build - and there has been a great deal going on in my other life this year, but should be out next at the latest.
John
PS How do you post a full-sized picture? The above has come out as a thumbnail, only revealed in all its glory when you click on it. J.
This works for me John,
In the top right corner click the arrow against your name. This opens a drop down menu. Click on Gallery and then Upload. This invites you to create a new gallery or open an exiting one. Once done click on Upload and then choose file. This enables you to browse for the picture you want. Then select and Open. Then click Upload. Then click Review & Publish., then finish & Publish. So the photo is in your album now. Double click the image to open it. And then Right click and select Medium.Right click again and Copy image URL. In the low
er line of the toolbar just to the left and below the smiley face is a rectangle with a green infill. Click on it and right click in the box and then click Paste. Your picture should then be embedded in the post. Sounds a bit longwinded but quicker to do than explain. -
Tomorrow, the car is booked for a short rolling road session just to establish maximum power. This will give a bench mark for comparison once the engine is stripped and built properly. At that stage a pair of new DCOE40s will be fitted. I'm really interested to find out exactly what it is knocking but my guess is that it is not much more than 70bhp at the wheels. I'll report back.
Now as far as painting or not to paint it looks like I'm about to execute a U turn on this. I am being seriously swayed by popular opinion to leave it in its raw state. I've still not quite decided but am well on the way. One quite significant factor is having it painted and finished to such a standard that I would be frightened to use the car and leave it in a car park. As it is, there is no paint to scratch and is eminently usable. I don't want to lose that.
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The poor trader has to scrape a living somehow
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This is the video of our final climb. Having re-run it, I'm actually very pleased and doubt I could have done much better. I hope you enjoy it.
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I'm still waiting for the video to upload. It is taking forever as a result of our pathetically slow ADSL upload speed.
In the meantime, I have started a new photo album of the Event for anyone who might be interested.
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We competed in the Coupe Florio speed hill climb on Sunday and what a superb climb it is marred only by me catching a dose of food poisoning which prevented me from driving the last timed run. The car exceeded my wildest dreams in the way it handled and the amount of grip from the XASs. I've no idea what the safe rev limit is for a 1500 engine but I saw five six in fourth (90mph) before anchoring up for the first right hander which was actually the first exit at the roundabout. The hill itself, all 1.7 miles was quite bumpy and tighter than it appeared on the videos. It was a huge amount of fun and gave a terrific adrenalin rush. Having re-run my videos I can see how I could have been quite a bit quicker; too early on the brakes and not fully trusting the car where there was no room for getting it wrong. This was the first time I'd put the car under any sort of pressure.To be quick in a low powered car it is particularly important to carry the momentum through the corner and there were instances where I was not brave enough to carry it off. But we did not disgrace ourself and were really pleased that we had been invited to compete in the event.
The car itself created a terrific amount of interest and throughout the day whilst parked in the paddock there were groups of people looking at it and paying very complimentary remarks. So all very encouraging.
I will try to put one of the climbs on YouTube when we get home. In the meantime a couple of pictures showing the four cars in our little group and my car in the paddock.
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Hello John
That looks like a proper lathe as well.
Built in the days when we made proper things to last( I think mine will see me out?)
When I think of all the things I have made and modified on my lathe.
Roger
Indeed Roger, I really couldn't do without one now. Same with the mill/drill. I don't do that much milling any more but the x/y table is fantastic for drilling holes in just the right positions.
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Nice bit of kit Roger. I have a Churchill Cub which has been absolutely marvellous and from the same era. Mine was twenty five quid but in pieces. At the first attempt to assemble the gearbox I managed to get about fourteen neutrals and one gear. But I got there in the end. This picture isn't mine but very much like it and has I feel more than
a passing resemblance to yours. -
Is that a Churchill lather Roger?
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Tried to do a couple of jobs on my MK1 Vitesse today as it is raining.
Change steering column bushes, MOT advisory, bush so tight steering column pushes out inner plastic bush.
Rear inner drive shaft grease seal forced out of trunnion when greasing bearing after rebuild, not in the wrong way. Had a spare which works fine, only difference I can see is that the good one has makers stamps the bad one is unmarked.
These parts came from different but major Triumph part suppliers and I have spoken to both of them. The one who supplied the column bushes suggested I buy their heavy duty ones at about five times the price.
I now have a Vitesse I can not drive until I can get some bushes which are correct.
Regards
Paul
Paul I can really sympathise with your situation. I and I'm sure countless others have and are continuing to suffer in the same way. Why are so many replacement parts absolute rubbish and in many cases just not fit for purpose.
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a few weeks back and had to do a tip-run to remove a mattress, multiple boxes and an old TV that has been placed on or around her by the ex-wife LOL... so at least she is ready to go...
:-)
Ahem, the ex-wife or the car?
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Dan, great to have you back and best of luck with your project. I can understand your excitement and enthusiasm and I'm sure you can't wait to get started.
I've no idea in what the state of the bodywork is but that's where I would channel my efforts initially leaving the straightforward mechanical work until last. Bodywork can be a huge drain on enthusiasm and resources so better get that out of the way first. Then you can relax knowing that whatever the mechanical problems they can be easily and relatively cheaply resolved.
How many stalled projects do we see for sale where large sums have been expended on the mechanicals and for whatever reason the bodywork has been a step too far.
But if all you have to do is to fit the new bonnet then happy days. Please do share your work with us and post some pictures.
John
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Ten days since my last post and I've been working on the inner wings every day. Getting the shape right and producing an interface for mounting has been a real challenge. The whole job has turned out to be a lot more difficult than I imagined. It's not just a question of making something that will protect the bonnet from flying stones but also to look reasonable and in keeping with the rest of the car. The left hand one is finished but some way to go for the one on the other side.
One thing I have managed to achieve is to bring the aluminium down sufficiently to protect the sill end from grit straight off the tyre. I did something similar on my GT6 and it worked very well.
A couple of pictures follow
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Another (Positive) Update - Just drove home, no problems to report.
Good result Henry, and all done so quickly. I really must up my work rate; you make me feel quite inadequate
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Hello John
I have ordered this one as the bracing at the bottom looked better.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171395329773?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Roger
ps should save the old back and knees and I can always sell it on for half price if not needed again
I'm sure that'll do the business Roger.
Keep us posted on you engine build. Will it be standard or are you going for upgrades?
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Hi Roger, from memory I think the Spitfire engine weighs about 120kg so now worries with any of those. Amazing value. I couldn't buy the materials for twenty nine pounds let alone make one for the money.
regards
John
Ballest resistor ignition
in Electrical System
Posted
Why not replace the resistor wire with a normal cable and fit a 12Volt coil? This opens the way to electronic ignition and all the benefits. Just a thought.