MadaboutKitcars

looking good and coming along nicely.

Especially for Mr Towed to drool over:

Spotted at the Classic car show NEC:

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that's really pretty

And what a glorious colour.

Agreed, it does make a change from red or yellow!

what colour is that ? - it looks too dark to be normal silver

I'm not sure, but I once saw a Cobra in a similar colour
and it was described as "gun-metal grey"

Looks like 106-M-73 Marrone Dino Metallizzato ...

Hmm yeah looks close

Wednesday

Way back last year while I was still building my car, the starter motor jammed up, and took it off, and found the bendix was really mucky and worn.

I cleaned it up and put it back on, so I could start the car and drive it back into the build tent as it was raining at the time, which was a bit of a pain.

I could see it was on its last legs, so I bought a new motor, but never got round to fitting it, as the cleaned-up one worked perfectly for over a year after that.

However, it jammed up again recently so I reckoned it was fitting time for the new one.

This job was made a bit easier for me as a friend had been chucking out a perfectly good carpet, which I claimed and put under the car in its build-tent- now-garage.

It’s never much fun upside down under a car, but it’s more fun on a carpet than on cold dusty concrete!

Having removed the faulty motor, I was a bit surprised at the amount of wear on the Bendix gear compared to the new one. It really was badly worn and a wonder that it ever started the engine in that state at all.

Anyway, the job is done now and here is a picture of the two motors together:

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How is the ring gear on the flywheel? Has it suffered?

That looks untouched Ox, I suppose they make the bendix gear from softer steel on purpose!

It doesn't look as if it's been engaging fully. Maybe that collar on the shaft is a little too long. The collar on the new one looks shorter.

Scottie - Well you can't really blame that old starter motor for giving up.

I am sure the carpet makes a big difference, my bit of pink yoga mat certainly does.

Cheers, Paul.

It is more likely that the starter pinion is a low grade aftermarket part.

I measured them Ian, thinking along the same lines as you, but they were identical. Bit of an optical illusion.
I guess Landmannn was probably correct, that old started motor was a crappy cheap part!
It came with the donar car, and had obviously been on it a very long time, but apart from a couple of hiccups, worked perfectly every time.

On Ford crossflows, there is a tin plate, about 1.5mm thick between the engine and gearbox. Leaving that out would have the same effect on the pinion throw relative to the ring gear.

One for Scottie

It's amazing what you find parked outside our local pub as you exit on a Friday evening....

Bloody hell!

What can I say?

Looks like that well built yellow one which a friend of yours built Chris?

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And one of yours Chris: (The yellow one from the showroom)

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Insurance Renewal

The nice people at Adrian Flux just sent my renewal advice: £122 comp.

Bargain.

Regards, Mick

Scottie - you going to be at Stoneleigh in your beast?

It largely depends on the weather J, having no roof yet, I would not want the leather seats to get all soggy and wet.
The forecast does not look so good, but we will see.

I will probably go, but it may not be in the beast!

I have done a fair amount of work on the car recently, and have been writing some of it down, and taking some pics, but not posting.

So here is what I have done:



After a third minor burn-out under the dash late last year, several things stopped working, namely the rev counter, the heater, the brake lights, then eventually it became quite difficult to start the engine.
Enough was enough, the dash had to come out, not an easy or quick job, but it’s out now.

1. The heater:
I have wired the heater motor directly through a fuse
to a switch at the lower edge under the dash.
When operated, the heater is on full, or simply switched off.
I have left the hidden rheostat (disconnected) in place, as by operating the lever, I can direct the hot air, either to de-mist the screen or heat the car from the foot-wells, which could be useful.

2.The brake lights:
I was not even interested in why they did not work, I simply cut the two wires which came from the (new) brake switch on the brake pedal, connected a new feed to one wire, found the brake line on the passengers side, cut that, and re-wired it to the other side of the brake switch, job done, so they all work now.

3. Non- starting problem:
Having fitted a new starter motor, (which it needed anyway)
I fitted a new starter solenoid, which made no difference, but as the donar car was 45 years old, I thought it would be a good idea to do it anyway, but it turned out that the solenoid earth was to blame, so re-earthed, it starts now better than it ever has, so that was a good result.

4. The rev counter/Tacho:
Having done all the above, at the end of the day I was fed up with wires and connectors, so I have not yet done this job! Another day
I think.


Another day:

Finally sorted out the tacho, it just needed a minor re-wire.

Since I wrote the above, I have sorted the tacho, eventually put the (complicated) dash back in, only to find that the indicators don’t work, neither does the hazard warning system! Oh dear, Poosticks,
Dash back out for investigation.

I saw that a 6 inch chunk indicator wiring had burnt out, ( the fuse had gone too) Believe it or not, I was pleased to see this, as up until now, I had not found what had actually caused the smoke last year, on the burn-out.

The indicator circuit had continued to work with all the insulation melted off the wires in one area, but with the disturbance of dash in and out, it had snapped the fragile wire.

I rewired the messy bits and replaced the fuse and it is all good again.

When I came to refit the choke cable back to the carbs, I realised I had somehow lost the small connector thing that anchors the choke
Cable to the carb lever.

I have cobbled up a quick fix, which does not work too well at all,
So would be very grateful if any one has a spare Spitfire choke
Fixing thingy to anchor the cable end.

During this marathon electrical sort out, I also replaced the alternator.

One other niggly thing I wanted to do was the water temperature gauge. Since I finished the build, it has always read far too high,
At 110 degrees, which is at the 4 o’clock position, and the difference between that and overheating is so minimal as to be overlooked.
I wanted the gauge to read in the 6 o’clock position, like it usually is on Triumphs. ( At least the ones I can remember)

Although it reads 110, I know that the actual temperature is far lower as I have a very accurate dial which controls when the fan kicks in.

Without getting to technical, to re-calibrate the gauge was quite easy in the end, and may interest other people with a similar problem.

The temperature gauge is actually an amp-meter which measures current, but shows it as water temperature.

It works by the sender in the engine block heating up and the
Bi-metal strip dropping the resistance allowing more current to flow through the gauge, the bi-metal strip in the gauge heats up and deflects the needle showing the temp.

I put two 50 ohm variable resistors in series, between the temp sensor and the gauge, (see pic) then ran the engine up to running temperature,

Sure enough it went up to 110 degrees, but by adjusting the resistors (with a small screwdriver) I was able to tweak the temp gauge needle down to the 6 o’clock position.


Therefore any subsequent temperature increase would immediately catch the eye as the needle would drift off to the right and be seen.

With the two resistors in series, the resistance is adjustable from zero to 100 ohms, which gave me enough leeway to get it right.

The resistors came from Maplins and cost 60p each, and are only the size of an asprin, so this was a really cheap easy fix in the end.

I have fixed them to the breather hose to make it easy for adjustment.

Once again, if anyone has that small gismo thing that anchors the choke cable to the carbs, please get in touch!

Some pics:

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So Scottie should be back on the road, but with all the
rain/hail/sleet/snow/ thunder/ lightning etc that we've just had here in Hereford, I've not been able to drive it yet!

She's looking good Scottie I know where to come if my dash wiring plays up, I'm Shure you can make it to Stoneleigh?