Hi List,
I'm back after an extended absence for a number of reasons, which I won't
bore you with.
But the good news is that my '78 Spitfire seems to be back in running order.
My Dad was in town on his way back up to NY last weekend and we spent the
two days working on the car.
The initial problem was that the battery had died due to sitting for too
long. A trip to Sears solved that problem.
Then we removed the distributor and reset the ignition timing. While I was
doing that, Dad was busy resetting the carbs (dual SU HS-4s) to an initial
baseline setting. One everything was all back together, we cranked it over
and it fired up on the first turn of the engine.
After playing with the timing a bit, we moved to the carbs. Balancing was
actually a fairly easy task, as they were pretty close to balanced in the
first place.
This may not sound like much, but including the trip to Sears, it took most
of Saturday. So we quit for dinner and decided that we would regroup on
Sunday and use the Colortune to tune the carbs.
Sunday morning was rainy, so we got a later start than planned. I pulled
the choke on and started it up to get it warmed up. Once warmed, we
installed the Colortune as instructed on the #1 cylinder and started it up
again. The flame was bright yellow (indicating a rich mixture), so Dad
turned the jet adjusting nut up to lean it out. He got the nut all the way
up and it didn't change the spark color. Hmmmm....
We did this for all the cylinders and realized that the #3 and 4 cylinders
seemed to have a better mixture. So we stopped and started looking into the
front carb to see what the problem might be. As it turns out, when I pulled
the choke on, it didn't go off when I pushed the knob back in. So when Dad
was turning the nut up, the jet wasn't moving. After fiddling around with
it a bit, I determined that when the choke was pulled on, the linkage
between the choke arm shaft (connecting the choke for the two carbs) and the
jet was putting sideways tension on the jet causing it to stick. I further
determined that it was because the linkage was moving in place and if we
could lube the linkage, it would be free enought to release when the choke
was pushed in. So another problem was solved.
After that, we put the Colortune back on the front two cylinders and got the
mixture set as best we could. It still seemed to be running rich, so we
turned it lean another couple of flats and decided to start driving it and
keep checking the plugs on a regular basis.
I have ABT needled in the carbs, and those may have to change. But for now,
I have other things to do to get it back on the road. I have to get it
reinspected (last inspection was May of '96) and have to replace the door
mirror mounts. The plastic blocks that the door mirrors mount over have all
broken so I'm going to try to find a machinist who can make me a couple of
blocks out of aluminum. There's also some cosmetic things to take care of -
finishing my steering wheel refurbishment, glueing the vinyl trim back in
place behind the seats, general cleaning, checking over the tires, etc. (not
necessarily in that order).
So I'm hoping to have a summer of fun driving this car again (since we've
sold the Ferrari and traded in the Miata....). It's been a long time
coming. I still owe a *HUGE* debt of gratitude to Clark Nicholls for
helping with my distributor woes, which also still need to be sorted - I
have a points-type dist on loan from Clark and need to reinstall my
electronic dist to see if it will run with that. Last time that was in the
car, the timing was drifting all over the place. If I still have that
timing problem, then I'll probably just S-can the electronic ignition and
buy myself a points-type dist and be done with it. KISS - Keep It Simple,
Stupid.
Now, about the rear spring. Yes, my car too had a sagging rear spring when
I bought it. The whole car was leaning to the left, although it was more
pronounced from the rear which may be why that other lister thought that his
LR suspension was sagging, vice the left side of the car. It cost me $115
to have the spring removed, re-arched, and reinstalled. Of course, that was
in 1985. But it was worth every penny.
And since we're on suspensions, every since I installed the Spax shocks on
the front, the nose has sat about 2" too high. I'd rather not get into
cutting springs even though I do have the tools (I'm afraid I wouldn't cut
them evenly and one side would sit higher than the other). Is there a
replacement spring that would do the trick? I seem to recall some
discussion on this list about earlier Spit springs (150 vice 180 lb.??) or
springs from some other Triumph that would do the trick. Who knows the
answer to that one?
Thanks,
George P.
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