Nick Jones

I’m no expert on dog breeds…. But I’m fairly sure that’s a cat…… Nick

A further issue with the Solex carbs used on the 948 & 1200 is that when switched off after a long run, heat soak to the carb causes the fuel in the float chamber to warm up, expand and overflow through the main jet into the manifold. Obviously the hotter the conditions the worse the problem, but if the float level is a bit high it makes matters worse too. The effect of this is to make a hot restart after 10 - 30 minutes (say) effectively a flooded start. Holding the throttle open while cranking helps with this and you’ll get a puff of black smoke and a fuelly whiff (probably). Triumph actually provided a manifold drain orifice with drain tube in the manifold to prevent/minimise flooding. These are often blocked. Of course, for longer periods of standing, vaporisation/evaporative loss as Rob described above comes into play. Modern ethanol-containing fuel is more prone to this than the brew in use in the 60s.

Yeah…. Pretty crazy price. But the rusty UK car will eat way more than the 4k price difference in panels and labour unless you are going to do it all yourself. Both well overpriced for what they are.

Does it have registration paperwork? If so, £1200 is something like 1/3 to 1/4 of it’s likely value, even in bits. It would break to more than that. For example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255455430484?hash=item3b7a548754:g:sTsAAOSwyU9iPqIr asking £3600 for this sad object. Would have thought you could find a German buyer? Nick

Sounds like your main problem is fuel vaporisation. The rough running straight after hot start is the fuel boiling in the carb and loss of power on the move that can be relieved with the choke is probably a combination of that and the fuel pump loosing efficiency because vaporisation is occurring in its inlet valve. The latter has the potential to bring you to a complete halt. Pouring cool water over the pump is the quickest fix for that. As already suggested, a full service, including coolant flush, timing check and renewal of any fuel filters (highly recommended if none fitted) should help. Modern fuel does have a higher vapour pressure though so you may need to go to an electric pump and re-routing fuel lines to completely eliminate it. Eeven then the carb vaporising may persist. Can't remember whether the Herald 948 & 1200s had (or were supposed to have) insulating spacers between carb and manifold? That might help a bit. Nick

International huh…. Three whole nations on it…. 🤔 I’ve transited Lichtenstein several times without it without incident…. Or is this another brexit “dividend”?

Extensive discussion of the subject here. https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/9456-overdrive-in-2nd-gear-and-logic-switching-moved-from-miss-fire-over-4000-rpm/ Even a pic of the mods needed on a Spit 1500 box for the extra inhibitor switch.

The issue I found with the early, rebuildable pumps is that one of the faces is on the housing material itself. The finish is absolutely critical for leak free operation and decent service life. Just putting fresh seal in (1/2seal really) often isn’t enough. Ironically, the non- rebuildable pumps (which need a decent press and related tooling to get apart) have a proper two part seal with both faces replaceable. I think the company mentioned above modifies the early pumps to take those seals or something very like them.

Possibly I made the brackets from strips of 3mm steel. I do remember that there was a bit of a development process spread out over a number of years, but I’ve forgotten the details I’m afraid. Nick

Well absolutely. Me too. Though it was never revealed whether that is 0 psi at idle or 0 psi everywhere. If the latter, I’m not sure I’d be wasting more oil on it without making some checks on gauge accuracy. Yeah, except that is sort of ruled out by it having oil pressure when cold…. I suppose the valve may not be seating properly. It’s in the pump body which is external so reasonably easy to check.

probably you on another device….?

Pics from my son's MkIV running EFI and wasted spark ignition via Speeduino ECU Trigger wheel Sensor Absence of distributor and coil pack hiding on the bulkhead. Coil pack is VAG one with built in ignitors. Avoid the cheap ones...... The squirty side.

Sounds happy to me….. Maybe can even manage above 20mpg? Should be possible to get on the forum from a phone. I’m using mine to post this…. Nick

0psi at idle, or everywhere? What are the actual numbers when cold and what oil is in it? Mechanical gauge or electrical? Assuming it’s not a measurement issue it sounds like excessive clearances either within the oil pump or crank to bearing shells, especially main bearings. The oil thins down when hot and slips through the gaps easier, dropping the pressure. Nick

On a modern injected engine that looks about right. For an older carby engine, probably a bit lean, though if it drives ok and doesn’t run hot I’d probably leave it alone. Nick

Pic (drivers side)

I have similar on my Vitesse. When bolted direct to the factory mounting spot on the wheel tub, these did have problems with the hood frame resting on the when folded, so I used a couple of extension strips (which may even have come with the belts, it was a looong time ago now) to lower them down a bit (Maybe 40 - 50mm). The strips also allowed me to bend them a little to improve the angle of the belt run.

Wasted spark coil pack with built-in coil driver is the way to go IMO. I binned the Vitesse distributor in 2005…..

On the original version of Vitesse EFI, where the bottom end of the engine was still factory, I set the initial timing table up using the numbers from the original distributor "Map". I did mess about with the part throttle settings very considerably, especially at lower rpms, and it was surprising how much timing could be put in without bad things happening. In fact, in some areas I took timing out purely to make the driving experience smoother (too much torque response to small throttle movements!). This was the equivalent of messing about with the vacuum advance. I never messed with the "top line" though. That is, the full throttle line, or in mechanical distributor terms, mechanical advance only. I did eventually go to a rolling road, where, amongst other things, we checking the full throttle timing numbers and found that they were still good. The most fun part was setting up the part throttle advance in the cruising areas. Set the RR to hold rpm, tap the timing numbers up until the torque peaks and starts to go back down, then back off to just short of the peak. Did this on my PI as well. Both cars were very fuel efficient. I have somewhat messed this up with the new ITB setup - goes just as well, even a bit better in places (much more tractable low down), but some economy has been lost. Time to visit the RR again.

There are some listed here, http://www.teglerizer.com/mgstuff/advance_curves.htm but maybe not yours. Suggest googling the specific distributor number. The curve won’t necessarily be right for modern fuels anyway. There is considerable benefit to be had from a decent 3D ignition system WRT to torque spread, driveability and economy.

Your old side-valve mower will run reasonably well on a blend (and presumably with just £26 spent in these testing times, it’s a fairly petrol-heavy blend). Might need a whiff of carb-cleaner to get away from cold and might small bit funny, but it will work. Nick

Uh huh…..🙄

Diesel does that…… If it says v-max on your receipt but you have diesel present - go after them!

Indeed….. There are more bondo artists about than skilled metalworkers and even in the pics there are signs…. Happy to be proved wrong as always 🙂

Hmmm, take a magnet……