bodders1

Why is adding a servo to the brakes an "improvement"? It doesn't make the car stop any better, just means that you don't have to press the pedal as hard.

Thinking a bit more about this, my advice above may result in the tell-tale flashing all the time - depending on how current-sensitive the new flasher is. If this happens, then you may have to resort back to an original pattern electro-mechanical flasher unit, or change the wiring so that the tell-tale is downstream of the switch (you will need to purchase 2 diodes from Maplin to do this).

I think the clue here is that andycon67 said it is an electronic indicator relay.  These do have an earth connection. As you are currently connecting it, it doesn't have a true earth connection, but is getting a sort of earth via the bulbs in one of the circuits you have connected, but only passing a very tiny current along this path so the bulbs do not light. The flasher relay as fitted to Heralds had a separate connection for the dashboard tell-tale, and no earth connection.  If you want to use your electronic flasher unit, connect both the green/brown and green/purple wires to the same output on the flasher relay, and run a new wire from the negative connection on the relay to a suitable piece of bodywork (assuming your car is negative earthed). Hope this helps bodders1

Hi Danny When you say the the timing mark "moved to the left", which way are you notionally looking at the engine (from above with your body aligned with the rocker cover, or from the front peering over the radiator)? Turning your dizzy clockwise (when viewed from above) will make the spark happen earlier in the crank rotation - advancing the ignition.  Since the engine is already set up to fire before TDC, advancing the ignition should make the timing mark (when viewed by a strobe) move away from the TDC marker.  If viewing this from the radiator side, the strobed marker should move to the left.

962 wrote:This Lucas alternator is a 60amp, could it have done something horrible to the rest of the electrics. Nope.  All this means is that the alternator is capable of delivering 60amps if required without suffering significant voltage drop and/or internal damage. In another post, you mentioned that the TR7 alternator is a reverse pattern.  Lucas were clever about that - it is the same pattern of body castings.  All you have to do is undo the two small bolts on the end and turn the front casting through 180 degrees. After everything has been allowed to cool down, does the new alternator start working again? If so, fit it to the TR7 and see if it exhibits the same problem - that will rule in/out a wiring mistake or isolate the problem to the alternator itself.

There is no + or - connection marked because the alternator is earthed (-) through its mounting bolt to the engine. There are 3 connections on the Lucas unit 2 big ones and a small one. The two big terminals are connected together internally - connect the fat brown wire to either of these terminals. The small terminal is for the dashboard warning light- and MUST be connected for the alternator to work correctly.  Connect the brown and yellow wire to this terminal.   The fat black wire on your delco unit is an earth and is not used on the Lucas setup. The thin brown wire is the battery voltage sense wire, and is not needed on the Lucas ACR setup, but you can connect to the other fat terminal on the alternator if you want.

You will need to change the propshaft for an overdrive one (they are slightly shorter). You will also need to change the rear gearbox mounting (and mounting plate) since these are a different pattern on the OD cars. Finally. you will need to get hold of an OD gearstick and wiring. Hope this helps

The internal diameter of the fuel pipe doesn't really matter, so long as it is not impeding the free flow of fuel, and doesn't leak at the joints. The only thing to make certain of is that the braided hose that you are fitting is rated for carrying fuel (BS AU 108 )

2841 wrote:If you have been using the car for a lot of short trips and you have NOT lost any water, it is probably condensation from the short trips and cooling down condensation Condensation in the oil is unlikely to produce that much emulsification on the oil. The colour of the goo in the sump is partly determined y how clean the oil was before the water got in to it.  If the oil had been freshly changed, and was clean then the emulsified goo will be milky.  If the oil was old, dirty, and black, then the emulsified goo will look like Rotoflex's coke-float. I think Greenie has already put his finger on the root-cause - fitting a 1500 (recessed bore) gasket to a 1300 engine will not seal properly even when torqued down.  Water will find its way into the oil.

Staying with the theme of what to do at controls... At the drivers meeting it was quite clearly stated that only ONE roadbook per car would be signed by the marshals.  The reason for this is quite simple - the time it takes to sign the book while other cars are forming a queue behind.  At Sugarloaf we had about half a dozen crews offering more than one book to be signed. I know it was frighteningly early on Sunday morning, and you were tired, but that is no excuse for overt rudeness from one particular co-driver to one of my fellow marshals trying to play by the rules.  You know who you are, and so do we. Having said that, it was a great event, and I look forward to the next one, either as a driver or a marshall.

LEE_GODFREY wrote:Bet they have well pruned "bushes" though........ :D (clap)(clap)(clap)

Just looked at his blog.  Bare-metal chassis and bulkhead yesterday.  RBRR starts in 7 days.  No worries then!!

Alex wrote:Today would probably be good Mark ;D (clap)   ;D

You forgot the wipers ;-) I wouldn't worry at all with those readings.  In a fully loaded condition, your alternator is still putting out enough current to charge the battery.   The nominal terminal voltage of the battery is 12v.  If it falls below this value, it is discharging.  If it rises above this value it is charging.   The absolute voltages you are measuring (13.6 vs 13.8, etcc) are not that important.  The book values assume perfect conditions with clean connections in the circuits - the wiring on even the newest Spitfire has now had at least 31 years in a less than perfect environment and push-fit connections inevitably suffer from corrosion. By the way, the job of the voltage regulator in an alternator is to stop the output voltage rising too high, which would lead to over-charging of the batttery (which, in a worst case, could cause it to boil the electrolite and potentially explode) and popping of headlamp bulbs.

As I said above,  the only voltage you need to worry about (when assessing the health of your alternator) is the terminal voltage on the battery.  If this is showing 13-14v when the lights are on, then there is nothing to worry about.  You are not running off the battery.

Hi Zendervision At first glance, I would say you have nothing to worry about. It all depends where you have your dashboard voltmeter connected - how far away is it from the battery? In all electrical circuits, the wires themselves and the joints between those wires have a small resistance.  Passing a current through a resistor will result in a voltage drop across the resistor.   In low-current applications, this resistance is too small to make any appreciable difference, BUT...   ...the voltage drop across the resistance is directly proportional to the current, and in a high-current circuit it will lead to a measurable voltage drop. Your indicators are 2 x 21W bulbs.  42W @ 12 volts will draw a current of 3.5 Amps  (Amps = Watts / Volts).  You are seeing a voltage drop of around 2 volts, so this means that the wiring behind your dashboard has an internal resistance of 0.57 Ohms (Resistance = Volts/Amps).   This is not unreasonable. The usual cause of increased resistance in vehicle wiring is corrosion in push-fit connections.  You may get some improvement by unplugging and cleaning every connector in the circuit from the battery to wherever your voltmeter is joined to the loom.  If you have a fuse-box, clean and reseat the fuses in their holders.  Or just live with it. The voltage that matters is the one measured on the + terminal of the battery, or on the large bolt on the starting solenoid where the thick brown wire from the alternator is terminated. If you want to have your dashboard voltmeter give a true reading of battery voltage at all times, you will have to rig it up with its own feed, taken directly from the battery.  If you want to make the voltmeter come on with the ignition, put a relay in the new feed line, and drive the relay from the old voltmeter feed.

As drofgum says, the radiator assembly should be soldered (or braised) together.  The glue-substance you have found sounds like an attempted [s]bodge[/s] repair be a previous owner. Coupled with the damaged fins, I think you should budget to get your radiator re-cored, or invest in a new full-width one from Canleys. Another contributory factor to overheating Spitfires are the cardboard side-valences (or, more accurately, the lack of them).  These sit either side in front of the radiator and direct air through the radiator rather than around the sides.  I've lost count of the number of Spitfires I've seen on eBay with these valences missing.

3815 wrote: IVe just taken the rad out for a clean up and aLso noticed that the fins were all bent over like a closed Venetian blind on the front side.. Would this be contributing to my hot running? Yes.   The air has to pass through the matrix in order for it to function as a heat exchanger.

339 wrote:earth from starter solenoid bolts to N/S bell housing I think you're mis-remembering.  The earth braid that goes to the bell-housing is an extension of the one that also goes from the battery to the battery box. There is no high-current earth connection to the solenoid. 5906 wrote:i have a bradid one about 16" long in the box of bits i have? Yup, that sounds like the right thing.  One end should have a large connection that fits over the battery terminal post, the other end should have a flat metal tag with a bolt hole in it which should go to one of your bell-housing bolts. There should also be another tag a few inches down from the batter connector, which should be bolted to the side of your battery box.

Hi  Twincarb. For panels, TD Fitchett are the place to go; as I understand it, they bought the original Triumph presses and tooling.  They are a bit "old school" and don't really to the interweb thingy.  They have a double page add in Practical Clasics every month. Moss and Rimmers can be good for panels if you wait until they have a sale on and then put in a big order.  

rotoflex wrote:... & you put your Cold Drink on top of the battery. Just make sure it's not in a metallic container or it may turn into a warm drink sooner than you expected ;-)

michael_charlton wrote:The alternator sounds as though it is at fault as the smaller wire coming off the alternator goes straight to the warning light and no where else except earth It would not light if it was not earthed,so sounds as though earthing OK This is definitely a knackered alternator, or a broken wire betweent he ignition light and the alternator itself. One minor clarification to Mr Rosso's comment - the ignition light doesn't have an earth connection as such.  One side of it is connected to the ignition switch, then other to the alternator.  When the alternator isn't turning, it is "earthed" through the field coil in the alternator itself.  Once the alternator is turning, the back-emf generated in the alternator causes the voltage on the "earth" side of the ignition light to rise to the same voltage as the feed side, so the light goes out. Never run a Lucas alternator for any length of time without the ignition light connected - it relies on the current through the ignion light to get the charging process started.  If it is not connected, the vltage regulator circuit can burn-out.  I killed an alternator this way.

B is for battery (e.g. supply from switch) L is for load (e.g indicators) That is a very odd looking setup.  It is using two normal indicator flasher units (which are designed to power 2 bulbs each) in tandem to flash all 4 lights at once.  BUT ...  there is no way to synchronise them so the indicators fed from one flasher unit would get out of sync with those fed from the other one.  You might just get away with it if you could use one unit to feed the rear indicators and the other to feed the front, but the indicator wiring in the car is split left/right not front/back.   I think I would avoid this setup and install a purpose-designed hazard-light flasher unit.

Richard_B wrote:I know someone who drives at night wearing sunglasses The Blues Brothers   :-)

Hi uksnatcher If the difference between the pinion diameters on the standard and hi-torque starters is only 2mm as you say, you only need to move the starter body 1mm further out from the centre of the flywheel.  Could this be done by enlarging the mounting holes in the starter with a file or a drill?