MarkB
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Everything posted by MarkB
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Thanks for the heads up on this. I got to the store at 8 am and was surprised to see a cue. Myself and two others fellows bought three of the four on display, the forth was wheeled out as I was loading up. Iam sure they must have more out the back, but I was surprised how quickly they went. Fitted it together today but have yet to try it. Looks to be well built and comes with a three year guarantee, so they must have some faith in the product. Time will tell. Mark
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Hi I bought one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIU.....?hash=item567cbcc661a couple of years ago as the main problem is getting a good fitting spanner before it starts to round off. In your position I would use a mole grip /vice grip quality tool not a cheapo type and get it locked on flat tight and square. Alternatively a quality pair of stilsons. Mark
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Hi I had never heard of DIY wet blasting before and have struggled in the past with basting wheels in my sand blast cabinet. Doable with my 3hp 14 cf. compressor but took 1 1/2 hours per wheel with about a 5mm jet, noisy and dusty. I was about to buy a petrol pressure washer as Machine Mart has one of their VAT free days coming up but was trying to justify it to myself as I have an electric one but is hassle running power and hose pipes out to the car. This has given me the excuse I need. Possible to do a complete shell as well looking at the YouTube vids. Looks like you need 3000psi + though to be effective. Mark
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Hi My Gearbox has the shorter OD adapter plate as used on the early Dolly box with modified internals, and would have fitted my Vitesse with the standard 43.5" OD propshaft. I complicated things as I moved the engine back, mounting it inside the turrets and then further back still which required the modified prop shaft. My gearbox has the fine spline input shaft and I use the dolomite clutch. Mark
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Hi Nick I extended the mount on the engine, so that it is mirror image with elongated holes. There is adjustment forward and backwards if needed on both the engine an gearbox mounts. The sliding spline on the new prop shaft extends 2" as apposed the the original's approximate inch. The fitted length is set in the middle so there is an inch adjustment either way. Mark
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Hi all Moved the Engine as far back as possible without chopping the bulk head. Miss is as good as a mile 🙂 I made up a new O/D mount and had a short prop shaft made up to accommodate the new position and at the same time went for a smaller diameter tubing, so there is now plenty of clearance from the underside of the tunnel. Everything is bolted up and fits well. Going to have to modify the heater to squeeze it onto the bulkhead. Mark
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Hi All Been working on the car trying to get the prop shaft to clear the tunnel. The problem is a combination of the engine being moved back inside the turrets and the modified Vitesse Overdrive gearbox. Initially the OD gearbox mount was extended by an inch to accommodate the new engine position and a 4mm spacer added so that the OD would clear the mounting plate. After the prop shaft hit the tunnel I removed the 4mm spacer and moved the engine back a fart more, so that the gearbox now clears the plate. Unfortunately the prop shaft still just touches the tunnel. As the engine is moved further back the angle of the prop shaft is more acute. This is a project and I enjoy making modifications and now that I have started would like to get the engine as far back as possible to get better weight distribution, but without mods to the bulk head. The engine is about 2" from the bulkhead at the moment and I can only think of the carbs or fuel injection being the limiting factor. I have made enquires to get a new prop shaft made up in a smaller diameter tubing, all i need to do is give them a measurement between gearbox and diff. At the moment I am thinking of moving it back another inch with a spacer between the engine mount and turret. The angle drive is going to be redundant with out major chassis mods at this rate so I will go with an electronic type. Am I mad or do you think this is worthwhile modification. Thanks Mark
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Hi all several problems to resolve I moved the engine back about 8mm by mounting inside the uprights, put a 4 mm spacer under the now exstended gearbox mount and everything was looking good. Found a prop shaft measured the gap between the gearbox and diff and looked like it would fit. Tried fitting today and it does fit but the splined end that extends is already extending 3/4" leaving about 1/4" before it is at full stretch. Not sure how much free movement is needed and if it varies when the suspension is lowered more or the car is loaded. Also the prop shaft as Nick mentioned about his car, is hitting the underside of the tunnel, so that I can't mate it to the gearbox. I can't lower the gearbox more than a couple of mm as the angle drive will hit the chassis. I could lose the angle drive and get electronic dials made up. Another option would be to get a thinner prop shaft made up at the same time get the correct length. I am thinking of moving the engine a little further back, that would move more of the front end weight a little further back ,which I like, and resolve the prop length problem, then lower the gearbox and take a slice out of the chassis flange to accommodate the angle drive. Not happy about trimming the chassis though. Whats your thoughts? Mark
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Hi Got everything back together. I removed the leaf spring as I decided to remove the 1' spacer block from the diff. Removing the leaf spring made no difference in releasing the tension to get the hubs back on. The tension was caused by the roto flex couplings and it was a matter of carefully pulling the shaft through using an old hub nut with no washer, then adding a thin washer and pulling it through until I could get the original washer with a few threads through. Just be careful if you end up doing this as It would be easy to strip the threads. Mark
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Hi all It's been a long time since I last did this in situ, but I pulled the hubs on my GT6 Mk2 to replace the studs with M12's which I previously did on my Vitesse, but that was on the bench. The hubs were under load when I removed the hub nut and now when I slide them back onto the driveshaft spline there are not enough threads to get a nut started. I think I need to remove the leaf spring from the carriers to release the load to get the hub nut started. Is this the case or is the force being created by the rubber doughnut? Any advice appreciated. Thanks Mark
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Hi all I pulled my GT6 Rotoflex rear hubs today to upgrade to M12 wheel studs. I made up this puller from a Spit front hub years ago when the proper Churchill tool was not readily available. Probably not as good as the proper tool, but hasn't failed yet on a Spitfire GT6 and Vitesse. Mark
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I had a Mohair hood on a 1500 spitfire. The material was to thick and strong to get taught on the spitfire frame. I also found it weathered badly fading to a greyish black. I have seen one fitted to a Vitesse and when the chap put the hood up and closed the front latchees you could see the front screen surround/tub flex backwards, personaly I think they are to heavy for the frame. Mark
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Hi all I have just fitted a new flatter leaf spring along with the coil over set up. I made up some different chassis extension brackets so that the shock and spring are vertical and not leaning left to right due to the offset of the mounting points. I have added another mounting point between the tunnel and the top of the chassis extension to hopefully reduce any stresses on the chassis turret. The coil overs are 150 lb each not sure what the rate of the leaf spring is. Its made of three leaves, each 8mm thick and is 1.5" high measured from the centre. On full droop the driveshafts just start to touch the chassis as the shocks are fully extended so they are not being pulled apart by the force of the spring. I really don't know if this is going to be a better than the original set up but ,something I always wanted to try since seeing it on a race Vitesse years ago. I know there are going to be different forces exerted on the vertical link due to the load being off centre but hope the leaf spring and wishbone will help manage this. Whats your thoughts? Thanks Mark
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Hi All I have a modified Vitesse gearbox fitted with a J type OD. It has the two studs for the standard Overdrive mount as used on the 1500 Spitfire. I fitted the engine and gearbox as one unit and have a few clearance issues. One thing that could be causing problems is the reproduction engine mounts as the originals were spinning their studs. The sumps is very close to the crossmember and I think is catching the rack mount. The underside of the OD seems to be sitting on the mounting plate so the gearbox mount on the rear doesn't appear to be high enough. The car was not originally fitted with OD so it looks as if I will have to trim the tunnel cover to get to the prop nuts. I knew the tunnels are cut differently on the spits and GT6 on the OD models but thought all vitesse's were the same. Any thoughts? Thanks Mark
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Hi all Is there any reason the chassis extensions that are sold kick up at he ends? Presumably its to allow enough travel for the standard shocks. I am thinking of making some straight ones level with the top of the chassis mounting point, as I am using particulary short shocks in conjunction with short springs and a single leaf. Another concern is will the chassis be overstressed where the extension bolts on if using coil overs? any thoughts? Thanks Mark
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I have been sanding the keeper plate in the centre section where there is already sign of wear. Very hard metal but slowly starting to get the cam turning with the bolts torqued up. No end float yet so I'll keep going. Can't think of another away round this, but hopefully this will work. Mark
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I have been sanding the keeper plate in the centre section where there is already sign of wear. Very hard metal but slowly starting to get the cam turning with the bolts torqued up. No end float yet so I'll keep going. Can't think of another away round this, but hopefully this will work. Mark
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Hi Nick Yes I am fitting springs to the shocks as well as using a flatter leaf spring. The bolts may be OK once bolted with the spacers. I'll use them for now to set everything up. Mark
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Hi Thanks for the replies. I have the Spacers to take up any side ways movement yet to be tried and fitted. These are new shocks and unfitted so no wear to the poly bushes. The reason I fitted spherical bearings was the angle of the shock top to bottom from the chassis extension to the bottom of the rear hub where the lever arm would have originally attached. There was definite lean from left to right because of the position the pick-up points. The bearing will compensate for this, thats the theory. As soon as you start modifying anything it usually creates other problems down the line and this is what I am finding. I may end up making my own chassis extensions but then I would have to modify the spring tunnel to give me a bit more room which at the moment I m trying to avoid. I will get the bolts turned down at some point. Thanks Mark
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Hi Nick Yes that is exactly what is happening. I think I will tightening it enough to get the correct end float using some loctite as well as the spring washers. Its only when its torqued to about 20lbs it locks the cam. A little less and its OK. I could possibly take the front plate off and tap it and use a small bolt/machine screw to pin the centre of the keeper in place and then tighten the bolts. I'll have to see how it goes. Thanks Mark
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Hi Nick Yes that is exactly what is happening. I think I will tightening it enough to get the correct end float using some loctite as well as the spring washers. Its only when its torqued to about 20lbs it locks the cam. A little less and its OK. I could possibly take the front plate off and tap it and use a small bolt/machine screw to pin the centre of the keeper in place and then tighten the bolts. I'll have to see how it goes. Thanks Mark
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Hi all I have replaced the front engine plate with the aluminium version along with a new gasket. Now when I tighten up the cam keeper it locks the cam tight. I was warned this could happen but can't find the thread. I know I will have to use shims to correct this. How do you go about it. Will I need to make up shims the same shape as the keeper or will washers be OK. Thanks Mark
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Hi all I have replaced the front engine plate with the aluminium version along with a new gasket. Now when I tighten up the cam keeper it locks the cam tight. I was warned this could happen but can't find the thread. I know I will have to use shims to correct this. How do you go about it. Will I need to make up shims the same shape as the keeper or will washers be OK. Thanks Mark
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On the Spits Vitesse's Gt6's I had over the years there is usually a bracket that bolts onto the lower bolt of the bell housing and engine back plate. Usually a twisted strip of metal with a hole at the end that can be fixed to the thread of an exhaust clamp. Easy to make up. Mark
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Hi all I have bought some Avo shocks for the rear of my Vitesse and replaced the polyurethane bushes with 1/2" spherical bearings. The original top bolt is I think 5/8". i have purchased some 1/2 shouldered bolts that I will need to cut down. My concern is there is a little play between the inside of the bearing and bolt, not a lot ,but enough to feel. Do you think this will be a problem and likely to create more wear. the alternative is to get the originals turned down on a lathe to be a tight fit. The bottom mount /long bolt for the shock is a better fit in the spherical joint. What are your thoughts. I wish I had a lathe and knew how to use it. thanks Mark