don cook1

A beer is about £4.50 on the ferry so if you get three £6 vouchers you will get a free pint.

1. Today I got rid of all the old fuel (red/brown colour!). 2. Will start her up on Weds after more than four years laying idle . 3. Refit gearbox tunnel etc and a fair bit of the dash. 4. Rebuild passenger door innards. 5. Get the indicators to work. 6. Check brakes. 7. Run in the rebuilt engine then change the oil/filter, tighten head bolts and set valve clearances. 8. Get insurance. 9. Get an MOT. 10. Get Tax 11. Get on the overnight ferry on the 8 Sep and get pissed. Getting there, car now purring, friend rebuilt the indicator stalk (wire pulled out of solder). Brake test tomorrow.

1. Today I got rid of all the old fuel (red/brown colour!). 2. Will start her up on Weds after more than four years laying idle . 3. Refit gearbox tunnel etc and a fair bit of the dash. 4. Rebuild passenger door innards. 5. Get the indicators to work. 6. Check brakes. 7. Run in the rebuilt engine then change the oil/filter, tighten head bolts and set valve clearances. 8. Get insurance. 9. Get an MOT. 10. Get Tax 11. Get on the overnight ferry on the 8 Sep and get pissed. Driving (in a surprisingly fast 1.6D Fiesta) to the South of France on the 23 Aug and back 1 Sept so precious little running in time, especially if MOT throws up problems.

Yep, that's the link that I originally used.

Handsome, does it match the rear as well as the carpets?

As someone recently stated: new faults are probably to do with what has just been done. I don't think you have much alternative but to strip the carbs down and rebuild. Get as much info as you can: manuals, Internet advice, photos etc. During the strip down/rebuild post photos here as you go. Do the work in a warm, clean, indoor area with lots of space and never assume something is working...do it by the book. An example: when I first started playing about with carbs I was certain I had the carbs balanced and the spindles sorted out, took a while before I realised you have to slacken the spindles off (from each other) to set the balance.

Found this on the web somewhere. There are photos in this article PM me your email address and I'll send the whole thing to you. Don MAZDA MIATA SEATS When I got my Spitfire, like many Spitfire seats, mine were in serious need of rebuilding. I checked prices for new foam and, after EMS left, I decided that there might be a less expensive option. Doing a search on the web, I discovered the most likely replacement candidate was from a Mazda Miata. Fortunately for me, my cousin Bob Smith from Okemos, Michigan has a Miata. This gave me an opportunity to try them out. The decision was made. These seat would go well in Li'l Brit. I checked some of the sites and discovered that there are many ways of installing them in the Spit. My main concerns were:     1) Would I sit too high and end up looking over the windscreen,
    2) Would I be able to adjust them fore and aft so as to be comfortable,
    3) Would I eventually be able to install a roll bar,
    4) Would there be room for the top to still operate,
    5) Would there be clearance for the hardtop to still fit,
    6) Would it be possible for the tonneau cover to still fit
    7) Etc., etc., etc. The answers turned out to be:     1) No     2) Sort of     3) Probably not     4) Yes     5) Yes     6) Not without some modifications. I will try to document the steps I took to install them in the Spit. READ THEM CLOSELY A COUPLE OF TIMES AND UNDERSTAND THEM THOROUGHLY BEFORE PROCEEDING. Here are the old seats out on the lawn. They were in pretty rough shape. Torn, worn, broken down foam. My search for the Miata seats took me to numerous salvage yards and took many weeks. I finally found seats from an unfortunate 1995 Mazda Miata. They were fabric, and though I had hoped to find black leather, they were in perfect shape and had the headrest speakers!                                                      
I installed the passenger seat first which gave me more room to work and experiment. The first thing to be done is to remove the seat belt receptacle and the side slide rail. Throw them away, sell them on eBay, or donate them to a Miata owner for spare parts. Next, remove the seat back. Save all the hardware for later. It is much easier to work with just the seat bottom. CAUTION must be exercised when fitting the seat bottom so as to leave clearance for the recline mechanism at the side of the seat back. More on that later.
                                                   
Remove the linkage that connects the slide mechanisms between the seat rails. This will give you 2 separate rails to work with.

The good news is that the front mount holes align with the floor mount on the passenger side. The bad news is that the right mount needs to be modified to align properly on the driver's side. More on that as we progress.

Remove the seat rails from the seat bottom (2 bolts each rail). The aft end of the rails have a mount that is riveted to the rail. Drill out the rivets and remove the aft mount.
                                                   The front mounts are angled. Some, like Dave West (see Miata seat link on "Tech Tips From Others" page), have fabricated a bracket to match this angle. The problem I saw with this is that it would set me up too high in the seat. I still wanted to see through the windshield, not over it. My solution was to place the front mount in a vice and straighten it out. When this was done, it was still strong and did not require any reinforcement.                                                                   Original angle                                                                 Straightened rail mount The front of each rail has a pin that I removed. I suppose it could be left on and a hole drilled in the floor pan, but I didn't like the idea of drilling holes in the pan. It appears to be a hardened steel pin, but a hack saw worked well. I also tried a Dremel Tool with a cut-off wheel. Either one will work well.                                As mentioned earlier, the right front mount hole of the driver's side needs to be modifed. The mount hole needs to be elongated to allow proper alignment. By placing the seat in the well and fastening the left front mount, I scribed an arc with a marker from the under the car through the mount bolt hole. I then drilled 2 holes next to the original hole to allow for the elongation.                                                            Reattach the frame rails to the seat bottoms and make sure that both rails are at the same slide position (count the slots on the side to the "lock teeth"). Reattach the slide mechanism linkage wire. Fasten the seat bottoms to the car using the original front mount holes and bolts. IMPORTANT!!! Be sure to mount the seat as close to the center of the car as possible. Also, as far back as you can. The next thing I did was to fabricate new plates for the aft mounting. I used 2" X 1/4" steel bar stock and cut pieces 3" long. Then, with the seat bottom installed, place the plate under the aft end of the rail so that it covers the mount hole. Mark position of the rail and holes on plate.                                                                    Remove the seats, drill holes in the plates and attach them to the seat rails. Be sure to remember that you are looking at the seat upside down, so be sure to attach them to the proper side. I used 1/4" X 3/4" hex head bolts and nuts. Anything longer than that would restrict the rail slide movement entirely.                                                      Refit the seats using the front mounts, making sure they are as close to the tunnel as possible. Get under the car, and with a long lead pencil or marker, mark through the aft mount holes onto the aft mount plates.                                                                                  That done, drill the aft plates slightly larger than the mount bolt.

You're in the home stretch!!                                                                                  Reattach the seat back to the bottom with the original screws. This next step will require a certain amount of gymnastic/contortionist prowess. It will become apparent why very soon! Place the seat into the well and attach the front mounts loosely. Since the seat rail mount holes are larger than the mount bolts, I used lock washers and fender washers. As the bolt snugs down, it "indents" the fender washer and makes a secure fit. Wiggle the seat to align the aft holes. Use the original seat mount bolts and lock washers. You will notice that a certain amount of "seat sliding on the rails" is necessary during the final assembly stage to allow access to the mounting bolts and holes. After making them as close to the center tunnel as possible, as far aft as you can, and checking the recline lever clearance when you close the door, torque them down to original specs (9 ft/lbs).

Clean up the mess, slide in, and enjoy. You will still have to connect the speakers to your radio, but that can come another day.                              I connected the radio so that the "Front Fade" function goes to the driver's speakers and the "Rear Fade" function goes to the passenger's speakers. Right and Left remain Right and Left of each seat.

I will GUARANTEE that you will get admiring glances from all Spitfire owners you encounter.

I have also seen them installed in an MGB. I assume the process would be similar.

A plan comes together!

I had a crank bolt loose and that sounded like a terminal failure...didn't stop me from driving on the 2007 10CR though.

Might look better if there were wheels that filled the void...but then that would make it look odd in a different way. Don't think you can beat Triumph's original design, well they did by making the Mk111.

Will Rolduc be having a bar open to the early hours?

Around 1973 (bloody hell that was 42 years ago and I'd already been married for 3 years) I had a 1600 Vitesse and the solex carb(s), I'm sure there were two of them, were knackered. I handed them over the counter at a TRiumph dealer and was given a kit comprising two Strombergs for £12.50. They were a straight fit and transformed the car. I can't remember any details about the manifold or linkages.

I copied Roy's system, although I'm not entirely convinced that the butterfly's open up all the way. More testing needed. You can use the original Stromberg parts but need to modify the complicated linkage and also the choke connecting bar, that''s a bit of a faff really. Here's a pic of Mr Barret's set up using original linkage.

Ibis, Aachen Hotel Olimpia, Cortina Ibis, Ulm.

If I remember correctly, between the "starter box" cover and body of the carb is a disc with a series of holes that line up and its this inner bit which can be fitted either way. It may be that the holes aren't doing what they are meant to. I've had SUs for quite a while so I might be off beam on this.

Hideous!

Strombergs have a weird choke arrangement (only fitted to one carb on my pairing), I took the choke gizmo off and there wasn't anything to locate it back i.e. it could go on any direction.

Carb or fuel cooling...or both. I re-routed my fuel supply lines across the dash (Huco electric pump) and it feeds the rear carb. Hopefully that will solve problems I had in the sweltering Alps. If you need cooler air to reach the carbs then perhaps bolt-on K&Ns aren't the best choice. I had, for a few years, an adapted 2000/2500 air box that had a large flexi-tube running to a cone K&N alongside the rad.

How about the choke, difficult to line up if its been taken off.

As my mother used to say to me "Don't play with it".

New carbs will cost you a lot of money. I'd persevere with your existing carbs. They must be unbalanced if they've been taken off and cleaned so you need to balance them. Slacken the throttle linkage and using the throttle stop screws, get the car to tick over and stick a gizmo ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell.....;hash=item43ae0b79ef ) in to each of the carbs and match up the readings, or you can use a tube to listen for a hiss that sounds the same for both carbs. Tighten up the linkage. Then do the same for the choke linkage. Mixture needs resetting also. I appreciate this might seem complicated but you would have to do this to new/recon cabs anyway. It might have been suggested to before but visit your local area group and explain the problem...you will be offered help I'm sure.

Thank God our wives/sweethearts don't read this or all your hard work would get us...me, in serious trouble.

"Maestros and Rovers of various types keep coming up - sub £400 with MOT. Such a car will be purchased if I am within 1 week from the start and the 2000 is proving a bit of a sod." Isn't there some ruling about Triumphs only?

I had to file a small flat so the shoulder of the stud cleared the hub, wasn't much but the stud wouldn't seat otherwise. I also drilled a biggish hole in the back-plate to pass the new stud through but be careful how you do it.

I wouldn't mess around with nuts, fit the proper ones and longer studs if needed. I had to fit 1/4" spacers to my rear wheels with Minator wheels but fitted Ford wheel studs, larger size and the splines fitted.