bxbodger
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Everything posted by bxbodger
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An easier way to think of it is the same as tightening/ loosening a nut- you 'tighten' to weaken the mixture, 'loosen' to enrich....so looking from above, to weaken you wind up, to enrich you wind down. When the book says clockwise/anticlockwise, it's written as if you are lying underneath looking at the adjuster........if any of that makes sense!
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That braided thing with adaptors and washers looks like a right lash up! Your best option for getting something that actually works without leaking, having to anneal washers, etc? Throw that thing in the bin and take the original pipe with its unions down to any half-sensible spares shop, they'll make you another with the correct unions for under a tenner, it'll take them no time at all......fit and forget!
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If you use your car fairly regularly and your charging system and battery are in good condition, there's no need to use one of these things at all. I still have a dynamo, I also have a battery isolator, I've not needed to put a charger on the battery at all. Use the car, it'll thank you for it!
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The engine is turning over, so the battery is probably OK despite what the gauge says, so two basic checks to start with which only require an eyeball- have you got a spark? Take a plug out, rest it on the engine and leave it connected to its lead, turn the engine over and watch for a spark. Is fuel getting through? Remove the pipe from the carb side of the fuel pump, put the end in a jar, and get a handy helper to turn the engine over, does fuel spurt out? They're the two basic initial tests if the engines turning over at least, so do those and take it from there.
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Could they be GB? I've had a set of GB's in the past, not like those but with the same coach lining around the rim.
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If you're having legroom problems your wheel is probably set too close to the dash for you, try moving the wheel out a bit.....the steering column has a good few inches of fore-aft adjustment, and moving it out makes a huge difference. I'm 6'2" and my Vitesse came with a 13" wheel tight up against the dash which made it extraordinarily awkward to get in and out of....., a bit of spanner time on the column bracket under the dash and what the manual calls the impact clamp, moved the wheel a few inches out, and there's easily loads of room 8)
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Common sense says you need some sort of back-up, I also put a stack of two or three wheels underneath - i wouldn't go under anything just on axle stands, either two or four! I do wonder at times about the possibility of metal fatigue in these things, my ramps are about 35 years old now, I have three sets of axle stands, two sets are of a similar age, and one set is newish, but described as 'folding'.....
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These hood frames are fiendishly complex and can become somewhat distorted after years of use/abuse....mine was, it still is to an extent, but when you say the car was restored and converted, is it an ex saloon rear tub that's been modified, or is it a factory convertible? Or is it even Tristan (t bar and square edged side windows) a pic of each side may give more clues.
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Halfords charge ridiculous prices for batteries- steer well clear...first stop should be your local independent spares place, usually the best deal.
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It's a single line brake system, you must bleed all the way through at all corners as you won't know where the air has gone, but using a one man kit it doesn't take long.
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Cheapest test first- before changing pumps, etc, just make sure your fuel cap is breathing properly....at 5500 rpm you'll be pulling a lot of fuel out of the tank, you may have a vacuum sucking it backwards. Next time it does it, pull over quickly and whip the cap off and see how much air is gulped in.
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The gunson one works fine, but the orifice adjuster is very finicky- I would persevere with it for a while....for years I thought I could do a good enough job by ear until I bought one, learned to use it, and found out how far out the human ear can be!
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Mine are fitted above the catches- there is enough room below the swage line, here's a pic from the inside which may make it clearer how they work- As you turn the key, the plate turns, covers the top of the lever, and prevent the lever being pulled out by mr thief.
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Quote: Is the switch you mentioned called the inhibitor switch...that's the one! Check it with a multimeter or a test bulb- may just be knackered, or maybe a connection problem.... if your wiring around the 'box is anything like mine was.
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A quick bit of internetting shows these to be ACR clones, so the regulator should be easily replaceable....whip the plastic end cover off, the reg is a metal box. The rectifier is finned but as you have DC output it's working ok.
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I didn't know you could even still get waxstat jets-why on earth are people still supplying them? I thought the horrible things had been put out to farm years ago, to rest in the same field as HIF stepper-motor chokes and Ford VV carbs.........
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But it only takes a few minutes to set the timing. I suppose it depends upon your potential market! i.e. what a buyer is looking for- if it's someone looking for say a Vitesse/GT6 engine to convert a Herald or Spit then they're going to want a lump with as many ancilliaries as possible, if it's someone looking for a spare/replacement for an existing engine then they'll already have all the bits'n'pieces.
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Given that most moderns have transverse engines, electric fans are pretty much the only way to do it now, other than the mini/ado16 arrangement with a mechanical fan and sideways rad. I personally find it hard to believe kenlowe's hype- their website reckons a mechanical fan saps 8.5% of the engines power......clearly a nonsensical made up number: they're saying that in the case of my engine for example, with a factory output of 85bhp, then 7.22 of those bhp are gobbled up driving a mechanical fan, I think that's total nonsense, if it were correct I would expect there to be a really noticeable difference in performance after I took the kenlowe off and bolted in the mechanical fan, but there isn't. I know a lot of people are happy with electric fan conversions, but in the case of the Vitesse, with a big engine shoehorned into a small space with a small rad, no space in front of the rad, and not a lot more behind it, I think they're a modifiction for the worse. The mechanical fan does such a lot more than the kenlowe ever did at keeping underbonnet temperatures at a sensible level.
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Quote:Hello Bxbodger, you are obviously happy with your new set up, as I am with mine. I don't understand the reference to the yoyoing temperature as it is, as I said before, the thermostat that controls the engine temperature, not the fan? I take it you do have a thermostat fitted? Alec Indeed I do have a 'stat, which is probably why the kenlowe was so useless.....the stat would open, the engine would get hotter and hotter, the fan would cut in, the stat would close, and the cycle would then recommence. With the fan controller set so the fan wouldn't run all the time the engine was getting far too hot before it cut in. Reverting to the standard fan has led to a much stabler engine temp but the most noticeable difference has been that there's no more fuel vapourisation....sitting in traffic it would get hot and lumpy and restarts with a hot engine were always an embarresment! The stock fan seems to move a lot more air aroun the engine bay than the kenlowe. I'mk currently using an 82 degree stat, with the engine fan now fitted I'll probably need to switch to an 88 if we get a cold winter, but you know the best thing about getting rid of the kenlowe? I don't have that modern-car fan noise anymore! This shows just how much rad a kenlowe covers-that's a surprisingly big obstruction to airflow.
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An update- kenlowe removed,and engine driven 7 blade yellow plastic fan fitted, and as I suspected the whole cooling system now functions as Triumph intended. Warm up is more gradual, there's none of the yoyoing gauge hot/cool/hot/cool that the kenlowe was causing, and hot start is a lot better- before, it was never happy restarting after a few minutes when hot. The kenlowe covers a surprisingly large area of the rad which I don't think helps and in comparison to the engine driven fan it's pretty gutless- all in all it's been a pretty effective retro 'modification' putting a mechanical fan back. Kenlowe make some pretty outrageous and unsubstantiated claims for the supposed 'benefits' of an electric fan conversion, none of which seem to stack up.
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Quote: it comes in at 88 deg - that's quite low-do you run it without a thermostat? I suppose there's room for a bigger fan on a saloon, a 15" fan must shift a bigger volume of air than a 12" one that plus the extra coolant capacity over the vitesse must make a difference. Mine has always had the kenlowe as long as I've had it, which is around 10 years now, and it's always wailed away more or less pemanantly when the weather warms up- I think it's just too small to cope properly. It must work, because the car's never overheated, but I can't help thinking it'll be happier with a mechanical fan as Triumph intended- after all, why did the the factory fit a four bladed fan when two blades might have done, and then uprate it to 7 bladed?
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Cheers pete, that's just what i was thinking- Doebag, there's nothing wrong with my cooling system other than the kenlowe- I just don't think it can cope, and it does zero to keep the actual underbonnet temp down. It'll definately be going to the back of my shed to join the other useless 80's fitted 'improvement' that was on my car, the oil cooler. The K&N's will be following it soon...........
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I'm going to use one of the 7 bladed plastic ones- it should be a lot better than the kenlowe at controlling engine temp. Modern engines with electric fans tend to have a lot more cooling area on the rad than old cars-they're designed to be intermitently fanned. Modern plastic/ally rads may be physically small but they contain a hell of a lot more tubing and finning and consequent cooling area than an old style copper rad. My Metro which is modern(ish) has a rad physically not much smaller than the Vitesse, although it's probably got more actual cooling area, and an engine half the size- an electric fan works fine in this installation but I think the mechanical fan will probably work better on the Vitesse, only one way to find out! If it doesn't work I'll shove the kenlowe back but I suspect i'll probably get better and more even temperature control with the fan as Triumph intended. It would be interesting to know what other peoples experiences haver been, wether anyone else has reverted to the mechanical fan.
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Quote:have replaced the metal fan with a 7 yellow blade plastic and its a straight swap , can get close to the rad bottom tank, but significantly quieter than the old metal unit. ....thanks, I thought as much but nice to have it confirmed. Quote:whats wrong with the kenlowe? and are you looking to off load it? The kenlowe works fine, it's just that the car was never designed to have an intermitently running cooling fan-big engine, small rad. I find that in the summer particularly the kenlowe is wailing away all the time in the traffic. Every year when the weather warms up I think I must get rid of the thing! Electric fans are ok on modern cars which they're meant for but I don't think it's particularly well suited to the characteristics of an older car with a cooling system designed with a constantly running fan in mind. I think engine temperature should be a lot more stable with a proper fan in place, but I'll stuff the kenlowe in the shed for a while just in case I'm wrong!
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Hello, I want to ditch the kenlowe that my car's been lumbered with as long as I've had it, and put a proper engine driven one back- are Mk1 metal/Mk2 plastic fans interchangeable? I beieve they are but it would be handy to have it confirmed. Cheers!