Hi List, I'm back after an extended absence for a number of reasons, which I won't bore you with.
But the good news is that my '78 Spitfire seems to be back in running order. My Dad was in town on his way back up to NY last weekend and we spent the two days working on the car. The initial problem was that the battery had died due to sitting for too long. A trip to Sears solved that problem. Then we removed the distributor and reset the ignition timing. While I was doing that, Dad was busy resetting the carbs (dual SU HS-4s) to an initial baseline setting. One everything was all back together, we cranked it over and it fired up on the first turn of the engine. After playing with the timing a bit, we moved to the carbs. Balancing was actually a fairly easy task, as they were pretty close to balanced in the first place. This may not sound like much, but including the trip to Sears, it took most of Saturday. So we quit for dinner and decided that we would regroup on Sunday and use the Colortune to tune the carbs. Sunday morning was rainy, so we got a later start than planned. I pulled the choke on and started it up to get it warmed up. Once warmed, we installed the Colortune as instructed on the #1 cylinder and started it up again. The flame was bright yellow (indicating a rich mixture), so Dad turned the jet adjusting nut up to lean it out. He got the nut all the way up and it didn't change the spark color. Hmmmm.... We did this for all the cylinders and realized that the #3 and 4 cylinders seemed to have a better mixture. So we stopped and started looking into the front carb to see what the problem might be. As it turns out, when I pulled the choke on, it didn't go off when I pushed the knob back in. So when Dad was turning the nut up, the jet wasn't moving. After fiddling around with it a bit, I determined that when the choke was pulled on, the linkage between the choke arm shaft (connecting the choke for the two carbs) and the jet was putting sideways tension on the jet causing it to stick. I further determined that it was because the linkage was moving in place and if we could lube the linkage, it would be free enought to release when the choke was pushed in. So another problem was solved. After that, we put the Colortune back on the front two cylinders and got the mixture set as best we could. It still seemed to be running rich, so we turned it lean another couple of flats and decided to start driving it and keep checking the plugs on a regular basis. I have ABT needled in the carbs, and those may have to change. But for now, I have other things to do to get it back on the road. I have to get it reinspected (last inspection was May of '96) and have to replace the door mirror mounts. The plastic blocks that the door mirrors mount over have all broken so I'm going to try to find a machinist who can make me a couple of blocks out of aluminum. There's also some cosmetic things to take care of - finishing my steering wheel refurbishment, glueing the vinyl trim back in place behind the seats, general cleaning, checking over the tires, etc. (not necessarily in that order). So I'm hoping to have a summer of fun driving this car again (since we've sold the Ferrari and traded in the Miata....). It's been a long time coming. I still owe a *HUGE* debt of gratitude to Clark Nicholls for helping with my distributor woes, which also still need to be sorted - I have a points-type dist on loan from Clark and need to reinstall my electronic dist to see if it will run with that. Last time that was in the car, the timing was drifting all over the place. If I still have that timing problem, then I'll probably just S-can the electronic ignition and buy myself a points-type dist and be done with it. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. Now, about the rear spring. Yes, my car too had a sagging rear spring when I bought it. The whole car was leaning to the left, although it was more pronounced from the rear which may be why that other lister thought that his LR suspension was sagging, vice the left side of the car. It cost me $115 to have the spring removed, re-arched, and reinstalled. Of course, that was in 1985. But it was worth every penny. And since we're on suspensions, every since I installed the Spax shocks on the front, the nose has sat about 2" too high. I'd rather not get into cutting springs even though I do have the tools (I'm afraid I wouldn't cut them evenly and one side would sit higher than the other). Is there a replacement spring that would do the trick? I seem to recall some discussion on this list about earlier Spit springs (150 vice 180 lb.??) or springs from some other Triumph that would do the trick. Who knows the answer to that one? Thanks, George P. _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
