Mister Towed's Tai Chi build

[WorldClassAccident]

what are the front indicators?

Little lights that flash when you want to turn a corner... ;-)

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by WorldClassAccident

what are the front indicators?

Little lights that flash when you want to turn a corner... ;-)

They're small, oval side repeaters and the back ones are long oval side repeaters. I think both came from Europaspares, but I don't seem to be able to find the white 100mm ones any more, although they do amber ones.

https://www.europaspares.com/product..._Coloured.html

https://www.europaspares.com/product...__95007f_.html

I rather like the look they've given the car - a bit different to the usual beehive type - and they were really easy to fit as they just stick on.

[seanick]

Looks great Towed! Sunny weekend forecast..

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by seanick

Looks great Towed! Sunny weekend forecast..

Thanks Seanick. Parts to pass mot arrived yesterday while I was at work. Will start fitting them this morning and I'm hoping to have the mot retest done before the weekend.

I'll also be taking a further look at the seating position - with it set how I had it my head was about two inches too high. The wind rush past my ears was deafening and it wasn't a comfortable experience. If I ducked my head down just a little, though, it cured the problem. I've already taken the 1/2" spacer out from between the back of the seat and the mounting, which has reclined the seat a little further, but I'm going to try fitting the spacer at the front to recline it even more. If that still doesn't drop the driving position enough I'll look at taking the board out of the seat base pad and removing some of the padding. Those changes should give me a good 2" drop to the driving position.

For anyone at the planning/building stage I'd strongly recommend you get the driving position set so that your eyes are no higher than the top of the screen. The alternative would be to attach a taller screen to the original, take a look at the video clip posted by Zebre a few days back and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, I've got some gaiters to fit.

[davecymru]

Just remember for the mot man that you have to look over the screen and not through it. If you look through it , then it needs wipers, squirters etc. As I found out at my mot no.1

[Nike55]

Originally Posted by davecymru

Just remember for the mot man that you have to look over the screen and not through it. If you look through it , then it needs wipers, squirters etc. As I found out at my mot no.1

..but no doubt the screen was made to be quickly detachable (if required) so the (taller than average) MOT man will be staring at thin air....

[davecymru]

Or as everyone pointed out to me at the time, if you do go this route just strap a cushion in place before the mot! I know it's not in the "spirit" of things, but...... ;-)

[Mister Towed]

There will be a slight delay before presenting my Spyder for its re-MOT while I take steps to avert a potential disaster.

Yesterday I replaced the leaky o/s brake cylinder with a shiny new one, delivered less than 48hrs after placing the order with Rimmer Bros (other Triumph parts suppliers are available). That took about three hours and I had to go to work mid afternoon so I decided to pack up and replace the other side today.

So, I needed to quickly bleed the brakes, put the adaptor and wheel back on and drive the car back into the garage. So far so good. I have an easy-bleed tube so it only took a couple of minutes to get the air out of the line and lock down the bleed nipple.

I then checked for air in the system by standing on the middle pedal. First press, nice firm pedal. Second press, pedal straight to the floor and a jet of brake fluid shoots across the drive at a 45 degree angle to the car.

Now, when I bought my donor, one of the selling points was that it had recently been fitted with a nice, shiny set of new copper brake pipes. You kind of assume that they'll have been fitted properly, don't you? So, when I took a look under the rear wheel arch and found this -



I wasn't too impressed. The brake pipe had completely come out of the union because there's virtually no flare at the end of it.

If it had let go when I was driving back into my garage I'd have wrecked the front of my car. If it had let go as I slowed for the roundabout near my house on my way to the MOT last Monday, as a 35 tonne artic thundered across my path, that would have been the end of me.

So, I've now bought myself a flaring tool and will be disconnecting every union and checking for a decent flare at the end of every pipe before my Spyder turns another wheel under its own power.

I'm off to the gym now to burn off some anxiety induced stress and will aim to have all the remedial work done for a retest on Tuesday.

I'd strongly recommend that anyone buying a donor with a single circuit brake system checks and double checks all of their pipe unions before going out on the road. I really wish I had.

[oxford1360]

Christ, that was a very lucky escape.

It is a problem. So many rolling chassis that come up on eBay are described as "restored" and I do wonder what that means to some people. Yours is a good lesson to us all and I'm glad you are not being pressure-washed from the wheel arch of an Eddie Stobart.

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by Nike55

..but no doubt the screen was made to be quickly detachable (if required) so the (taller than average) MOT man will be staring at thin air....

Funnily enough, the driver's view over the screen wasn't raised by my MOT chappy. He did ask me to switch on the windscreen wipers though...

Apart from the two minor fail points (one of which now turns out to have been a Godsend) the only really technical question he asked was

"How did you lower the front suspension?"

When I answered that I'd cut down the front springs with an angle grinder he had a little think and then asked

"What's the difference between a cut spring and a broken spring?" to which I replied

"A cut spring has been deliberately modified to get the car level, while a broken spring is a sign of mechanical failure."

He seemed happy with this and ticked that particular box after checking that the springs didn't slip out of their cups at full travel.

The other point that cropped up during the test was when they jacked up the back of the car, letting the rear wheels go to full droop, they noticed that they couldn't then turn the rear wheels due to the handbrake applying itself.

Noticing their frowns I didn't wait for the inevitable question, but gave a ten second explanation of the swing axle geometry - that with both wheels fully extended they switch from negative camber to positive camber, increasing the distance between the tops of the wheel hubs and pulling the brake cable tight. I ventured that the only time this would ever happen on the road would be if I was completely airborne, when it wouldn't matter if the brakes came on, and without batting an eyelid they just moved the jack to under the bottom shock mounts and raised the car with the wheels in the weight bearing position to continue with the checks.

Overall, getting it MOT'd was a pretty tense experience, a bit like being at the birth of your first born child, but it turned out to be not too bad once it was over.

I'll be getting on with the problem areas tomorrow as I've only got ten days from last Monday to get it re tested before I'd need a whole new MOT test doing.

[Mister Towed]

There we go - old and new together.



It will now pass the retest with no further work. Will be checking every brake pipe union over the weekend though, and will book an appointment to have it looked at again early next week.

[oxford1360]

Good luck - it's going to be a messy job.

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by oxford1360

Good luck - it's going to be a messy job.

Yep, but a very necessary one if I'm going to have confidence in the car.

Retest is now booked for Monday afternoon...

[micky1mo]

I recommend you fitting a "low level" warning light on the brake master cylinder.
It wouldn't stop the brakes from failing but at least you know they have failed before you put your foot on the pedal!! Might help

[Paul L]

Mister Towed: Really glad you found out about your brake problems on the drive and not on the road.

Good luck with the final fixes and MOT re-test.

Take care, Paul.

[Mister Towed]

Does anyone know if Spitfire and Herald/Vitesse front springs are interchangeable?

I cut my 200lb Vitesse coil springs down by 90mm and I love the ride height that's given me. The ride quality at the front is a tad firm for my taste though - if you run over an ant you can tell whether it saw you coming and shut its eyes - which is great for the race track, but mine's primarily a road car.

So, the plan is to get some 150lb early Spitfire springs and cut them down about 65mm. Combined with an uprated anti roll bar I'm hoping that'll give me the same ride height with a more supple ride at the front end, which should improve the grip level as the tyres will be in contact with the road more of the time.

So, does anyone know if the Spitfire and Herald/Vitesse springs are the same diameter (length isn't important), and does anyone have a pair of early Spitfire springs they don't need?

[Viatron]

I have a brand new set of front springs that will be being replaced, they are for Spax shock but can measure next weekend to make sure they will fit, yours for the cost of postage and a donation to Macmillan.
Mac

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by Viatron

I have a brand new set of front springs that will be being replaced, they are for Spax shock but can measure next weekend to make sure they will fit, yours for the cost of postage and a donation to Macmillan.
Mac

Fantastic Mac, I'll take you up on that if they're 150 or 180lb ones. PM me the details and I'll pop a couple of cheques in the post.

[Mister Towed]

I noticed when driving to the MOT centre last Monday that the mixture was a bit rich (I stunk of fuel when I got home) and the engine was rather reluctant to rev. I've sorted the mixture as best I can and checked the timing. The Vitesse engine was designed to run on 100 octane fuel (5 star) with the ignition advance set at 13 degrees btdc. Mine was set at 2 degrees btdc, so the spark was firing when the piston was half way back down the bore, hence the sluggish performance.

So, I've now set the timing to 13 degrees btdc (that's why I added the methanol/water injection set up, to raise the octane rating of the fuel) and the results are immediately apparent without even taking it out on the road (clicking the image should run the video) -



That's better.

[Viatron]

sounds nice and rorty!