I have done a fair amount of work on the car recently, and have been writing some of it down, and taking some pics, but not posting.
So here is what I have done:
After a third minor burn-out under the dash late last year, several things stopped working, namely the rev counter, the heater, the brake lights, then eventually it became quite difficult to start the engine.
Enough was enough, the dash had to come out, not an easy or quick job, but it’s out now.
1. The heater:
I have wired the heater motor directly through a fuse
to a switch at the lower edge under the dash.
When operated, the heater is on full, or simply switched off.
I have left the hidden rheostat (disconnected) in place, as by operating the lever, I can direct the hot air, either to de-mist the screen or heat the car from the foot-wells, which could be useful.
2.The brake lights:
I was not even interested in why they did not work, I simply cut the two wires which came from the (new) brake switch on the brake pedal, connected a new feed to one wire, found the brake line on the passengers side, cut that, and re-wired it to the other side of the brake switch, job done, so they all work now.
3. Non- starting problem:
Having fitted a new starter motor, (which it needed anyway)
I fitted a new starter solenoid, which made no difference, but as the donar car was 45 years old, I thought it would be a good idea to do it anyway, but it turned out that the solenoid earth was to blame, so re-earthed, it starts now better than it ever has, so that was a good result.
4. The rev counter/Tacho:
Having done all the above, at the end of the day I was fed up with wires and connectors, so I have not yet done this job! Another day
I think.
Another day:
Finally sorted out the tacho, it just needed a minor re-wire.
Since I wrote the above, I have sorted the tacho, eventually put the (complicated) dash back in, only to find that the indicators don’t work, neither does the hazard warning system! Oh dear, Poosticks,
Dash back out for investigation.
I saw that a 6 inch chunk indicator wiring had burnt out, ( the fuse had gone too) Believe it or not, I was pleased to see this, as up until now, I had not found what had actually caused the smoke last year, on the burn-out.
The indicator circuit had continued to work with all the insulation melted off the wires in one area, but with the disturbance of dash in and out, it had snapped the fragile wire.
I rewired the messy bits and replaced the fuse and it is all good again.
When I came to refit the choke cable back to the carbs, I realised I had somehow lost the small connector thing that anchors the choke
Cable to the carb lever.
I have cobbled up a quick fix, which does not work too well at all,
So would be very grateful if any one has a spare Spitfire choke
Fixing thingy to anchor the cable end.
During this marathon electrical sort out, I also replaced the alternator.
One other niggly thing I wanted to do was the water temperature gauge. Since I finished the build, it has always read far too high,
At 110 degrees, which is at the 4 o’clock position, and the difference between that and overheating is so minimal as to be overlooked.
I wanted the gauge to read in the 6 o’clock position, like it usually is on Triumphs. ( At least the ones I can remember)
Although it reads 110, I know that the actual temperature is far lower as I have a very accurate dial which controls when the fan kicks in.
Without getting to technical, to re-calibrate the gauge was quite easy in the end, and may interest other people with a similar problem.
The temperature gauge is actually an amp-meter which measures current, but shows it as water temperature.
It works by the sender in the engine block heating up and the
Bi-metal strip dropping the resistance allowing more current to flow through the gauge, the bi-metal strip in the gauge heats up and deflects the needle showing the temp.
I put two 50 ohm variable resistors in series, between the temp sensor and the gauge, (see pic) then ran the engine up to running temperature,
Sure enough it went up to 110 degrees, but by adjusting the resistors (with a small screwdriver) I was able to tweak the temp gauge needle down to the 6 o’clock position.
Therefore any subsequent temperature increase would immediately catch the eye as the needle would drift off to the right and be seen.
With the two resistors in series, the resistance is adjustable from zero to 100 ohms, which gave me enough leeway to get it right.
The resistors came from Maplins and cost 60p each, and are only the size of an asprin, so this was a really cheap easy fix in the end.
I have fixed them to the breather hose to make it easy for adjustment.
Once again, if anyone has that small gismo thing that anchors the choke cable to the carbs, please get in touch!
Some pics:
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Insurance Renewal
Linear Mode
