Nick Jones

So just to prove that the appliance gods are ever-vigilant and always listening (just like Alexa, Siri et al), I am being punished for suggesting Henry might be invincible. Our skip-rescue Henry stopped mid flow today. Apparently just stopped as if switched off and could not be revived. Investigation led to this Cable drum contacts snapped off on the neutral side. You can see one of the snapped contacts lying loose top right - dunno where it’s mate is…. Should look like bottom left. Parts are available. I’ve opted for the genuine contact set at a princely £8 delivered….

What Clive says on the earth straps. Also agree on the carb comments. If you look back through Alan Oldtuckunders essays on getting the last few horses out of 150CDs (HS4s can be considered pretty much identical), he discovered that they run out of flow at about 120 bhp 5,500 rpm (depends a bit on your cam and resulting torque curve). Going to 175s definitely increased his rev range. Don’t remember what he said about the bottom end, but he wasn’t much bothered below 3k anyway. That car went pretty damn well when I drove it at CC.

Check your earth straps. Should be a braided one between one of the engine front plate bolts and steering rack mount bolt. Obviously the connections need to be clean and tight and occasionally the straps themselves suffer corrosion at the crimped ends giving high resistance. Check if getting hot after cranking. Same goes for battery to body strap.

Nice idea. Used to be a thing in US, not so much here. H&S /Insurance is an obvious concern as there are a number of fairly obvious “opportunities” for Darwin and you never know what kind of dimwit might wander in. I’ve occasionally blagged the use of a ramp for a few hours from mates in the trade, but ones where I’d occasionally done work for them so that knew I probably wouldn’t do anything too daft….

Viewed the Spit today. Looks (much) better in pics than in the metal. An older mostly DIY resto I’d say, some parts quite well done (sills, paint), other parts rather bodged (bonnet internal structure, doors, bootlid) with lots of filler. It’s survived in superficially “nice condition” because it hasn’t had much use in the last 15 years and hasn’t got wet. The search continues….

That’s quite a list! 122S next?

Thanks John. I’ll have a good talk with your ‘in tomorrow. This is all a bit uncharacteristic…. The distance is a challenge - it would need to drive home, or at least get far enough to hitch a ride on the big yellow taxi! Well, it’s not my project and he appears to want a decent original car that will hold its value…… personally I’d not encourage molesting a tidy mk3 beyond adding OD and maybe a swing spring.

No 2 son (house cyclist) has suddenly decided he needs a classic car and seems to be fancying round-tailed Spitfires. Consequently we are going view this tomorrow. https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1744504 Looks quite nice, though seems fairly pricey to me? Not convinced the classic car price bubble isn’t beginning to deflate….

A Farmer in Yorkshire sees a bloke drinking from his stream and shouts; "Ey up cock! Tha dunt wanna be drinkin watta from theer, it's full o hoss piss an cow shite!" The man shouts back, "I'm sorry what was that? I'm from London, can you speak bit clearer please." The Farmer replies, "IF YOU USE TWO HANDS YOU WON'T SPILL ANY!"

What he said really, but purely on the basis of the comparison I’d say the rear carb is a bit rich. Plug cut really needs to be done on the fly ie switch off and coast into lay-by.

Fits comfortably under the standard bonnet, but yes, that has taken some effort to achieved. The bulkhead has had some attention though you might struggle to tell without a standard one to compare. More pics of that about halfway down P13.

If it has that layshaft bearing reinforcement it’s the pick of the standard boxes as used on the later Granada’s and 2.8 Capris, and will have the longer first and second gears.

almost a shame to put the bonnet on…..