CHRIS211083 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 Wow Nick cuffed for all three of you. Loooks a great car, love that he built it himself(with help) some experiences cant be bought. Congrats. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Thanks all Still sorting one or two minor bugs - fuel gauge has stopped working (sender died) and just changed the carb needles (now AAT) to hopefully improve the fuel economy without loosing the top end. But basically he's just started using it daily (already done nearly 500 miles) and it's just accepted it without protest..... Got it 4 wheel aligned last week. The good (and bad) news was that we'd got it so damn close with tape measure and homemade camber gauge it wasn't really worth the expense. I think he's pretty pleased with himself - and so he should be. It has been alot of work, but perhaps surprisingly he's now bugging me to get cracking on the GT6! He's out there now re-organising the garage...... New build thread soon! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 Great looking spitfire. All the hard work has paid off. Gt6? must have missed that. Look forward to a thread. Are you going modified, fuel ejection, etc. I think I know the answer. Great starting a new project, change of scenery etc. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 Spitty has been doing daily driver duties and behaving well. Changed oil and filter today as it's done 1,065 miles from re-birth. Also checked and tweaked timing. Now set way advanced according to book (~12ºBTDC rather than 6º), but still no pinking and goes better. Hopefully will be better on fuel too. This will hopefully be further improved by finding a fixing a leak in the vac advance pipe...... clockwork crap! Also nipped up the front wheel bearings and oiled the trunnions. All this in preparation for Sirs impending trip to Cornwall with GF. Only about 100 miles each way but will be the longest continuous run its done......... Also means him driving on motorway (briefly) for the first time in his 3 year driving career! Had a small issue with the starter while working on the car when it suddenly forgot how to engage. It's not done this before. After checking wiring and finding nothing I got bored with it and smacked it with a big hammer......... normal service immediately returned. Percussive maintenance wins again! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 Spit is now up to 2,250 miles. It's been on light duties as it lives in Granny's garage in Taunton while Chris is at Uni. That way it can serve as his station commuter vehicle. It's been mostly behaving except when in my charge, when it typically fails to start. That starter issue cropped up again in a petrol station and percussive maintenance failed, perhaps because the wheel brace wasn't heavy enough. Fortunately shorting the the two big solenoid terminals with the same wheel brace got it working ( no, I don't understand why either, but I was grateful) and once home I removed the starter, cleaned the bendix, lubricated it with graphite and now it's fine. The other issue was the battery - a hand-me-down from the Vitesse. It's a Halfords 3 year, date stamped from June 2004. Still fine if you use the car at least weekly, but won't hold a charge for a month. Oldest (nearly) working battery I've ever had though - and by some margin. We bought a new Halfords 3 year, which looks exactly the same but shinier. We also fitted a brand new Mitsubishi 70A alternator intended for a Ford Fiesta. Not quite a direct swap (even fairly indirect) but it has solved the variable light brightness, variable indicator speed and variable wiper speed that has afflicted all 3 of the (admittedly elderly) Lucas ACR17s we've tried. Also rebuilt the steering rack which had seemed fine but rapidly developed a clonk. Tested that and the alternator with a 120 mile round trip part of which needed lights, wipers and blower and all was good. Finally, now that the electrical system voltage seemed stable, we fitted an Accuspark EI unit. Fired up no bother with just a slight tweak needed to retard the timing. It's going back to it's garage tomorrow for a few weeks...... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 Rudely hauled out of it's garage yesterday having been persuaded to start even at -5ºC and then driven home through the snow. There's alot more snow now though! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 Swapping stories......? Vitesse is telling Spitty " whenever I get a strip of duct tape put between hood and screen frame, I know I'm in for a right whipping..... I've been using it (Vitesse) for daily driver duties the last couple of days and it's fine. Even managed 25.8 mpg average on the tank that included Wednesdays whipping session, which is frankly astonishing....... considering just under 90 track miles! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 Spitfire is back in daily used and mostly performing well. It's needed a new fuel gauge sender to make the gauge work reliably. Little bit of fuel leakage from the jet on one of the carbs which seems to be caused by a poorly sealing needle valve allowing fuel level to rise when idling in traffic. New last year Viton tipped......! It's taking Chris and Girlfriend to far west Wales in a couple of weeks so he's been going through it. Brakes - bloody new (Chinese?) calipers are still retracting the pistons too much, giving a natural self adjust point about half way down the pedal - in spite of being re-educated 3 times now. May have to change the seals. Gearbox - he's recently started to complain of the 3rd/4th gate getting stiff when warm/hot. Apparently takes a really good tug to get it out of third when hot. Happens on the move and stationary, engine running and not. Normal when cold. Any thoughts on this welcomed! So far he's had the tunnel cover off and removed the remote, which seems absolutely fine. It's been cleaned and re-lubed and tested with the tunnel off. May have helped a bit but not a complete cure. The tunnel removal also revealed the clutch arm pivot pin on the verge of escape having worked upwards nearly its entire length. Didn't appear to be affecting clutch function though. It's been replaced with a long bolt and with a nut on the bottom to hopefully prevent further escape. Tunnel removal now justified whatever! Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Did Wales and back. Just over 500 miles in a week, some of them in awful traffic. No issues. We now know it can manage over 40mpg in the right conditions though mid to upper 30s is more typical. Tune must be something like right...... Nick PS, it did better than the Arosa which was taking little bro' to Cornwall. That had four (4!) unscheduled stoppages for some so far unknown electrical reason. It did at least re-start each time after a short interval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerguzzi Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Hello Nick What is a Arosa? Is a rice pudding of some sort? Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 11, 2018 Author Share Posted August 11, 2018 8 hours ago, rogerguzzi said: Hello Nick What is a Arosa? Is a rice pudding of some sort? Roger School boy humour normally sniggers about it being some form of sex aid........ Actually it is the Spanish version of the VW Lupo, which is itself a truncated VW Polo. This particular one is the 1.7SDI. It has a normally aspirated diesel with 60 ponies - the S is for slow. It's owner appreciates the 60+ miles it can squeeze out of a gallon of diesel though. I paid under £500 for it 4 years / 30k miles ago, so cheap motoring. It's now working normally again, so it's going to be hard to fix........ Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerguzzi Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 Hello Nick Lupo ? I wonder were they get the names from? Still it probably means speed of the wind in another language ! Roger P s they all look the same to me designed in a wind tunnel etc and do not start me on lack of colours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 Spitty continues to get used. Now up to about 6K. Another MoT passed a couple of months back. We refurbed some proper Girling 16PB calipers with new seals and stainless pistons which has finally cured the low brake pedal issue. Can' t recommend the new calipers based on our experiences. Still got dribbly carb issues which are resisting fixing......... ..........However...... Steps are being taken to deal with them once and for all! This system will be Speeduino based - I'm watching with interest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpbarrett Posted August 12, 2019 Share Posted August 12, 2019 11 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Spitty continues to get used. Now up to about 6K. Another MoT passed a couple of months back. We refurbed some proper Girling 16PB calipers with new seals and stainless pistons which has finally cured the low brake pedal issue. Can' t recommend the new calipers based on our experiences. Still got dribbly carb issues which are resisting fixing......... ..........However...... Steps are being taken to deal with them once and for all! This system will be Speeduino based - I'm watching with interest! Very interested to see how well the Speedunino system works. Does it have full support from the Megatune software ass I think that's key to getting a home brew EFI system working... Nice manifold did he make it? Maybe start a new topic on it as I am sure a few on here will be interested Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 I made the manifold (two in fact) a couple of years ago. There's a thread on here about it somewhere...……. Chris made the fuel rail, though the final welding was done by someone who can TIG weld properly...... Found the previous thread...… longer ago than I thought I'm also curious about the Speeduino. Apparently there's a Tuner Studio variant for it. Chris thinks he'll be able to plug straight into my MS version - I suspect not...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 20, 2019 Author Share Posted August 20, 2019 Speeduino does talk to Tuner Studio with the .ini file provided. Result! Trigger wheel attached. Ebay wheel modified slightly. Holes drilled and tapped in the pulley itself (would have preferred the other way around but the boss in the pulley centre makes getting the bolts in very hard unless you get the holes in exactly the right spot - tricky to arrange. Anyway, threadlock and threadlocked lock-nuts will hopefully hold and Tigerseal to stop any movement/fretting. The Tigerseal alone would probably be enough! Sensor bracket made and welded to the timing case. It's a BMW/Mini Hall sensor And wiring..... rather him than me...... ECU is the black box on the seat. Coilpack also mounted. It's one of the Volkswagen wasted spark ones with built in ignitors. Chris discovered that whereas Triumph use the colour brown for unfused permanent live and black for earth, VAG use brown for earth and black for feed....... As the coilpack earth pin is also connected to the chassis ground, this vaporises the supply fuse when you switch on..... That's why the fuse was a good idea then! Hopefully the dead short to ground wasn't seen by any of the electronics in the pack and it's still good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoie Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Nick I posted some forum pictures last year showing the lack of space between the Spitfire front pulley and steering rack! I had to take my trigger wheel setup back to the machinist a couple of times to fit trigger wheel more forward onto the pulley. Have you tried checking the clearance? Mine was close, but found out on first street bump (loud grind noise) that I needed much bigger gap! It looks like you did machine off some of the pulley backside, but I'm not sure! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 You are right that there is not much room.... However, on this car at least there does seem to be enough. I can get fingers through the gap. Thanks for the warning though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkshire_spam Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Watching and reading with interest... I've used the arduino for a few projects, the possibility of using that or a teensy for EFI is really cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpbarrett Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 2 hours ago, yorkshire_spam said: Watching and reading with interest... I've used the arduino for a few projects, the possibility of using that or a teensy for EFI is really cool. ditto great to hear that Tunerstudio works with it, that's essential. I too like the Arduino and have one on the herald to control the wipers (2 speed and interrupt).. mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerguzzi Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Hello All Coilpack also mounted. It's one of the Volkswagen wasted spark ones with built in ignitors. That's the type I used on Spitty when I switched to EFI and wanted to dump the ford stuff as it is old and adds more wiring. I bought a spare to carry for about £10/£12 (Chinese I expect but tested it before packing into the boot were it has stayed for the last 2 years) Plus my reasoning was that I could get one anywhere when travelling in Spain etc(VW Skoda) Roger ps my tick over control has thrown a wobbly and keeps letting the engine die(probably me as I altered something after our Spanish trip because it was to high)but can not remember exactly what!(must start keeping notes!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 Hi Roger, He's wanting me to pick your brains about the coilpack settings you used and also on the tick-over control. We have (I think) the same Ford control valve mounted directly to the manifold. I foresee hours of fun with that...….! Must see if I can find a 6 cylinder wasted-spark coilpack with built-in ignitors for the Vitesse. EDIS works well enough but I could use the room on the bulkhead and it would be nice to have a slightly more subtle rev limiter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerguzzi Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Hello Nick Is this what you want? Roger ps I must have a go at my tick over fault! I have been stripping the Vitesse O/Side rear suspension today and assessing the chassis holes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerguzzi Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Hello Nick just had a thought it may have been the 340Hz I altered as I could hear it buzzing(but then it buzzes on all setting just a different rate) What I did was set the highest number that sounded quiet and left in on for 15 mins to see if it got hot and it was just warm! so perhaps this is how they a designed to work? Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 Yep, I think that's what he wanted - thanks! Don't (yet) know enough to comment on the valve frequency......... How bad are the chassis holes? Main rails can get a bit frilly round the diff on Vitesses and Heralds because the water and mud finds it's way down the boot-riggers and sits in the low spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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