1979 Trouble Spitfire

[mercrocker]

As someone pointed out on the beige, the reg is too new for a clubby. Could be grafted on but the dent and rust would suggest it's been like that for a while. Not sure why anyone would ring it either.

It doesn't appear to be a ringer....1275GTs were built until August 1980 so could easily end up on as late a plate as "W".....Certainly that one looks to be commensurate with its registration. Remember also that until the prefix letters came in it was customary to issue the current registration suffix on any freshly re-registered, imported or late-sold cars.

Comes up as registered as 29 April 1988 and a Austin Mini Mayfair. No imported/exported markers either.

Sorry, I looked at the first pic instead of the wreck we were talking about in the first place! Yeah, that's wrong all over.....

[SiC]

The curse of Mrs SiC and my cars...
It's why my watch goes "You seem stressed at the moment. Try some breathing and relaxation exercises." when she's in it.

We decided to have a walk along the seafront this evening. As it was a nice day I thought it would be a good time to take the Spitty and also a chance for Mrs SiC to experience it. Yesterday I ran for a good 30 mile or so trip absolutely fine and I had faith.

Tonight it started fine as usual. Drove along and was a bit juddery so pulled the choke out a bit more which eased it off. Further along the journey I started to push it in but it didn't particularly like it. Still not as smooth as it was driving yesterday.

I mentioned to Mrs SiC that it seems a bit unhappy and didn't feel quite right. She asked if we should go back. I agreed. We'd only done a few miles at this point.

I realised that the overdrive was engaged with switch in the position for it to be disengaged and the engine was unhappy about being laboured. That said it was running around 1.5k rpm so should have been alright. But also it was the first time I took it out with the roof up. Certainly a lot noiser and different experience which gave a certain level of unfamiliarity.

Then the overdrive decided to disengage. Fine. I can deal with that.

Then it engaged again

Disengaged

Engaged

Disengaged

Engaged

Disengaged

All in the space of a few seconds

Then decided it did want to be engaged after all and stay like that.

I should point out that I fully knew the overdrive did have a habit of getting stuck when I bought it and I should really have fixed it rather than just ignoring it. All part of the fun of a 70s BL product. ND traced it down as a likely issue with the wiring to the switch. All the time previously it would be either in OD or out. Not pulse between the two like it has started doing. Anyway we got it back and it'll be something to properly sort as I can't ignore it really.

So jumped in the Boxster instead.

Missed the start of the sunset but still had a pretty view out over Wales.


I've got a chunk of time this weekend. I plan to give the wiring a good going over. Old British cars can be fun with the wiring at the best of times, let alone mucked around wiring making it even worse. I'll also double check the tuning on the carbs in case they've rattled themselves out of tune.

I'll also be very glad when I can get it in the garage. The roof can stay down permanently then. I may even get a tonneau cover. Also reaffirms that I'm not even going to bother refitting the hood on the Midget.

[Eddie Honda]

It's all quality used spares.

Get it right!

[mercrocker]

It is strange but the Morrises always sound louder and feel rougher when Mrs Rocker is in the car. Partly that is due to my habit of driving with my window fully down when alone (she doesn't like the draught....) and partly I guess that I am literally doubling the payload onboard. I generally find it all smooths out once I am solo again.

For different reasons, it is the same in the Focus. That car cannot be driven as sedately as she would like (although she seems to manage it) and is frankly unpleasant unless doing at least 4000rpm....

[DodgeRover]

If there is any doubt about the overdrive not being locked out do not engage reverse gear. It will break it.

[SiC]

My (temporary) fix for the speedo inaccuracies. £15 delivered first thing today by Bezo finest. Uses GPS for speed so should be pretty much spot on and a good reference when going through speed cameras.


At the moment it uses a 5v USB cigarette lighter adapter. I'd like to do away with this and wire it directly into the car power. Cracking open the rear lid shows that it has a 5v regulator on the input. This is a bit weird as 5v input on a 5v regulator will lead to drop out down to ~3.9v. Then it looks to have a further regulator to pull it down to 3.3v. I suspect this is because some modern adapters may put out 9v or more if in "smart charge" mode and a cheap one may not be that clever and dump it out. So saves it breaking. Anyway it means I should be able to chop out the usb socket and stick 12v straight in hopefully.


Speaking of inaccurate speedos, overdrive and gearboxes, I dug through the old pictures of when the chap before ND had the box out. MK4 had a different (higher) ratio rear diff to the 1500. This is why I suspect the speedo is out. While flicking through a Haynes earlier, it struck me that this could be a D-Type overdrive. The 1500 had only J-Type but the Mk4 had both D-Type and J-Type depending on year (and probably BL inventory). This would be significant as the D-Type uses a relay to drive the overdrive solenoid but the J-Type doesn't need one. Thoughts revolved around it not having a relay and burning out the switch.

Alas according to the TCCS Facebook page, it's a J-Type as the solenoid is on the left.



I'm still pretty sure it has an overdrive from a MK4 and not a 1500. That said I believe the gearbox on a MK4 has the reverse on the left. While this has a reverse on the right which is correct for a 1500.

Also going through the photos confirms this once did have rear fog lights. Curiously a towbar too. Explains some of the mess of wiring in the car.

[SiC]

If there is any doubt about the overdrive not being locked out do not engage reverse gear. It will break it.

I'm pretty certain it's an electrical issue as it doesn't engage in 2nd or 1st gear. In 3rd and 4th when bringing up the clutch you can feel the revs start high for a brief second and then drop as the overdrive kicks in. This would mean the 3rd/4th gear switch on the transmission works fine electrically.

ND thought it was the wiring shorting out. I'm not so sure as I'd expect it to short to ground and have a lot of smoke. Even though the slide switch feels fine, I'm suspecting it might be a bit wonky inside. I believe it was replaced with a second hand unit recently. I do have a "spare" but it's attached to the Dolomite.

[DodgeRover]

It would be a really good idea to run the switch via a relay anyway, if they like the transit they aren't particularly robust or easy to find good replacements of.
I think there are 2 solenoids on the box for you to check.

[SiC]

At lunch I thought I'd have a 10 minute look at this overdrive switch to see if anything obvious is wrong.

First thing I noticed was excess flash in the switch section at the top near the wording of IN. I cut it off to make square.


Checking the switch with a multimeter showed that it did switch on and off. However I did find that you could get it indicated in the off position but still have electrical contact across the switch. If you push a bit harder then it'll latch across. This would make sense if it was hitting that excess flashing at the top and not quite clicking off to disengage.


The crimps on the bottom looked a bit suspect. They were holding the wire but did have exposed copper around the clamping area of the crimp. This could work harden and snap off eventually.


I put heatshrink on the bottom to provide support across the crimp. This also had the advantage of making sure they won't short against the gear knob base.


The external covering was split further down the overdrive wire but I couldn't see it gone through to the insulation of the wires below. I'll leave this pulled out slightly so it doesn't chaff through completely. Also put some insulation tape over to further protect it.


Then went off to grab some lunch. Used the GPS Speedo display and it worked great. It did take 30 seconds or so to get a GPS lock upon power on but it updated regularly and was easy to read. The car speedo pretty much reads 10% out. Something I will have to figure how I'm going to sort.


The drive to the local chippy was uneventful. Overdrive was behaving correctly.
I'm not sure if I can call it fixed until the missus is back in and her car voodoo breaks it again.


Lunch was a typical 70s Triumph owners meal. Brown. Very brown. I think the Heinz tomato sauce was the healthiest thing. I'll have to try harder at the gym later to work that lot off.


I need to tweak the idle a bit. It drops off pretty low if you stab/release the accelerator pedal. In some cases almost stalling the engine. Light presses make the friction of the linkage/cable hold the revs up every so slightly but a sharp stab brings it back to the real minimum. Par for course on old carb engined vehicles with accelerator cables ime. But I like to have the revs slightly higher as an absolute baseline minimum.

The cooling fan kicked in just as I started to make this video. It's quite a noisy thing but at least it makes you well aware when it's active.

[SiC]

It would be a really good idea to run the switch via a relay anyway, if they like the transit they aren't particularly robust or easy to find good replacements of.
I think there are 2 solenoids on the box for you to check.

I believe the solenoid on the J-Type takes significantly less power than the older D-Type setup and is only a single solenoid. The D-Type has two solenoid coils and I believe one is a high current which does the initial kick then it disengaged with the low current solenoid doing the hold. J-Type I think uses the hydraulic system of the overdrive to help actuate it.