I finally gotten my '76 Spitfire back on the road and just thought I'd
share some of my experiences in case anybody runs into the same problems.
This car had been sitting about 4 or 5 years when I got it, so all the
usual stuff had to be done i.e. brakes, clutch hydraulics, carb rebuild
etc. These are just things that I've noted along the way.
1) Clutch slave rebuild, be very careful if you rebuild the clutch not to
damage the metal dust cap that holds the grease seal in place this part is
not included in the rebuild kit and I couldn't find one for sale. I ended
up repairing mine with JB weld.
2) A dowel with a slot cut in one end and a piece of sandpaper doubled over
and inserted in the slot makes a good brake/clutch cylinder hone.
3) Determine that all the parts on your car are correct, my car wouldn't
run well at all at the specified ignition timing of 2 deg. ATDC, because it
had a 1977 vacuum advance distributor rather than the correct 1976 retard
distributor.
4) Likewise the hazard lights wouldn't work because someone had put a turn
signal flasher unit in place of the hazard flasher unit. These are two
different parts so make sure you get the right one if you need to replace
it.
5) I installed a hotter ignition coil and on my car the ballast resistor
had been bypassed by a PO using the lead that is shown in the schematics as
the radio lead (pink and white lead coming off the ignition switch) to
supply 12 volts directly to the coil. This seems to work fine and
eliminates the resistor neatly.
6) I rebuilt the single Stromberg carb., if you want your car to run like
krap then here's what you do: Put the starter (choke) disk in reversed 180
deg. In this configuration both of the oval shaped holes will line up...
this is a bad thing! Secondly don't replace the bypass valve diaphragm,
that way when you try to adjust it and it tears it will make the car run
really badly also. Thirdly use 20W50 motor oil in the damper (for me this
was a real mistake, but it may work fine for other people) it also helps
to overfill the damper so that when you accelerate oil is forced out of the
top of the carburetor. Also my car had a throttle return spring running
from the manifold to the choke lever to pull it back into the off position,
this worked poorly so I used the choke return spring shown (in the manual)
on an earlier version of this carb. it works great. Making these mistakes
one at a time allows you the maximum opportunity to get to know your carb.
through repeated dissasembly and reassembly.
7) If your lights refuse to work take apart the switch and clean out all
the old grease and polish up the copper contacts. People complain about
Lucas switches, but for the most part they can be easily repaired saving
you the cost of a new one.
If anyone is going this same process please e-mail me with any questions
I'll try to help you avoid some of the mistakes that I made!
Glenn Trunnell
1976 Spitfire.. Kickin Miata Ass in NC
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