A40 - Breaking stuff (and hopefully improving it)

[Matty]

4 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

Hmm.... Ran up, today (... after a wonderful Sundays lunch), by Boulmer and 'Coastal Route' towards Seahouses/Bambrough...

Turned back towards the A1, short of Seahouses, and had to take the 'deviation' because chippings/dressing....

What a fab day [even without a clutch 😵‍💫]...

Vroooom 🧐 ... 👍🔧

🚙💨

Oh it were Savvy. Brilliant weekend (hard fucking work mind) but memorable. In Seahouses now it's cracking the flags and not a breath of wind. I'm having my tea and taking them to the Ship and get em pissed.

Cars been so good it deserves to get home under its own steam so cross your fingers for me pal.

[JMotor]

Ahhh poo!

Hopefully it'll not be a fight to fix it.

Mind you. That's still a win in my book if that's the only issue you've had. 

Aye, I'm trying to put a positive spin on the situation. But hopefully you'll understand what I mean.

[morrisoxide]

Hopefully it will make it under its own power. Tis but a scratch.  Good luck, we're all counting on you. etc 🙂

[Matty]

Thanks lads. I'll try my best 👍

[yes oui si]

As resident Northumbrian, enjoy it. Drop me a message if you want a beautiful road to some nice ice cream for when you leave Seahouses

[hairnet]

not so bad - slight inconvenience but coulda been been less simple to fix

does z3 man get slagged for doing it wrong

reliable tvr shock

 

[Matty]

Just landed at home this minute. Bloody, beaten but unbowed. What a car.

Write up later when I've unclenched 😆

[Matty]

10 hours ago, yes oui si said:

As resident Northumbrian, enjoy it. Drop me a message if you want a beautiful road to some nice ice cream for when you leave Seahouses

Shame I've only just seen this. Tbf though I was tear arsing back up to Edinburgh to get it mended (totally bodged but it worked) and I was that on pins I doubt I could've eaten anything 🤣.

Beautiful part of the world mind, but then you already know!

[Matty]

9 hours ago, hairnet said:

not so bad - slight inconvenience but coulda been been less simple to fix

does z3 man get slagged for doing it wrong

reliable tvr shock

 

That TVR is a very cheap Griffith 500. Bought because it had been off the road a while due to rotten outriggers. He done the work but that's the furthest it's been bar a lap of Burnley so we were all surprised it didn't put a foot wrong. I drove it back from Edinburgh  to Seahouses last night. Bit addictive both the noise and the grunt. Drives well in fairness.

[tooSavvy]

@Matty.. Yes, we [who have easy access to the delights of Northumberland] consider ourselves very fortunate indeed!

The North Shields ferry, DFDS, unloads legions of Euro dwellers who choose to come and see..... Agreed, perhaps enrout up the A1, to Arthur's Seat 🤣🤣.

Glad you got to sample & savour the gig 😉

What a jalopy to roar through in 😎🔧

🚙💨

[Matty]

Some random pics to finish it off

Troon

Sea (Largs?)

scary mountains

Glen Coe ski lift

Skye Bridge Sunday morning

fucked

food

home

[Matty]

All in door to door we've done 1200 miles in 4 days. On many occasion my dad's been cursed under our breath for dreaming big and planning poorly 😄.

But it's been done. And I'm glad we did. Would I do it again in a car that old? Nah I'll take the memories but fuck that! A nice couple of days pottering round the lakes or the dales maybe. What an experience though.

My dad's friend Chris who came with us is the owner of the Morgan. A very nice very quiet man who drove that medieval instrument of torture that is a Morgan  all that way on the open air and he is 77! I followed him at times and that fucking thing has no compliance whatsoever. A discarded wrigleys gum wrapper had it skittering half to the other side of the road. I assume he is lying down for the rest of the week. What a man.

Thanks all for joining in! 

[High Jetter]

36 minutes ago, Matty said:

 

Glen Coe ski lift

A40 looks big! Epic trip, well done. Thanks for sharing.

[Matty]

Permanent repair on clutch hydraulics. Doesn't look the best but slave cylinder is midget to match the heavier pressure plate. Master cylinder is A40. So 3/16 meets 1/4". That's why it failed. I tried to get away with a really big flare at the slave end but it must've allowed the pipe to move around, work harden then shear. See how I go with this.

[Matty]

Quick oil change on my dinner. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a side by side with another brush painted 60s survivor (customers car).

[Matty]

Gold cup at Oulton Park today. Beautiful weather and new very burnt.

[Matty]

Star of the show for me @morrisoxide. It was at Oulten last year i decided to build a quick a series for mine. Always loved the big Farinas and close contact with this has birthed an idea of doing similar with one of these. Standard looking but with an overbored B with some trick bits, o/d of 5 speed box and decent brakes and suspension. Will I do it? Who knows, I've done it before so maybe.

[Matty]

And it's finally shit it's gearbox. It started going in traffic coming away. I managed to nurse it onto the motorway and then it's sound in top. I've lost second and third sounds like grinding coffee beans. Bit disappointing, I was expecting it as it's been on the way out since I put the new lump in, but I'd hoped to get the rest of summer and autumn out of it.

I've got a type b box in the attic from a midget with better ratios so I'll do a rebuild on that and fit it. But that isn't going to happen now 😕 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 01/06/2024 at 22:43, Matty said:

So there's only one answer.

An inch and 3 quarters of Skinners Unions finest. 40 quid!!! I did a mild rebuild, drop test, a bit of polishing, made a throttle abutment plate, fixed jet conversion and hung it on the car.

Absolutely night and day! It idles (albeit at 1100 cos its lopey as fuck due to the cam), but it drives beautiful. Part theottle, low speed its a smooth as butter. Plant the throttle and it takes off like the van off Jeepers Creepers. Its fucking hillarious 😂 

 

iirc mr vizzard surprised a lot of peeps when saying a 1.75 su works betterer than an weber!

[Matty]

10 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

iirc mr vizzard surprised a lot of peeps when saying a 1.75 su works betterer than an weber!

No expert but I think a smaller engine struggles to achieve the velocity of air needed through the fixed chokes. So it only ran well at wide open. Plus that noise gets annoying quick!

[Tommyboy12]

A 1 3/4" or 44 can feed 100hp no problem and you can do a few tricks to up that to 105hp if you really need to. You dont need a Webber in any road application of an A-series except the most extreme power hunters.

Sorry to hear about the gearbox after all that engine work!

[Matty]

2 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

A 1 3/4" or 44 can feed 100hp no problem and you can do a few tricks to up that to 105hp if you really need to. You dont need a Webber in any road application of an A-series except the most extreme power hunters.

Sorry to hear about the gearbox after all that engine work!

It has been on the way out for a while tbf. I'd have just liked to have got the season out of it. Never mind Tom, onwards and upwards. At least it got me round Scotland!

[JMotor]

You've got the right attitude.

It's fixable, so why worry. I'd say you've done well with the gearbox if it's being like that for a while. 

Again, such a cool wee car. 

[Matty]

1 hour ago, JMotor said:

You've got the right attitude.

It's fixable, so why worry. I'd say you've done well with the gearbox if it's being like that for a while. 

Again, such a cool wee car. 

At that point all I was arsed about was getting home for a bbq and beer. Idve pushed the fucker home if need be 😂

[Matty]

My dad's been looking for a new car since spring. We've been from the ridiculous to the sublime as he just wouldn't consider good old British tin.

We've come for the usual bank holiday piss up and he asks me for a lift in the garage with something.

Must've killed him and our Tony keeping this secret 🙊 

[Matty]

Sat in it now with a beer and a fag typing this. I might stay here tbh. Fuck it I might sleep in it 🤣

[Joey spud]

An early Spitfire is a handsome beast.

[Matty]

In my opinion I like a mk3 cos I find the earlier face a bit fussy. But I like the earlier rear end. So a best of both worlds I suppose. The wheels need throwing over the wall but luckily they're fake wires. So I can put new wheels on for him without fucking about changing hubs.

The rest of it is superb. Original and nicely rough about the edges. Solid as mind. Bit annoyed really as it has the later box with synchro throughout. So he has synchro on first and overdrive wheras I'm slumming it with 4 gears and no sync on first.

Should be interesting though. Both my A40 and this are approx 700kg or thereabouts. Triumph quote 70bhp and 70 ftlb for the 1300 on twins. I'd like to think I'm somewhere near on my 1310 a series with a lumpy cam and single big SU. Only need to rebuild and fit a gearbox to find out 😄

[artdjones]

Wires on the Mk3 look a bit weedy. They look more muscular on steels.

[morrisoxide]

Nice Spitty! I too like the back end of the early ones but the front of the later ones. Looks like a lovely example nice reg too.

How did I manage to miss that Countryman? Bloody cool that.