I have joined the ranks of 4 wheel owners!

[Gabriall]

With Talbots help we picked up my Spitfire on Friday. As always Talbots method is to go big or go home so the trailer weighed the same as the spitfire and probably could have carried 3 of them , but all good.

I’ve been looking for one for a while without a lot of luck, eBay an all. I had a few specifications which I wanted including British racing green, 1500, overdrive, hardtop, runner, not too much work to do on it.  After a couple of false starts and experiencing the dregs of eBay sellers, I went to see a red 1500 with overdrive … and became quite disappointed when Talbot explained that it was a serious amount of work, more than my specification. So we left that one.

Then it popped up… registration GABS - I mean it LITERALLY has my name in the number plate. This thing was BRG, 1500 no over drive no hardtop but, running, a lot of restoration but no shake down and my name in the number plate I mean what more of a sign could you want!

So we went to have a look at it, the auction was still running and he had a buy it now price of £6500 which was like heck no. When we got there, the gentleman was a little embarrassed to say it wasn’t running,  Of course Talbot wanted to see for himself, and diagnosed the problem as being a fuel issue . But aside from the fact it wouldn’t start, it was all very tidy. 

Negotiations seemed to go quite well, until he got all awkward about spending my money, despite knowing how much I wanted to spend! I dragged him down the drive told

him yes buy it and so we did. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there is now… another car sitting on Talbots drive …. Which doesn’t work. 

Despite, repeated efforts and a great deal of frustration and a vasodilation between diagnoses, the longest we managed to get it started for was about 10 seconds. The combined effort which included, Talbot getting shocked twice, burnt once. Teaching me how to strip and clean carburettors, teaching me how to remove and clean spark plugs, Talbot attempting to siphon fuel from my motorcycle to spray into the carbs - but realising he had no idea what shape the petrol tank on my motorcycle is, resulting in my having to go get more petrol in the bike so he could see the top. 

Most of which just went straight over my head, and gave Talbot a massive headache. We did not get it started, and Talbot has decided that the issue is now with the electronic ignition system, despite the fact the distributor is making  the sparks work (outside the engine), the timing appears to be okay (I’ remain slightly unclear on what timing is) the engine is compressing, fuel is getting to everything.

So, I have the car I have always wanted, minus a few bits and well the ability to drive it… we shall see what happens next week

 

[chaseracer]

Oh, this will be FUN... 😁

[bezzabsa]

£6500  would expect concourse condition!!!  

[Talbot]

£6500 was not the price paid.  As it was a non-runner, the price paid was significantly less.

But.  It has new everything.  Literally everything.  It's a very tidy car, possibly one of the best, but it simply would not run on the sellers driveway.  Initially this was assumed to be a fuelling issue as it would cough and splutter and not run.  That's clearly fuelling.

So the SU HF4s were stripped and cleaned.. a bit of gunk out of them but nothing untoward.  Lob them back on and... no change.

So attention turned to the ignition.  Normal tests all showed good news: strong sparks from the King lead, and with all plugs removed and grounded, you could see them all sparking very well.

Except.. it's not points, it has had a cheapie electronic ignition setup fitted, and I am fairly sure it is breaking down under the load of producing a spark within the engine under compression conditions.  The reason for this being that if you pump the accelerator like a buffoon while trying to start it, it will do the odd little cough and splutter, but adding new fresh fuel from a spray bottle directly into a carburettor inlet... makes absolutely no difference.  So it's not a fuelling issue (despite sounding like one).

The ignition is particularly suspect, as I discovered it connected up to a permanent live rather than an ignition live.  I've not yet looked at a wiring diagram to understand where/how the ballasted ignition system works on these, but there is no way it should be connected to a permanent live!

So... a second-hand distributor with a set of points in it has been bought from the bay of snot, and once fitted I can see what the situation is.  And then once running, the cheap-as-shit electronic unit can be pummeled into oblivion, and a luminition kit can go on it.

Very frustrating, but it is a Very pretty car!

[SiC]

Iirc it's a resistive wire on my '79 that provides the ballast ignition. Could be that it's powering the ignition when the key is in start but not when in the key is in the run position?

If a cheap electric ignition, they haven't put a (garbage) Accuspark dizzy on it too have they? 

[SiC]

10 hours ago, Talbot said:

The reason for this being that if you pump the accelerator like a buffoon while trying to start it, it will do the odd little cough and splutter, but adding new fresh fuel from a spray bottle directly into a carburettor inlet... makes absolutely no difference.

Don't forget that SU carbs don't have accelerator pumps. 

10 hours ago, Talbot said:

So it's not a fuelling issue (despite sounding like one).

It's often said that on British cars, it tends to almost be ignition system related rather than fuelling and is always the first place to start looking. That said, I often don't remember to refill the dash pots and wonder why an engine runs like garbage!

[SiC]

Oh, also just remembered when flicking through my own Spitfire thread! Check the fusebox 

They're a pretty crap design. The fuse for ignition on has two sides of course. However each spring clip on each side (of which two spring clips) need to make electrical contact across the fuse. On mine, one side was ignition live and the other went to the ignition system (amongst other circuits too) as unfused. But it went across one end of that fuse. High resistance from that terminal made it temperamental and melt the fuse box. I chopped the wire at the back of it and soldered the two circuits together so it didn't try get power across the two half clips. Hopefully the pictures in my thread above will make more sense. 

 

[Gabriall]

Yup its Accuspark 

Chaseracer - Behave!

Yes, I have given Talbot permission to take a hammer to the ignition once we have it started, so he seems content with that.

Nope, I haven’t figured out how to reply/quote posts yet… give me a chance this is the most I have posted on a public forum in 30 years.

[Talbot]

The frustration level getting this engine running was palpable.

Replacement points distributor fitted, points gapped and cleaned.  Hooked up and working, producing a decent spark at the King lead.  Will it run?  Will it hell.  Same spluttery cough every now and then.

So.  It has a cheap-ass accuspark coil on it.  Possibly an issue?  Get a new lucas unit for ballasted ignition (which was working perfectly... 6v at coil on ignition and then 10-11v when cranking.. exactly as expected)

Any difference?  Not a one.  This cannot be.  There is fuel, there is spark, the dizzy cap and rotor arm are clean and bright, the spark is strong when checked... dafuq?

So a sanity-check call was made to @MrsJuular and @juular who between them own 1500cc triumph engines, SU carbs,  and all the bits this engine has and know them well.  Half-an-hour of going through my diagnosis, and confirming that it really cannot be that far from running, it was concluded that a set of plugs would be worthwhile and then a methodical triple check of the timing.

New plugs procured and fitted, the timing checked again for the 37th time, wind the engine over.... and it bursts into life on all 4 cylinders as if there has never been a problem in the first place.

@Gabriall jumped out of her skin, as she'd not been expecting it to start.

Settled down to a fairly acceptable idle.. the timing now re-checked with a timing gun (it was a bit advanced but pretty close) and the car taken for a round-the-block drive.

There's a few more shakedown issues to sort, but that is the biggest hurdle achieved.  I've never know spark plugs to fail like that before now.  I can only guess they were cheap fake parts or something similar, as they had all failed together and apparently gone from working ok one day to 95% failed the next.

So, appropriately, as it was @juular who suggested they be changed for new to eliminate them, they were duly launched into the next county, never to be found again.

Phew!