1965 Mk1 road/rally Bitsa, (now supercharged 8 port)

[Richspec]

manifold shortened by 23mm and it now fits the hole in the bonnet, as good as its ever going to anyway.
Whiteboard list of jobs to do keps getting longer rather than shorter but there's a chance of an engine start attempt on Sunday coming

edited to add - setting clutch should be press and hold, screw throwout till it touches the wok then in another flat?
but with the clutch pressed the throwout nut doesnt go as far as the cover.??
I'm using the minispares uprated arm setup if that makes any difference?

[GraemeC]

The arm set up shouldn't make any difference. Is the idler bearing fully home on the plunger?

[smithyrc30]

Questions of the week.

Did you put the thrust plate that is held into the diaphragm by the wire clip in the right way around?

With the engine running does the clutch 'clear' so you can engage gears?

[Richspec]

The arm set up shouldn't make any difference. Is the idler bearing fully home on the plunger?

I thought it was , it only went on so far before sounding 'home'.
with the bolt screwed as far towards the wok as it'll go theres a gap of maybe 3-4mm.

Questions of the week.

Did you put the thrust plate that is held into the diaphragm by the wire clip in the right way around?

With the engine running does the clutch 'clear' so you can engage gears?

Certain thats correct as i was studying the ones i had to choose the best condition one, I can't comment on the second part, we'll see on sunday hopefully!

Hopefully its just something not quite sitting together right, like the bearing, although a PITA its just one of many ways this build has fought me

[Richspec]

Minor progress - two steps forward, one back as usual.
Oil catch tank fitted to inner wing, which meant moving the air horns compressor, still got access to clutch nuts ok though. Breather pipes run from timing cover and breather on fuel pump hole on block, protective heat sleeve made and fitted there as its hellish close to the lcb.

Crank sensor bracket totally refabbed and fingers burnt as it wasnt picking up the timing wheel, it didnt help that I'd forgotten to remove the 1 tooth as they come from MED with a full set, not 1 missing like many

Throttle position switch rewired as I'd got two wires arse about face and it was reading backwards and 100% throttle all the time, and OMEX software doesnt appear to have an option to reverse it.

Air Temp sensor not reading at all - needs investigation

Water temp sensor needs further recalibrating but at least thats easy to do.

Tappets set, although I've lost my spec sheet that came with the cam so for now set them all at 18 thou cold.

So we had a spark, I could work the throttle a bit (needs a return spring added) lets see if it fires...
turned it over and bang, somethings popped, no more electrickery going to recheck the fuses again (it was late) but its them or a failure of the ignition switch.

[Richspec]

FFS

Amateur mistake, battery earth to the body was loose.
Still not got it to start yet though, initial setting of the carb and timing is being a pain in the arse but slowly slowly catchy monkey, or something

[Richspec]

so last weeks lesson was that you should always rebuild stuff, particularly carbs, even if 'it were right last time'

so some pics, as everybody likes pics

the cramped inner wing.

IMAG2126.jpg

the refabricated crank sensor bracket.

IMAG2127.jpg

butchered alloy remote to get the exhaust to fit.

IMAG2094.jpg

air inlet temp sensor in filter head

IMAG2085.jpg

carb now fitting after moving engine and shortening manifold

IMAG2124.jpg

[Richspec]

home made tools used to reset and check float level in carb, it way way off, like 10mm low.

IMAG2128.jpg

and as of tonight.

IMAG2149 - Copy.jpg

tomorrow yet another Minispares order arrives, adjustable on car bottom arms for this and the clubby estate, plus other odds and sods.

jobs still to do:
get the timing sorted, the omex timing and 'real' engine timing checked with the strobe aren't agreeing and when you try to adjust them to make it right the thing wont start.
wheel alignment
door check straps to fit, bit fiddly on the modified door pockets
exhaust sealing
clutch to set up.

oh yes and not forgetting the inlet manifold is leaking from underneath the 'maniflo' badge thats welded on, not from where we chopped it.

[Richspec]

MOT passed

pre mot.jpg

since then I've got the door straps fitted, and bought lots of idle jets and other bits to try and get the mixture about right. Hopefully tonights order should be the last, at the moment its piss weak in the idle range.

Timing was sorted on the morning of the mot, just very small increments of adjustment to the offset made a huge difference.
Clutch has been sorted since, ended up ignoring the documented settings and just adjusted it till we had no crunches, no dragging and it doesnt effect engine speed either. I'll let it bed in a bit and check it all again after its done some miles.

getting there

Rich

[Richspec]

I managed to pick up those mirrors from demon tweeks for £3 each.... A pricing error I imagine, as they went back up to full price straight after! Lucky find.
I have mounted the drivers side at present the same way in which yours is. I have noticed there isn't really enough adjustment to bring the mirror in so I can see down the side of the car? Have you noticed the same or am I not trying hard enough? Cheers

Going back to this - the mirrors are shite, on max adjustment the flat glass of the drivers side enables you to just see the rear arch, the flat glass on the passenger side means you can see anything thats about six foot from the side of the car, totally useless.

Options are to get the same but in chrome with convex glass
or
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... ing-mirror
or these
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... ide-mirror

[rich@minispares.com]

rich


just one problem....

you have spelt brittas wrong...................

[mk1]

What a cracking build!



m

[mzmini]

Beautiful motor what a job

[Richspec]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQnJRjpef34

its the second run out, and i made some changes last week thats not helped (tweaked float setting in carb) so will undo them first.

Its got a 'wobble/hesitation' coming off roundabouts, in the clip above its around the 7-8 second mark, it feels like fuel starvation, backed up by the lambda going offscale weak, so going to look at fuel pump,filter, voltages etc, sitting in the garage and reving it the fuel pressure is stable at 3.5psi but it doesnt like roundabouts.

Also got a mega rattle that seems to be coming from the central speedo.

[Richspec]

got an award yesterday..

13886487_10210529524585368_9153483562229689939_n.jpg

Best variant, sort of a catch all category for modified/ or variants or any oddballs

Could have got an award for best misfire as well, turned off the main road into the venue and dropped to 2 cylinders at best.
Thought initially I'd run out of fuel, 7.5 gallons in 85 miles?? but that wasn't it, very intermittent and only happened when i tried driving...arrgghhh. In the end decided to limp home and got a method of constantly accelerating, thus activating the pump jets and making it run, so 60 miles back constantly massaging the throttle on and off my ankle is a bit stiff today! however 20 miles from home it cleared and ran fine again, which obviously makes it bloody hard to diagnose.

This weekend is mitp, its a 4 hour drive there, so I've ordered a new fuel pump (silver top), IDA service kit and also bought a new IDA. so one way or the other it'll be sorted..

Other bits I've done - fitted new digital centre speedo, it went in okay but a right bitch working in behind the weber and combined with the new fuel tank sender the gauge doesnt work, connect up the old one and swing it about and voila - working fuel gauge. FFS
Finally got the door cards into the narrowed pockets, nicely sliced my hand there.
Sealed windows with silicone in various places after it pissed in at a car show i went to.
Clutch still crunches going into first, unless i go 2nd then 1st.
I'm also constantly changing jets to get the fuelling about right and its not far off now, its certainly pretty nippy and cruising along on and off the throttle with the weber roaring away is just

13681039_905393659572811_866230403465552841_n.jpg

[mk1]

I hate problems that come & go, as you say it makes them almost impossible to diagnose.

Congratulations on the pot though!

[Richspec]

New weber, new fuel pump and old fuel sender fitted on Friday night, quick test runs this this morning and several hours later now at mitp.

I have identified the mega rattle from inside the car, it's the gearstick, it acting like conduit for the vibrations from the engine, if I drive with my hand pop putting pressure on it it's bearable but I do start to suffer vibration numbness after an hour or more..

Has anyone else had this???

[1071 S]

Rod or remote shift??

Cheers, Ian

[Richspec]

sorry, should have said, blame road noise tiredness!
its a remote change.

todays issues, its decided it will idle at 2000rpm with the throttle fully closed. brilliant and my electric fan sounds like its eating the inner wing (it was getting warm queing to come in due to the idling). What else? the fuel feed inlet into the weber came loose and the standard fibre o ring isnt really the right size so will have to look for alternatives.

[surfblue63]

Rich

Your car appears at the start of this video shot at last weekends Geordie Job

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xczr3qamtB8

Stuart