Smitten by her Chassis - Spitfire 1500

 

For my 70th Bday I got a 78 Triumph Spitfire. 

  

I call her Tinker because she's a Bell and a Toy - but when I checked the fluids before her first time out, a piece of hard metal drained out of the gearbox. I drove Tinker for a spell, always worried that her tranny might soon give up the ghost. I didn't want to pull the transmission for a rebuild because I didn't want to have Tinker down that long. 

I sourced a used transmission on the net. The fellow selling the used gearbox said I could have the whole chassis for another hundred bucks. Why not, who knows what else my Bday present might need when I started putting her through her paces.

The gearbox donor.

 After getting the chassis home via a Uhaul car carrier for $50, I extracted the gearbox and sent it out for rebuild. I'd put the rebuild in my running Spitfire at the first sign of trouble. I've had a ball driving the '78 Spit for several years, still with no signs of a gearbox problem. The chassis has been sitting patiently under a tarp in the backyard all this time. 

Then I had a new neighbor move in behind me. Nice fellow in talking over the back fence. I got to feeling a little guilty about this ugly tarpped chassis being the view out his bedroom window, so I decided to hide it behind some bushes.

I had to take off the rotten bedraggled tarp in sections, then air up the tires, then rig a come-along to get the chassis out of the mud. But after it broker free, she rolled cooperatively to her new hiding place with little effort. 

I had a new tarp on hand, but as I began to cover her up, she said, "Hey big guy, I haven't seen you in a long time. What say we hang out together for a spell before you tarp me over?"

She is a petite little girl, about 1/2 my age and her flirting caught me off guard. "Sure!" I said, reveling in her wisdom of choosing age and experience to compliment her youth.

That is how it all started.

Knowing that she hadn't been on the scene for decades, I thought maybe I could bring her ticker back to the life she knew in the 70's...This old man loved the 70's.

Getting her parts in running order would be an involved project, but she was taunting me and I couldn't resist.

Then I had second thoughts. No way could I keep up with this teasing young female. But you know us guys, so I decided I'd give her the cautious approach and bail the moment her condition was beyond my aging years.

The first hurdle was would she go around at all. If she couldn't roll over our relationship would likely come to an end. I put a wrench on her flywheel...she spun 360 with no hesitation. This was encouraging.

I had to remove the radiator to get to this crank bolt, but there were only 2 bolts holding it in and the hoses weren't connected.

 She was missing many parts including battery, key, solenoid and associated wiring. Cautiously I briefly touched a hot jumper directly to her starter. Hey, she turns over...what a come-on, and one good turn deserves another so I fitted a key switch, starter solenoid and basic wiring for the starter so I could jump her with an extra battery I had on hand. This girl knew how to keep my interest.

  

While adoring her cooperation I noticed she was missing her fuel pump. I made a pretty block off plate to keep her insides inside.

  

Encouraged to continue, I changed the oil and put on a new filter. The old oil looked exceptionally clean - no particles or bad color. Good girl.

I had a Ford Focus oil filter that fit just fine.

 

Clean oil kept me moving on with anticipation. I wondered if there was any compression...if she couldn't take the pressure this would complicate our relationship. 

 When I removed the valve cover, the gasket was cemented in with some kind of silicone, easily removed...although the gasket looked OK. I removed the plugs, screwed a gauge in #1 and turned the new key. Oil squirted out of the side of the block when I cranked her. Was she throwing in the towel? 

But it was only because her oil pressure gauge had been removed. Fit plug to stop the oil deluge.

  

Brass plug to keep the oil inside.

The compression was depressing... all over the place between 25 and 120...no significant difference dry and wet. "Sorry Sweety, his might be the end of our relationship?"

Wearily, I adjusted the valves to decide whether to continue the endeavor or get the tarp back out. Only if I had 90 or better in all cylinders after putting her lashes back in spec would I continue. A little disenchanted with the likely outcome I didn't log the results - just wanted to see whether to continue or not. But she didn't let me down. Readings were 110 or better on all 4. She was egging me on.

After fitting a new coil (she came without one), she'd fire erratically if I squirted gas into the carb, but wouldn't stay running. But for me, this was light at the end of the tunnel.

 So now we add an electric fuel pump instead of squirting fuel into the carb.

  

She seemed like she wanted to make me happy. She'd fire, hesitate, limp and die before gaining and rpms. She was trying and encouraged me to do the same.

New points and plugs. A little help but still wouldn't stay running.

Discovered if I totally blocked the intake, she'd barely lope along at low rpm, but she would rev up nicely. Time to do some carb work for the girl.

The Zenith/Stromberg carb is totally foreign to me, with no less than 5 ports for who knows what. The rebuild kit was ouch, $40!

I never did install the rebuild kit.

Discovered loose carb mounting nuts (which are, pardon me, a bitch to wrench on), and wrong carb to intake gasket, oh, and also missing PVC valve and associated plumbing...maybe accounting for some of the above problems.

Well now she would start and run pretty much on her own but I wouldn't let her go for long without cooling. Now she was warming up to me. I'm thinking she misses having her distributor communicating with the Stromberg, but it's not in the 'carbs' right now.

She was missing her alternator so I fitted her with a rebuilt which required making custom bracket mounts. Now her (new) belt would turn the water pump and fan to let her radiator catch a breath.

Rebuilt alternator.

I had to make these spacers to get the pulley to line up with the crank.

 Next was fixing/replacing radiator hose plumbing, closing up the heater core nipples and giving her a new thermostat. I like my girls hot, but not out of control.

New thermostat and gasket

After some minor tweaking I would run her long enough for the thermostat to open. As cantankerous she had been, she was now totally cooperating. What a sweety.

Add temp and oil pressure gauges to keep track of her vitals now that she was merrily and consistently running.

Franken fitting for the new temp sensor.

 

She levels off at just over 170.

I use 20W50 and never see anything less than 20psi even hot at 750rpm.

  

We knew the alternator allowed the belt to turn the fan, but would it charge the battery? 

Order the alternator plug. 

 

These push on terminals aren't available in any generic size.

When it came, solder on leads and wire it up to the battery. This is a simple measure if you have the (uncommon) connector/plug for the back of the alternator...basically it's a single wire alternator. 

I hooked up a Harbor Freight VOM to measure alternator output, and found she puts out after hitting the required 1,000 rpm. See, she doesn't just put out, you have coddle her by getting her revs up! Decided to just install a small voltmeter to monitor the output.

Yup, the alternator does feed the battery.

Now she willingly lights up a second or two after I turn the key, bubbles with comforting enthusiasm idling at 750 rpm and jumps alive when I tickle her throttle. She's a girl after my own heart - click the link to hear her purr.

Bless her 71 horses.

She is a quite proper girl. She doesn't dribble or smoke anywhere, even her unplumbed valve cover PCV port shows no signs of bad breath.

Had no incentive to do the PCV plumbing after plugging the carb side.

This girl has led me on a very satisfying chase that I just couldn't resist. But her home is no longer here. I have too many unfinished projects and I want to find someone to put her into productive use.

I asked around about what she might be worth - a respected source said she should bring $750. But there were no takers. Then a fellow offered me $425. After realizing that anyone with this vintage car doesn't want a running engine...they want to rebuild one to factory specs and make it OEM new, I accepted the offer...but never heard back.

Now she's getting lonesome out back and I'd like to find her a good home. I started an ad on Craigslist but decided I didn't want to deal with all the complications - I put my camper up for sale there and got 24 inquiries from not too serious buyers in a matter of hours. The sale was ultimately agonizing. I'm too old to deal with the hastle of that kind of selling. So, if she tickles your fancy - make an offer. If no one here is interested, maybe someone knows of an Auto class or Scout project that would like a donation.