Time to update this thread, though with a bit of a mixed bag of results from my recent work it has to be said, a frustrating two steps forward one step back feeling.
I'll start with the gearbox mount that I had noted was made from black blancmange (though that's basically saying black white but hey) being replaced. This was refitted a few times due to loud gearbox whine and engine sounds making me think that I had done something in error. This in fact proved to be that current mounts are supplied with a hardness level in excess of 70 shore. When you consider that a bowling bowl is 100 shore, and the OEM mount is 45 shore you get an idea of the hardness. So car pulls away smartly from the lights without shaking itself to bits, but now sounds like trackday car with a crash box.
Bought five original wheels after finding a set just up the road in Earith for £60, belonged to a nice lady who owned a TR7 that the wheels were destined for, but had decided to keep the original TR7 wheels when her insurance company said that alloys are a modification. They were in a bit of a state, had been painted with silver paint with green inserts. Spent a Saturday with paint remover, wire wool and a lot of elbow grease, and I think that considering the tyres stayed on, that they have come up quite nicely. Will do a better job at the next tyre change.
Before, though I had painted on the paint remover at this stage:
And after (like you needed that pointing out! Mind you, can't tell that the silver paint has gone and that it is now polished alloy):
Because the performance is not exactly sparkling, and I am in no way impressed with the standard of previous work, I thought I would start with taking a look at the ignition side of things. Previous experience has taught me that you get the ignition system sorted out first before even thinking of looking at fuelling or elsewhere.
Box of new parts arrived; leads, distributor cap, rotor and coil from Powerspark (simonbbc), module from Britpart:
Cap is certainly a lot taller!:
Been a few years since I've peered inside a Lucas dizzy, made me feel all nostalgic:
With all the new bits fitted, including new 12v supply to the coil, I went to start the car and nothing. Fine, so I knew it would need the timing redoing but I thought it would actually start at least so that I could dynamically set it. Took off the coil HT lead and looked for a spark and found nothing at all. Checked all my work and could find nothing wrong, went away and googled for some answers and found a couple of threads mentioning the height of the magnetic ring in relation to the pickup caused an issue. Found a suitable O ring to put on top of the dizzy shaft that would make the magnets sit higher.
Success! Well sort of, started but seconds later stalled with a disturbing screech. Timing then I thought, and so with seeing no obvious way of turning over the engine from the front, jacked up the rear and enlisted the help of an assistant (with thanks to my housemate). I had to turn the dizzy full clockwise to get the right BTDC figure, this didn't seem right at all, and not only that but it meant that the rear spring clip for the cap was now inaccessible.
Took the car for a test drive, this was not good as the car was wildly misfiring like a thing that misfires an awful lot. So, after my hours simple job had taken many more, and it was now Sunday, in desperation I took out my spare distributor and cleaned it up and transferred everything across. The magnets certainly fitted on tighter to the shaft, but sadly with pretty much the same results. Ripped out the Britpart module and put the old points in, gapped them as best as I could as there is a deep pit in them even after trying to flatten them, and static timed the distributor. Started first turn and sounded so much better, test drive showed it to be much smoother and far more torque than before, specially setting off from rest. Not sure if that was the timing being set correctly or the new coil, leads etc.
So contact points win? Well not so fast, I now have a misfire at high speed, so not completely! I have changed so many things that I'm going to have to reverse everything I have done to find the culprit, maybe it's the new coil, leads etc or the spare distributor which seemed to have one weak spring on the advance weights. So some decisions to be made, just a new set of points which was not the plan, because as nostalgic as setting the points was, I was hoping for a bit more fit and forget and removing the annoying repeated setting of them, or try another electronic unit that's not the Britpart one.
Still, I'm happy with the wheels...