Timothy Keith-Lucas

It's been claimed by a high school auto shop restoring an MG TD.

Somehow I've ended up with two of the Wingdilly carb manometers used for balancing SU or other side/down draft carbs. If someone wants it, PM me an address to mail it to.

Wonderful! That's the sort of answer I was hoping for. I'll stop and compute the added displacement from the overbore, assuming that the very successful first owner took advantage of that allowance, and know for sure. Thank you. That comes to 5.39 cc, for a total of 953.4 cc. Got it.

Is there a simple way to confirm engine displacement in my 1962 S2 America with an Austin engine? Not only do the sources I can find contradict each other or allow for options, the car was raced in SCCA FP class with two engines (I have both) being traded out. I do have the original engine (not in the car at present) with the dataplate AEA-17 RS19576. Best bet seems to be the 948 CC version at 43 HP. The carbs (SU AUC549, AUC930R) which I'm told are wrong for that car just complicate the issue.

Thanks so much! Leads for me to chase down. Drakman, I'm thinking about the choke (as well as the idle) because the front carb pulls very little suction. The back carb just about pulls my hand into the engine while I can put my hand over the front one with no effect. I'm also going to look for an air leak into the manifold.

The presenting problem is that my Sprite 998 engine with an SU AUC549 carb for the front two cylinders and AUC930R for the rear idles at 2500 RPM with the idle screw all the way out and a bit of slack in the throttle cable. The rear sparkplugs look just the right brown color while the front two are out-and-out wet after running to normal temperature. Overall power seems OK and I see some soot but not enough to be visible in the exhaust. Tightening what appears to be the jet adjusting nut (below the spring) on the front carb has no effect whatever. Not even Herb Adler's "The Idiot's Guide to Tuning SU Carburetters" is any help. What's going on here? Is there a guide that might help me?

As an aside, my radiator happens to have a brass upper chamber. The leak was under a brass tag left there by a radiator shop to cover the original leak. It took me a few tries to seal it up completely, because the previous repair was a rather large area of solder, and the leak kept sneaking out from under it.

Unfortunately, my kinky mistress sits in the bay immediately beside my wife's sugar daddy, a 1924 Ford Model T., which is also beside my pop-top Miata. Model Ts have a somewhat Victorian air to them. That's gorgeous work, Stevensonjr. I think my problem is solved - my solder job has held, and I'm back on the road. Thanks for your help and a very interesting conversation.

Across the battery. Having replaced the charge used in starting and having a functioning voltage regulator should result in about 14.3V and a balanced ammeter. Disconnect the alternator, or have it fail, and you get a negative reading reflecting amps used by the car. I'm getting 14.3 and a negative reading that is proportionate to the car's uses, including the fan motor and lights. I always run with the lights on, given that drivers around here are predominantly in jacked-up Ford F-150s.

Thank you, MV8. I'll try tracing the wiring according to the diagram.. Thanks for posting it. --Tim.

Here's a strange one: Ammeter was reading negative, and more so with the lights on. OK, I think, this generator is toast and why not replace it with an alternator? Done. Added a little digital voltmeter while I was at it. Now, cruising around the county, the voltmeter reads 14.4 volts, so that alternator is pumping out, and the ammeter still reads negative, more so with the lights on. No change. So, perhaps the generator was pumping out all along, but the ammeter only reads the outflow. It doesn't even go to zero when the generator is working; it reads the amps being used independent of the amps being generated. How do you mis-wire an ammeter to do this? It's not stopping me, it's just really odd.

What that means to me is never to let my engines near any coolant but water and ethylene glycol. With the best heat transfer coming from water, and a Florida environment in which freezing temperatures are rare and even rarer below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, mostly water seems a better bet than 50/50.

That's really professional work, MV8. As a temporary addition until I can get the materials together, I've added a block of closed cell foam on top of the radiator to reduce the leakage over the top. So far, my adventures in Florida 2023 cooling of a cold wet English cooled sports car has included: 1. Bunches of flushing 2. Oil cooler 3. Repair radiator leak 4. Temporary baffle 5. Repair electric fan 6. Add fan blades to water pump Autumn has come to North Florida. 68 this morning, not 82. Thank you all for all your help.

Good thought. I'll add one. Thanks.

I did get a bunch of debris out of it that didn't come loose the last time I flushed it. Yeah, we had a very hot summer here in north Florida. Until I added an oil cooler and a set of fan blades on the front of the water pump, she overheated with alarming frequency.

Out. Pin hole under the manufacturer's label. It's brass! I can solder it. It was tricky getting it out. Released the four bolts on the steering cross bar, moved the rubber boots out to the wheels, and twisted it past the fan motor. Thanks for the coaching.

It appears that all the leaks are in the upper tank, so I have hope. But, gawd almighty! You have to take the steering out to get the radiator loose...

As in Reline Motorsports, Pompano Beach?

Thanks so much. You are a wonderful resource for us beginners. Here's the one I need. I've found one on UK eBay for L344 plus bunches of shipping. I think I'll try for a repair, if I can find a shop that still does that. If it's brass (I have not checked), I could solder it or braise it.

Can anyone cite a source for a radiator for my 1962 S2? The current radiator is 17" tall, 20" wide, and 3" thick. The top and bottom tubes extend up and down slightlybeyond that 17" measurement.

Amazon has a $26 remote control battery cut off switch that would be a super high-tech way to go at it. In this case I didn't spend money or wait for delivery - the switch was sitting in a parts tote within 10 feet of the Seven. Here: https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Disconnect-Negative-Vehicle-Anti-Theft/dp/B0C23LBFMV/ref=sxin_26_sbv_search_btf?content-id=amzn1.sym.6cfa532e-9c8f-48d2-87a3-a61547a0d356%3Aamzn1.sym.6cfa532e-9c8f-48d2-87a3-a61547a0d356&crid=VY2TW8IEJTP5&cv_ct_cx=battery+disconnect+switch+12v&keywords=battery+disconnect+switch+12v&pd_rd_i=B0C23LBFMV&pd_rd_r=8f4683ee-019e-4fc1-8535-f022be83aa82&pd_rd_w=UyC8A&pd_rd_wg=IoHVQ&pf_rd_p=6cfa532e-9c8f-48d2-87a3-a61547a0d356&pf_rd_r=QA7CWNE0BBT9550ZNZDT&qid=1688043517&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=battery+disconnect+switch%2Caps%2C338&sr=1-1-5190daf0-67e3-427c-bea6-c72c1df98776

I suppose a race marshal would have a conniption fit, but it works. My own carelessness caused a wiring fire in my Seven. I managed while rewiring the tachometer to connect the two sides of the battery together. From that I learned that 1) it takes forever to get to the battery to disconnect it, and 2) the 1960s rack for my fire extinguisher is difficult to release. So, I took a cheap battery disconnect blade switch similar to this one https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Disconnect-Vehicle-Negative-Vertical/dp/B0896YT9MY/ref=sr_1_5?crid=VY2TW8IEJTP5&keywords=battery+disconnect+switch+12v&qid=1687962487&sprefix=battery+disconnect+switch%2Caps%2C338&sr=8-5 drilled out the rivet that acts as the hinge pin for the blade and tied a piece of red paracord to one end. I mounted the switch on the battery, and ran the cord through the firewall, under the fire extinguisher release, and out to a handle hanging just below the panel on the passenger (left) side. Pull the handle and the fire extinguisher falls into the passenger foot well and the blade exits the clamps for the switch, disconnecting the battery. Details: I have a positive ground system with the negative battery pole nearer the firewall, so I had to make sure that the blade completely exits, rather than connecting the negative battery pole to the aluminum firewall. My bonnet comes close to the battery posts, so I added insulation where contact could occur. There are far more sophisticated ways to skin this cat (ouch), but it works.

In the last few days I've had very positive interactions with two Lotus 7 companies, and want to share my experience and recommendation of them. 1. Hayes Harrison of Wire Wheels in Vero Beach, Florida, a Lotus-centered used sports car dealer. Long after selling my 7 to me, Hayes road tripped to Orlando and retrieved a spare engine that has a history with my car. He then passed it on to me this last Friday. He didn't have to do that - money in hand, I could have been forgotten. If I ever want a more modern Lotus, I'm going back to him. 2. Clocks for Classics in the UK. I purchased a circuit with which to update my Smith tachometer from them. I had no end of trouble getting it to work, and Mark Willows stayed right with me, exchanging emails virtually daily, until I found the problem, which was a silly mistake on my part. I had put the innards into the tach can crooked, so the center of the needle touched the glass front, stopping it from moving. The company and Mark get my strong recommendation for anyone needing instrument work.

Former University Fire Marshal and fire extinguisher tech here. Let's look at it from a practical side. First, what's the fire likely to be? The scary possibility is that it's Class B, meaning gasoline, since a gasoline fire in a car can kill the occupant(s) very quickly. The second possibility is that it's Class A (Polyester resin and tires, in this case) because we are talking about Sevens. The resin burns very quickly, the smoke is very toxic, and the car is destroyed very quickly. We don't want that to happen. Class C is only a concern in the fire originating in the electrical system, at 12V DC, so using water is OK. Dry chemical is cheap and the extinguisher not very heavy. It does a good job on Class B (oil and gasoline) fires, and a fair but not very good job on A. It makes a horrid mess and destroys anything electronic it touches, due to its corrosive properties. It makes a crust between the fuel and the flames, and does little to remove heat. Halon derivatives are very expensive and act by displacement of oxygen. It does little to remove heat from a Class A fire, and in an outdoor environment (race day) can blow away. It is very clean, destroying nothing. CO2 is cheap, displaces like Halon, does not remove heat, is clean, and blows away. Its containers are very heavy. Water (Yes, they make water extinguishers) is cheap, heavy, does a great job cooling a Class A fire, but is useless in a Class B fire. So, what's the practical solution for a Seven on fire with fuel and fiberglass likely involved? At that moment, dry chemical is the best compromise. IT makes a whopping cloud of powder, It will stop both Class A and B, and if we have water (or foam) coming soon the water can cool everything down below flash point. Then we have one hell of a mess, and the electronics (on a Seven?) are shot, but we got the most possible property protected and the best opportunity for getting the occupants out. Particularly on a windy day, we could not have done as well with Halon, CO2, or water. The next day, you go at it with lots of soapy water. It's corrosive, and even mild corrosion bothers the airlines, but it's not THAT corrosive.

Thank you, John. I choose the curviest roads in the area, which are few and far between in an area where two mile straight-aways and three foot changes in elevation are the norm. She doesn't scare me any more, so I opened her up with 4,800 RPM shifts as near as I can tell (the tach still needs work). What a joy! I came back through the little village of Carrabelle, crowded today with Memorial Day tourists and their boats, and turned some heads. The Seven doesn't reach the lug nuts on the usual Ford F150 and F250 trucks pulling boats, but those drivers are thrilled to see someone actually getting to drive. Lots of thumbs up and waves. Tomorrow should also be good for driving, so I have a longer trip in mind. No car shows until September - it's too hot here during the summer. Then we'll take both the Seven and my wife's 1924 Model T to a very friendly and casual show north of here. Lisa is busy in the garage bay next to the Seven refinishing the block and head on her T. She's finding lots of really bad work done by some previous owner. Things like an off center and smashed exhaust manifold gasket. It should be spinning like a top by September.