After mowing, raking, fertilizing and weeding the lawn I decide to do a
bit of work on my Bugeye. I learned a couple things today.
1) My oil pressure was down so I ordered a new pressure release spring
to replace the cheapo repro I put in during last years rebuild. Pressure
went from 40 psi cruising to 75 psi cruising (80 cold).
My new spring was noticably longer then the one from Vic Brit last year.
Peter C has them and they are correct not look alikes.
2) in replacing the OP relief spring, I took out the dizzy to gain
access to the large bolt. I checked the points and lubed up the shaft
while it was out.
Stuck it back in the hole loosly and fired up the car. It fired then
stalled with a bang and would not start. Upon checking under the bonnet
I found my plug wires ripped out of the ends, coil wire shredded, low
tension leadeds ripped out of the coil and the alternator wires off the
alternator.
Apparently the dizzy popped out and was spinning around with the
startere motor!
It ripped out everything while it was spinning aroound. I'm talking the
whole thing was going around, not the insides. So I removed it and
noticed the screw that holds the shaft and weights in place was very
loose, this must have made the shaft jump up and pulled the dizzy out of
the engine enough to still spin.
I fixed the wires and tightened the screw, replaced it and the car was
just not the same. I popped it out again and took a good look at the
weights and springs.
I managed to bend a metal tab on the weight plate which kept one of the
weights from moving and I wiped out a weight spring. Repair the bent
tab, replace the whooped springs and it is as good as it was, maybe
better.
3) While replacing the bulb in one of my Lucas driving lights, I dropped
it.
Well I dropped the lens while trying to screw it back to the base.
Now it's in 3 pieces.
So does anybody have a Lucas New Ranger driving lamp glass lens? Maybe
someone has a set with a crappy mirror finish or rusted out chrome they
would be willing to sell? Check those parts boxes please.
So what did I learn?
1) Cheapo repros are not worth the box they come in but I already knew
that.
2) Use loctite on that little screw under the rotor of the dizzy.
3) Don't assume the glass will stay there while you go for a screw
driver.
--
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
Down to only 3 Sprites, 1 Midget and an A40 Farina
http://www.exit109.com/~spritenut
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