Every so often, a small maintenance job on one of my cars goes quickly and
well and yields great results. Tonight I happened to experience such an
event.
In the past several months, I'd done about everything else one normally does
to maintain/tune up a typical Herald, including new spark plugs, points and
condensor, and also some intensive jet cleaning on the mighty Solex B30PSE1
carburetor. And it's been running ok, but just not quite like it was. The idle
was
getting rougher, it was sometimes a bit rough at speed, there were the
occasional backfires on overrun, fuel consumption was increasing slightly,
etc.
So FINALLY I was able to leave the car sit at home all day (borrowed my
favorite Spitfire MkIV to go to work and back) and then come home tonight and
do a
quick valve clearance check/set before dark.
VOILA! Turned out that 6 of the 8 clearances were "tight" by several
thousandths each. What this might indicate long-term is of only minor concern
to me at
this point. The end result of resetting them was like hitting the Nitrous
button.
OK, not really. But the idle smoothed out, no more backfiring or rough
running, and the car flies and pulls like the proverbial train again. Not bad
for 40
hp and 1147cc...and a single Solex. I'm beginning to think there just might
be an early Spitfire camshaft in there after all, 'cause it sure feels good
again. :-)
Between this and the fact that I finally have a good working C40 generator,
it's really fun to drive the car again! The small pleasures of life.
Just gotta be careful now not to let shipwright's disease attack. I managed
last weekend NOT to go any further than regluing the headlining and replacing
the rear window gasket, so I can now roll down both door windows and not worry
about the turbulence blowing out the rear glass!
--Andy Mace
*Mrs Irrelevant: Oh, is it a jet?
*Man: Well, no ... It's not so much of a jet, it's more your, er,
Triumph Herald engine with wings.
-- Cut-price Airlines Sketch, Monty Python's Flying Circus (22)
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/herald1200/database/";>Check out the North
American Triumph Sports 6 (Vitesse) and Herald Database</A>!
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