Sure, diamonds may be a girls best friend, but guys appreciate shiny things too. Kicking the anemic OEM Zenith Stromberg to the curb in favor of this Weber DGV downdraft carburetor has made the Spitfire (and me) quite pleased with ourselves. It’s like a new car: full of pep and torque, chirping tires at green lights, bellowing along at highway speeds… Also, relatively painless to install: had wiring already in place (from the Painless wiring harness I’d fitted) for the electric choke. Do miss fiddling with the manual choke on the dash a bit… but don’t really miss stalling, taking forever to warm up, and having the general sensation that the 1500 was always gasping for air.
Before: the bane of my gearhead existence for over a decade…
After: STREET LEGAL & ON THE ROAD for the 1st time in this millennium!!!!!!!!!!!!
For the first time in the 21st century, this Triumph Spitfire 1500 moves under its own power – albeit in first gear only, on a decidedly non-roadster-friendly day in December! After replacing all of the Prince of Darkness wiring and ignition bits – and then discovering the clutch slave cylinder had seized and needed replacement as well – the Spit is up and running again, after over a decade of profound inertia.
Even got two generations (one in each direction) of Spitfire aficionados to climb in for a victory lap up and down the snowy driveway…
There’s no longer any point(s): Houston, we have (electronic) ignition! Lucas, Prince of Darkness has left the building! Bolted this tidy little Crane FireBall XR700 to the firewall (just behind the upgraded ignition coil).
Timing is everything: hope tomorrow (in November in VT) is 60 degrees too, when I get back the rebuilt distributor (replacing the original points with optical) & fire it up.
Q: What’s missing? (hint: after a brief blaze of glory yesterday – actually running for the first time in a decade! – the part that heretofore occupied the area plugged up with a rag has been temporarily removed, off to the shop to be fitted with an electronic ignition, as part of the de-Lucasization campaign)
A: The OEM Prince of Darkness Lucas distributor
Dash together, and switches & electrics all working again, after my first attempt at replacing speedo proved hazardous to the hazard switch, disconnecting one or more of its sundry connections.
And thusly the mighty Lucas, Prince of Darkness, was at long last smote down by a lowly American-made (Painless) hotrod wiring harness as it was spaketh unto him: “let there be light!”
… unto all four corners did it shine …
… it even shown inward, illuminating all!
…But nor for long. Have resumed fighting one of the final battles of the Revolutionary War, by installing a modern-day wiring harness. In the initial stages of this uprising however, the British are still winning.
Nonetheless, I intend to stand up to the tyranny of the Prince of Darkness, and replace the OEM wiring and all possible Lucas electronics with a current hotrod wiring harness, made right here in the colonies by Painless. Despite using the most basic harness they offered, it’s still a lot more wires than used to be there!
The long and winding road of restoring and maintaining a 1974 Triumph Spitfire 1500
