July - Tucson British Car Register
Transcription
July - Tucson British Car Register
THE TUCSON BRITISH CAR REGISTER July 2015 Articles, opinions and suggestions printed in the Register are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy of TBCR or its officers or members unless duly noted. Technical tips are for informational purposes only. In this issue: The President Squeeks Drive Time Full Chat Phantom Car Show Events Calendar On the Road Bonnet and Boot Photo credits: page 7 – Pete and Steve page 8 – Jeff all others - staff Volume 21, Number 7 The President Squeeks “Odd instances of strange coincidence are really not all that odd perhaps” (Queen Caroline’s advocate, speaking in the House of Lords) The strangest thing happened to me. I was stuck in a traffic jam and a car show broke out! Thus the Phantom Car Show was invented. And quite a show it was. Someone said that we had over 30 cars appear. As if by magic. Actually it was as if by Ben Cohen. Ben is the mover/shaker of tours in TBCR and he deserves a well-earned thank you for the work he does. If history serves me, that’s how the club started out. We had one major tour and a pot luck dinner per month. That lasted about two years when it was decided we didn’t need to actually drive someplace and see something interesting, just driving to the pot luck sufficed. Attendance fell off, then others began joining (not just Ttypes but all MGs, then all English Cars) and here we are, back driving someplace to see something (or eat or drink or just goof off). All thanks to our Tour Master, Ben. And now my mind has gone blank. So until next month, The Prez Has Squeeked. Jim The Register Page 2 of 10 Drive Time OK…it’s hot, but not as hot, as it’s going to get. You have only 2 months to prepare for our ultimate summer event: Mad Dogs and Englishmen – “100 miles at over 100 degrees! It doesn’t get much better than this one… It’s been 6 or 7 times that TBCR has run this event. For all the new members let’s tell the truth. We have “never” lost a single car and no one broke down during the driving portion of this event. Each year 18 – 27 cars have left the starting point, drove about 110 miles and all returned to joyous accolades from fellow TBCR members, who decided to join in the fun but not…drive. However, there are “just rewards” and in this case it will be 2 scoops of FROST Gelato for all TBCR members who decide to show up on Sunday, August 23. Watch for details and be read to drive this one! For those of you who have “flown” to cooler climes for the summer, and there are many, we miss you dearly but still keep the faith by driving our cars as much as we can. Our first summer BLAT (1st Wednesday of the month) was quite a success with 21 people cheerfully meeting for that 5:30 AM departure and 90 min drive. We’ll be doing it again in July with an east side/Vail drive and breakfast at Millie’s Pancake Haus on Tanque Verde. However, the pièce de résistance comes on August 5th with our BLAT ending with a 7:00 AM breakfast at the Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch. This was well attended last year and I hope that we get even more RSVPs this summer. Watch for details and information for that RSVP. By the time you read this we will have had our first summer Cruise & Schmooze – one of our few ‘non-driving’ events. June was organized with the help of Greg Welch and featured a wine tasting at Catavinos with snacks provided by TBCR. What will be doing in July on the 4th weekend of the month? Well, if you have a suggestion for an event, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. We can meet for lunch, dinner or even a “happy hour” at some local pub. What do you want? Thanks for participating and before you know it, it’ll be cool fall weather!!! Ben The Register Page 3 of 10 PRESIDENT Jim Abbott [email protected] VICE PRESIDENT Kevin McCue [email protected] SECRETARY Sandy O’Harra [email protected] TREASURER Brenda Johnson [email protected] NEWSLETTER John Mead [email protected] DRIVING EVENTS Ben Cohen [email protected] REGALIA Len & Nancy Wheeler [email protected] WEB SITE Harold Beekhuizen [email protected] TBCR Mailing Address Including Orders for Regalia Tucson British Car Registry P.O. Box 35748 Tucson, AZ 85740 We’re on the Web! See us at: http://www.tucsonbritish.com Full Chat Cutaway drawings and meticulously built cutaway and transparent scale models have been used by generations of industrial and architectural engineers. With the advent of computer aided design the ultra-detailed and expensive models of factories and power plants seem to have been relegated to museums or the back of classrooms. However the exotic cutaways have found new life in the hands of marketing departments, as this Range Rover attests. I spotted this beauty in the commercial row at Laguna Seca last summer. John The Register Page 4 of 10 The Phantom Car Show Pictures from the Phantom Car Show, Saturday June 6. Participants enjoyed a relaxing Saturday strategically located in a shady spot near Park Place Mall. As Jim mentioned, there were 30 cars and plenty of food and coffee. Don’t miss the pictures on the next page: that’s the Prez recreating a moment in motorcycle history on his Royal Enfield. The Register Page 5 of 10 Events Calendar Phantom Car Show cont. Wednesday July 1 BLAT Eastside/Vail Breakfast at Millie’s Pancake On Tanque Verde Rd Departure TBA Saturday July 11 2nd Saturday Breakfast Run TBA Wednesday, Aug 5 BLAT To Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch For breakfast Departure TBA Saturday, Aug 8 2nd Saturday Breakfast Run TBA Sunday Aug 23 Mad Dogs & Englishmen Run 1:30pm Start: FROST Gelato on Tanque Verde Rd Finish: return to FROST Saturday Aug 29 5th Saturday Bonus Breakfast Run TBA Every Tuesday BritCar Café 7:30 – 9:30a NE corner of Grant & Swan The Register On the Road June 13 saw a TBCR Saturday breakfast run on the Northwest side, staring at Campbell and River, getting breakfast at Rigo’s on Oracle and an optional stop at Cars & Coffee at La Encantada. Page 6 of 10 Page 7 of 10 The Register On the Road cont. Show Top/middle: More scenes from the June Saturday Breakfast run / Cars & Coffee. Bottom row: Lower left is Barney, who stopped by the British Car Café in April. He was spotted in Michigan this month by Pete Williams. Barney and his MGA have been travelling since 2014. Lower right is Steve Struck, a winter Tucsonan who was featured in last month’s Register. That’s Steve and a friend moving Steve’s GT to new garage space in Michigan. The Register Page 8 of 10 Between the Bonnet and the Boot LUCAS DISTRIBUTOR VACUUM CONTROL By Jeff Simpson Why do we need a vacuum control on the distributor anyway? They don't even use one on racing engines so it can't be very important. Based on the number of variations and part numbers, it seems that even the manufactures where not quite sure what they were trying to accomplish with the vacuum control. But they actually do have a purpose. While the mechanical advance adjusts the spark advance based on engine speed, the job of the vacuum control is to adjust for engine load. It should provide better gas mileage and better drivability. When you are cruising along at part throttle, the air/fuel charge into the cylinders tends to be leaner. A lean mixture burns slower and therefore requires a little extra advance in order to get the most power from the least fuel. Back to getting the maximum push on the piston at just the right instant. Not an issue with race engines which are operating at full throttle most of the time and don't care much about fuel mileage. While most Lucas vacuum units are made to advance the timing, there are also those that retard the timing and some that do both. Check the direction the vacuum will pull the movable base plate relative to the direction of distributor rotation. Vacuum pull opposite to distributor rotation is advance and visaversa. Almost every Lucas unit is stamped with a series of three numbers, like 5-12-7. This means that the control starts to pull at 5 inches of mercury, is full in at 12, and gives a maximum of 7 degrees of advance. If it is followed by an “R”, it will retard instead of advance. Older units often have a threaded fitting for a copper vacuum tube, latter ones have a push on fitting for a rubber vacuum tube. Page 9 of 10 The Register It is also important to consider where the vacuum control tube is connected. There are two primary locations, with very different characteristics. One is an intake manifold connection. This provides the highest vacuum when the throttle plates are closed, such as at idle, and the lowest at full throttle, such as accelerating. The second location is off a carburetor venturi. This location provides just the opposite effect, low or none at idle and maximum at full throttle. The amount of vacuum and transition curve varies from zero to maximum based the location of the connection port and carb/manifold details. It's easy to test the vacuum unit, no need to remove. Just remove the cap from the distributor, remove the vacuum line and attach a hand vacuum pump in its place. Work the pump and watch the movable plate move. It should move and stay until you release the vacuum. If it moves but immediately falls off, a vacuum leak is indicated. If it doesn't move, (you probably have a D25-x type distributor) detach the spring connector from its pin on the movable plate. Test again, if the spring doesn't move, the vacuum unit is bad, if it does move, the movable base plate is stuck. In which case you need to remove the two little Philip mounting screws, lift out the base plate assembly and see what's stuck. The movable plate is supposed to slide easily on two little nylon buttons, held by a spring blade countered by capped pin in a slot. You may find the problem is nothing more than hardened grease and dirt. You may also find a broken spring, in which case you should get a new plate assembly. More than likely you will find that the cap of the pin has a notch worn into it by the side of the slot. This allows the movable plate to tip and wobble, causing jerky movement and uneven wear of the points against the cam. If so, grip the cap of the pin with vice-grips and gently turn it about a quarter turn, thus putting a new unworn surface against the slot. This will reduce the tilt and improve the movement of the vacuum control. Lucas completely redesigned this whole assembly on the next generation of distributors, the D45-x type, and it is very unlikely you will have a problem with one of these. If you get your vacuum control working correctly, you might be surprised at the improved gas mileage and drivability. This is the fourth in Jeff’s series on Lucas distributors. Thanks Jeff for these outstanding articles! -Editor TBCR members may have a complimentary business card ad on this page For info contact the editor: [email protected]