Meet Ralph - 1970 ST project

[neilbardsley]

Congratulations

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[matteo68]

Great job Rich! I hope that day might just happen before I’m dead. Or bankrupt…

[rhd racer]

Well done, looks fantastic


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[rich73]

Quick update,
I've now got UK registration which was a big relief. Came back in a week, I was advised by Angus at great worth to get the MOT done first which seems like it was great advice thanks.
The car is drivable, just but with hesitation and pops and bangs so haven’t done much in it. I was planning to learn how to tune the carbs myself but having a full house renovation in front of me my partner suggested that isn’t really best use of my time so its booked into Northampton Motorsport in July to be set up properly.
I’ve got an entry got an entry for Shere Hill Climb on 7th Sept which seems like a nice aim to get the car more sorted for.
I tweaked the timing last week and put half a tank V-power in and its really came alive.

20250421_151406 by richard cannings, on Flickr


Bought a plug spanner from Kirk a while back and checked the plugs. Looks to be really quite lean.

20250421_162226 by richard cannings, on Flickr

I really would like to drive it to Northampton but wouldn’t be happy with it running lean, grateful for any advice on if this is something I can easily rectify, be just adjusting mixture screw? All plugs looked like this.

I also need to sort out the timing, I’ve got CDI plus but its currently just as I bought it and the distributer isn’t locked or doesn’t have a vacuum line.
I have a snagging list that I’ll share over the next few days that I’m starting to work through.
Oh and stay away from chat GPT, did this and showed the result to my partner.
Screenshot_20250519_195625_ChatGPT by richard cannings, on Flickr
She wants it to look like this soon.
file_000000007868620a8a115558ca360995 by richard cannings, on Flickr

[yoda]

Car is looking great, even better in Safari trim!! Go for it!!!!

[Gunscrossed]

Looks lovely Rich, well done!

[hot66]

Looks great ….. but don’t do safari trim

[BILLY BEAN]

Long time coming but looks like it was worth it.

[rich73]

Thanks for the Comments,
Love how decisive a safari build is!
First job on the list is to sort the ignition timing out. Running CDI plus, So the plan is to lock out the distributor and use a programmed curve.
I was going to buy a lockout from classic retrofit but being too tight I thought I’d see if I could fashion something myself. Had a good rummage round and my bike spares tool box came up trumps.

20250608_203911 by richard cannings, on Flickr

An old mountain bike chain ring bolt. Just needed a bit of work with my Dewalt lathe and I think we have a winner!
20250608_204233 by richard cannings, on Flickr
20250608_210340 by richard cannings, on Flickr
20250608_210926 by richard cannings, on Flickr

I’ll have a look at programming the cdi with a curve to tomorrow.

Richard

[rhd racer]

Dewalt lathe!

Good work sir


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[rich73]

Thanks,
The distributor lock seems to have worked and I’m getting a really stable reading from the timing light. Had a bit of confusion with timing marks on the pully, Z5 – 25 I think. Also had to rotate the distributor one tooth as I was going out of range when trying to adjust it.
Really happy with the Classic Retrofit CDI unit, no problems connecting to and then did a couple of tests with fixed values as shown on their video to get some confidence in it.
In the end I just programmed it with the full control curve that came with the software, tested with the light and really nice to see the timing change with revs increasing. Timing mark seemed amazingly stable using the locked distributer and CDI plus controlling.
Also turned the mixture screws our half a turn and the plugs are now a more reassuring sooty brown colour.
Chose a particularly warm day last week and finally got the thermostat to open, surprisingly not squirting oil out of my cooler plumbing. Didn’t really get any heat in the cooler itself, although the pipes up to it got up to temperature. Can the cooler get and air lock? , any thoughts welcome.
So made the 80 mile drive from Surrey to Northampton Motorsport this morning, car actually pulls really well in and even idles OK. Wasn’t too bad to drive in the stop start traffic on the M25.

20250626_141218 by richard cannings, on Flickr

First run to see where we were starting from:
20250626_143230 by richard cannings, on Flickr


Much smoother then I expected.

Rich

[rich73]

Amazing work from Troy,
Will post more details when I get chance but the 80 mile drive home was a lot smoother than the drive there. Brief was driveability and minimising pops and bangs so really wasn't expecting the peak power of 225bhp.
Rich

[neilbardsley]

Nice result.

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[Darren65]

Brilliant result and car looking ace!

[rich73]

Thanks,
Really happy with how its looking and now running. Interior is a bit of a let down though.

20250826_110225 by richard cannings, on Flickr

I've got the Shere hill climb in a couple of weeks so a nice goal to get things looking a bit better.

Screenshot_20250826_105940_Chrome by richard cannings, on Flickr

Time to start unpacking some boxes.
20250826_105636 by richard cannings, on Flickr