• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Overdrive

Share this page

healeyboz

healeyboz

Jedi Knight
Offline
Who was it on here that put an electronic overdrive in their Sprite? Was it Trevor? Is there a write-up on what is needed and how it was done?
 
I think most folks put Spitfire overdrives in 1500 Midgets. I don't think there is a ready solution for A-series Spridgets.
 
Thanks J.

To everyone else:
I just can't get past the 4300 + RPMs it has to turn to run on the "big" roads. You say get past it and run her up. Can she handle it???
 
The Datsun 5-speed conversion (Rivergate, Morrisservice) is quite popular. Bolts in with (supposedly) no cutting. I was looking at it, but decided to keep the 4-speed and just put in a 3.90 rear end.

Quite a few folks here have done this conversion, and seem happy with it.
 
Yeah, I have seen all of that. The diff??? I have driven the car a few times to work bugs out and like the "power" that it has. I would HATE to have any less. I know, I know, its not a dragster! How nice would it be to be able to have the feel of the brit tranny, and sound, and just be able to flip a switch to get a little extra at higher ends?
 
A road cam would do some of that.
 
I don't mind the RPM. My California car has a 1098 that spends most of its time above 4500. Over 30000 trouble free miles on that engine.
Jeff
 
A road cam? True..
Just thinking of other options. I just have this thing with such high RPMs. I remember Jeff saying what he just posted awhile back and feeling reassured. I guess I will just have to drive the durn thing and get used the higher revs being okay.
 
Yep, this is not a truck. It is a small engine that makes its HP with RPM. Good maintance goes a long way toward keeping them in one peice.

Just think about the race cars that push and push hard for hours and hours.
 
Boz, my driver here is a bone stock '72, 1275, with over 60000 miles on it. I regularly shift at the 6250 red line, and haven't had any problems with it in the 10 years I've driven it. Still has fantastic oil pressure, good compression and leakdown numbers, and goes through a quart of oil in about 2500 miles. I can live with that. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Jeff
 
Bugeye58 said:
till has fantastic oil pressure, good compression and leakdown numbers, and goes through a quart of oil in about 2500 miles. I can live with that.
Click to expand...

and just ~who~ screwed it together, then? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
Bugsy, my '68 Sprite with a 1098 just doesn't seem to want to rev past 4,500-5 without seeming to want to shake himself apart. Any more than that seems to be really straining. At the same time, 4,500 in 4th puts me up there past 70 mph and Bugsy can still keep up with traffic. Will be curious when I get my 1275 rebuilt and put in the RibCase how different he feels and what additional power hopefully will feel like.
 
DrEntropy said:
and just ~who~ screwed it together, then? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, British Leyland. When I got it, the engine was siezed from sitting for 12 years. I got it freed up, pulled the head to do the valves, as there was rust built up on the seats from sitting with open valves.
All I did was a quick valve job, bolt the head back on, and fire it up. Great O/P, so I never even dropped the pan to look at the bearings.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
The 1098, on the other hand was entirely built by yours truly. Balanced within a gnats eybrow, with various and sundry go fast internals.
92 Flywheel horsepower. Pulls to over 7200 rpm.
Jeff
 
I'm goin' over to th' mini forum for the next query.
 
I drove the pee out of my BE for yrs with the 948 at very high rpms and the only thing I had to do was rebuild the head once after several yrs of sittin(small kids and no funds). One of my buddies pointed out that I still drive the BE the same way today for different reasons. The A series motor will stand high rpms without any problems. With that said, it is nice to have the 5 speed, 3.9 diff, and a motor that will pull it.
 
Did the math once and found that the gearing with my 3.55 diff would equate to roughly 3rd gear being like 4th was with the original diff, so just stay one gear lower and the power should be about the same. First would be a bit higher but 1st in the midget is awefully low anyways. I Never used 1st unless I was totally stopped anyways because of it being straight cut. I took of in second a lot because 1st gear seemed so low. If I was dragging with it and gonna tach it out through the gears then yeah, I would want the low first but I don't plan on that anyways. I can't wait to test my setup on the highway.
 
Back
Top