The little red one moves on it's own!!

[RickB]

My Mk II Sprite took it's maiden voyage this evening after a weekend of work.

First (yesterday) I had to clean off all the flood muck from my concrete pad that used to be my shop (before the windstorm of ought 8).

Got that done and the lawn mowed and the little red Mk II pushed onto the pad.

Today:
I got the brakes bled and the clutch working and then bolted in the seats.

Checked all brakes, they are in new condition.

Did lots of little odds & ends, then I put 2 gallons of gas in the tank and turned the key. Oh yeah - PO had fuel pump on a dash switch.

Rewired fuel pump to ignition power and turned the key again.

No gas...

Undo connections, turn key, no gas.

All this time I had it up on jackstands, so I put all the wheels back on and lowered the front.

Got gas!! Pouring out all over the floor.

Raised the front end again, noted no clamp down where the rubber line connects to the hard line. Grab a clamp & scoot under and tighten it down.

Turn key - got gas coming out upper rubber hose.

Make all connections I loosened looking for problem, turn key and try to start. No go.

Oil pressure goes up to 20 lbs while cranking, good sign!!!

Spray in a little starter fluid & Vroom cough cough die...

Where's the choke pull on this thing.
Oh - there isn't one.

Manually set choke on both SU's and turn key...

VROOM!!!

Runs great. 50 lbs oil pressure.

Lowered car down to the ground.
Let it run until temp gauge says 140, put in clutch and selected reverse. Backs up like a dream. Put it in 1st. Right back to the work area.

Good enough for today, still have to put everything together and put away the tools.

What a great weekend! :laugh:

Now - what to do about a choke on this baby??? Ideas please?

 

[JPSmit]

not sure about choke, but, woo hoo!

 

[jvandyke]

Could you just get a generic cable off the shelf and run a manual choke pull to the dash like it would have been?

 

[RickB]

I remembered tonight - I have a parts car!!

Maybe it has a choke pull on it. I'll take a look tomorrow!

 

[jvandyke]

I used a $5 one off the rack at Autozone for my starter pull cable. Likewise the heater duct flapper cable. You'll have to cut it to length of course but that's easy. I install it, mark the cable housing in the engine bay where I should cut it, pull the inner cable out clear of the cut zone (from in the car, just pull it out until you're sure you won't cut the inner one). Then I zip off the housing with a cutting wheel on the dremel, push the cable back through. Mark it's length, zip that with the dremel. If's it's a multi strand type cable I'd recommend flowing a bit of solder into the end to keep it from fraying.

 

[RickB]

I hope it's there on the parts car, the cable isn't the only thing that is missing!

 

[drooartz]

Woohoo!

Can't wait for that driving moment myself -- you've driven yours further than I have in the last year...

 

[longbridgehealey]

Congreatulations - moving is good!!

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Just don't make the mistake of pulling the choke cable all of the way out of the sleeve. Once all of the way out there is no going back in.

 

[RickB]

Thanks Jim, I have a memory of doing that once. Hopefully won't repeat that.

Today I'm at work of course, but I'll try to fit in some quality time for the little red car between work and my "friends & family community band concert" tonight.

At least I'll get to look and see if the parts car has a choke set up and maybe even remove it for install in the red Sprite if time allows.

 

[jlaird]

New choke from Moss or the like for the win.

 

[George Zeck]

Rick -

If your aprts car doesn't have the choke - try a bike cable. Any decent bike store will sell you to length and some good ends. As for the end - you can fab something and put it own your dash.

Generic one from a auto parts store is a good one also. Make sure your springs are good / new so the choke will turn off when the engine warms up.

Geo

 

[RickB]

Well I've never seen the type of levers on the bottoms of the carbs before.
I suppose I'll go out and take a picture so I can see if anyone here can identify what I've got.

The parts car has a standard choke set up, nothing like what's on the Sprite.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

948 Carbs, 1-1/8" , H1's

 

[RickB]

Here are the levers I'm talking about, please help ID'ing and with what I need to get for a choke if one fits these?
Or am I confused?

From Above:

From the front:

Close up with numbers:

 

[jlaird]

Oh me, those are H1 carbs, you need a few bits.

See Moss, page 24

Items 60 and 61 two of the 61, item 63, 64, 65.

Then you need a choke cable of your choice.

 

[RickB]

They seem to work real nice, but are missing some things as you say.
I'll look at the pictures then look through the boxes & tin cans the PO sent along with the car.
Thanks Jack!

 

[bugimike]

What size engine are those carbs on? You mentioned a 1275 in another thread, I think. If so, those carbs are 1 1/8" instead of the 1 1/4" that should be on it! Those were only installed on the 948!

 

[RickB]

It is a 948, I'll go get the engine number and post it.

 

[RickB]

Here it is:

9C-U-H 24151