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Coils can gradually die. They are essentially transformers and work on change in electrical currant. They have a few turns of wire between the + and - connections this is the primary of the transformer and a lot 10000+ more turns of finer wire as the secondary. The secondary and primary share a common connection the other secondary connection is the top of the coil where several thousand volts appears. The wires ( primary and secondary ) are solid copper insulated with varnish. The secondary has to be wound carefully to prevent overloading the varnish insulation. The current in the primary builds slowly because it is creating a magnetic field. The current in the primary is stopped causing a large voltage in the secondary and a spark in the plug as the magnetic field collapses. Creating the magnetic field also puts a force on the wires (magnets attract or repel) this tries to move the wires so that the rub against each other removing some of the varnish insulation. Sparks (or worse shorts) appear taking the energy intended for the spark and generating heat in the coil. The assembly should be impregnated with insulating material (like epoxy) to prevent this but bubbles can be left allowing a gradual degeneration of the insulation in the bubbles. This has little effect on the DC measured resistance of the coil but measuring the inductance will show it up. Unfortunately few electrical multi meters measure inductance. The best test is to substitute a known good coil, sorry if I have been too wordy.

When you say you get a spark out of the king lead is this lead to engine block or have you put a spark plug in the end of the king lead and touched the plug body to the block? The latter requires a higher voltage to create a spark and this is what the engine sees.

As the design was done in Germany I tried to come up with a German word for ratio that began with i but failed. The Ford wiring colour letters make sense when you realise that the wireing was designed in Germany.

Jonty this could be the brushes not making good contact due to either sticking in their guides or just being worn to end of life. As they warm up they get better contact.

Both the series 3 and Exmo had the wider tub to enclose the rear sub-frame. If its McPherson struts at the front it is an Exmo if not it is one of the variants of the series 3.

Robin Hood deliberately offset the engine to allow a wider tunnel for the peddle box. This gives the driver a bit more foot room round the peddles.

I could be interested and have a pas-out. Lets see if I have the handbrake fixed or am in one of the Saabs.

A common way to do this is to drill and tap the flywheel to take the standard sierra pressure plate and clutch plate.

you are right the bleed nipple has to be at the top. It looks like someone has been careless in the boxing department.

Ferrari row Old American car. It is almost as hard to get into the drivers seat as it is to get into my Exmo with the roof up. And a 2CV with slight modification.

My reaction is that Richard Stewart used whatever parts he could get cheaply. So there was no standard seat. He would buy end of lines and adapt the kit to suit, adapting again when the current end of line ran out and another different one was found. Second previous owners could have changed the seat. So You say that there are studs in the seat. So if the external nuts are loose then trying to move the studs will tell you if they go into captive nuts or loose nuts or even if they are welded in studs.

The series 111 (roman 3) had a couple of front suspension setups during its production life. The main ones were either onboard or outboard. The inboard ones had coilovers just behind the nose cone. The outboard ones had them out in the open between the bodywork and the wheel. The suspension mounting points were not the same so you would require some fabrication to change over. With a bit of luck there will be cars with both types at the national kitcar show Malvern where you could compare them.

series 111 (3) was a mono kit available in both stainless and zintec.

The monocoque chassis kits were also available in zintec steel which is a zinc plated mild steel. Etch primer then paint of your choice or even wrap the car. Use a good mask when sanding down. Some very early kits used a 1 inch rectangular steel space frame chassis. Most people run 18 to 20 psi in the tyres. As the cars are fairly evenly balanced front to back the same psi all round.

Looks like start meetings again in April.

Any one ready for a first meet of 2025?

I think that the small bore pipe is for the dipstick. The Large bore is oil fill.

Main problem with mechanical pumps is leaks in the fuel lines / connections. Though I have had hardened valves in the pump causing failure once. After a longish time the petrol in the carb can evaporate causing long cranking times. Try priming the carb by using an old washing up liquid bottle with some petrol in it and connect it to the carb inlet with a short hose and squeezing some petrol direct into the carb, its a long time since I last did this but it does show if petrol starvation is the problem.

Not mentioned yet, but all the relevant bits of government information came be accessed through the following site. https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-approval/individual-vehicle-approval Have fun with the build.

Have you tried a push start?

It has been a very sunny day here if a bit windy. So possibly just climate change

Are we talking about DGV32/36 (might be DGAV32/36)? If so these are primary/secondary carbs where the smaller chock (primary) opens first and then when larger amounts of power are required the larger (secondary) choke opens. These carbs do not need balancing.

Is the sensor long enough to be fully in the oil rather than mostly in the drain bolt.

What bonnet have you got? The early 2Bs had the alligator bonnet that incorporated the nosecone bonnet scuttle and windscreen in one unit that hinged from the back on 2 bolts. Later cars had fixed nosecone and scuttle with a lift off bonnet secured by 4 clips one in each corner. A picture or 2 could help.

If you are after DCOE webbers for a bit more power then go to Dave Andrews site. http://www.dvandrews.co.uk/ It has some information on modifying pintos written 30 years ago but still relevant.