RE: Spider Rattle

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

> Well, I am going to join the ranks of the Spider rattle folks. My '85
> Spider has the same rattle as everyone else spoke about. I have not had
> time to completely track it down. It does originate in the engine area
> somewhere. I have checked the exhaust and have tightened the sump guard.
> I have also inspected the mounts and found nothing. My next step was to
> have someone rev the engine while I poked around in the engine. I had a
> similar problem with my '63 Sunbeam Alpine except that the noise was
> coming from the rear of the engine. It turned out ot be that the shock
> absorber loosened up and the top stud that had the two rubber bushing
> was vibrating inside the mounting hole. If anyone finds their rattle,
> please copy me on the resolution.

tightening the sump guard may not solve a sump guard rattling problem.  on a
previous spider i owned at one time it sat so low that the sump guard
whacked the ground on a fairly regular basis.  every so often it would
deform to the point that the engine would hit it, but only when revved.
when the engine was not running there was a little bit of clearance.

the solution was to pry the guard away from the sump and whack the back of
the sump guard with a large hammer to bring it forward and back down away
from the sump.

so, even though the sump guard is tight the sump might still be contacting
it under load.

fwiw,

bs

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