The Question Which oil should I use in my classic car? It’s incredibly important to ask this question. Why? The reduced level of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (known as ZDDP, ZDP or ZnDTP) in modern motor oil has been linked to increasing numbers of tappet and camshaft failures in vintage engines. What Exactly Is the Problem? The…
Most people first learn about generators at night on a back country road in the middle of nowhere. (Actually, about 100 yards from a house, but the middle of nowhere is so much more depressing.) You have one of those “English sports car needs minor electrical work” from the classified ads. Oh, the man who…
…You’ll shudder at the truth. The typical situation: New pads are fitted to a new pair of brake discs. A week later there’s a vibration or “judder” when the brakes are applied. A call to a mechanically inclined friend and an online search offers the diagnosis—the brake rotors are warped. The diagnosis may be further…
With the onset of the summer driving season, auto repair shops will start getting many calls about cars that overheat, or at least seem to. In an effort to get you thinking about all the things that can affect how the cooling system performs, we’ve compiled a list. It isn’t comprehensive, and some of these…
Most of us think of car parts in terms of carburetors, engines, transmissions, brakes, and so on. The most common part in any car isn’t really noticed at all until you take one apart. Even then you don’t think much about it until it comes time to put the car back together again and, suddenly,…
In the 27 years I’ve been at Moss Motors, I have watched as one supplier after another went out of business, merged, restructured itself or dropped entire product lines. Some examples: Lucas is gone; the name and pieces of what used to be Lucas were sold off to various companies around the world. Lockheed is…
Today’s current Lockheed “Universal”, Girling “LMA”, and silicone brake fluids are so vastly superior to the old Girling “Green” and “Crimson”, and Lockheed “Heavy Duty” fluids originally specified for most of our older British sports cars, that it would make no sense to use the older types today, even if they were still available. The…
The driving season is coming. Car clubs across the country are sending out invitations and registration forms to their members, and events long in the planning stage are popping up on calendars from Bangor to San Diego. I just received my second email about California Healey Week, (May 19-23, Temecula, CA). A looming event date…
Attention to detail yields proper kits for the big Healeys We don’t always wind up where we intended to go. A couple of years back, we received a complaint about our heat shield kit for the Austin-Healey 100 (BN1 and BN2). The complaint came to me because I own a BJ8. I don’t know nearly…
Tech Services at Moss gets calls every week from people who have questions about brake fluid. Some are concerned because the old familiar brands have changed. Castrol LMA now says “synthetic” on the bottle, while the Lockheed Premium fluid has been replaced by Super DOT 4. Others have questions about the ever-contentious silicone brake fluid….
