Mjit

You can swap the dash repeater bulb to LED with a little wire swapping. I forget exactly what I did, but then I swapped it/the bulb back after about 2 drives - the LED bulb was so bloody bright it turned the whole cockpit green, and at night made it hard to see where you were going!

Not sure but you could easilly pick and item from the catalogue and check it against the website shop, first off logged-out then logged-in. Logged out vs in should give you the 2 different prices on the wbesite, then you can just compare those against the catalogue and see which is printed.

For the alternator is the plug not of the two part type? You have a 'body' plastic block that the wires/connectors clip into and plugs into the alternator, then a separate plastic 'cap' that snaps over the back of the 'body' piece, then finally a wire retaining clip attached to the alternator flips up over both and into a groove in the 'cap' to stop anything falling out. Given that you should be able to unclip the wire retaining clip and pop off the cover, leaving the 'body' block in situ/wires connected and access the connectors with your multimeter probes - remembering that it could be chucking out quite a big current.

I'd ask if you actually need one. I've not had a spare in my Spitfire for over 10 years, just going with a can of puncture spray and breakdown cover - neither of which I've had to use (at least not for punctures in the latter case). Started off taking it out for the extra luggage space to get everything in for the annual trip to Le Mans but never got around to putting it back in again.

I've got a Jigsaw fast road cam in my Spitfire and the settings for that are 22 inlet/24 exhaust.

Poking a big screwdriver in the plug hole is easier. Put the engine before TDC/pop in screwdriver and see how far it goes (keeping it as veritcal as possible through the hole)/remove. Roll engine closer to TDC and repeat and it won't go in as far. Roll past TDC and it will go in further again. You'll get a little plateau around TDC with actualy TDC in the middle. Not as accurate as the piston stop but a good way to confirm (and I can't say I've ever seen anything down a spark plug hole! Or check if Lidl/Aldi are selling their little endoscopes at the moment?

If the engine needs choke then, as jonny said it means the mixture is weak. My first stop would be to remove the carb/rocker breather hoses and give them a very good inspection off the car. Had a time when my Spitfire would drive fine for miles then, usually after being given some beans, need choke to run. Turns out the extra RPM would open up a (while fitted) invisible split in one of the breather hoses, so dumping extra fresh air in to the mix. Was right on the jubliee clip so impossible to see till I remove the pipes from the car. At least a cheap fix if it's that!

Anyone else intrigued what the after market rocker switch below the gearstick's for? Original rear window heater pull switch died/fitted as a replacement? Electric fan over-ride?

I just popped on to the Classic Car LEDs' website, as they sell conversion bulbs so would need to have the appropreate disclaimers and looking at a random LED headlight bulb(https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/collections/headlight-led-bulbs/products/latest-led-headlights-h4-philips-z-es-hi-lo-beam-conversion-9-32v) they say: So looks like, after the March 22nd update to the Jan 11th MOT rule amendements LED bulbs are OK in 'filament' headlight bowls in pre-April '86 cars - provided they pass the beam pattern test (something I'm guessing you'd need one of the MOT headlight testing machine to test).

The "equal lift on overlap" method's the best (and more often than not, easiest) to use. http://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/7770-equal-lift-on-overlap-the-other-cam-timing-method/ That method makes it sound a lot more complicated that it is but I can't find a good, simple guide right now.

Yes and no. You don't specifically need to remove it to do the job but it's held on by 2 of the engine/gearbox bolts and you need to remove those bolts so ends up loose. Only thing to watch Matthew is that it's a bugger to try and guess the gearbox fore/aft balance point (think it turned out to be just ahead of the drain plug) and seems to contain an inverted Weeble, because while a Weeble wobbles but won't fall over the bloody gearbox seems to want to do anything except stay upright on the jack. Next time I need to do this I'll be knocking up a rough cradle, probably a box frame with some adjustable lengths of stud at each corner so when (not if, when) it tries to roll off the jack it can only go so far before some of the studs 'touch down' and balance it.

I think the only thing you're missing are: Angle grinder. Sure, just for 'shits and giggles' try undoing the dowel bolt - I mean one day one will have to come out simply and easilly for someone! But when it snaps (just compare the bit that comes out to the new one) you have a new shaft so don't waste time messing around, just take the cutting disk to the old one so you can get the fork on the bench to drill a small 'drift it out from the other side' hole. Or is that the angle grinder plug in the photo? The haunted, pained look of anyone who's ever removed/refitted a 2000 gearbox (unless you're really posh and have a ramp)... Partly it's so heavy, and you'll spend a lot of time cursing you're life as you try to get to those upper gearbox/engine bolts.

Got one off a Mk2 manual. Don't know how different manual/auto exhaust systems are?

I think this photo might answer the "Why did Triumph use studs, not bolts?" question. If you think about it with the spring and mounting box fitted any fore/aft rock in the spring will get transferred to the mounting box and from there into the top ends of the studs, and down to the diff. casing, which could mean quite a torque being applied to the stud for even a small rock in the spring. If they'd used set screws the full length would be threaded, so thinner and weaker. Potentially the maths may have mean needing to go up from 3/8" to 7/16, which will be heavier/more expensive and might in turn might mean needing more metal in the diff. casting, so even more weight and money. They could have used bolts to get around this - but I'm guessing the required "chuffing long shank with a really short thread in comparison" isn't going to be a standard one, so will be a special job and quite expensive. But just wanging a thread on each end of a length of steel bar is easy and cheap.

I was taught slight RPM rise but falling back to 'pre-lift' RPM in a couple of seconds for correct mixture.

If you're really worried about the temperature gauge reading I'd buy a new temp. sender as a next step, then remove the old one and start testing both against a resistance meter/a jug of hot water. The temp. sensors in our cars are very much indicative than precise - their resistance changes with temp, but drop the tips of 2 sensors in the same hot water and you'll usually get slightly different resistance values. And a different resistance in the temp. gauge circuit means a different reading on the needle. The internet suggests 100c is where the coolant temp should be ideally, so fit whichever reads slightly (higher/lower - I'm not sure off the top of my head) resistance dipped in boiling water and see where your needle sits then.

In my experience, yes. Check you still have anti-rattle 'button' and spring fitted. Mine was missing and fitting one made a lot of difference. https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-GRID008679 - 112424 and 137988 As for the wires - what's the car's commission number?

You also need to check the slave cylinder position and be prepared to get a bit creative these days it seems. On mine with a new cylinder just fitted "correctly" everything connected up OK...but with the slave piston basically at the end of the cylinder - which was never going to work. Think I've ended up with longer bolts and the cylinder padded rear-wards with 2 or 3 plain nuts. Puts the piston a reasonable way back down the boar so it actually has somewhere to go when you press the clutch pedal!

Same place I got mine. Guess it's one of those "What slave cylinder do you have fitted, 50 years after the car was nailed together in Coventry". Gear selection sounds about right for the big Triumph 'box - especially when compared to a Mazda one (and the RX8 gearchange is anything like as nice as the MX5 one). I find it to be...unwilling from cold but OK once there's a but of warmth in the oil. It's never what you'd call 'keen' though, much more a gentleman who walks, never runs than a heal/toe hooligan grabbing gears in the blink of an eye. Oh and on the release arms I've yet to have one with a broken bolt...until I tried to remove it, at which point every single one has sheared 😒. Thankfully every single one has also been on a comically warn shaft, so out comes the angle grinder.

Maybe just a later 1500 Spitfire than yours? Has the wire for a seat belt warning light so if a 1500 Spitfire a late (post FH100021) car. What vintage is your car?

Looks normal for a PAS big saloon to me. I'd say there's a bit of the parallax error lying on just how close it is - it's more than a feeler gauge but less than a finger job.

Where did your braided pipe come from? I bought/fitted one last year and didn't have any issues with the connectors.

Exactly the reason I've got MegaJolt on my car! Having been through a couple of rolling roads (pre-MJ) I finally found one who actually looked at what my car needed, rather than just tuning for 'best power' and leaving me needing 2,500RPM to pull away from stationary! He found my car wanted lots of static advance for low RPM, increasing through the mid range but critically then needing less at higher RPM - and you just can't do that with a mechanical dizzy. The old 123 wouldn't have helped with that but one of the more recent programmable ones might. MegaJolt certainly helped though as you just sit theere on the RR at X RPM/Y load and tap the advance up/down while watching the RR readout, pushing to peak power, then knocking back slightly (to avoid issues when all you can get is 95RON).

I'm sure those same critics glossed over the fact that mechanical distrubutors probably can't even make the 16 curve mark - and even then wouldn't be able to hit those same points as quickly or consistently as the 123.

Never mind the 2 hoses, what condition's your metal pipe in? My experience is that, these days the metal pipe will be in worse condition than the rubber hoses, though you only really know when you take it apart (stainless replacements available). The pipes seem to be cheaper from Chris Witor - but even at Rimmers £11 each, well how cheap did you think you could get? They are just short-ish 90 and 45 degree bends so you might be able to measure the diameter and find cheaper listed online as mark independent parts.