Mjit

And if you're MOT exempt but make a change that WOULDN'T pass an MOT I'd say you're NOT maintaining it in a "roadworth condition", so not eligible for the MOT exemption. I'd also question if this would count as a "substantial change" or not, which could again invalidate the MOT exemption.

Given the extra length/width of the overall gearbox unit you'd end up with and resulting chassis mods I can't help thinking fitting a modern 6 speed gearbox would be a similar cost/effort option with better results (like being able to buy a replacement gearbox for less than the cost of one of the O/D units if anything went wrong).

Can't help on device recommendations, but would generally expect more money means more features (front and rear facing camera/higher quality video/longer video clip storage) but all should do the basic job of recording an accident to give you evidence it wasn't your fault. For the wires that should be reasonably simple in one of our cars. Attach to windscreen in front of the rear view mirror, then tuck the cable under the windscreen rubber all the way around to a convienient point to exit to be plugged in.

If memory serves the spin on conversions my by big saloons (same engine) both took Ford Mondeo oil filters, which come in short and long sizes. I've always gone for the long one as that extra bit of oil capacity isn't going to hurt anything.

According to both Automec (who make the most readilly available DOT5 fluid) and if I remember the US Department Of Transportation (the "DOT" in DOT5, etc) DOT5 silicon fluid is 100% compatible with both 3 and 4 (though I have half a memory NOT 5.1?). As such you don't NEED to do anything to swap from one of the other but... 1. While you can just mix them together they don't combine in any way, so you end up with brake fluid that loses a little pedal feel, due to the silicon but still absorbs water and can strip your paint. Blowing through the lines will more or less solve that. 2. While you don't need to change your rubber seals they WILL fail at some point, regardless of the fluid you use. Unless you've only just done them/fitted new parts what better time to do them than when you've already drained all the old fluid from the system/before you fill with new? I mean you don't want to swap fluid, only to get the old "Read brake cylinder leaking" note on your next MOT certificate and start all over do you...

So a couple of holes in the wood blocks I use on top my axel stands and support via the sub frame outer attachment bolts (so bolt heads in the hole so load spread across the large washers) and the diff came off quite easilly...even if I was rather nervous reaching under the cat at some of the noises/rush showers. Of course the problem is with no diff. I can't drop the car back off the stands. Not looking forward to refitting the diff. from the other car at the far end of the swap...

In my case this car became my parts car when my friendly MOT guy gave me a call and asked me to pop down as "I've left her up on the ramp so you can see"... Even then there were more gaps then connected metal between the floor and sills - and it's sat a couple of years since then through the "I can save it!" phase and in to the "Or I can buy a better one for a fraction of what fixing it will cost and use it for spares" phase. Hence why I'd rather not trust the weight of the car to them before crawling underneath and starting to man-handle the diff... Oddly when jacked up it's the doors on the 'good' one that don't quite open/close smoothly while they remain perfect on the 'colander'!😩

So finally gotten around to the job of stripping the diff. out of my terminally rusty parts big saloon and with the car on stands under the sub frame arms/drive shafts disconnected and free/4x diff. to nose piece bolts/2x rear mounting nuts and rubbers removed I can only get a bit of downwards action before a combination of the rear catching on the 2x long studs and the car body lifting up. I've tried moving the stands to the outside ends of the sub frame arms which got a bit more drop (but still only about half way down the studs) before I was again lifting the body. I'm not keen on putting the stands anywhere else (or at least not on going under it when it is - the sills and floor stopped being structural members many years ago!) but not sure what else do. The seal between the diff. and nose piece doesn't seem to have broken yet - does that need to split so the diff. will wiggle back to reposition the studs in the holes as it comes down?

I've had exactly the same experience with you, which gets me thinking... Get an old, good-sized bolt and cut a screwdriver slot in the top. Bolt in to socket, socket on to digital torque wrench set to record peak. Put it all together with the ClickAdjust held in a vice and load the torque wrench until the ClickAdjust clicks, then check the recorded peak torque.

That's not JUST a half nut on each stud and cut flush is it, or did you do 2x half nuts/cut/replace half nuts with single, full-sized nyloc? My method was a full nut for fit, with the 2 half nuts in the toolbox so the full nyloc can be removed, replaced by the 2 half nuts, and the 2 half nuts then locked together to remove the stud from the diff. If you've gone just half nut and flush I'm not sure what you're going to do the next time you need to remove the spring...

Fronts higher than rears?

Having the wheel geometry checked/corrected is never going to do any harm, well other than to your wallet. Worth seeking out recommendations of where to get it done though as having all the kit doesn't always mean the operator knows how to use it. Also worth picking up some chassis shims and taking them with you as most places won't be set up to knock some up these days.

From experience I'd recommend a 3/4", rather than full 1" lowering block - especially if you have a sports exhaust fitted. Tried a 1" block and they are a literal pain in the ass - you just find yourself clentching your buttocks every time you see a speed hump/pothole/etc, waiting for that scraping noise 😥 Swapped to a 3/4" and only need to watch out for grounding when the boot's fully loaded. A much better match height-wise to you (I think TSSC Shop) upgrated front springs too.

Personally - the biggest that will fit. Thankfully some sites, like Halfords, let you just browse all batteries and list dimensions. Only thing to watch is which side the terminals are on and if the car leads are long-enough to reach with the battery "the wrong way around". The recommended battery for my Spitfire is an '038' so 35Ah and 280/300 CCA, but for well over 5 years I've been happily running an '075' giving 60Ah and 550CCA. Useful for those "hasn't been started in a while" moments where it takes a bit of cranking to remember how to run.

Yep. I've also got a MkIV and in original form 70MPH on the motorway was...unnerving. I fitted a 1500 spoiler years ago now and the car's every bit as planted doing 40MPH as it is doing 80MPH on a French autoroute.

You're not Rishi Sunak's speech writer are you? "Eat out to help out" didn't lead some of the dirtier minds on the Internet in to thinking about restaurants 😐

I cut mine down with everything in situ using a hacksaw. Wouldn't claim it was the most fun I've had with my clothes on but do-able. Oh, and if removing the spring/diff in the future you can do it "tank in", you just have to release the studs from the diff (either by removing nylocks and using 2 locked half nuts, or by winding them out with the nylock if they release at the diff end before the nut) but leave them in place. Free the spring from the verticle links and "release it from the top of the diff" (usually involving much swearing and trying to hit something you can't reach to release both spring and spacer block). From there you should be able to pivot the spring top forwards and remove the studs. Refitting is the reverse, though obviously forgetting about the studs, getting the spring and spacer block in position, realising you can't get the studs in, swearing, and fighting to get the spring/block to release again so you can pivot forwards and insert the studs. Every. Single. Time. 😢

Can I recommend you don't leave it. Would be really easy to forget it, especially as it looks fine at a glance (but not something you want falling off!).

I've probably spent more on brake bleeding tools than anything else for my cars...and I still find myself coming back to the Visibleed! Never had one clog, but the plastic retaining strip will split on the very first bleed nipple and after a couple of years the tubing starts to split - but costs almost nothing (one on eBay for £3.47/free deliver) and unlike Eezibleed it works on every system (could never find a correclty sized cap for either me brake of clutch m/c) and never randomly blows off the m/c in a shower of brake fluid, or as derekskill found just sucked air around the nipple like the DIY vacuum ones. Attach to nipple, open nipple, pump pedal 4 times, check bleeder pipe for air bubbles and either nip up nipple or top up m/c and repeat.

What worked for me when I had a 1" lowering block was: Buy a couple of half height 9/16" plain nuts. Hacksaw the studs flush with the top of the nylocks. The standard cover would then just fit. DO buy the plain nuts first as you don't want to be running around trying to find someone who sells them on a Saturday the first time you need to remove the spring and realise your mod. means you can no longer lock a pair of full sized nuts together on the stud to remove it...😖 I have to say the 1" block didn't stay too long, just TOO big a drop for road use (especially if you live in speed-hump land and have a sports exhaust). I swapped to 3/4" and only ocassionaly scrape the exhaust now.

If you can't find one from another member give Canley Classics a call. Killed the bottom of my engine a few years back and Canley had rebuild short engines for sale outright (though did turn up with a mixture of bearing sizes fitted, thankfully spotted and corrected during the build-up!

Apply a load that exceeds the materials elastic limit and you'll get a permanent deformation every time. The difference between steel and aluminium I was referring to would be more like having two pieces of wire and repeatidly hanging/removing a weight from each of them. Assuming the weight's below the material's elastic limit both will get a bit longer under the weight but return to the original length when unloaded (no permanent deformation). You can repeat that till the end of time with the piece of steel wire, but every cycle weakens the aluminium wide. Basically steel has a fixed elestric limit but aluminium doesn't, it comes down little by little every time you load it and eventually it will drop below the weight you're hanging on the wire. So no, this doesn't apply to tub spread. That's a deformation where the metal's been taken past its elastic limit. Take it past that limit again and it will permanently deform again. It does however mean you don't need to worry about your bonnet stay snapping at some point. It goes through a load/unload cycle every time you put the bonnet up and rest its weight through the stay. That weight is always below the steel's elastic limit though so safe. Maybe a better example is why you don't normally get aluminium springs. They are chuffing heavy so a perfect way to save weight, but also their whole purpose is to go through constant load/unload cycles. A nice bit of spring steel will sit there for years happily taking the same load each time you hit a bump. An aluminium spring would eventually pass it's fateague limit and snap though. Not a major issue for things like paper clips, a bit more serious on a speeding car... (That said aluminium spring HAVE been used, just generally in things like race cars where you're happy to bin the old ones and fit brand new ones between each session. Not sure anyone is still using them as you can now make them out of carbon composits that while also life limited are even lighter and if you can afford to throw away aluminium springs you can probably afford to throw away carbon ones too.)

Although thin and cracked it's not actually a load bearing part of the wheel or one exposed to the greatest forces (very close to centre so not moving as fast as say the rim). As such it's unlikely, as it stands, to cause the wheel to fail. It IS a risk though and if you decide to keep using them would need to be monitored. A specialist should be able to TIG weld the cracks and then refinish the wheel/centre bore though I'd have thought. ANY old aluminium wheel is a risk though, as our materials lecturer 'Dr Death' used to like to tell us. Steel has a fateague limit. Below that limit you can load/unload a piece of steel with the same weight and it just sits there doing what it's always done and staying as strong as it's always been. Aluminium doesn't have a fatigue limit so every time you load/unload it it gets a little bit weaker until eventually it no longer has the strengh to hold the weight it always has in the past and snaps. As a result at some point any and every aluminium wheel is just going to explode while you're driving along, causing a crash and killing you (he had an example involving death of serious injury for every material and mechanical property, hence why he was known as Dr Death). It's also the reason aircraft parts are 'lifed', to say 500 takeoff/landings or 3,000 flying hours - so they get replaced before they get near the risk of them failing.

Got a link you can share?

Was the blown plug a corroded mess? If not you might want to spare a thought for WHY it blew. Had one pop on my Spitfire head, which turned out to be down to a crack that had developed (but could thankfully be fixed). All that said core plugs aren't expensive, so probably worth starting with just replacement and giving it a good thrash (close to home) to see if it goes again or not.