Mjit

Yep, doing that but just hoping someone will come up with a suggestion I can implement Friday evening/Saturday morning so still get to take the Spit. to Wales

This wasn't there before the diff/driveshaft swap and while I accept not impossible it seems unlikely that the vibration would only start when the new shaft went on and that, completely unreleated the new shaft would just happen to have a duff U/J that only lasted 100 miles.

Hi, Long story short I fitted a set of replacement drive shafts from Canley about 3 years ago, the ones they were doing with actual new shafts but had a no-warning hub bearing failure on the d/s on the motorway driving back from a holiday in France. AA man had a look and seemed to know what he was doing identified a little wear in the d/s hub bearing but not enough to cause issue so fingered the diff. Work has me away Mon-Fri at the moment so only had the following day to drop the diff before ordering a recon one to collect the following Sat. Roll on 1 week and new diff fitted...and made no difference but I did spot huge movement in the drive shaft through the hub - and realized the AA man had jacked up under the chassis rail to test so shaft was running against rail, masking most of the wear when he was checking. Would probably have spotted this with more time but file under shit happens and order a recon drive shaft for collection the following Sat. Roll on another week, new shaft fitted and...fixed. Roll on another week and had time to take the car for a 100 mile run and...I've picked up a high frequency vibration from the rear. It feels like there's either a sex toy or mobile phone on permanent vibrate built in to the seat base above 50mph. Towards the end of the journey started getting the tick-tick-tick of U/J death. Roll on another week and re-greased the U/J on the d/s. Fixed the tick for about 5 miles, so knew it was the new U/J on the new drive shaft. Roll on another week and fitted a heavy duty U/J to the d/s. Ticking gone but high frequency vibration still there above 50mph, so is it just a matter of time till that kills the new U/J too...? Any thoughts as to the cause? Googling suggests it could be a warped drive shaft flange but can't say I've spotted anything obvious while fitting and refitting the new shaft. I do have a spare flange so can try swapping it - but don't get home till Friday evening and due be driving the Spit. from London to north Wales on Sat. Probably time to try 1 thing, but only 1...

I've found Bilt Hamber Surflex HD to be very good.

Does anyone know what the 'correct' mounting is for the front number plate on a Spitfire Mk IV/1500?

If you're often working on your own invest in a set of these - http://tinyurl.com/h5bdgz3 I'm in the same boat and found they make life much easier. Only annoyance is that they come in a pack of 4 and you only really need 1.

Do you have the heat shield fitted between the carbs and the inlet manifold? Had something that could be described as "chugging" at low RPM on my car. Would start out fine but after a while would struggle to run at lower RPM but fine higher up the rev range, with the minimum RPM going up over time. Stop for 5min and it would be fine when I set off but slowly issue would come back. In my case it turned out to be temps under the bonnet - but not in the cooling system (gauge was always well behaved) or air temp (would happen on UK in March) - leading to fuel vaporisation. Fitted a heat shield and not happened since.

Easiest option with the night dimming relay is to leave it in place and all wired-up - with the exception of the earth. The earth's for the relay circuit and if it's unplugged the relay circuit can never complete/the dimming circuit never come in to play.

Stopped buy en-route to Northamptonshire. Didn't stay too long or speak to anyone but bacon sandwich was nice and good to see more driven cars than polished ones - and a TR6 that REALLY didn't like starting

Meh! Why doesn't this get promoted more widely in the area. I live about a mile away and didn't know it was on.

Think I've always just used my circlip plyers to do mine...

Seem to remembewr someone advertising them a couple of years back, maybe Rarebits?

Quiller are my closest Triumph specialist. When I need a part in a hurry I usually order it from James Paddock and pay for express delivery. Not expressing any opinions but read those 2 factual statements how you will.

Was it in the proper place on the back of the speedo/tacho - or the mechanic's "I can't be bothered to take the shelf out/break by wrist trying to get it back in some little clip so poke it untill you can't see it" location?

I think the indicator relay's meant to be help in a little clip on the back of either the speedo or rev counter - but chances are it's just dangling up under the dash somewhere in that area. My advice would be to swap it for a modern electrical one. I had no end of trouble with the original, bi-metalic strip ones (including stopping one working while driving to the MOT station) but not had a problem since upgrading.

Not arguing about the science of nylocs vs. spring washers the main reason manufacturers switched to nylocs was down to assembly time. Wacking a nyloc on is a simple task and can often be automated. Trying to get plain+spring+nut on, especially when you can't see it and are fighting gravity not so much. Of course even nylocs aren't 100% reliable - which is why everything important's drilled and wire-locked in aviation.

Original would have been a mix of UNF and UNC (generally anything screwing in to aluminium) and for anything important you should re-use UNC/UNF. For purely cosmetic stuff, and assuming it's a nut-and-bolt rather than tapped hold-and-bolt you're fine to go with the closest metric equivalent. That said I'm not sure there are that many true nut-and-bolt applications on the cosmetic side. Parcel shelf front bolts, number plate bolts, dash 'H' support top screws, umm... Most stuff is either a tapped hole (dash 'H' support bottom bolts) or captive nut (seat/seat belt to floor bolts).

Simple - it's just a wire built in to the loom with a plug at each end, rather than an additional cable that has to be run, connected and adjusted. Saves maybe 10s of time on the production line but if you're producing 1,000 cars a-day, that's 2.8 man-hours/day saved.

Reading's not too far from High Wycombe so could be worth giving John at JY Classics today.

Was a few years ago but think I more or less cut the pips off, or at least camfered their leading edges. If you're is as snug as mine was it's not like it was going to go anywhere without then pips (and it hasn't).

Not sure how tight these go before they shear but another option might be to drill 2 small holes and se if you can get in there with a pair of straight circlip pliers? Assuming just using the new top bush to push the old one down the column doesn't work for you. It's what I did

There not shear bolts according to the Moss parts catalogue either. There should be 2x 152597 shear bolts holding the steering lock to the column and a separate pair of UKC7070 bolts for the clamp that holds the rack to the car. Looking at the diagram the speedo trip reset should be attached to one of the upper clamp bolts, as it is on the Mk IV. That said UKC7070 isn't a standard (or should that be Standard) bolt code...

Are you sure those are the correct bolts you're looking at? I've got the earlier type of column and it's not 100% clear from the parts calalogues but while the steering lock has shear bolts they may not be the same as the UKC7070s. They certainly aren't on the Mk IV.

Don't bother with a replacement alloy block, go for one of the steel ones. The wooden spacers go in to slots in the ends of the block and swell when they absorb oil producing an oil-tight seal. Based on a Spitfire the job can be done engine-in but it's hardly the most fun you can have with your overalls on. In addition to the book steps: 1. Start by removing the sump plug a say or 2 before - the more little drips of oil come out the fewer will land on your face! 2. After you've removed the 2 screws holding the block to the block inside the sump cover it should be free - but you'll be fighting at least it being a firm fit and maybe loads of sealing gunk. 3. In my experience the wooden wedges won't be. They will be wood but just blocks, not wedges so you'll need a sharp chisle to give them a taper and remove excess width in order to get them started. You then need to hammer them home - with almost no room to swing a hammer at them. 4. Back to the sharp chisle to trim them flush with the block - and it needs to be sharp or you'll just start pulling them back out.

Just a matter of fashion really. Steels used to be the cheap option, with alloys an optional extra. These days 90% of cars come with alloys so steels have become 'cool'.