Mjit

Much as Pete's said Just pull off the earth wire from the night dimming relay and it will never dim and takes one PITA out of the equation. The bulb holders often 'fail' internally. They have a copper 'element' that provides the bulb side (earth) contact. This then gets sandwiched between the plastic of the bulb holder and the steel 'spring ring' that secures the bulb holder into the light fitting. All fine when it's brand new but 50 years later with a bit of moisture and you can get corrosion/electrolitic action between the 2 metals leading to a high resistance, or more often infinite resistance and a non-working light. You can carefully peel the bulb holder apart, clean things up, squeeze things back together - but only ever a short term fix. You can hack in your own earth wire, though the 'neatest' solution are to swap to the bulb holders from some of the other Triumphs that actually have a dedicated earth post on them, rather than relying on the spring clip to earth. Long time ago I switched mine so I forget what but at a guess either one of the TRs or one of the saloons. But start with some simple tests: Compare the dark side between 'brakes on' and 'sidelights on'. If the bulb's brighter with the sidelights on than the brakes probably just the bulb in the wrong way around or the brake/sidelight wires connected to the wrong sides of the bulb holder. Rig up some fly leads so you can power the bulb outside the car/bulb holder. They should be the same, both each bulb powered from the same side and also side-to-side. If not try running a new wide to the dark side. Assuming both bulbs/wires are fine repeat swapping bulbs and holders from side to side. If the dark side switches it's a bulb holder issue. If the same side stays dark with the bulb holders wired up but NOT pushed into the light fitting try running a wire from the spring clip ring to a good earth. If the bulbs are now bright the issue is the earthing of the light fitting to the car body - which from memory is just through the mounding bolts. Easy option is to get run a dedicated earth from the light fitting. If none of that works, umm, pass!

The first one is simple - you only need them on headlights that illuminate when you're on dipped beam. If that's just 2 or all 4 will depend how you have them wired on your car (which may, or may not be how they were wired when they left the factory). The difference between dipped and full bean is that full beam just throws light everywhere out infront of you to give you the best view, which would include into the eyes of drivers coming the other way. Dipped beam still throws light out low and, in the UK to the left so you see the road directly ahead and your edge of the road but doesn't throw as much where cars going the other are going to be. Which is all great in the UK, driving on the left but when you hit France and start driving on the right you're dipped beams are now shining most of their light directly into the path of oncoming traffic - hence the need for deflectors. But all that said do you actually expect to drive in the dark while you're in France? If you don't I'd leave the deflectors in the glovebox. If you end up needing them, you can fit them. If you get stopped by the fuzz and they comment on them you can show you have them and go all appolgetic about how you'd forgotten to fit them. But I'd also be amazed if your un-deflected sealed beam headlights throw as much light into oncomming driver's eyes than the LEDed modern blinding you in your read and side view mirrors!

"Lower wishbones parallel with the road" is a theoretical ideal, as it means as you bounce along the road the bottom of the vertical link goes up and down it does it with the minimum of in and out movement, so you maintain the maximum contact patch of the tyre to the road (rather then rolling onto the shoulders). Of course that needs the rest of the suspension geometry to be built for that, you'd ideally want both upper and lower wishbones to be parallel so you don't get any rocking from the top wishbone either. And then you need the steering rack to be in the correct place to minimise bump steer. And then... In reality that's more race car talk though, not cheap assed 1970s British sports cars cobbled together from parts first designed for a cheap family saloon in the 1950s. Your car doesn't look especially odd - though those springs don't look like they've been on the car since it rolled off the production line so you might have standard length but stiffer front springs. They would compress less under the static weight of the car so increase the ride height/push the lower wishbone further away from parallel. Not sure there's really a way to tell without stripping them down (others will confirm/correct) but if they are your options are: a) Different springs, either standard rate or uprated/shortened ones. b) Different dampers with adjustable lower spring pans so you can adjust how compressed the spring is unloaded, which effects how long it is when fitted/loaded with the weight of the car, which effects the ride height. I have b) on my car so my ride height measurements wouldn't help you know if you're are normal or not.

If i'm reading that right richening the mixture, either by opening the choke or winding the jet down sorts the issue - and everything was fine before. That would have me checking the breather pipes between the problem carb and the T piece. If the pipe starts to split extra air gets in after the jet, so giving a weak mixture. Pull the choke and you can richen the mixture to match the extra air.

Yep, even my Spitfire never went out-of-control light on the steering, just enough to be...disconcerting - especially on a blustery day and overtaking lorries. With spoiler fitted the car just remains that little more confidence inspiringly 'planted'.

It was, and it does - both based on my experience of adding one to my MkIV and my aerospace degree. In profile a Spitfire (or most cars for that matter) is an aerofoil, as the air hitting the front of the car has to either go over, around, or under the car. Going either side is much the same distance as cars are generally symetrical but over is a longer distance than under, generating lift. That happens at almost any speed but don't generate significant amounts of lift until you're over 60MPH and by 70MPH is enough to be lifting the front of the car and making the steering noticably lighter. Slap the spoiler on and you basically mess up the airflow under the car, making it more tubulent so it takes longer to pass under and so less of a differential to the air going over the top, and so you generate less lift. From the aerodynamic PoV it's a very ugly, inefficient way of doing it, but it works.

One of it's production line neighbours is still going strong though - I've got a Spitfire, reg. DHP149L.

Disconnect battery. Pop out the starter motor from the bell housing. Clamp a pair of mole grips across the front/rear faces of the flywheel through the starter motor hole. Tighten away. Always worked for me.

The bonnet's the thing that offended you most in that? I take it you didn't get to the tag line at the end: ...

If I remember correctly for an electric fan you should set it to come on at the 3/4 mark, the general theory is that the engine will be more efficient running at a higher temperature. With an electric fan you can do that, as every time it spins it spins at full speed so gives full airflow/cooling. Out of the factory with mechanical fans our cars had to be set up to over-cool the engine most of the time, making them run less efficiently but meaning (if everything's in tip top condition) you don't overheat in the worst case scenario - say cruising at 70MPH on the motorway on a hot summers day...until you hit a stationary tailback. You then have a load of heat built up in the engine and just the idle speed mechanical fan to pull air through the rad.

If the new one's just the 'lid', yep knock out the roll pin/swap lids/knock the roll pin back in. Not sure if the new ones come as separate lid/base sections or as units though so might just be a case of removing the (wooden) firewall in the boot/loostening the wire clip/pull whole unit up from the top. Refitting is reverse of yeda yada yada.

Depending which supplier the gaiters came from you might not want to over-tighten the outer ends. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's spent ages fighting to get a new gaiter over the end of the steering rack, secured both ends...only for them to pull of at the steering rack end at the first turn of the wheels!

I might be wrong but I think you have a tiny oil leak there, Colin

At a guess float valve jammed while you were driving and started dumping fuel into the air filter - when then got sucked through along with the air going into the engine, in addition to the fuel beeing added by the carb and you ended up with too rick a mixture to burn - like leaving the choke pulled out. Come the morning the excess fuel in the air cleaner would have evaporated so the engine restarted.

Working up the gearstick from bottom to top you have a chromed, tapered nut with 2 slights flats on it, then the main body of the knob, then a second nut with just cuts into it's top face, then the plastic cap with the switch in it. What I do is: Pop off the plastic cover as Pete said. Just crack off the bottom chromed nut so the pressure's off. The top nut will also now be loose and you can use a small screwdriver or similar in the slots to spin it off. Once free you can just pull both the top nut and knob body off (body isn't threaded, just slots in groves cut through the threads on the gear stick). Refitting what I do is: Bottom chromed nut screwed all the way down the stick. Drop on the knob and top screw. Use screwdriver/etc to screw top nut down until it's flush with the top of the gear stick. Screw the bottom, chromed nut back up the stick until you get to the knob, then just a quick nip up of the bottom nut with a spanner to lock everything in place.

In most cases "A" frame towing frames are illegal for towing cars. The "A" frame technically classifies the towed vehicles as a trailer and the max weight for an unbrakes trailer is 750KG. Wikipedia has a Herald 1200 convertible down as 725kg so just about OK but looks like even a Herald 1200 saloon is 838kg so over the limit. One site had a Herald Coupe at 749kg so you might want to empty the ashtray on one of those

No reason not to take it from the ignition switch. Looking at you could also piggy-back off of the light switch feed. Or you can just grab another bit of wire and some bullet connectors and extend the switch's purple wire so it reaches where-ever you want.

See

Looks like at least Rimmer's will sell you new ones (which might be a better option than second hand anyway - even the youngest one would be 43 years old so contain 43 year old foam...).

Yea, in this day and age it's really just a technical requirement, at least for driving in the EU and you'd really have to have pissed on some local policeman's chips to get written up for it - which is probably only a fine anyway.

I've always used a magnetic one on my MkIV, slapped on the top surface of the boot lid. Technically an invalid position but I think the only truely valid one for a MkIV/1500 is a modern number plate with incorporated UK letters!

I've had one of 'their' SS bumpers (all suppliers source from Harrington I believe) on my Mk IV for 5+ years now and very happy with it and it looks as good as the day it went on. Fit isn't perfect, requiring a little stack of washers on each end mounting bolt - but 'slightly too wide' better than 'slightly too narrow' and as likely to be down to my at least twice restored car being narrower than when it left the factory as the bumper itself being too wide! Mk3 bumper isn't the same but as general feedback - one happy customer here.

Where's that centre console from...?

Check your policy - for the European cover as many will include a hire car for you to continue your journey.

I've done about 15 trips to Le Mans for the 24hrs, along with a few summer holiday trips to Burgundy in either my Spitfire or 2000 and would echo cliff.b's list. Take the escential fluids, a good bag of tools, ignition service items, some electrical crimp contectors and a buntch of cable ties. I know some people will be heading off for the Le Mans Classic right now with more spares in the boot than camping equipment but generally if you keep your car in good order there's no reason it should break down and if it's more than just a running repair, well that's what the breakdown cover's there for!