Mjit

Yep, that's where it is. Early cars had a tap but some time before we got to the 1500 it had become just a big (something like 11/16 sized) plug. Drain the rest of the system and stand well to the side before removing it (especially if you don't have the side screens fitted)!

Needs more pictures - https://www.lazerhelmets.com/lean-spark-plug-chart/

Think I've got one of every "solo brake bleeder" ever made on a shelf in my garage...and it's the <£5 Visibleed that I always end up going back to/having the most success with!

If it's for show rather than go, find the shiniest one you can find and just cut it off under the dash?

I've just been having some fun with a slow starter trying to awake my Spitfire from its winter slumber. Day 1: Battery was new last year but trying to start only got a very slow, 120RPM. Battery off and plugged in to charger, illuminating all the charge LEDs (has 0% to 100% LEDs rather than a needle gauge). Leave overnight. Day 2: Come back and all lights off so refit battery and engine (eventually) starts. Day 3: My car is MegaJolted and while it runs great it's never been a fan of starting. Re-reading the docs. lead me to the "Cranking Advance" setting that kicks in below about 450RPM and defaults to 12° but Googling suggest modern cars go as low at 5°, so I wanted to check mine/try dropping it. Jump in car, ignition on, connect laptop and yes cranking advance is at 12° so drop to 10°, go for start and just get a single "Hurmp". Assume getting it going yesterday took all the juice - which is odd as it's a way over-sized Yuasa HSB075 - so pull it again and connect back to the charger. Which does nothing. Pop out to buy a new charger assuming mine's just died, hook up and needle flicks to the 'empty' side. Leave overnight. Day 4: Needle now on 'full' side so refit and another single "Hurmp". Pop to Halfords who test battery and say it's a little low but generally seems happy - but happily do a warranty swap anyway. Get home, fit battery and...a single "Hurmp" again. Out of interest connect to battery charger and...needle doesn't move. Now the odds of the new battery being duff are slim (tested before it was handed over too) and remembering I still have the old starter on the shelf swap new, 'improved' high torque one for old one, jump in and with new 10° cranking advance starts instantly - then stalls because I've got zero choke ATM, expecting either nothing or a lot of crankking before any action happend. Pull a little choke and key again - to be greeted by another instant start and with a little choke keeps running this time. So what have we learnt... The expensive high torque started, fitted to avoid starting issue was the cause of them. I don't know if there was something wrong with the old battery or not. Certainly something was killing battery chargers!

LED bulb by any chance? I changed all my bulbs to LED, took the car for a test drive in the dark and almost blinded myself when I came to the end of the road and went to turn left! All the others are still LED but the indicitor repeater got swapped back to incandescent

It was?!? My experience has always been a royal PITA, having to slacking off the top mounting, so you can remove the little wire hiding strup, so you can fight to get the new wires to go down the correct path, all while wedged uncomfortably in the footwell. Never had an issue with the indicators...but frequently give other classic car drivers a friendly single wipe of the windscreen as they drive past 😐

If your indicator switch is one of the new ones on the market the last couple of years you might want to inspect it - my original switch failed (after the best part of 50 years service) but the new one that replaced it barely lasted a year, and the one that replaced that was threatening to do the same in a matter of months. In both cases the 2 sprung cancellation arms were held in place by cheap metal rivets pressed into soft plastic. But soft plastics creep, so the rivets come loose, everything falls apart, and in the first case one of the springs went walkabout. Think I glued the rivets in place on the second one and so far that's help together. And when you say "never worked very well" do you mean "wasn't very good/reliable at cancelling" or something else? If the former for the current new ones I've found the cancellation arms are on the short side and you really need to maximise how close to the steering column you can get them when tightening the 2 mounting screws to get a reliable contact between the arms and trigger collar.

On the Mk IV Spitfire (so I'd guess most/all Herald based cars with the 'early'/pre-TR7 style switch gear) there are a couple of dimples in the upper steering column shaft that match with a couple of bumps on the indicator cancellation collar. I've no idea if the dimples are at 180° to one-another but would have thought with the upper column loosened and disconnected from either the steering coupling or rack you'd be able to rotate it 180° so the cancellation 'hump' points to 9 o'clock rather than the standard 3 o'clock position if they aren't and you can't just force the the cancellaton collar out of the dumples and rotate it 180° around the shaft Then just a matter of reconnecting everything (after removing the plug/grease nipple from the steering rack and poking something in the hole to align the rack centre dumple) and removing/rotating/refitting the steerign wheel to match.

That car does look a little low so assuming there's no lowering block fitted between the top of the diff. and the spring I'd say it's a well worn spring. I've no objection to buying from eBay...but (for example) James Paddock will sell you a 'long shaft' rear spring for more or less the same price (£97.50 + shipping + VAT) and I'd trust their after sales support more than a random eBay seller...

RainX is your friend. If the rain is heavy enough/you're speed high enough you don't need the wipers...leaving you free to focus on the drips from the orners of the windscreen frame and water getting pushed up and over the top of the side windows

This video's an amusing watch (though you can quite happily skip through 90% of it) -

The short version is there what you CAN do and what it's WORTH doing. As you say you can just drain the old DOT3/4 fluid, fill up with DOT5 and bleed through as normal - but you'll always have some degree of a 'blend', and any remaining DOT3/4 fluid will still absorb moisture. Provided you do a good drain that tiny percentage of 'wet' DOT3/4 is unlikely to make any difference/be noticable. DOT5 is expensive though so I'd always recommend replacing your master and slave cylinder seals while you're at it, unless the parts are new/recently resealed. Seals are service items that do wear out and the cost/extra time and effort of doing them while you're changing the fluid is nothing compared to the annoyance of finding you need to buy another bottle of DOT5 in 12 months time as one of the seals have reached the end of its life and you need to drain all that DOT5 you only put in last year in order to replace a seal! The DOT5 specification was created for the US millitary who wanted to be able to just park up their spare vehicles and leave them when they didn't need them, without having to worry about having people go around them all changing the brake fluid every couple of years. Of course the US millitary also didn't want to find themselves trying to fix one of their vehicles at the side or the road in some random war zone and be stuck trying to find some relativly rare DOT5 fluid while surrounded by sources of DOT3/4 (for example the nearest civilian vehicle) so part of the spec. is that it has to be 'compatible' with DOT3/4.

Been a while but I dn't think so. Jack up, onto stands, remove wheel, remove tunnion bolt and you should be able to wiggle the trunnion out of the lower wishbone. Can't remember if you also need to detach the anti roll bar but have a feeling you can normally get away without...

Is this just the fun bit where you need a friend to push the top of the screen rearwards/into the car with the sort of weight you'd normally think 5 or 6 times about applying to glass?

I think it's part of the Canley Classics collection. Sold by Bonhams back in 2003 - https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/10503/lot/35/ Not sure if Dave has that saloon but seems to have an estate prototype - https://www.canleyclassics.com/?archive=prototype-3000-v8-estate

"Need to be glued over your origninal trims". For £130. When you can buy a full cow hide on eBay for £80. Think I'd just buy some leather and cut it myself.

Just google "exhaust fabricators". I finally got too old for being unable to speak to my passenger/having ringing ears for 30min after a long drive in my wheelbarrow equiped Spitfire and got a new rear system built to my "a good rasp/burble around town but not as drony at motorway cruising speeds" requirements by Powerflow (nationwide) - and it does exactly what I asked for. Find some local to you and pay them a visit/see what they can do for you.

Option 1 - Do the Maths Work out what all the fuses do and calculate the total expected load, then fuse appropreatly. Option 2 - The Lazy Way Even the most fused of our cars just had a block of 35A fuses, so just check a 35A in each slot. Option 3 - Suck It and See Grab a big selection box of blade fuses and shove the smallest ones in each slot, leaving the box in the car. Use the car and see what goes 'pop' under normal use, replacing the blown fuse with the next one up.

Actually based on the photos I'd say the actual hole the fuel's going through is about the same size on both filters. I've used the disposable plastic type for years and never had an issue with the design of the filter causing fuel flow issues, even at 130kph on the French Autoroutes.

I've always been confused by people who go through the hassle of removing the gearbox tunnel to remove the prop shaft bolts. I mean you need to go under the car to do the rear ones/actually remove the prop. so for me easier to just do the front ones from the same position. I guess if you're just unbolting at the gearbox end to remove the gearbox it's easier - but I'd still prefer to remove both prop. and exhaust to do that job as I know if I don't I will smack one of them with the gearbox, probably with my fingers between gearbox and whatever I hit!

Henry Ford did order one part of the Model T to be redesigned after the first year of production - because they hadn't had a single one fail. His logic being if none of them had failed they were over-engineered and could be replaced with something cheaper.

I'd guess you need 20 litres because about a week after you fill up with it the water pump will start to grumble, then when you've drained/fixed/refilled for that the radiator will start leaking so you'll need to drain/replacec rad./refill, then the front oil seal will start leaking so you'll need to drain/remove rad so you can remove the pully nut/fix seal/refill. Or maybe it's just me who feels like you are having to drain the coolant for one reason or another every 5 minutes! NOTE: I'm not in any way suggesting these waterless coolants are causing any of those issues, just every other job around the engine seems to involve draining it. My last one was replacing the coolant and flushing the system as a maintainence process, then the fan switch in the bottom radiator hose giving up the ghost 5 weeks later...which meant draining the coolant so I could replace the switch. I curse whichever accountant at Triumph decided to save a few pennies be removing the drain tab for later Spitfire radiators 😠

My Revotec inline controller failed last year and I replaced it with a simpler, fixed range unit from stoney-racing on eBay. I went with a "95°C...for 30mm hose ID" one and it's worked fine for me. Cost just £24.95 (rather than £75 for a Revotec), the needle hovers just below the 3/4 point on the gauge, summer and winter, and if I ever need to change it I just need a new sensor rather than the whole thing (which I then adjust, once). I picked the 95°C sensor based on their listing advice: "In most cases the on temperature of the switch should be around 10°C to 15°C higher than the vehicles rated thermostat opening temerature".

Reaction #1 - Haha, amusing reply. Reaction #2 - Actually I wouldn't be suprised if that was what the DID do!