Mjit

"No electrics no cable"...just loads of faffing to get the bonnet cones and body catch bracket correctly adjusted so the bonnet sits right/the catches work. Must have been a royal PITA on the Triumh assembly line!

Electric operation of things like handbakes and bonnet/boot releases are down to assemply costs. It's really cheap and easy to add an extra wire into the loom and easy to add an electronic actuator onto a sub-assembly, then on the line it just takes seconds to plugging in a connector. The alternative is a cable that has to be routed by hand, often through multiple sub-assemblies, then adjusted, all of which is at least a 30 second job, which basically means an extra guy on the line, which costs a lot more than the actuators.

I've had a Toledo electric switch fitted in my Mk IV with one of the basic inline electric pumps for years and while it works and is better than the old manual pump I've also more recently fitted a generic eBay 'pump in bottle' one to my 2500 S, replacing the standard 'inline pump on top of bottle' set-up - and that's got significantly better pressure. In less you're looking to keep things looking original I'd look to see if one of the 'pump in bottle' kits will fit on a Spitfire bulkhead, rather than an inline pump. Only issue with the Toledo switch is the knob/switch body retaining lug orientation is different so the graphic on the end of the knob isn't horizontal unless you modify things.

Or was it a direct result of the DOT5 not being hydroscopic so ending up with any/all the water in the system ending up in the rear cylinders...😈

Block at least is "quite big and very short". The blanking bolt is part 129077 and ~£4 (+fibre washer) from Triumph suppliers.

Personally I'd go with another tap. Sure they have their issues but they do at least give you a chance of shoving a pipe on them and draining the coolant in a controlled way, not just dumping at all over the chassis rails/garage floor! If it does block up you can just unbolt the while drain tap, giving you a fall-back that's the same as just using the blanking bolt.

I often see this written and while I agree with "farthest from the M/C first" part disagree with the order. Yes, the NSR is farthest from the M/C 'as the crow flies' but it's the OSR that's farthest for the fluid to go, the pipeline going (on both Spitfire and 2000 saloons at least) OS bulkhead->NS 4-way distribution block->pipe down NS->NS 3-way distribution block->OSR wheel. Then it's the OSR, then it's actually the OSF 9pipe from NS 4-way block to OSF is longer than the one to NSF) and finally NSF.

That's what I was meaning. Oddly if you shove a load of folded vinyl in front of the speakers it muffles them a bit, who's have guessed

Spring washers do a job - and while they might not do it amazingly they do it very cheaply. But even in our cars you'll notice they aren't generally used for anything REALLY important. Want to try and stop the nut/bolt holding the parcel shelf in place rattling undone? Spring washer, as it 'failing' would just be annoying. Want to stop the nut/bolt keeping the suspenssion attached to the chassis rattling undone? Nylock, as it 'failing' could be rather terminal.

My fuel tank cover was junk so I made one out of a sheet of ply/foam/vinyl and fitted some mid-sized speakers into that. Not bad with the hood up but muffled by the hood when down. But the best swap was to Mk1 MX5 seats with built in speakers - could even hear them over the old wheel barrow exhaust at speed without having the volume up so loud it was embarrasing when you slowed down to drive through a village

Let's just hope the ACO don't make as much of a balls-up of the 2023 Classic as they have done with the 2023 24hrs!

Given you have to drain all the old fluid, the fact no seal lasts for ever, and the relative low cost of seal kits vs. DOT5 fluid I'd always recommend replacing the seals as part of a swap. But you don't have to replace them. If you only replaced them 6 months ago I'd probably keep them, but if you can't remember the last time you changed them probbaly worth doing it now rather than losing some of that blue liquid gold doing the job in 6 months time.

Sorry, confused my silicon number. Should have been "DOT3/DOT4/DOT5 (silicone) can mix" and "DOT 5.1 number comes from other numbers already being used". Main reason DOT5 (silicone) 'fell out of favour' is because it's not compatible with ABS. And of course DOT4 fluids got better (the standard just defines the minimum test point the fluid must meet while almost all far exceed them these days).

DOT3, DOT4 and DOT5.1 are by definition 100% compatible and Automec actually say on their bottles that it can be mixed/you don't need to replace anything when changing. Of course being compatible is not the same as saying mixing them is a good idea, as you get the worst properties of each rather than the best. The story of DOT5.1 is that the US military wanted something they could put in their millions of vehicles and just leave it there while they sat unused in a desert storage yard somewhere, not have to have people swapping the fluid every 3 years - but be able to top up with whatever came to hand in the middle of a war zone. And it's DOT5.1 rather than DOT5 or DOT6 because those numbers were already used by other specs.

As JohnD said the inside of the silencer gets warm in use which, especially in the colder months, results in a lot of internal condenation forming and slowly rotting both the internals and the outer skin from the inside. So even if you can weld the normally very thing gauge metal it's still likely to be shot internally. Find a decent exhaust centre and they should be able to find a stock back box that's the same size/bore/has a 'stock' noise profile rather than 'performance' one.

I'm saying mount on the back/engine side of the pulley, not front/radiator side.

I got my trigger wheel mounted onto the rear of the crank pully, so well away from the radiator. I'd recommend fitting a spacer ring between the pully and trigger wheel - something I didn't do and it's only by luck it JUST clears the steering rack! A 3mm or 5mm spacer would put it in much clearer air, both from the rack and crank sensor to fan belt. Been like it/fine for 10 years and many miles though.

Humm, £250... If you're thinking of spending that much I'd probably just go the whole hog and swap to MegaJolt - in fact I did. I can't see why the £450 Trigger Wheels GT6 kit wouldn't work on a Vitesse , and you can do it cheaper than that if you source individual parts yourself - http://trigger-wheels.com/store/contents/en-uk/p169.html That removes the distributor (and its wear/inherent inaccuracies) completely and made an amazing difference to the torque of the little 1300cc engine in my Spitfire.

Hah! I put one ON my Mk IV Spitfire because I though it looked better and found it cured the same issue Not the only thing that can be counter intuitive - the front of my car used to tramline badly on worn motorway inside lanes...until I softened the rear shocks - but important thing it just go with whatever works for you.

A splitter, well, splits the airflow and lets you control how much goes where rather than just letting the air make it's own mind up. The best design is a horizontal blade and that's what you see in motorsport. They don't look that 'nice', are very subject to damage, and have a habit of trying to cut off pedestrians feet on the public highway though so road car splitters tend to by styled to look nice while still being effective. If you look at the Spitfire front splitter it's basically a horizontal blade, just very 'puffed out' and 'rounded off' to blend with the general car styling and make it less cutty in an accident. It still splits airflot hitting that area of the car, sending some of it down under the car/the rest up through the engine bay. Having driven my Spitfire both with/without it actually makes a huge difference at higher speeds, sending more air under the car and countering the front end lift generated by the big, wing-like bonnet which can make the steering go rather loose. A spoiler, well, spoils the airflow. When any 'wing-like' shape passed through the air going 'the long way around' (i.e. over) has to go faster than the air going 'the short way' (i.e. under), and faster moving air creates a lower pressure zone. Now if that wing shape is an aircraft wing that's great, you WANT to to get lifted up. If that wing like shape is a car body though a bit of lift is good but too much and you start to lose force between the tyres and the road. This makes the steering scary light, makes it easier to wheel spin, and easier to lose traction and under/over steer. A spoiler basically gets in the way of the nice airflow over the car, making it slower, tubulent flow that doesn't produce as much lift. They can also have a secondary effect which is to intentionally mess up the airflow off the rear edge of the body. Left to it's own devices you tend to get a very turbulent wake behind the car where the under/over flows rejoin and feed one another - and that's drag trying to suck the car backwards. You can use a spoiler to 'mess with' the upper flow before the natural rejoin point, stopping the 2 flows interacting as much and causing so much wake drag. The spoiler itself actually increases drag but by less than it reduses the wake drag. And then you have things like gurney flap, which are just witchcraft!

<pedant>I'm reasonably sure NO GT6s ever left the factory with a front spoiler fitted. Many left with a front splitter, but that's a very different aerodynamic device.</pedant>

The compatibility checker on that eBay aution pags says they are.

Isn't it more a case that everyone uses it as a thread lubricant, just often incorrectly called a sealent - a bit like the 'shock absorbers' in your suspension actually being the springs, not the dampers? PTFE, or if you prefer trade names Teflon, is just 'smooth and slippy' so lets you tighten a thread more for the same force. And the tighter the joint's done up the less likely it is to leak/the more likely you'll be able to get past the damaged threads and seal on some clean ones.

Always love these sort of guides. Great for the hand full of people who live on quiet roads, about 1 mile from a quiet motorway. It's only because on live right on the borough border that I can turn left and be in a 30MPH limit. Turn right and it's 20MPH.

Mintex M1144 again. Try searching for "Mintext MGB533" rather than anything "Spitfire" or "Triumph" specific - a number of Fords use the same pads and Ford specialists are often cheaper that Triumph ones.