Mjit

On a Spitfire MkIV/1500 - not easilly. Last time I looked there wasn't either a single oval or pair of round filters in their range that were both shallow enough and small enough to fit inside the Triumph airbox. You can do it but it means banding the airbox out to a suitible filter depth - and life's too short for the extra little bit of performance you get.

All of the DOT3, DOT4 (mineral) and DOT5 (silicon) standards are specifically written to be interchangable and so mixable¹. The only downside of mixing mineral and silicon is the potential to get the worst properties of each - though this is of course down to the ratio of the mix. In practice draining all the old fluid/blowing through with a bit of air/pumping silicon through till it looks clean and purple out of each nipple will probably put you in the realms of 1 part in a million of mineral, so make no practical difference. Also from this you don't NEED to change any rubbers BUT unless you only changed the rear wheel cylinders last year or something I'd say it's afalse ecconomy NOT to change them as part of the switch. They aren't exactly expensive (~£4 for a seal kit/£9 for a brand new cylinder) while a bottle of silicon fluid will set you back more like £22/£38. The seals are a service part that are expected to wear out and need replacing...something that always involves some loss of brake fluid (especially if you knock over your bleading jar for example). How would you feel having gone to all the effort of swapping to silicon only to find one of the rear cylinders has started leaking in 12/18/24 months time and need replacing, and watching some of that expensive purple juice slipping away...? ¹ Worth noting that DOT5.1 is NOT compatible with any of DOT3/DOT4/DOT5, and probably the eason it's "DOT5.1" and not "DOT6".

Been a long time since it got down to the o/d complaining as I just check it/top it up at the start of the year and before/after any longer trips - like the 1,000 mile trip to Le Mans 12 days time, for the 24hrs 😃

Odd, I can't say I've ever either found traces of it from previous owners or any signs of oil leaks coming from the solenoid connection. I do though have a constant leak from the o/d sump on my Spitfire, from where it's clearly been dropped at some point so no longer perfectly flat surfaces. Lots of surface cleaning and a new gasket with gunk all over both faces has it down to a managable drip rate though, and thankfully the o/d's built in low oil level warning reminds me to top up if I haven't (gets slow/reluctant to engage). One day I'm sure I'll have to take the gearbox off to fix something (and not need the car back on the road ASAP) and will address it properly then - but it's been like it for over 20 years so far...

I assume a reference to dowty washers...but none of the J-Type overdrive's I've ever taking the solenoids off of have had dowty washers, just plain copper ones, as listed in the parts book (NKC108).

Just don't forget the washer that goes between the solenoid and overdrive casting...

If the pipe's seen better days your first step is probably to hit the club shop and order some new E10 safe tube and replace it. With or without that you do tend to get a syphon as the pick-up end of the pipe is submerged, the pipe full, and the outlet end lower than the pick-up. I'm not personally a fan of clamping off any hoses and instead go with the slight of hand of; pulling the pipe off, shoving a bolt in the end of the pipe, ifnecessary tightening the fule hose clip on the bolt. I think it's a 1/4" bolt you need for the fuel pipe. Having an inline fuel filter in that piece of pipe helps too - in this case as it will generally have an air bubble in it that helps stop the syphon but generally to stop some of the drud making it over to the carbs.

Neither is my memory - what I listed is what my eBay buying history told me I bought, not necessarily what I actually ended up using. It's quite possible one of those three little zip bags is sat completely unused in the garage O £10 seems steep to me...and checking mine were £5.87 inc. postage for 10 of each.

After years of the faff and more so the mess of using a grease gun I'm now a firm convert to a method written up in the Courior a few months (so probably a year or more) back - a couple of 10ml refillable syringes and some windscreen washer sized tubing. Remove the nipple/blanking plug and force one end of the tube to screw in to the hole. Fill the syringe with GL4 EP90 oil, plug in to other end of tube and press the plunger till (the often quite fowel looking) old oil gets pushed out under the trunnion dust shield.

The solenoid seals are just O rings and the sizes are on one of the Triumph sites, so I just bought some on eBay (making sure they were at least listed as oil resistant). Just checked buying history and looks like you want some BS007, some BS010 and some BS014 Nitrile O rings. That's the 'full set' but shoudn't take too much research to work out which ones you have/which you are missing.

In my experience "a good tap" is a bit of an understatement! With every one I've resealed a tap would get the piston to the end of the cylinder but getting the old, hard O ring to let it pop out farther required 'a little more effort' and 'a lot more swearing'. It WILL come out in the end though.

The hood fit is actually fine. I think it's just water pushed up into the corners of the windscreen. From there it's pushed over the windscreen rubber and into the gap between screen frame and alloy capping. As the capping is sealed onto the frame the water channels to either side, ending up in the ends and inside the door glass. With no airflow to push it anywhere else it just drips down, inside the car. I guess maybe the tip of the door seal is meant to go right up in there (I know mine stop just shy) and push it outside the side glass...or would that just try and force it between door seal and inside of door glass?

I've always followed Ford Prefect's advice - Always know where your towel is. If it's sunny - it's between the hood rear window and the folded in side window flaps to stop the latter scratching the former. If it's cold - it's at hand to wipe the windscreen. And if it's raining - it's draped over the right leg catching the drips.

Had a drive out in my Spitfire the other day to get a new, custom exhaust fitted - I do a lot of long drives and have just gotten too old to do them with a wheelbarrow sports exhaust. The exhaust is great and looks like it will tick all my boxes so far, but that's not what this thread is about. No, it's about the fact part of it was my first wet weather drive for some time and I'd forgotten just how annoying the constant drip I get from the front corner of the hood and onto the middle of my outside upper thigh! The drip forms/falls from the 'loop' at the end of the alloy windscreen capping, where the top end of the door apeture seal ends. Is it just a case of "They all do that, sir." or are there any tweaks to mitigate it?

Colin, you're suggestion is what most normal people would have done - take spurs from each side of the indicator switch, into a common wire, into the bulb, out the bulb and to earth. It's not what Triumph decided to do in this case though! You actually ARE powering the opposite side turn bulbs, just with so little current the fillament never gets anywhere near hot enough to emit light and is just acting as a piece of wire. I can't decide if it's the work of a madman or a genius

So had to swap the indicator switch on my Spit. the other day and referenced the wiring diagram to double check connections. Job done and everything working...but something about the diagram just isn't making sense to me, What am I missing..? So power comes from the battery, via the ignition switch, fuse, and flasher unit to the indicator switch. If you flip this to indicate left power then flows from the switch to the left bulb at the front/through the night dimming relay to the left bulb at the read. So far, so good but after the indicator switch the wire splits, with another spur going to the turn repeater bulb, and from there back to the other/non-connected side of the switch...and it's split wire that goes to the right side bulbs. Now 12V are coming in to the repeater bulb and it lights up so must also be getting to earth, and that route to earth is via the right side bulbs. So why don't the right side bulbs illuminate too? They don't, and I'm sure it's all perfectly logical, but I can't see it and it's annoying me! why I can't work it out

In NW London I'd say your local specialists are: As others have said Moordale motors in Potters Bar JY Classics just outside High Wycome Picton Sportscars in Waltham Cross

I've got one of those and had multiple solenoids off and on but never known/needed to know what the square hole was for. They have always been "hand tight with the little spanner" and worked/not leaked like that.

In the last paragraph I was just giving a baseline of where the needle sat driving fast/slow/in traffic with the fan running full time, so an indication of when the thermostat opens/how low it CAN go and also context for how much hotter it's new position is. If it had been 1/4 with the fan on 24/7 moving to 3/4 would be quite an increase. Just moving 1/2 to 3/4 is much less of one. And there's no point me fitting cooler and cooler switches to get the needle to the 1/4 mark as, on my car, it's never going to happen.

So managed a good first run with my new fan controller fitted as it seems to be working so thought I'd give details, in case anyone was interested. Car's a Spitfire Mk IV with a 'fast road' spec. engine and full width rad. No mechanical fan, just an electric 'push' fan. Fan control was via a Rovotec adjustable controller (in the rad. exit to water pump inlet hose) that basically had it comming on at 3/4 and switching back off at 1/2. Fan control is now via a Stoney Racing 30mm/95°C controller from eBay (in the same place as I had the Rovotec one). This seems to come on just over 3/4 and switch off when back down to 3/4. This seems stable and I've not had any running issues - though part of me wonders if a 90°C switch might not be better, as it's in the rad. exit rather than the recommended inlet hose (but probably only better for me looking at the gauge, not necessarily for the engine 🙂). And out if interest I only discovered the Rovotec controller had died en route for a weekend away last Bank Holiday, which resulted in a pit stop at a Halfords to buy/hack in a mechanical switch. This meant a lot if driving with the fan left switched on, even when not needed and like that the needle just sat at half way. Logically this means (on my car and with the individual temp. sender fitted to it) the middle line must be 82°C (or whatever temperature the 82°C thermostat fitted in my car is actually opening at).

I think for most of our cars an electric fan set to 65°C is rather crazy and way too low a temp. I mean you're probably running a themostat that doesn't open until 82°C so you'd literally just be cooling the water sat in the radiator. The Rovotec fan controller I had on my Spit. died during lockdown and I've replaced it with a simpler system with swappable, fixed-temp. switches. Their guide is to aim for a switch-on temp that's 12°C to 18°C hotter than the themostat opening temp. I seem to remember the set-up for the adjustable Rovotec controller was something similar - set 'stat to hottest setting, get it up to temp a the needle past the middle line, set 'stat to coldest setting, then when the needle drops to the middle line turn the 'stat hotter until the fan kicks out.

You'll be early then - the Classic's not till July. Or are you going out for the 24hrs in June and just staying there till the Classic rolls around?

That's a SH605031 with a 500469 in parts book terms. Also worth getting a 5/16" crush washer off eBay - in case it turns out yours HAS been done properly and so you need to refit the external feed. From memory the advice on testing it I recieved on here when I bouth a 2500S with an external feed fitted was: 1. Remove from head/fit blanking screw+washer. 2. Remove oil pressure switch from 'T' piece/remove 'T' piece from block/refit oil pressure switch direct to block. 3. Remove rocker cover and wipe up any sitting oil. 4. Start and run the engine for 30s-60s. If the external feed was just bolted on you should start to see oil weaping out of the rocker shaft, as it's still getting supplied via the internal oilway, so you're good to switch off/refit the rocker cover/get on with your day. On the other hand if things stay bone dry at the top of the engine the external feed was fitted properly and the internal oilway blocked off and you're now running without rocker lubrication! Switch off and swap everything back to 'T' piece and external oil feed+oil pressure switch at the block end/external oil feed+crush washer at the top - and then get on with your day.

Actually looks like these might work - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262721633697?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=v_7s2yyISYy&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

A pair of "Crunch CS46CX 6"x4" speakers will fit in there - though annoyingly I can only see US sellers listing them on eBay right now. One of those listings gives the cutout hole 5.5" x 3.46" which I think was a little smaller than the Triumph hole. Other, probabaly more impirtant dimension is the 3" mounting depth, as the fuel tank seams eat in to the space and stop most modern speakers fitting. Like Pete I think only 2 of the screw holes lined up but the speakers frame was still sitting on top of rear deck metal, so supported and with the parcel shelf trim on top no rattling or anything. I would offer to go out and check...but have rear seat belts fitted and can't face the faff of unbolting them to get the trim off