GrahamB

My father had a 1960s Rover 3 litre, straight 6, overhead inlet, side exhaust. There was a switch that when depressed with the engine off, displayed the oil level on the fuel gauge. A long time ago so I hope I remembered correctly. I have not seen the episode, but from your description, it sounds as if the owner did not know how an oil pressure gauge worked. Zero when stopped, yellow needle half way at idle when cold would be normal for a pressure gauge. Where do they find these people?

As John states, The advantage of phosphoric acid is that it leaves a protective layer of phosphate. I have used the Machine Mart rust remover which is phosphoric acid based and costs about £8 for a litre.

Some of the additives used to improve the rubber were found to be carcinogenic resulting in bladder cancer affecting the workers These additives have now rightly been banned.

Sorry wrong car; I thought I was still on the Spitfire 1500 thread.

The heat shied is a standard part, part number UKC8372

I perform all my own maintenance apart from major welding work, it is part of the "fun". I would not be able to justify keeping the car if I was spending £100s a year on garage labour charges. How many TSSC members maintain their own cars? I would expect at least 75% judging from this forum. If the question was posed to the Porsche Owners, then I would expect a lot less than 35% do their own maintenance as suggested in Colin's post.

I have some very old EP gear oil. I use it to oil the trunnions but use more recently purchased oil in the gearbox and diff.

Whatever happened to remoulds? I can remember then in about 1980. Tread may have been good but what about the carcass.

I have had the same experience. I had to use the new sockets with the new bullets. Old and new do not mix.

How long does it take the battery to go flat? If you have a 30 AHr battery and it lasts 15 hours you are looking for a current of 2 amps or 24 watts so it will not be a small bulb. As it has been converted to an alternator, has it been connected correctly? Perhaps the field coils are permanently live.

I read that back in the 1970s, someone built a twin Mini engined special for Autocross. To overcome the gear change issues, the front gearbox was manual and the rear was an automatic. I do not know how well it performed.

Back to Viking times and boats without a rudder, steering was performed by lashing a modified oar to the stern of the boat. As most people are right handed, this modified oar or steering board (Starboard) was attached to the right hand side of the boat. With the oar sticking out on the right, you had to moor the boat with the left hand side against the harbour, (port) wall. You still board airliners through doors on the port side.

I once had a problem with a car which I had fitted with a Weber carb. On cold damp days after travelling for about 10 miles, the engine would lack power and drink fuel. I finally realised that it was icing of the jets. This was cured by constructing a shroud to direct air from above the exhaust manifold towards the air filter. During my investigation of the cause, I used a thermocouple to measure the under bonnet temperature. Whilst driving along, the temperature was close to ambient but as soon as I had to stop in traffic, the temperature rose by more than 20 degrees and any ice promptly melted.

I just removed the wheels, put them in the back of my wife's car and delivered them to the tyre fitters. That way I was sure the wheels would be fitted correctly once I returned home. You just need enough axle stands.

To add my understanding, and perhaps more confusion. With No1 at TDC and the rotor arm pointing away from No1 contact in the distributor cap, the exhaust valve is about to close and the inlet is staring to open. With normal valve clearances, both valves will be very slightly open so no gaps between rocker and valve stem. By opening the clearance up to 1 mm for both valves, although the rockers will have started to move, there will still be a measurable gap, which if the cam is timed correctly, will be exactly the same for both the inlet and exhaust valves. If the gap to the inlet valve is smaller than the gap on the exhaust valve, the timing is advanced.