Nick Jones

Personally I loathe wire wheels on small chassis Triumphs. Just about acceptable on round tail Spits and GT6s - if you must. That’s the aesthetic side. Practically, they have many downsides and not a single upside I can think of. Refurb your Rostyle trims, buy some nice alloys (there are things other than Minilite copies out there), anything but wires...... Nick

My records say I bought 4m Nick

Good advice already given. Using the brake adjusters to lock the wheel is a nice one. Re-use of bolts may depend on how hard they fight and what is left of them........ but ok to re-use if undamaged. I have had two or three people tell me that they've changed rotos without taking the link off the car or disturbing the wheel bearing - but frankly I have no idea how. I did have a bit of a go on one occasion and while the old one came off without much grief, that was only because it was already falling apart and just broke when stretched. I didn't feel that was any possibility of stretching the new one enough to get it over the tripod without doing damage - even if I'd been strong enough. Nick

Not Newbury, but similar timescale. It's not pretty but it still works. It came with two rebuild kits. I used the first at the end of last year as it was getting a bit of ED. That fixed it.

I've always run 175/70s. This was fine all round on the 5.5" ones but I think would have made occasional arch lip contact at the front on the 6" wheels. The 100+ wheels I'm using now are 6" with ET13. These represent pretty much the limit for standard arches with 175/70 tyres and do make occasional light contact with the arch lip at the front. £100 a pop.......! Blimey.... I struggled to sell mine in 2007 - nearly weighed them in! Think I got about £120 for 6 of them..... with legal tyres. Nick

MG 1800 is the B series and weighs as much as the Triumph six. No Triumph interchangeability whatever. As Kevin has said, the only overlap is the 1500 used on the rubber bumpered Midgets which is actually a Triumph 1500 as used in the Dolomite and Spitfire with only detail differences. If you want something revvy, you are best off starting with a small crank 1300 code GE or FD (your Herald should have a GE in it). I have a GE block, crank, pistons and rods here doing nothing available very cheap. It will need boring/grinding etc as well worn, but is currently standard size. You may find it's just the top come off the piston. They do that sometimes...... Nick

I tried a whole bunch from COH Baines after finding the "correct" one impossible This is the one I'm using https://coh-baines.co.uk/product/dx-72-composite-self-grip-type-draught-excluder/ I also tried DX-76, DX-77 & DX-85, but the 72 was the only one that allowed a decent tailgate fit. The only drawback with the 72 is that it tends to flip itself over along the top. It's the friction on the paint does it so if you put some silicone (cockpit shine, back to black or similar) on that section it works fine. Nick

Sills should be done with the body fully fitted to the chassis and doors + bonnet in place for alignment and gapping. The Heritage sills come with decent paint and are also a better fit than the other offerings, though not perfect. Tend to sit too far inboard at the rear and make the bottom corner of the door stand proud unless steps are taken. Nick

Unfortunately not uncommon on that wheel style when drilled to 3.75" pcd. The pcd is too small for the centre hole really, giving very thin sections. Not the only alloys to suffer this either. I ran this wheel style for many years. 5.5" mostly, which were fairly common. They were always scarily close to the rotor wishbone bolts, to the extent that one with a slight buckle (and it was very slight) had to be used on the front as it would catch on the back when cornering. 6" are rare. I happened across three of them for very little money, but one was cracked as pictured in the OP. Considered welding, but once I spotted the crack went all the way to the insert....... .......... I preferred not to! Ended up using two 6" on the rear and the two best 5.5" on the front. Were eventually replaced with a set of unused 100+ cross-spokes. Nick

Then they are likely ok. This is the thread

Following our experiences with the new Girling 16P copies as available in the UK (documented on here and Sideways) I’d be very wary of making a large overseas investment on them as they just don’t work properly. Whether the Rock Auto ones are the same as the UK ones I have no idea..... Refurbing a pair of genuine ones will give a more certain outcome I feel. Nick

Good luck with them...... If you find they apparently won't fully bleed...... that isn't the problem. The seals pull the pistons back too much. You can overcome this by removing the pads and carefully pumping the pistons out a bit. Then lever the pistons back in until you can JUST squeeze the pads back in. That should give a you a pedal. Until the pads wear down and calipers fail to self adjust....... Hopefully you'll be luckier than we were - anyone want a couple of door-stops! Nick

And there is pollen..... an actual real and present problem for many people. Who is going to tell the trees and grasses they are not allowed pollen anymore...... Nick

If the wheel bearings turn smoothly and quietly with just the merest hint of play then you can probably assume they are ok. Also possible to dismantle (carefully noting and keeping the shims and spacers) wash out the bearings and check their condition and, hopefully just reassemble with fresh grease. Much easier than the gearbox work you've just done! MoT man should pick up shot rotos. They certainly wake you up if they do let go whilst driving. My spring bears the scars to this day. If you can get hold of the proper ones (Metalastik now Trelleborg - not sure whether the recently produced Trelleborg ones are the equals of the originals) they usually last very well. The pattern versions..... much more variable. It was the failure of a pair of new (less than 1 year) rotos that drove me to do the CV conversion. Cars which have suffered coupling failures may have visible damage to the driveshaft ears, usually on the outer section. Quite major distortion sometimes.

Pleased to see there is a happy ending. With those oil pressure figures it seems unlikely that there is much wrong with the pump and I find it quite strange that it happened. I think the suggestion of draining and refilling the oil before tackling the filter is a good one as it prevents both ends of the system being fully open at the same time. I'd also suggest that not leaving the oil filter off for long and going for the restart fairly soon after refitting could be a factor. Certainly that's the way I tend to do it, though not specifically for these reasons. I'd also point out that you don't need to change the filter at every oil change if the engine is in decent condition, especially if you are doing it on time rather than mileage. I'd reckon at least two oil changes per filter. They actually filter better after they've done a bit of work.

I’d certainly do this before dropping the sump. That is a big and deeply unpleasant job on a Vitesse or GT6. Really shouldn’t need to do this after a simple oil change though. Do you have an oil pressure gauge Paul? If so, what sort of range of oil pressure do you normally see? Nick

Yes, modern fuel does permeate through some of the hoses available. No visible wetness but it still stinks. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any legislation to prevent the sale of unsuitable hose in the UK. I've been using Cohline 2240 (from Glencoe or Merlin) for a couple of years now which doesn't smell and seems to last. Avoid the generic "R9" rated stuff from ebay and AFS. It should be ok if it were what it claims to be, but it isn't. Nick

Sounds hopeful. Bigg Red offer the seal kits and stainless steel pistons for these calipers, which have worked very nicely on the three pairs I've done. You'll have to ring them to order though as they don't appear on their website. Nick

That would certainly do it. Same effect as back filling from the oil filter adapter. Not sure how accessible it is in the car - they are typically very tight. Frankly I'm surprised that spinning it over with the oil filter off hasn't produced oil. I'd be tempted to whip the plugs out and spin it for longer. Bearing loads are very light like this. Very odd to have so much difficulty. Nick

It can be quite difficult to tell the imperial and metric 16PBs apart. The fact that 3/8" UNF fittings will screw into the M10 x 1 (fine) tapped holes (albeit feeling slightly slack) does not help. The mounting holes are also slightly larger needing special bolts with slightly thicker shanks, but still a UNF thread. Is the thread definitely stripped in the caliper - or are you inadvertently trying a UNF nipple in it? They should actually hold reasonably well if both threads are in reasonable shape but much easier to strip by over tightening. M10 x 1 male threads will not screw into 3/8" UNF tappings without significant force and damage is caused. Nick

3 ports short.......!

No gain from dropping the oil. I wouldn’t run the engine with the filter loose - the mess potential is enormous! Really shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds of cranking to get oil to the filter, though a few more may be needed to fill it and the rest of the oil galleries once the filter is screwed home. In VW circles Fram is known as “the orange can of death”. To be fair I think that relates to a specific listing with no internal relief valve - a fatal combination with poor maintenance. Been using spin-on adapters for 30 years plus Pete..... I like a rattle-free start 🙂 Nick

The oil pressure switch is on the wrong side of the filter as Rob says. It won't help, or not as much. You could also remove the relief valve or the main gallery plug just after it but just leaving the oil filter not fully sealed seems like the minimum effort to me. Just so, but I'd save that for the really stubborn cases! Nick

You could use a Mk1 chassis on a mk 2. As a bare minimum you’d need to add the brackets for the rear lower wishbones, and a couple of tabs for brake line junction fittings, which is fairly straightforward. The bracketry for the lever arm dampers is much more involved and I’d suggest converting to telescopic dampers instead as they also work better. The Mk1 handbrake guides can be left in place unused but tidier to cut the off. Chassis swap is a lot of work. You old one would need to be in a poor state in the main rails to justify the effort. Nick

I think that where there are problems getting pressure after an oil change, it’s telling you something about your oil pump. It’s struggling to prime and clear the air that’s got in when the oil was drained. This might be due to slack tolerances in the pump itself, a small air leak on the suction side or a partially clogged strainer. Its possible that an oil filter with a particularly effective non-return flap (714/2 has a double flap) might make matters worse as the pump needs to generate enough pressure to push the flap open and clear the air, which it may struggle to do whilst it’s got air in itself. Basically it’s airlocked. Turning it faster (more engine revs) might clear it, but is a scary race between getting oil pressure and bearing damage. Giving the air an alternative escape path (other than through the oil filter) is another way. Leaving the oil filter loose on the threaded stub, just short of the seal making contact, then spinning the engine on the starter until oil appears would do that. I had this problem with one of the engines in my PI. It also would randomly loose all oil pressure if left idling on a slope in a particular orientation when the oil level was a bit down. That had a slack joint in the oil pick-up tube. Nick