Nick Jones

Brake fluid has a lower self ignition point than petrol. Spill petrol on a hot manifold and it just fizzes, brake fluid bursts into flames. Bigger the better with fire extinguishers. Awful lot of moderns die by fire. Electrical presumably, but seems odd given the number of fuses! Nick

Another vote for the early Strombergs here. As regards squeezing more power from the engine, the factory Mk 2 Vitesse and GT6 cam (also used on the earlier 132 bhp PI saloons) is an excellent all rounder and not the limiting factor on this engine. A bit of head work, a better exhaust manifold and then bigger carbs should make for a nice torquey engine that will also rev well and still have a good idle and traffic manners. The TR5 cam does not play nicely with CD carbs at low rpm and really needs ITB injection or Webers. Some say the Newman PH 1 (mild) & 2 (sportier) can add power without sacrificing too much at the bottom end. As regards the TR250/ Federal TR6 manifolds, it depends. Some, but not all, have different port spacing from the usual Euro spec, so care is needed. Nick

This is one possibility. Also worth trying the compression test with the throttle shut. If 6 gave a higher reading in this situation then it could indicate a manifold air leak. Years ago I also had a cleaner plug on no 6. Initially I thought leaner (though normally 2 & 5 are the leanest running), then I realised it was actually cleaner rather than leaner and wondered about headgasket issues. This was supported by slow water loss, but not by cooling system pressurisation with the engine running or by compression test results. While starting the dismantling process to examine the head gasket I found that there was a little water in the inlet runner for no. 6 and realised that there was a water path to it from the manifold heating jacket. Swapping the inlet manifold solved the problem and the head stayed on. Nick

I think that's a really good idea. Assume you have the front of the main exhaust section supported just behind the flexi? Have you also got a steady bracket for the forward section - off the bell housing bolts perhaps? Would probably be the final touch if not. Have contemplated similar on mine but the fat Toyota 5 speed I have fitted means the exhaust takes a slightly different line and there is less space available. Nick

That's fine..... just need the tyres pumping up and bit of t-cut...... Nick Don't panic Marc, just tweaking Colin's tail ? Nick

If Colin is calling it a basket case...... ? Nick

No skills question here - just genuine curiosity as to how your brakes apparently weren't stuck when you drove in in the afternoon and then were the following morning....... without it being (directly) handbrake related...... All the stuck-on overnight brake incidents I can remember have been caused by the shoes rusting to the inside of the drums, usually due to over-ambitious fording of deep waters........ though my sons's Arosa will pull that particular trick after just about any damp winters night. Nick

Use GT6 rotoflex dampers ONLY if you are still using the shock brackets mounted on the inner wing. These are too long for use with the chassis extension brackets or direct to the chassis and will run permanently bottomed out (or very nearly so) giving a terrible ride. Ian, as yours is a Spit 6 I'm presuming you have either the chassis extension brackets or use the original shock towers on the chassis (quite possible with roto if running CV shafts). This means you need the shorter dampers as used on the swing axle cars so 1500 ones should be correct. They are not 100% correct (still a little bit too long) with the chassis extensions but have worked ok for years for me on the Vitesse. Nick

Shouldn't be tight. Bit of tapping with a brass or aluminium drift may get it moving. Nick

The problem with Colourtune is that it was originally intended for fixed jet engines where the idle mix setting was just that and didn't affect running elsewhere. On Strombergs and SUs the mixture setting affects the whole range and these engines idle best slightly rich, so the needles are factory selected for this. Therefore, to get the blue colour at idle you end up leaning it off too much and getting poor running/flat spots further up. MoT emissions adjustment tend to result in the same effect making it necessary to richen things up a bit after the magic paper is issued. You may get better results with colourtune if you treat the point at which the flame goes blue as a marker point and then richen back up a couple of flats until it just goes orange again. Blanking off part of the airfilters is an.......um..... unusual approach. If you have fitted aftermarket "free flow" air filters such as K & N and perhaps have exhaust mods too, you actually need different needles to compensate for the extra gas flow through the engine. Nick

Plug colour is only a useful guide if checked after a good hard run (some would say should be done by cutting the engine from cruise and coasting to halt!). To indicate what is possible with these old engines, when fitted with modern(ish) electronic injection, correctly set-up, the plugs will be almost completely clean and deposit free even after thousands of miles. The engine in the pic was a fairly heavy oil user too as can be seen from the head deposits.

If the wheel cylinders are partially seized (normally due to corrosion) then they may move outwards as you apply pedal pressure for normal braking (especially if you brake fairly hard) but fail to return under spring pressure, leaving them locked on. That is not the question....... what is the question is how you got home yesterday without noticing a problem..... Nick

Split diaphragm on crankcase vent valve? Nick

Yes. These often seem to go for less than a crank alone. Presumably due to additional effort and risk. Nick

Don't think 1500 cranks are yet rare/expensive enough to justify metal spraying (attempts) and associated costs and risks. Plenty of 1500 cranks about, though you may have to accept them wrapped in the remains of a short block! (which may yield other useful parts) Nick

I agree. As regards naming suppliers, in many cases there isn't much point as far as product quality goes they are only moving on items made by others and the same items are available from most, even all retailers. How they deal with it is between you and them. What is worth doing is making it known to people that there are problem parts out there, what the issues with them are, how to identify the parts affected, and how to check for problems. As Roger's experiences and pictures show, together with the pics from the Mongolian rally boys, this could actually prevent serious mishap. Whatever else happens, you, the frustrated and inconvenience customer need to feed back to your retailer so that - you can have your problem dealt with (replacement, refund - whatever) - just as important - they know that there is an issue with the part. IF you know others are having similar problems, TELL THEM. They may say that no one else has complained, but VW/Audi were saying that about high oil consumption issues in the UK, even after they'd issued recall notices for the same defect in the USA...... Nick

Definitely 1500 FWD. The starter ring gear is attached to the front pulley and they discovered with the 1300 FWD that a plain straight shaft and key would get destroyed after a while. The taper fit was to prevent this. "Loads of 1500 cranks knocking about" Indeed. Knocking often the operative word though...... Nick

Yes. They should meet and overlap around the arch itself and be spot-welded (from factory) or plug welded together. Nick

Myself, I always prime the system by spinning the oil pump with and electric drill running anti-clockwise (4 cyl oil pump driveshaft fits nicely). Having done that I'll also spin it over briefly with the plugs out to check pressure comes straight up before firing it up. Overkill? Possibly. But keen to do everything possible to protect my effort and investment. Plus it tends to catch any really big leaks before the engine is running. Nick

Lockheed calipers...... hateful design with no proper dust/weather shields so doomed to rust, stick and die young. Some pics OE seal groove Repro seal groove Dodgy not-to-scale-or proportion sketch showing the differences. Regret that I have no way of measuring properly........ Disc to the left as drawn. Pistons appear to be a good match in terms of major diameter and surface finish (ground then chromed). All the groove IMO....... Wonder if someone transfered a detail groove/seal design from a sliding calliper - which needs twice as much retraction? Anyone had any that worked as expected? Nick

I was inclined to blame the seals too....... hence the swap attempt. The seal kit just fitted was a TRW branded one, so as close to OE as possible without being actual NOS (which could be really quite old now). Parts quality looked good and measured well compared to two old sets I had. Forced to dismantle again, we had a lot of trouble getting the pistons out. I could squeeze the pistons in easily a few mm by hand and they'd spring back to the start position when released. Likewise, a few psi from a foot pump would move them a few mm out but not further. We could then apply up to 100 psi short term and have them return to the start point when pressure released! It was only when I left 100psi on there for 2 - 3 minutes that they slowly crept out. we've done some comparing of the insides of these and an old OE calliper and also 5 different seal kits of various origins. Conclusions are that the seal dimensions and quality vary considerably, but more significantly the seal groove in the calipers has a different internal profile and appears to be too shallow, resulting in too much compression of the seals. Our slightly ghetto (and hopefully temporary) fix is to re-use the old OE seals recovered from the OE M16 GT6 callipers I rebuilt recently. These are in perfect condition but have compressed slightly to conform to the angled profile in the bottom of the groove. By taking care to fit them in the same direction as they were we've ended up with pistons that move more or less as they should, though possibly still a little tight. Brakes now working better than ever, but remains to be seen how well they will self-adjust. Interestingly enough, the seals removed from the new callipers seem well made (definitely better than some of the kits) and similar dimensionally to the new OE ones, but softer compound, which is presumably how they worked at all. Want some OE Girling 16PB callipers to rebuild now! Repro parts.... where's the spit-on-the-floor smiley? Taking them out, standing on the pedal then squeezing them back in again does help, but only until the pads wear down again and you are back to square one. We've done this 4 times in under 5k miles (fairly gentle miles at that) on these callipers hoping they'd settle. They haven't........ Nick

Been suggested on the Triumph Experience, by someone with significant experience and expertise, that the OE pins are tapered........ which would suggest that if you guess right there is some chance of getting them out, and none if you don't! This fits with my average of one hit, one miss - though unlike me to get lucky first time! I DO NOT consider that style of roll-pin (slotted spring pin really) adequate. If the spline fit is not tight enough to hold things, it is completely useless as a safety feature. A proper, heavy duty spiral roll-pin would be very much better, inexpensive and easy to install, though still not as good as the OE solid pin. Remember that this potentially stops your suspension from collapsing......... Nick

2L engines have no offset and no piston markings but the 2.5 engines do have offset and pistons are marked. Don't know about the 1600 I'm afraid...... Nick

I've moaned a bit about this before, but the story goes on. When we upgraded the Spitfire brakes we didn't have any type 16 calipers to rebuild, so I bought some brand new ones. Actual retailer probably irrelevant as I think they all come from the same place. They looked good but the first problem was that we apparently couldn't bleed the system fully and just couldn't get a decent pedal - almost to the floor whatever we did. Wasted loads of brake fluid. Turned out not to be a bleeding problem but the caliper pistons over-returning. Got around this by taking the pads out and pumping the pistons out, then pushing them back just enough to squeeze the pads and anti-rattle shims in. Instant pedal. Trouble is, the problem returns every 1000 miles or so (depends how fussy you are about pedal travel) as the calipers basically don't self adjust, so we have to remove the wheels, whip the anti-rattle shims out, pump the pistons out and refit the the shims. We've stuck with it hoping they'd settle but they haven't. I know we are not the only ones to have this issue - a local friend has an identical problem and have seen at least 2 more references on the forums. Problem seems to be that there is too much stiction between seals and pistons. There is mean to be a degree of "seal-roll" before they slip in order to pull the pads back from the discs, but there is just too much. I had a set of "proper" seals in stock so today we pulled them off and swapped the seals. Caliper quality looked pretty good and there wasn't alot obviously wrong apart from some mild scuffing on the piston/bore and a thin black line on the piston, presumably where the seal had been sitting. Seals, dust covers and pistons all in apparently good condition as would be hoped after a little over 1 year / 5 k miles. Measure old v. new seals which showed slight variations, with the new ones being a little narrower (~0.1mm) but about the same thickness. Old also felt a bit squashier. Having fitted the new seals (on both calipers) with plenty of red rubber grease and reassembled everything the problem is........ worse . 2 - 3mm roll-back now. Unusuable..... Suspect that the dimensions of the seal grooves in the caliper bodies are incorrect. Will have to try and measure tomorrow...... Repro parts....... Anyone else had this issue and, if so, how did you get around it? Nick

Richard That's another fairly scary looking failure. On the pin, can you remember if it was a "slotted spring pin" which seems to be what Roger found, or one of the spiral wound ones https://www.spirol.com/library/sub_catalogs/cldp-What_Differentiates_Coiled_Pins_us.pdf One of the heavier duty spiral wound ones might not be totally daft...... Nick