Steve P

That sounds frightening,i would be wary of even driving that until you know what`s doing it.Unless the price reflects it there could be major work required. Steve

I would say Andy Dann is your man,plenty of experience in rescuing Triumphs,especially big saloons. He is in Wymondham,Norfolk. see here-www.classic-resprays.co.uk Steve

I can`t believe any machine shop would carry out skimming and other work on a head that is clearly un-usable or even scrap,shame you already paid as i would not even contemplate a repair,i would be asking for another head to be done at no cost to yourself. Unbeliveable! Steve

I get this every time i visit,i thought the forum was not viewable without signing in.i.e visitors? Steve

I did the CV conversion on my MK 1 Vitesse after shedding a rear wheel with the brake drum etc still attached,as Clive says its basically converting to Rotoflex and then fitting the CV shafts instead of the roto doughnut shafts. You have to weld the chassis brackets on for the bottom wishbone mounts and drill the rear out rigger as the adjustable tie bars sit further inboard. Also the handbrake cable mounts are on the body for Roto cars and on the chassis for non rot,the handbrake adjustment needs careful setup as the brakes can bind as the suspension moves up and down if not done right. I did it because i didn`t want the shafts snapping again but this was a Vitesse with a 2.5 tuned engine in it. My Herald still has the standard setup albeit with 5.5J steelies. If your only concern is hop and skip then i would address that with spring/shock/setup first. Cheers Steve

I think Mike Papworth had his BT mail account hacked as i got spam purporting to come from him,ring him,very helpful chap and good service in my experience. Steve

I bought a single rail o/d box for my Herald from the bay a couple of years ago from someone in Devon,£100 with the gearstick etc.its been perfect since even completing the 2014 Round Britain run with CT.All i did was put fresh oil in it. You might be lucky Steve

Tried to order a red rotor and new cap today,online got to the last stage of payment and then gave an error and please try later message. Tried to call the office at 3 ish,both options tried for shop and general enquiries,just an annoying tone for ages,no sorry your waiting ,no divert to another person. I like to support the club shop but in the end i have given up and got it from the Distributor doctor. Steve

I have a Vitesse with a 2.5 PI engine and HS6 carbs. With some head work,a decent manifold and being properly built it produced 172BHP at 5800Rpm on the rollers,its a really strong engine.It has a TR5 cam and a CR of 10:1.Its also not bad on fuel. I fitted a saloon box and J type o/d along with a 3.27 diff with Jones/Bowler CV shafts. To source a cam try Newmans in Bromley,they will do any grind for you. Currently using a standard Vitesse distributor with no advance(it pinks too much)I plan to fit a 123 Tune soon. Runs exclusively on Shell V Power fuel btw. Steve Clive beat me to it there,also the lumpy idle thing isnt true for mine,it will sit smoothly at 800rpm and pull from low revs no problem.

I am about to do mine and will be trying Mintex 1144`s.Supposed to be excellent.Available in the club shop i think. Steve

What was the black blob you found?was it gasket sealer or oil residue/gunk? from what you say it does sound like blockages somewhere,i wonder if whoever put it together used sealer everywhere and created more blobs where they shouldn`t be? What oil are you using? the pressure in my rebuilt engine is 30psi hot idle and 60-70 psi at 2.5k revs hot,thats using Valvoline VR-1 20/w50. Also i used to have a Pheonix 6-3-1 with heat shields to protect the carbs,i now managed to find an original MIke Randall manifold,thats mild steel and not wrapped,even hot persistent idling doesnt cause fuel vapourisation. If it was mine i would take the gallery plugs out and whizz the pump with a drill down below the dizzy drive to check the flow everywhere.either that or bite the bullet and take it out and strip it. Good Luck Steve

Definitely sounds like a major rebuild. If it helps i have a newly rebuilt unused short 1500 from Newark Engines in the garage,due to a change of plans i wont be using it. I`m in Egham around half an hour from Reading. Steve

Dont know if a 9 inch fan is sufficient,i have a Spal 11 inch sucker mounted on the rear of the rad on my 2.5 Vitesse.The rad is aluminium though. It does suffer from under bonnet heat when sitting though so i fitted a manual switch in the cabin as well so i can turn it on before the thermo switch kicks in. You can see it in my avatar pic. Steve

I had an Accuspark kit on a Delco 4 dizzy which i think is what you should have on that engine.The rotor arm didn`t sit high enough on the spindle and hit the electronic ignition module every time it went round until it died. I had to replace it and modify it. Is yours a mechanical engine knock or plasticky? Steve

I`ll probably take my Herald or Vitesse to to the next one,this weekend i have been in Sunny West Bay Dorset enjoying excellent sea food. S

I converted my MK 1 Vitesse non roto to the Jones/Bowler version ater snapping a shaft near the hub end.I didn`t have the facilities to build up a kit so asked Nick to give me it complete ready to bolt on. All i had to do was weld on the chassis brackets for the lower wishbones and relocate the tie bars further in the outrigger . I feel much more confident in the rear end durability now(even with a 2.5 engine and 3.27 diff). Nicks very helpful. Steve

I`d be more worried about where all that oil came from. S

You need to lift it as high as it will go with the filler still in the wing hole,and lever it out bottom first,get the drainer on the bottom through the boot floor and it should pop out. Steve

Dont know who your cam supplier was or if it was the same people that did the head work,i`m surprised they wouldn`t have worked out the optimal compression to work with the cam..on my Vitesse i had it worked to give 10:1 with a TR5 cam. You need to work out the chamber volume required to give the ratio you want, and then get it skimmed to give you the correct chamber volume.My Herald has a TLD 244r cam with a CR of 10.2:1.That was 33CC`s per chamber iirc. By the way my Vitesse runs on with anything other than 99 octane in it.It showed 172bhp on the rolling road though,with a standard Vitesse dizzy with no advance.Thats the next thing to sort. Steve

I normally go along,only the Herald working at the moment as the Vitesse has no exhaust. When the weather is dry Brooklands is normally heaving with people,forecasts not great this time though,thick cloud but hopefully not raining. Steve

Hard to tell from that angle but that spring looks far too flat to me,should be more of an arch to it? Steve

I had a similar issue on the recent round Britain run in my 13/60. It was losing power and running on three when the engine was on the most load,i knew the fuel system was drawing in air from somewhere because i could see bubbles in the filter,ended up changing all the rubber pipes. Of course it was the last one that fixed the problem(the short one under the car along the chassis where two metal ones join). Steve

8000 rpm at 50mph....must be stuck in first gear John. S

Diff ratio won`t give you anymore torque or grunt,the shorter the diff, i.e Triumphs shortest 4:11-1 will make the engine rev higher to reach the equivalent speed of a setup with say a 3:89 or 3:63. It may accelerate faster but it will run out of revs quicker with a short diff. I am intrigued to know what ratios you have,i was playing with the Mintylamb calculator,see: .http://www.mintylamb.co.uk/gearspeed/ Even with a Standard overdrive box and a 4:11 diff 80mph is only 3900 revs.I wonder if something is slipping? Unless you have 10 inch wheels i`m baffled. Steve

I always take my diffs/boxes etc. to Mike papworth,he will do any other work you want as well if you would rather have it done all in one shop. If the carbs are off its no biggy to have the head off to check the valves-convert to run on unleaded (if it hasn`t already)mines run on 99 Octane without additives for years and is fine. He`ll even pick it up if you cant get it there. No i`m not on commission,just satisfied that he`s honest about whats wrong and a good bloke aswell. Cheers Steve