JohnD

Thanks, Graham! I can do physics. But arithmetic?? Bests John

That's because brass is a cheap and nasty substitute for what should be used!! Brass is too soft a metal. PROPER manifold nuts are BRONZE! Find a boat chandler's. John

You make a point that I studiously avoided! Yes, MASS stays the same under any acceleration, but WEIGHT varies with the local 'g'. In orbit, free-fall (or while falling off the Burj Khalifa - 18 seconds!) your weight is zero. When you hit the ground, it's another story. John PS You don't "Weigh" any number of newtons - it's a force, not a mass. PPS It's also an SI unit, and is therefore, like ohms, pascals, joules, watts, teslas, henrys, bequerels, seiverts, grays, etc, etc, spelt without a capital letter. Except for Celcius! Because they are degrees OF Celcius!

Ooooh! "Bits-left-over-after-rebuilding-grandfather-clock" syndrome! Never a good sign! The only single 'cam' in an OD gearbox that I can think of is the eccentric on the front of the main shaft, that drives the pump to pressurise the operation of the O/d, so if that's missing, then no pressure, no operation. My copy of the Official Workshop Manual has a test procedure for the pump, Page 2.305, "Functional Check". The usual exploded diagram of the O/d omits the "front of the main shaft" and this cam, but again the OWSM has pictures on pge2.307. Also, my Haynes manual for the Spitfire has a diagram that includes what looks like the part you show, No.1, "operating piston" meaning operating cam, I think. Scans below. JOhn

You trust your life to "old but good condition" seatbelts, johnny. Bye, bye, johnny. I did fit to new seat belts, in my Silverback. I'm still here. Force = Mass x acceleration. Stop in 1 second from 60 and that Force is 1890 newtons [60-0mph/1 second = 26.8224 m/s^2 70kgs x 27m/s^2 = 1890 newtons] The force of gravity is just under 10 newtons. So Instead of weighing 70 kgs (I wish), for a second I would weigh nearly 14000kgs. My seat belt/harness (and the rollcage) saved me. Buy new seat belts, please. John

Take your passport! As a student, I spent three months in Denmark. Scandi-tax on alcohol meant that for a night out with friends, we went on the ferry to Sweden. But unusually once, everyone had to disembark at the Swedish end - and I didn't have my passport. Why should I? I was arrested as an American draft dodger, escaping VietNam. Only my Danish friends got me released. John

Hence the name, I presume!

Thank you, Johnny! I always assumed the iron.oxide was magnetic! EDAScHD! John

Hmmmmmmmmmm! Seat belts "that have been on the shelf for years"? Like, forty years minimum? Trust your life to those? Unless you want them for a purely show car, please buy new! We can't afford to lose Triumpheroes! It is generally accepted that the life span of a seat belt is ten to fifteen years, whether they are used or not! If you do use OE belts, as a minimum, please replace the webbing straps. Lots of outfits have the equipment to do this. John

Clean and wire wool the rusted areas, then treat with phosphoric acid. This leaves a hard, insoluble layer of phosphate on the surface where any remaining rust was, better than a coat of paint! A magnet will catch any remaining rust particles, and tiny wear particles - good practice anyway. But not loose, sump plug with bonded in magnet best. John

Absolutely, Mjit! "Actually London has some of the lowest per-capita personal transport usage in the country, quite simply because across much of London public transport options are so good you don't need a car - and a car's usually the slowest way to get from A to B." Son &Family live in London, and don't own a car. They could but they don't need one, for day to day transport. Whenever I go yo stay, the extent and availability of public transport astounds me, and shows how poorly the rest of the country is serviced. John

¿??????? You don't mean Routemasyer buses that were too expensive to run? The £5 MILLLION he spent on Boris Island Airport? Buying water cannon; the cross-Thames cable car; the conversion of the Olympic stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit helter-skelt. All costing nearly a BILLION pounds. And all failed. His only success as London Mayor was his own vanity.

It's obvious, Graham, another Benefit of Brexit!

Hear, hear! Son & Family live in London, and they do not own a car, mainly because they don't need one! As the Wombles sang, the Underground and Overground, plus the buses, make one unnecessary, to commute, shop and live. Transport for London provides an extraordinary level of service and convenience. Staying with them in South London, I had to be somewhere about five miles away at 0730 on a Sunday morning. I asked Son for a taxi number. Take the bus, he said. Early on a Sunday morning? Yes, there's one every twenty minutes! And there was! London has a public transport service that is light years ahead of the rest of the country, no thanks to Tory Governments, but to Socialist Mayors! John

Regardless of persuasion? How many Tory supporters and donors are "No-Doms" who evade about £3 BILLION in tax every year? Starting with the wife of the Prime Minister, Akshata Murty? How many support or donate to Labour?

OK, what about Nadhim Zahawi, a previous Tory Chancellor, the Cabinet member in charge of all Gov Taxation and expenditure, who was forced by HMRC to pay £5MILLION unpaid tax? John

You must remember the '60s then, Pete. And the '70s. The explanation? '64-'70 Labour '74-'79 Labour With laughing-boy Heath and the Three-day Week in between, so that only five years out of twenty were the Tories. You know it makes sense! John

Thank you, Mark! That led me to all three videos of the 1991 series, and to Dave Barnes clearly racing in No.8, red oxided Vitesse. I even watched your incident with him at Brands! A splendid trip down Memory Lane, although it was before my racing time Later that year, John Sadler comes out in a black or very dark blue Vitesse with white bonnet and boot lid, No.28. In the next race after a respray (?), he appears in dark green, British Racing, and in the same pattern livery as mine, but with a yellow front. But that isn't the car that I now race, which has a light green front. John and Mark Plausin were sometimes a team in the two cars, with the yellow and green, and it was Mark who I bought this car from, but clearly Mark wasn't racing in 1991. Later,John must have borrowed Mark's Vitesse in the pic above from Pembrey. John has kindly given me some pics from his time with the green fronted car: Externally, it has a saloon roof back since then, but I'm still none the wiser about this car's origins> If anyone else can help, I'll be most grateful! John

This is SofS. I'm trying to find out more of its history. I first met the car in the late '90s, when I raced Old Blue Vitesse against John "Trioomph" Sadler: After Old Blue went to the Great Garage in the Sky, I built Silverback, but then that was downed on the Nurburgring by someone who thought he was Manfred von Richthofen in a Gp2 Porsche. Two weeks after that, this car was on eBay after twelve years in a barn and I had to have it! Needed a lot of work to get it back on track and inherited aa lot of parts from Silverback, so it's the son of Silverback, or "SofS" It's now the only Vitesse racing in the UK, and one of only five that I know of in the world (the Candy Box in the US, in Malta, France and New Zealand). Before John Sadler, I think it was owned and raced by one "Barney Rubble" Barnes, who I remember racing a Spitfire and beating me. He must have been a TSSC member, but I've not heard of him in years. I'd love to be able to ask him how he became the owner of this car and what he did with it, to add to its history. If anyone knows or knows of Barney, please ask him to contact me? If you do, contact me by PM, please, and I'll send my email for Barney to use. Thanks! John

+ one for ahebron's advice! And especially rear light clusters. You need a earth wire that will rake the current from ALL the lights at once! After all, you could be at night, lights on, indicating AND then brakes on! Joh

Bridge Auctions have a unique (?) business model - they sell cars by lottery. You buy a ticket and wait for the draw. This time they ae selling a Spitfire, so this is an opportunity for someone to become an owner, perhaps for the first time, for £6! See: Here is your chance to win our 1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500 : Bridge Classic Cars Competitions I know nothing of the car and have no connection with Bridge Auctions. Just seems to me a good way to find a new Triumphero! John

Johno, You're "getting different bore dimensions from different locations" . Is this cylinder bores? How are you measuring them? The 'proper' instrument is a bore-micrometer, a very expensive item! Another way is to put a naked piston ring in the bore, push it down with an upside-down piston to level it, and measure the gap. This won't tell you the absolute bore diameter, but allows you to compare different bores and by positioning the ring at different heights in the same bore, to tell if there is wear in the bore wall. Rebores, and the pistons to fit in them come in +10thou increments. The crank journal diameters on the main and big ends can be measured with a Vernier caliper (very cheap!) to a tenth of a millimeter (4 thou), but best is to buy a micrometer, 1-2" range which will measure to less than a thousandth of an inch. Lots for sale on eBay for less than a tenner. Since even a precision instrument may go off, look for a gauge block in the same range. Micrometers may be adjusted but its probably easier to know that yours is +5%, or whatever. But even a Vernier will let you compare journals. Then, regrinds and the oversized bearing shells to fit them, also come in +10 thou increments. Another way (I like 'other ways'!) is to use "Plastigauge", strips of soft plastic that to assemble into the bearing, then take it apart to measure how wide the plastic has been spread. It's a surprisingly accurate way to measure clearance! John

I don't doubt Colin, but I use an oil-filled gun, that I keep between uses in an little old oven tray, as the oil seeps out. Very Triumph! There should be a blanking plug in the bottom of the upright, that you take out and replace with a grease nipple as required.

Ah! That's why I used paper honeycomb! A LOT cheaper than aluminium. 'Slamming' isn't something seen in cars even competition ones, until disaster happens: Gel-coat + single layer matt outer coat, honeycomb attached with expanding polyurethane foam, inner coat single layer of glass tissue/resin. Result: That roof was stiff and solid at 124mph on the 'Ring, but when the roof hits the road: Hey,ho that's motor racing. John

Quick wipe with thinners and carry on with the next, next can!