JohnD

That's the bunny! Glad to hear that they aren't rubbish. I might invest. I have a iPhone, so can't use that, but also a Kindle Fire that runs Android. Will that have "OTG Function" and connect via it's mini-USB port? John

Steve, Yes, the upper nut is the one to loosen, the lower is a fixed fitting in the filter housing. Those hoses are fairly standard for hydraulic applications, so should A/ be within their performance spec for leaks by about 99%! B/ easy to replace if needed, by finding a local hydraulics specialist. Try Yellow pages. John

Ah! Same as I do. I'm afraid your least option is head off inspect the bores. But I've seen borescopes now that yojh plug into you're mobile! For less than £20! Try that? They're only for Android phones so far, but a burner phone may not the the cost beyond reach. John

My current 2L six runs 10.5:1 Previously I've gone as far as 10.78 calculated), but that's the limit without higher octane fuel than current pump fuel. Your engineer friend is far too conservative. But I thought you said you built the engine? John

Impossible to tell without examining the pistons, rings and bores. Once apart, decide on need for rebore, or if new rings will be adequate. Did you rebuild it yourself? John

No, that's what causes it, as confirmed by two pistons with reduced compression. A leak test is redundant. John

With the engine warmed up and running, take off the oil filler cap. There should be the gentlest zephyr of a breeze coming out. If there is a mighty wind then your diagnosis is correct, but there are so many other causes of oil leaks, designed in by Triumph in the interest of corrosion protection. Where are they? John

There's collapsible and collapsing! That sliding joint might or might not stop the steering wheel bashing you in the chest in a frontal. Moderns will have a length of mesh tube, strong in rotation, weak longitudinally, or more likely two U/js, not the one in the Triumph. Then, the column folds up in a frontal. This design is also dictated by the short front and distance from axle to steering wheel in many moderns, but is most effective. John

Clive, Is that as big as you can get with the actual airbox? The objective should be to allow the air to slow down as much as possible at the intake, because of Bernouille. Fast moving air is low pressure air, and that moving through your 3" (?) intake tube may be going at 60mph at 7K! Allow it to enter a much large chamber, and it will slow down, its pressure will rise and so it can be more easily drawn into the bores. John

It's them garage pixies, petrolheads the lot of 'em. Leave bowl of milk out. Or buy an electric fuel pump. John

Glad you all went well, except for doug. Sorry, doug, but cool is all. John (TSSC's Style guru. I'm even saying, "Cool!")

I assume this is a mechanical rev counter? With a cable from the dizzie? Those use a magnet, spinning in the gauge on the end of the cable, with an aluminium disc close to it but not touching. There is a needle on the disc. As the magnet spins it induces an eddy current drag on the disc pulling round against a spring to indicate revs on the gauge. If the spinning magnet touches the disc,then it would drag it all the way round, but this would also need the stops at each end of the dial range to be broken. Sounds like a major breakdown. Might be repairable if you took the gauge apart, or send it to a gauge repairer like Speedy Cables. John

TSSC Lancs -contact Kevin Makin kev.makin@hotmail.co.uk "We are joining in with a run that’s organised for the Pilling car club By Paul Wilson…..As follows. Meeting like last year at Booths car park. GARSTANG PR3 1EF 10am for 10.15 start £5 entry for air ambulance funds the trip approx 108 m with 2 options to shorten the run a little? your choice on the day , intended finish in Garstang" TRR Red Rose Group have a 'posher' run: See: http://www.tr-register.co.uk/group/red-rose/social-report/2016/03/0199/Drive-It-Day-Bunny-Run John

Had this on Silverback, Pi throttle bodies. Stuck, wide open. Finished the race on the FIA cut-out; ON for the straights, OFF for the bends. Worked, but could not get back to the paddock, as feathering the clutch was also either full speed ahead or the engine heading for MaxRevs oblivion. Needed new throttle spindles, but I've also added three return springs and it's been fine since. JOhn

How deep in the cam shaft boss are the broken-off stubs? They shouldn't be tight in there as they would have been tightened (or Not! were they not torqued down? and loose so the sprocket rattled araound and broke the heads off?) onto the sprocket. Without the heads, they should come outeasily. If reachable, then a fine, pointed drift to tap them around with a light hammer might turn them until you can grip with pliers. OR, is this one case in a million where an "Easyout" will actually work? When they do come out, some close inspection of the threads in the boss, as they will have taken a beating from a loose sprocket? John

Certainly, it is not true that "All Triumphs have poor brakes" but many have poorly adjusted or maintained brakes. Not your's, necessarily, Freyasgrandad! If you can lock-up your wheels, the brakes are good, and the tyres are the final decider, anyway. There are several types of "cast iron", some termed "ductile" or "malleable" that will bend under strain, when classically brittle cast iron will break before it will bend. I would think that Triumph would use the first for such an application, rather than the second. But I wonder if the seized piston was the result of the bend, not the cause. The constant off-centre pressure would have distorted the piston seal and maybe allowed water in. What bent the mount brackets, Gok! Kerbing?? Which way were the both brackets bent? and which piston was seized? John

Haggis, Just noticed that the TR Register shop has a sale on and is selling four-hole, duplex can sprockets for £29.50 (from £44) and Vernier sprockets for £89.50(from £120). No idea if they will extend the discount to non-members, but why not try? Ask info@trshop.co.UK John

Unless you have an extreme head skim and domed pistons (which a 2.5 will NOT have) the Triumphs are not "interference" engines whose pistons and valves will ever clash, so you are safe. All good diagnoses above, but you will need to work out WHY this has happened. There is a keep plate under the two can sprocket bolts, that should be bent up to lock them. Its often lost or forgotten in a rebuild! But less often causes the bolts to be lost. John

Hesitation on throttle up canbe due to a rich as well as a weak mixture. The dreaded Waxstat thermostatic autochokes can do this. Do you have them fitted? John

Peter, Ah! That deceiver minx, Doris (Teresa) Carr. She'll lead anyone astray. Glad you've got it right now, Haggis. John

Dave, I'm afraid that in the circumstances you mention just replacing the fuse is not an adequate 'repair'. A fuse will never overheat, not to melt the housing as it will blow, cut the current and prevent overheating - that is what they are designed for! And Kenlowes draw a lot of current, some up to 15A, so what was the fuse and wire rating? See: http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Product.do?method=view&n=1848&g=244241&p=98867&c=215&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Base&utm_campaign=Fans%20&%20Fan%20Kits&gclid=CKGgoYy55LwCFQKWtAodYHMAvQ&source=aw&awc=6538_1460386329_b4da85447b4e0d3918f4490380450356 Click on "Fan Size Chart" In the day, MGs with Kenlowes were recommend to have a circuit breaker, not a fuse. I fear something else melted the housing and I suggest that is your first problem, which I can't help with without at least a picture of the parts in relation to each other. The fan motor may be faulty- try a multimeter across it. No continuity or a very high resistance means a burnt-out fan motor. Or try connecting it directly to the battery - if it turns, you have eliminated fan motor failure. Water pumps have that weep hole to tell you that the seal had failed. There's no repair, it's a new pump, I'm afraid. It could be that the engine overheating was the last straw, as I don't think it would be the primary cause. Hope you can get sorted! John

I did as Pete advises, drill out to slightly under next size, thread and use bigger bolt. aAFAICR there are nuts welded to that captive p!ate, so there can be some meat on the bone. John

haggsi, the 'am' grinder is the Cam grinder, I forgot the C! Sorry! They are the person who grinds the shape of the cams on the cam shaft. S/he would tell you to advance the cam by XXX degrees after TDC. The number depends on the precise design of cam. It's a Dark Art, hence , magic number, but you do not need it for a Triumph cam. Read the rest. Max lift is the peak of the cam - Good! I didn't elaborate on the four holes in an OE cam, you can find the detail in your workshop manual, but checking with a four hole and then using your two hole sprocket wouldn't help. You would still be limited to +/- 8degrees. Your Kent cam sprocket is duplex and I presume the crank sprocket is duplex too? If it isn't then you have two choices. All Vitesses were built Singlex, only 2.5 engines had Duplex, and they seem to survive with not much wear. So, 1/ buy a four hole, Singlex Vitesse/GT6/2000 cam sprocket to match the singlex crank sprocket OR 2/ Buy a duplex crank AND Cam sprockets set. Oh, and the stop. Think of of it this way. You want to find the middle house of the street, TDC. Its very long, the houses are terraced and look identical, you don't know how long it is and it's a crescent so you can;'t see to the end. Measuring or pacing it out will take ages. So you go to the first house and ask. Where does Mrs. Middlehouse live? And they tell you, so many houses down. And because it's a crescent it's quicker to walk straight to the other end than all the way along, so at the other end they tell you the same, so many houses, and its the same! Easy-peasy now, you count the houses and find the middle house, TDC. John John

Haggis, Thanks to Triumph's amazing foresight, for designing an engine without an overhead camshaft but one that runs inside the block, it is not only possible but best to time the cam without the head. First find Crank TDC, You can use a dial gauge, but far better, and easier, is to use a piston stop (aka dead-stop) Attach the stop, turn the crank until it meets the stop. Mark your degreeing wheel (on the crank). Turn the crank the other way, until it is stopped. Mark again. TDC is EXACTLY halfway between the two. This is much, much easier than trying to judge the precise position of TDC with a dial gauge. There are three ways to set the cam shaft: 1/ Use the marks of the OE Triumph sprocket - but you don't have one so forget it. 2/ Set the cam to max lift (TDC very useful) on No.1 inlet cam, and turn the cam through a 'magic' number of degrees that the am grinder tells you. I don't suppose you have that number either? 3/ Use the "Equal lift on Over Lap" method! Because the front and rear cylinders of either four or six cylinder engines are exactly 360 degrees out of phase (or, say, are mirror images of each other - they're not but the image may help), they are both at TDC at the same time, but one is firing and the other is at the end of one four stroke cycle and the beginning of the next. At that point the exhaust valve is closing and the inlet opening, a the same time, and they will have the same lift just at TDC. Because the valves are overlapping, this is Equal Lift on Over Lap. Set up your dial gauge to measure the cam lift. You can have the cam follower in the block if you wish, but a short length of dowelling is useful as a dummy push rod, Wrap it in insulating tape so that it is a sliding fit in the follower bore. Two dial gauges can simplify the next bit. Turn the camshaft until the two cams are at equal lift. Now, fit the timing chain and you are done! AS you don't have the equally (!) cunning (!!) four hole Triumph sprocket, you will not be able to get nearer than one tooth to the optimum point. That's 8.6 degrees on the 42 tooth sprocket, quite a lot. You might do best to get hold of an original duplex sprocket, 2.5 L style. the two pairs of holes, offset to each other, allow you to adjust down to quarter tooth, +/- 2 degrees. Vernier sprockets are available, but as you can't swing the cam after the engine is built and the timing cover fitted, unlike most belt-driven OHC engines, there's not much point. If you must choose between +/- 2 degrees, advance the cam. Good luck! John PS posted after |Pete's; hope it's clearer than mud!

The FBHVC describes the Facebook petition as "genuine", although they have no part in it. It looks as though my scepticism was misplaced. But my cynicism about online petitions is unfaded. There is no way that a Facebook petition will achieve anything. The only type that can is an official Petition to Parliament: https://petition.parliament.uk/ That needs a 10K signatures to get a Government 'response' (ie brush-off) and 100K to get a Debate in Parliament (a talking shop in Westminster Hall) I don't know that any of the latter had any effect on Government policy, and 100K is a big, big ask for something so niche as classic cars. IMHO, the only way to do this would be to get the FBHVC interested, as a sponsor for a scheme to get the used parts industry interested in 'mining' the store for spare parts. When Triumph engines are £200 now, that might be profit making, and that always attracts this Government, because they can tax profits. They can make nothing out of the cars as they are now, even scrap value is minimal. Thanks to the price of steel that same engine is only worth about £30 as scrap. John