JohnD

I've been a member of TSSC for twenty five years, doug. You don't get bitter and twisted after the first ten. I'm so disappointed now to see it run by people with no vision and no enterprise. I've advocated an online Courier for years, and been told variously, that it would alienate members without Internet access, that publishing the Courier on paper saves the Club money or that there isn't suitable software. In fact any excuse not to do it. Well, the TSSC's competitor in the TR market had proved all those wrong, as I knew someone would. When the old TSSC website/messageboard went down it was a major task taken on by others (I know who they are - thank you!) to persuade the CoM to include an MsB at all in the new website. The Board was seen as a disruptive influence! Eventually, it reappeared, in this guise. You may not know if you never visit TRR (what a pity) but the CoM chose not only to use the same software as used by the present, soon to be old, TRR site, but to adopt the default layout, so that the TSSC site looks and feels exactly the same - no vision! To prove it, that software is also used by Sideways and a more different looking board is hard to find. And now TRR has left that base and is going to another, so that it can include all the other goodies as well their magazine online - their managment committee has enterprise where the TSSC CoM has not. And this message board is dying - see the new post figures that I put above, that are typical, even if the numbers vary. I've done it before, counted new posts, and those on TSSC are always a fraction of those on TRR, CT, or Sideways. There is hope. After also being an advocate for moving the International away from Stafford showground (and suggesting Donington) I am delighted that it has happened, and found the event had more to it this year than the Weekend has had for many years. I hope others did too. So the CoM CAN act, if a pistol is put to its head. Venceremos!

Can't give you a part number, it's always risky in a special, even with the details you give. I suggest you pop down to your local B&Q or other DiY and buy a length of light metal chain. Easy to thread through the cable guides and to attach, maybe with wire, to the connecters. Cut to length with wire cutters, extract and measure! Voila! Don't forget to allow for the threaded connectors on each end of the real thing when quoting a length to your supplier. The type made up of small metal balls has several to the centimeter, so that small adjustments to length are easy. See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chrome-Light-Chain-Extension-Connector/dp/B00HB7D84U/ref=pd_sim_201_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QPX5DWJ2N9PQX9PMEBD but sold by the meter for pennies in a DiY John

Pointless post, doug, read mine again. The point is that the TSSC and its website, its window on the world, is outdated and has been made so by the Triumph club next door, that can see the future, not the past. Online magazine, online AGM papers, online everything that the TSSC still wants to do by post, while TRR keeps the postal magazine for those who want one. I do my bit to contribute, to this MsB as well as the Courier, but the TRR is offering its members so much more! John

Busy? Three new posts this AM, five yesterday evening. On Club Triumph, thirteen already today and it's only half ten. On TRR, twenty two since yesterday. This site is moribund. What's more, it has been made obsolescent. The TRR site is about to be revived by new software and a new website, that will include - for members - an online copy of the current TRaction, AND the entire archive of previous issues, which members will be able to contribute to. It will also enable all Register activities to become electronic and online, including membership, vehicle details, local group and national comms, news, offers etc, free advertising, personal blogs. It will also include Club Accounts, AGM papers and proxy voting forms. See: http://www.tr-register.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/53355-the-new-tr-register-website-launching-24th-august-2015/&do=findComment&comment=438651 In other words, the TRR website is about to leave the TSSC way behind, wallowing in its own pre-internet cart tracks, as the TRR zooms off into the electronic wide blue yonder. I can only say, I told you so. John

Well done, Dave! It's always worth thinking, what was the last thing or things I did to the car as part of your diagnostic routine! Glad you're sorted now. John

Not Triple Strombergs but Triple SUs, IMMIC. John Thomason described doing this to his GT6 many years ago in the Courier. He made three moulds and cast manifolds for each pair of intakes, allowing for the height of the bonnet - not a minor project! Consult the Technical Index - I'm sure you'll find it. John

YES! Without it, all the electricity that goes into the engine (starter) and comes out (alt/dyno) has to earth via the gearbox, transmission and rear suspension, OR the choke cable! Can lead to poor starting and poor charging. And a hot choke. The OE cable was pitiful. I suggest a length of starter cable, easily available (see: ring connectors swaged on, from somewhere on the block to the battery itself. Clean the surface that the connector will contact with a file or wire wool to make it bright, clean metal. John

Damn right it would! And you ask us about valve stem seals. John.

There are other possibilities to cause 'puffs of blue smoke'. In any case, it's probably due to the high vacuum in the inlet ducts while idling, as the throttles will be closed. This will draw more gas from the crankcase, which is, of course, loaded with oil vapour and droplets, which will be burnt as the throttle opens. Check that your crankcase vent, usually from the rocker cover, is not partly blocked by deposits as some covers have a partly open metal box welded inside the vent that was filled originally with wire wool as a crude filter. The wool can now be corroded and/or filled with carbon from burnt oil. It could also be due to excessive blow-by due to leaky piston rings. A compression test is indicated, and do not omit the 'teaspoon test', a teaspoonful of oil into the spark plug hole after doing the standard test, to exclude ring problems and reveal valve leak. For so much oil to get into the chambers via the valve guides that blue smoke ensues, the guides must be severely worn. To check for wear, dismantle the head and 'wiggle' the valve stem in the guide. ANY side movement indicates excessive wear. No movement, that the guide is tight enough! Hope that helps, John

Dave, Where are you? I'd love to give my Crypton a run! John

It did! Big time! But I wanted that. John

Conversely, Sliverback my race Vitesse estate had a swing spring and I was very happy with it. But to work properly, it should have the long halfshafts, and this put the tyres into the outer wheel arches, so I had to construct extensions. JOhn

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I'm always worried by that design of ROPS - Roll Over Protection System. The bottom ends of the main hoop are bolted to the front of the wheel arch in single shear, meaning that the bracket and arch panel would act like bolt cutters on the fixings. They would better be mounted on horizontal feet, bolted to the floor. And were backing plates to be welded to the outside of the wheel arch panels included in this kit? The brackets are at least twice as thick as the wheel arch panels, which will tear through without reinforcement. See the MSA Blue Book, Sectiion K (Safety): https://www.msauk.org/assets/153191commonregulationsforcompetitorssafetyk.pdf People say, Oh, that's for racing, you don't need that degree of construction for a road car. No? How is a road accident less dangerous than a competition one, when the latter occurs into gravel traps and armco, not walls and street furniture? John

You've decided to buy another engine. Don't just scrap the old one - someone can rebuild it. Even Spitfire engines are no longer in unlimited supply! As above, see if anyone from the local group will 'take it off your hands'. But don't expect anything for it! Keep driving Triumphs - keep Triumphs driving! John

I know! I keep going on about this, but I think publishing the Courier online is a important matter that the Club should consider. I bring it up again, because my e-friend and American Correspondent, Mike Bulfer, send me the "TRiumph TRumpeter" The Official Newsletter of the Desert Centre - Triumph Register of America. Mike must bear no blame for prompting me to nag on - I'm just impressed again by online magazines. You can read it at: http://www.dctra.org/News/Aug2015.pdf And what cracking local group newsletter it is! Think of the Courier, presented to you in this way, at no extra cost and at no cost to our overseas members for whom postage is much greater. The Club says that it gains tax advantages by publishing in hard copy and posting it. I have to say (again) that those advantages must be as big as Tescos if the print and postage cost outweigh them, and anyway, what are accountants for?! Anyway, enjoy the pictures of Triumph fun in the desert sun! John

It's PUSH against the card to expose the hub of the handles, before you can push out the pins. It's VERY easy to lose them, which is why I say 'push'. Knock it out and it'll go anywhere! Can't tell you about the cards. Got rid of mine ages ago, in favour of alloy panels. John

In John Thomason's authoritative "Guide to Originality" he says that despite the PR hype that the GT6 was "Born in Lemans", the design process predated the development of the LeMans Spitfires , and that they copied that design! Anyway, a car that Heritage says was produced in 1967, two years after the second outing for the fastback Spitfires, and a year after the first production GT6, must have been in store for some time before it was registered, if it was a 'prototype'. No, it's auctioneer's hype! John

Pete, How would disc shields keep the water in a ford off them? Perhaps wellies instead of bootees? Doug, No, a fast wheel nut would have kinetic energy, that would be partly converted to heat if it struck something. But partly conserved as it bounced off. If all that energy were absorbed in a glass of water (300mls?) it would heat the water 7C. But if it struck something soft, all the energy would be converted to OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! John

I love the idea that the brake discs need to be protected, "from water and road dirt" Bless 'em! Ickle woollen bootikins next? And a so'wester? Especially when they are otherwise faced by the most abrasive substance known to Man - Brake pads! John

Joke? What joke? John

Then don't read this thread, Darren. To "land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth" was a Triumph, and if you can't see that, then then you have no soul. JOhn

The Space Shuttle was made of aluminium alloy, that could not tolerate a temperature of more than 175C without weakening. And not all the tiles on the Shuttle had to face as high a temperature as the leading edges, where the above would be true. In places such as the upper wing surfaces tiles of the same material as on the lower surfaces protected from temperatures less than 650C, by being 1.4 inches thick, and in some areas as little as 0.2". Or 5mm. That is a temperature gradient of 475C, that needed ceramic insulation at least 300 times thicker than Zircotek exhaust coating. JOhn

I think Triumph put them there because the wheel wells in the bonnet were seen as providing insufficient protection from road water and dirt. You are correct about the hot air's exit path from the under-bonnet - see any of my posts about heat in the cockpit - but that is a narrow and congested route. JOhn

The worst this very hot day, compared to a freezing one, can do is reduce the temperature gradient between air and engine coolant by 35C. Not a lot, but significant if your radiator isn't working well - did you change that when you did the other work on the engine? Many original radiators are now getting a bit clagged up, and it shows when stressed in this way. Modern repros are not durable - you might think about having a new matrix fitted to yours, if the tanks and hose connectors are in good nick. Increasing under bonnet ventilation is the only way to get air circulating more, and that means more holes in the bonnet, which you may consider unacceptable. Louvres can look good, but are non-functional at speed, esp. if fitted too far back (see GT6!) so that they work in the high pressure bubble in front of the windscreen, but they can let hot air out when stationary. Best would be a extractor duct, not a NACA, in the the top panel, just behind the radiator. or else in the side panels. I fitted these to Old Blue Vitesse, many years ago, see pic. It extends well forward inside the panel, so that the vortex caused by the tripping lip at the front works against the back of the duct to energise the air there and draw it out. It is effective! John

If an exhaust manifold and exhaust pipe were made of something that didn't conduct heat at all, then the heat would disappear down the exhaust pipe. There would be no more strain on the engine cooing. The difference would be that the exhaust gases would be a bit hotter as they leave. I've asked before how a coating less than a millimeter thick can have a significant effect, when to combat a similar temperature difference, the Space Shuttle needed ceramic tiles at least six inches thick. I've not had an answer that I can understand. I can understand that in professional motorsport the small difference can be worthwhile. John