ahebron

My spare1600 is a short block complete with metal fan that hasnt turned over in many many many years. But I have a NOS bare cylinder head for it thats hasnt even had valves cut into it. That one for sale has had a decent amount of money spent on it to get it to that stage, well if it was in NZ it would be a decent amount. Adrian

Just rebuilt the pump on my 1600 and it wouldnt work. I fitted the kit and replaced the valves but no joy. Out with the pressure gauge and outlet is giving positive 2.5psi but input was giving nothing. Take the top off the pump and noticed that the glass bowl had a wee chip ,out of its base that would not seal against the gasket. Luckily I had a spare glass dome with no damage and that was fitted and the pump has negative pressure on inlet and positive on outlet and best of all it pumps petrol😉 I might try repair the damaged glass with knead it or a glue. Adrian

They probably thought there goes another Triumph Herald owner😉 Adrian

After giving up looking for a supplier of the bottom of the grille aperture for my Vitesse I reluctantly decided to use my last week day off before return to work next week sorting it. Plan 1 involved cutting out of 50x10mm bar with my jigsaw a curve that matches the top of the opening and then beating a piece of metal into shape using the curve as die. But I then realised that 10mm is not wide enough. Plan 2 was to cut out of the 50x10mm bar a 18mm x 600mm length with my metal cutting circular saw, it is rated to 6mm but by taking it easy it cut the 10mm. Went off a wee bit so put it into the mill to even it out to 18mm. Then it was out with the oxyacetylene to heat the cut and milled bar pressing it into the concave piece from Plan 1 giving it the shape to make the curved channel with. I had a length of 1.2mm galv sheet which I cut to 48mm (14 + 20 + 14) width x 600mm and folded one side of the channel in the folder followed by the first use of my shrinker to pull a curve into one side. Other side was done in the vice with g clamps and a hammer. Coat with zinc phosphate. Stage one completed but I need the piece to go behind which is the strengthener and what the grille screws too. And I have it already, yes the piece I used as the die to make the outer channel is perfect to use as the strengthener. All I had to do was grind down the ends to fit into the existing channels on each side of the opening and weld it in. Before the next part I drilled and tapped a hole in the middle of the bar for the grills mounting screw Then I drill 4 holes in the outer channel to plug weld and weld those and at both ends. I did cut back the outer panel on the front so the joints dont line up. While working on the bonnet I came across some cracked paint in the rh headlight recess and picked it out to see surface rust under the paint and also found a crack in the panel where it joins onto the bonnet brace, this has been brazed at some time so I couldn't mig it but might end up cutting the section out and rewelding. And the same on the lh side. Both look like no primer on the metal just top coat🤬 Adrian

And if using those horrid squash connectors with the coloured sleeves please please please use a proper crimper and not a pair of sidecutters or pliers. As a mains voltage sparky by trade I detest them except when properly crimped, I often come across them and the wire falls out and this is at mains voltage. If you are doing a bit of wiring it is worth investing in the ratchet type that crimp the wire and sheath at one time for any type of crimp or ferrule. Sorry to hijack. Adrian

Thank you. So bonnet behind the headlights, not chassis. Last time I had horns on a Vitesse it was 5 trumpets that played Bridge on the River Kwai all bolted on the left hand inner front guard. Adrian

Apart from on the end of the horn wires where on the car do the horns go? I am missing the ones for mine so bought a pair of Stebels and am curious as to the exact location? Adrian

I have a jar full of solder connectors I have pulled off looms over the years and I reuse them. Use my high temp hot air gun to melt the solder and pull the old wire out. Presolder the new wire getting the solder well into the strands then fill the connector with solder by sticking the tip of the iron into the end of the connector and feeding solder in from the cable end. When solder is nice and hot and dripping on my toes poke presoldered wire in. Jobs a goodun!

Photo of my gearbox mount Adrian

I had the car on the hoist yesterday as I was filling the diff and gearbox with oil, GL4. I decided to see what happened when I pressed the clutch pedal with the car in gear and I was delighted to feel no drag on the flywheel so it looks like using the Vitesse 6 clutch master and 2 litre slave might just work. Adrian

It could have a Spitfire Mk4 swing spring. Or has broken leafs, I've had that on a Mk4 Spitfire. Adrian

My new one from Minisport arrived today and looks good.

TPA3116 chip An amp with one of these should work in a car as a bluetooth player. I just fitted an in my workshop to play bt from my phone or surface and line in from the internet radio. Also has a usb and sd slot. They are dirt cheap and worth a play with

That looks like a Lucas 34317 which is/was also a headlight switch. https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?113655-Wiring-to-TR4A-Wiper-Switch Adrian

I have some spare in a jar for moments like this.

Who said that?😉

Seeing you can buy different thickness nyloc nuts I cant see it being that much of an issue. But I suppose it depends how much you take of them. On the prop shaft nuts the bolts didnt protrude from the nylocs and as I didnt have any shorter ones in stock I took 3 to 4mm off them. A rule of thumb thread depth 1-1.5 x times the diameter of the thread but came across this recently https://www.element.com/nucleus/2016/06/29/six-fascinating-facts-about-fasteners Fastener Fact 1 If you’ve ever designed a part with a tapped hole, you may have wondered, “How many threads do I need to make a strong connection?” The answer is that it varies, but six at most. Because bolts stretch slightly when load is applied, the loading on each thread is different. When you apply a tensile load on a threaded fastener, the first thread at the point of connection sees the highest percentage of the load. The load on each thread decreases from there, as seen in the table below. Additional threads beyond the sixth will not further distribute the load and will not make the connection any stronger.

Exactly.

When I finally powered up my Vitesse it blew a fuse but as I have split it into 8 circuits I wasn't too worried as the car running was the priority. Yesterday was the day I got round to finding the fault which turned out to be the wiper motor. I removed the motor and opened it up but not much looked to be wrong. Into the spares and pull out a rough looking unit. Opening it found almost new bushes but the spring holders had broken, the original unit had good spring holders. Fitting the spring holders and brush arm locator to the spare unit and it runs. As the original motor had been painted and gearbox regreased I thought I would swap the armature and field coils into this housing as it is only a couple of screws. Did that and motor would not work and current was upto 6 amps. Take it all apart and assemble in old unit and it works again. Turns out the housing has been damaged at some time, on closer examination it has a rubbing lip on the inside of the curved part of the housing. Laziest way to do the job was fit the old motor housing with its good bits onto the original gearbox and paint it. As an aside I tested the temperature gauge using my flying lead 2 watt bulb, put the bulb in line with earth and the temp sender wire and watch it slowly climb up to 2/3 gauge. Checked the voltage stabiliser is working by watching the bulb flash as the bimetal is operating, you can do the same with a volt meter and watch it swing from 0 volts to 12 volts. Adrian

Or a shorter nut. I turned 4 down when refitting the propshaft to my Vitesse 6. Adrian

I would follow the opinion of those wise people. Our cars never left the factory waterproof and I am pretty sure not many are these days. I always remove felt from my old cars, if only to stop it smelling! Plenty of modern options about these days.

Thanks Pete but the reason I used the 10mm was I had a 3m length in the garage. If I didn't I would have either done as your suggestion or got someone to fold the piece for me. But where is the fun in that! And as I now have one already I really hope there will not be a next time😉 But I was surprised how the jigsaw coped. It is an AEG STEP100X 700 watt model and I used cutting oil and went through two blades. I did try my bandsaw in vertical mode but I couldnt keep the cut on the line, might be time to get rid of that as I have plenty of ways to cut metal these days.

How did that all go, I had though about it but that was all Any twisting? I am aware of Landrover chassis being galv-ed but they are a bit more robust. You would want to make sure the chassis is perfect before dipping.

If only life was that simple. Unfortunately I suffer from a mental ailment bought on by old Triumphs. If I need a tool once I will need it more than once.and the end result it I buy or make them. 😉

On the nose for Paul and Pete. It is to make the bottom of the grille opening that rots out out on the Vitesse but no one makes a replacement for. I tried it out on some scrap galv sheet I have and it seems to work well but has a bit of spring. I might fold a right angle first then using my shrinker/stretcher pull it into one side of the curve then to get the other side use the jig and a hammer. Adrian