[Dolly 1850 single rail gearbox in to mk3 GT6]

I remember telling my mum 'It is only going to be off the road for 6 weeks so I can change the chassis'

That was back in 1983.

[Dolly 1850 single rail gearbox in to mk3 GT6]

To be honest I have no idea what I have as it has been bolted to the engine for far to many years to remember.
But if IRCC it does have the modern clutch not the old Vitesse 6 one and the clutch plate fits on the splines nicely so I assume it will be a Dolomite gearbox compatible one.

I might have to pull the box as I fear the clutch will have have 'stuck' to the flywheel as they have been together for over a decade, maybe be the best part of two🤔

[Dolly 1850 single rail gearbox in to mk3 GT6]

I was reading this thread getting myself more and more depressed as I have a Dolomite 1850 O/D box sitting in my Vitesse 6.
I was trying to get my head around what was going on and why I can't recall doing any of these things and what had I done so wrong that bI needed to pull it out of the car.
Then it clicked, I have a 3 rail Dolomite 1850 O/D g'box. phew!.
 

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

Home made handbrake spring spreader so I could clean them up

I went through several different types of clamp till I worked out this version.

[Handbrake return springs]

It was so cold this morning I had to put socks on for the first time this year, apart from when I work.

As the day warmed up I removed the socks as I didnt want to take the mickey

[GT6 Diff oil]

When I went to drain the oil from the rear diff on my Amarok I was surprised to find it has no drain plug so removed the back plate, some rear diffs have a drilled through bottom bolt hole to help drain them but not these. Front diff has a drain plug even though it is right prick to remove and refit the fill plug and fill.

[Handbrake return springs]

Today was work in side the car for the first time in a long while so I started cleaning the accelerator pedal and floor mount in the sand blaster and an etch prime then but it was onto the handbrake
Back to parts dept to find a reasonable lever. Find one and place it in the car and something was wrong so I sorted it with the same length of stainless angle used on the transverse handbrake cable. The finished item has a flat washer under thspring and I have hit the pivot with a red spay can to tidy it up a bit.

 

Then it was time to find a half decent fork and once again make a square nut to fit inside.

Popped the handbrake lever in to the sandblaster to give it a clean before paint but before I did that I removed the knob and spring and thought I will modify this, I have no idea if it will work but I like it

And all that work took the best part of the day, I have no idea where the time goes but every bit done is one step closer.

[GT6 Diff oil]

I fit drain plugs to my diffs whenever they are out of the car

[Handbrake return springs]

Thanks guys great work.
Funnily enough I have a full brake overhaul kit in the post from Canleys to do all the pistons and seals but I didnt think about the handbrake springs.
Those dimensions give me a better chance of finding something locally or in my dads spring box which I might get him to leave out for me, social distancing being observed!

You are right about it being amazing what you find when you go looking for stuff. Last week as you know I found some brake calipers I didnt know I had, I keep seeing unused shock absorbers in one bin I didnt realise I had. Somewhere I have a brand new naked head for the Vitesse 6 ewhich shouldn't be that hard to find.☺️ And when I do I should spray it with Corrosion Block wax
But can I find brake springs!

[Handbrake return springs]

I found my new transverse handbrake cable today and after making the L brackets and square nuts for the fork cable ends out of some SS angle fitted the cable and its bits.

Unfortunatley I cannot locate in my parts any of the handbrake return springs that go between the L bracket and the brake backing plate.

Can someone please have a look in their parts boxes and give me the physical specs, ie length, diameter and wire diameter. I think wire dia. is less than 3.5mm as that was the size of the hole in the old L bracket I found.

I will try buy some locally but need the above specs.

 

Thanks  

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

Thanks Dan

It looks like I am going to have to scan these filmstrips so everyone can see them.

 

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

What is odd is I am resizing then directly attaching them.

Lets try again.

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

Well here are mine, the first photo is the small chassis Triumph stuff and the second one is big and small saloon, Stag and TR. I have been through and made stick on labels for the sides of the cans for the missing labels.

I have run them through my Wolverine F2D Titan Scanner and find they scan best as a slide positive 126kpk so I must get round to scanning them when I get the time😉

Unlabelled can is steering. Microfiche covers Herald 12/50, 13/60 and Vitesse Mk2

 

[vitesse fuel pump]

7 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Nice!! Am I correct that they didn't have a fuel pump originally?

Original tank sat above your feet and gravity fed the carbs.

When they bought that car it could not climb the hill out of Dunedin so it got shipped to Wellington. It kept running out of fuel, but it must have had other problems as these cars have been driven up hills many times 

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

9 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

If only me knees were up to it I'd kneel at your feet. If I didn't have one of the heavy white hard-back versions and one of the soft-back green versions myself.

Furthermore Stirling Moss once walked down a street about 100 miles from where I bought it, so it's got Provenance... beat that!

Somewhere in a box I have a set of Herald film strips, some 45's.

They must be worth a star from teacher?

I must dig them out and scan the film strips

[vitesse fuel pump]

You could put an inline electric solenoid petrol valve from a LPG conversion before the pump.

I fitted one to my parents Alvis 12/50 Ducktail and it was operated off the oil pressure switch so the car wouldnt start till it had oil pressure after it had been standing for several days/weeks/months. It also had an electric fuel pump as we relocated the tank to the dickey seat area.

[Extra throttle return spring on Vitesse 1600]

55 minutes ago, clive said:

OK, the white plastic wire is probably from a coathanger, but I have done the same (coathangers are dead useful, make ideal replacements for the little pins that retain teh window winders when they disappear, but I digress) as the springs and hooks are often missing.

Ah, I see Colin has posted a pic (OK, GT6  but essentially the same)

Try do it with a plastic coat hangar and see what happens.🤪

As a sparkie I use wire coat hangars all the time for fishing cables out of walls but they are becoming a rarity these days. I also use them for hanging painted heavy car parts from the ceiling of my garage, for light parts I use welding/tie wire.

[Wrong exhaust on Vitesse 1600?]

I bought one of the last genuine mild steel Vitesse 6 exhausts in NZ from Motorcorp when they existed back in the late 1980's. They were the NZ agents for BL.

It is a pipe from the manifold and has a slip joint silencer at the very end with a pea shooter tail pipe. 

I was under my car today removing the rear hubs to scrap the powder coating off them and repaint and I noticed the pipe is still looking good apart from surface rust. I think the gearbox and engine weeping oil on to it has helped😉

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

14 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

It is! One of the benefits of being married to a teacher - access to an excellent colour printer and laminator. I have torque settings and wiring diagrams laminated and blu-tacked to the walls for easy reference. I also have two Haynes manuals for the Heralds; one lives on the shelf in the study and the other is a loose collection of grubby pages that lives in the garage.

Dont want to brag but I have two copies of the genuine factory manual for the Vitesse 6, Herald and Spifire. No bugger it I will brag, its friday

 

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

Not exactly a tool but bloody handy just the same.

I printed off the torque settings pages for my Vitesse then laminated them so I have one sheet with printed info on both sides encased in plastic.

I can wipe it down, I am only dealing with one sheet of paper and it saves the manual getting a thrashing.

[Passive oil cooler or Z9 filter]

Theoretically it should be a filter with an anti syphon valve and anti drain valve but during lockdown I dont have many options at present and the car isnt going anywhere for a while.

Why are people going to smaller size filters?
I would have thought that a bigger filter with more filter area and oil capacity would be beneficial

 Adrian

[Passive oil cooler or Z9 filter]

As part of my rebuild today was drain oil and replace filter day on the Vitesse 6.

I made up the oil drain deflector out of a piece of coreflute but apparently cardboard will do as well and successfully drained the oil without it running down the chassis rail.
Then it was fit the Ryco Z9 filter but when I wound it on it left approx. 4mm gap between the seal and filter housing. The Z9 was hitting the extension I had made to space the spinon adaptor to clear the block breather. Marked it out and onto the mill to create clearance.

Filter is so big it will hold extra oil and possibly act as a passive cooler, maybe

 

 

[Chassis and underbody paint]

What about what the Americans call truck bed liner.

Seems to be a miracle paint if the claims people make are to be believed.

POR15 is great if everything is perfect during the painting process.

[What calipers are these?]

Sorry dont know whats going on there as its all good on my machine but it could be something to do with Google Photos.

Hopefully I have attached them this time

[Home-made Tools and those you've adapted or modified. And also "tips and tricks".]

This will allow me to support the car on the wheel jacks when I have a wheel removed for longer than a day and can move it back to its stored place. Thats so I can repack the garage and get everything back in its place.

Its a lot safer then placing blocks of timber across the bars of the wheel jack.