ahebron

Same here in NZ Bunnings

When I was a lot younger and a bit lighter On a metal road crossing a bridge with a bit too much speed I found the exit side to be a bit lower than the entry side. This should not have been as big a surprise as I had minutes before driven over the bridge in the opposite direction. The Spitfire MkIV with spoiler was not in contact with the road for little bit before the spoiler came down first into the gravel. The spoiler scooped up stones from the surface and fired them under the bonnet denting it from the inside, a stone was also flung into the steering mechanism briefly locking it. When the back end came down it snapped a couple of leaves in the spring. For a while I had a Spitfire that could out corner many cars at speed including a half burnt Jensen Interceptor that I passed at 90 degrees to the direction of travel as the overtaking lane had a lot of loose metal on it. All that because of a spoiler.

That is all part of keeping it polished.

The horrid connectors used for the interior lamps and door switches on the Vitesse and other Triumphs I know it is saving money but why couldn't they have soldered/crimped a bullet connector to the end of the wire, instead you just pressing the hollow bullet into the receiver catching the bare wire as you do so. I made a wee extension cable and soldered bullets on both ends of the Vitesse 6 door switch ones and sleeved the cable with a bit of rubber tubing.

And not forgetting the old classic peanut butter.

Is this turning into a Monty Python sketch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE

Hi Peter From info I found it looks to me like the QTF229AF is for a TR7 https://www.autodoc.co.uk/quinton-hazell/804548 And the QTF151AF is for the Vitesse and other Triumphs https://www.autodoc.co.uk/quinton-hazell/799358 But according to the website the 151 has 10 teeth and the 229 has 23 teeth, I wonder of it is a mix of bits in the wrong box.

Could the strip be put on with sealer/glue. I imagine using tape would be difficult as it needs 2 reasonably flat surfaces to work well though you could put epoxy to build it up in the centre strip at the points you wanted to use tape.

As I am reinvigorated to work on my Vitesse again I have been working on the wiring. It seems that when I rewrapped my loom I have shortened a lot of the wires so I have been extending the ones that needed extending. I also finished off the 4 x relays I have fitted to the headlights, 2 each below the horn brackets. I know I dont need 4 but it has 4 headlights so I fit 4 relays. Getting to the back of the car I find my pet hate on these cars of using the body as the sole return so I fitted some earth wires to the taillights and ran a large earth from the front pf the car with the rest of the loom. Looking through my box of rear lights I pull out a number plate light and decide to make it LED. Grinding off the 2 copper rivets the original lamp holder falls off. I piece of aluminium angle 1mm thick is shaped to follow the mount and cover the opening. To this I add 4 lengths of 100mm led strip, 3 on the bottom and one on the top to act as a boot lamp. Solder all the lengths up and test then mask the led and spray paint. Bolt the 2 bits of metal together and we have a number plate light. For the window in the boot I cleaned the piece of plastic and with the da sander sanded it from clear to diffuse, this was then double side taped to the in side of the boot lid. Light bolted in and tested. It is running at approx 8 watts so is plenty bright enough, I will see how long it lasts but the boot lid should be a good heatsink. With the exception of the headlights all exterior lamps on the car are LED.

You will also have to modify the bright work strip in the centre of the Vitesse bonnet, cut or drill holes for the handle

Did you get it out? I shattered a gearbox and diff on Peugeot 405 after I lost a 11mm socket into the bellhousing

But where is the fun in that.

Handy for lining up on pedestrians and lycrists though.😉

Hi Mick That was a standard fitting on early Heralds. Hope you all liked the pun.

I know seat belts are well covered on the site but my question is to the Vitesse/Herald saloon owners with MGF seats. Is there enough room to push the seat all the way back on the door side for the retractor unit on the Securon 500/30 seat belt that pops up as recommended for our cars.? Today I have been extending wires and adding earth return wires to the rear lights, yes I ran a cable along side the main loom from the front to the back. I have no idea how the loom has shrunk. Whilst soldering my mind wandered to seat belts it might have been the fumes!

Walking through Sherwood Forest somewhere near the Major Oak back in 2000 I said to my son grab hold of that plant. He did so then started telling me it hurt, from that point he knew what a nettle looks and feels like.

As they know you are coming I hope they tidy the place up and have tea and biscuits for you on arrival.

As a registered electrician I dont like those connectors, they are cheap and nasty and I will remove them if I come across them. They are known as wire nuts, I prefer a screw terminal with properly terminated cable ends or wago type connectors both are safe to use on mains voltage. As an aside 230 volt AC is classified as low voltage, Below 50 volts AC and 120 volts DC is extra low voltage.

But on the positive note there is only 2 things that can kill you here, the land and the locals.😜

Hi Peter I never thought of smearing with copper grease, I will definitely give that a go. I bought a bag of '3m' wheels for my dremel that I use to clean the bullets before they go back in, all the ones I fit are soldered as the crimp tool is expensive and my bullets I believe are the solder type. Thanks for your concern we are directly over the harbour from Wellington City. The earthquake was a good one (6.0) but as it was deep and out to sea it didnt cause any damage. They used to terrify me but ever since Kaikoura I just accept them, we where in Hastings when that one struck and it is 250 miles away and it sacred the bejesus out of me. It woke us up and standing up was not easy, I opened the door to the motel unit to see the pool surge out under my Range Rover parked next to it, power lines arcing in the distance it was something else. Rain was heavy in Wellington with localised flooding and slips but nothing out of the ordinary and Wellington is used to winds so we just did the usual and hunkered down till it passed over, funnily enough the summer Wellington has been the place to be in NZ. The 2 cyclones bought floods that are devastating and the country has never seen destruction like it, the main food bowls of NZ have been wiped out but the thing is they are the food bowls because of the silt that the rivers spread across the plains. Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, East Cape, Hawkes Bay have been hammered with Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wairarapa and Manawatu suffering localised damage. The forestry industry has a lot to answer for as the slash that has come down the rivers has destroyed everything in its path. This will cost many billions to put right and I imagine like Christchurch Redzone homes will not be rebuilt in certain areas. I am pretty sure friends and colleagues have lost houses but have no way of finding out and to be honest they have a lot to deal with without letting people know. Sorry about the rant.

This afternoon working on the headlight relays on my Vitesse 6 I got fed up pushing the bullet connectors into the joiners. Looking up the tool and realising it was going to be in excess of NZ$80 to purchase including tax and freight I had a look to see what I have in my tools that could be modified. Being a soarkie I have a few abusd pliers and side cutter but what caught my eye was a sad looking pair of channel lock long nose pliers with the tip of one jaw missing. Out with the grinder and cutting wheel and in 5 minutes i had a useful bullet connector closing tool. I cut the tips of the jaws, cut a slot down the jaws and then roughly cut parallel faces in at the point the jaws would have pushed the connectors home on both sides of a joiner.

Okay maybe I was setup. It was a good story though and iirc was about Bedford J clutches

Hi Colin today I had a look at my rear overriders and fitting them. I am using stainless steel threaded rod instead of bolts but I find I need a 30mm-ish packer to bring the top fixing true to the taillight. Do the overriders have a packer there, I cant remember its been so ,long since I took one apart. Thanks

I learnt recently that when you rivet linings onto clutch plates it pays to drill holes through the rivets. This is to release the vacuum that can keep the plate sucked onto the flywheel. Generally a job for the apprentice, dont think it would be a problem for brakes but you never know.

https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/triumph/vitesse-sports-6/2628590.html I knew keeping my Vitesses was an investment.