Colin Lindsay

Not the old Imperial TAF torque? Anyway: here's how the spring looks today; I sneaked out an hour ago, released the top bracket and just attached to both vertical links. Both halfshafts are now released and moving freely, given that there's no downwards pressure on them, but any attempt at all to pull the leaf spring downwards is going to have the equal effect on the suspension. It may move more into place once the wheels are on and the chassis is dropped to the ground, but I suspect it may not be as dramatic a shift as required as there's no weight of tub, transmission or engine to compress it downwards.

It was rebuilt by Mike Papworth a few years back and stored away ever since; if it's only a case of torquing I'll be very happy. Must go find the torque, unless you know it off-hand?

Well that's been a week of full days in the garage; a few setbacks but mostly good progress. The entire front suspension has been rebuilt, nothing tightened or torqued up yet until the car is back on the ground but the same problems as with the estate: the ball joints don't tighten, they just rotate round and round. Hopefully weight will solve that, but neither the body nor the engine will be fitted just yet. The steering is on and the anti-roll bar gained snazzy orange bushes and stainless clamps. No wonder the front backplate assembly looks so happy! At the rear we were held up firstly by no radius arms, or rear leaf spring top plate, despite having sandblasted and painted them some time ago. Then I remembered I'd used them on the estate, so had to find others, blast and repaint. We're also missing one radius arm bracket and of course it's NLA from anywhere - thanks to Steve P who has found one for me. The rear spring has been set in place and the refurbished halfshafts fitted with new UJs and bolts. This has however revealed a serious problem; the rear leaf spring is very strong, and is pushing down on both halfshafts, jamming them against the chassis so that they cannot be turned by hand. I don't remember it being so curved before I rebuilt it and when the car was raised off the ground before it was still possible to rotate the axles to do brake work, etc. I've never needed a spring lifter on a Herald before. I've slacked off the top mounting but there's still a lot of tension, so I'll have to work out some kind of solution otherwise I won't be able to adjust the brakes etc when it comes time. By the time I fit it to both rear uprights it's up above the stud heads; if I tighten it down before fitting to the uprights, it's pushing downwards with such force it's almost impossible to lever it up to the correct height in order to slide the bolt through and of course both halfshafts are jammed against the chassis rail. The other problem is that the diff has just been refilled with oil, and on giving it a trial spin to get the oil round the gears, I found that the front pinion nut is loose. I remember having it refurbished and it was returned to me without the front bracket fitted, so I removed the nut and flange, fitted the bracket, then promptly forgot how many turns I had used to remove the nut. I'll have to call in a mate or two to debate how best to set the preload again without removing the diff. So: to avoid all the problems at the rear I've gone back to the front and fitted hubs, new bearings and brake discs. I must admit it looks very well. Monday (tomorrow) the tub is back from the sandblaster, so I need a complete rolling chassis to attach the tub for bodywork. Going to be another busy week...

White can be nice; in fact there's a beautiful white Herald on eBay at present and if it wasn't for lockdown and all of the travel palaver I'd be very interested. One of the best I've seen in a long time. £6200 but I suspect it would go for less. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-Herald-1200-Saloon-1966/224385947641?hash=item343e71d7f9:g:h10AAOSw9vdgTjZQ There's also a blue 948 saloon but Lord what have they done to it? It's a car that used to live locally to me, but those wheels and other mods have taken a lovely family saloon and turned it into some kind of butch racer-type thing, which it certainly isn't. The price has also rocketted since it left these shores. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1960-Triumph-Herald-948/233918549639?hash=item3676a1ce87:g:KkAAAOSwp5FgVMCA

I have far too many manuals and books, some of which I bought and never read. You find them in junk shops and at jumble sales for pennies and I just can't leave a book that says Triumph on the cover lying there unloved. My prized possession - with no official confirmation whatsoever - is one I bought at the Doune Classic Show back around 2000; an early softback copy of the Haynes Triumph Herald Manual. Nothing spectacular in that, but it was written for Haynes by J S Maclay, and inside were pages and pages of notes on Triumph Heralds, all written in lovely longhand, along with an invoice with the signature J McClay. I've never managed to get it confirmed but it's a coincidence that the two names are the same, and I like to think that it's the same man, using a copy of the book he assisted in creating, to maintain his own Herald Estates.

Sounds ominous - nothing serious, we hope?

These are the guys - right photo, below - you need to prise apart if you're swapping vanes and want to keep the new plastic ones. You need at least four hands, and very careful ones too. The rusty metal clip on the originals - left photo - can be very carefully cut off; the old vanes will push onto the new motor spindle with care, keep them straight and balanced to avoid vibration, and a little bit of good adhesive should keep them in place. They spin much more quickly on the new motor, and as you can hear from the video, much more quietly. Smartfan.mov

There are now FIVE selling on eBay... someone is watching this forum!

Does anyone reckon we're missing a very important part of the whole thing? 1st April?

Are you intending to drive the garden on a public road?

Amendment: For 'InterEurope' read 'OuterEurope'...

Clear to the point of confusion, as usual. The phrasing doesn't help. "Vehicles presented with converted halogen headlamp units first used on or after 1st April 1986 will continue to be failed." This appears to point to the headlamp conversion rather than the vehicle. I'm assuming it's not the headlamps, but the vehicles, that they refer to, so shouldn't it be: "Vehicles first used on or after 1st April 1986, presented with converted halogen headlamp units, will continue to be failed."

Tesco was £1.28 local, but there's a small roadside garage two miles from me selling diesel at £1.17. I'd try him if I knew where he got it from.

Can you upload a video of it? What format is your video in? Try the simplest option, where it says: drag files here to attach, below the bit I'm now typing, and just drag them to that blue box area. Alternatively e-mail it to me, I'll convert it for you if it's possible.

A lot of us spend big money on professional tools, and aren't professional... so we maybe use them once or twice a year and not every day as in a professional garage, and they're nearly too good for some of us. In many cases buying a cheaper option makes more sense, but there is also a lower limit. I've binned tools on first use, which bent, broke or just didn't do the job, so that's also a false economy. Even my LIDL cordless grinder went in the bin last month; admittedly it had lasted about four years but the bearings and eventually the shank both wore out far too soon. My bench grinder was bought in England in 1994, nearly killed me carrying it across town to whatever car park I was in, but it's still going strong. It's a 370W 1/2 HP Hilka and even then slows down if I hold anything too close to the wire brush.

You may have to resize video - no idea if the site will do that for you; I use Apple Quicktime and you can export movies for the web, which reduces the size to a manageable upload. After that I think the last video I uploaded (come to think of it, the only video I uploaded) attached in the same way as photos, straight from my desktop with no need to upload and link to any other site.

He may have a point, but I don't have any incest CDs... so can't compare! I suspect you don't need sticks, bells and an accordion player either...

What's it called nowadays?

Great to see Bill still working away; I miss his stall at shows (then again I just miss shows...) I must keep an eye on his products; there are new things coming out all the time, going by his posts.

Love it! If you're aware of musicians like Ashley Hutchings, he has a number of live albums where there's obviously Morris Dancing on stage, but you can't see it on audio only; however there's a lot of smacking of sticks, bells ringing and guys shouting or cheering. I can just see them listening intently and telling each other: "Colin's wearing those funny white overalls and dancing round his wheelbrace again..."

Bet ya didn't find this one! Appeals to me, for some reason... https://www.holden.co.uk/p/radiator_drain_valve

I haven't had to look as I bought seals from Canleys (probably when they were John Kipping) and I still haven't used them; they've been safely stored so should still be usable. However: not available for years, so alternatives are always welcome.

Jon Boden!! Just been belting him out in the garage; he was competing with the compressor and the hoover both so was quite loud. Love his playing. Hope the neighbours didn't mind... between Spiers & Boden and the Morris On Band I'm sure they wonder what on earth is going on in there...

I wonder what condition the seals are? They're the hard to find bit of the assembly...

Did you know - the taps are simply a brass wedge set into the main body, with a hole through - turn it to the correct orientation and the water flows, otherwise it shouldn't. The seal is made by the spring at the bottom, pulling downwards so that the wedge seals, and it's tensioned by a washer and split pin. No rubber seals! The spring being metal rusts through and the tap is therefore useless; sadly, no-one supplies replacements that I'm aware of. I suppose, at that price, there's no point in repairing. Unless I can find a suitable spring in a box somewhere... but does anyone know the thread size?