Colin Lindsay

The spacer was fitted from engine number FM93157, so it's correct for the engine - but - which pump do you now have fitted? Have a look at the pump arm; early ones (no spacer) had a straight arm; later ones for the spacer have a curved arm - early to left, spacer version to right.

If you have a septic tank at your house and they get flushed down the loo, they float to the top, so can be skimmed off and dried out for re-use....

I'll have a look, Darren, with a mind to the same thing for Herald / Vitesse parts. Usually just run of the mill simple parts, but a devil to find sometimes. Incidentally the FB section is closed to non-members?

The tube is the same thickness all the way down; no flaring or other change in size. Herald is 205997 and the seal is for a 1/4 inch pipe; Vitesse is shown as exactly the same in the spares catalogue. I checked both Herald 1200 and 13/60 just in case, the later tank I have is the wider version that protrudes over the spare wheel well so could be 13/60 or Vitesse, but I can't find a listing so far for any pipe that's greater than 1/4. Gonna have to keep looking!

I like the sound of that! It's something I've complained about over the years, especially when owners opt for a modern replacement for parts rather than grouping together to have original parts remade. Must go have a look.

I'm wondering if the rubber seal had perished, so when a PO was refitting the pipe the original, small pipe was too loose and so he logically went for the larger for a more snug fit? I know the GT6 has a larger fuel pipe than my Heralds so when refitting the tank to my GT6 it cost me an entire roll of larger Kunifer pipe, so this may also apply to the Vitesse - simple for me to drop the size down to the smaller Herald pipe somewhere along the line. After 60 years, anything is possible...

Isn't there a risk of making the seal split? I've seen so many Heralds where the corners have split and cracked; what's the technique for split prevention?

But easy to get at. That's the important thing!

Part number 14 in this pic; I hope you'd be able to get hold of enough of the pipe behind the tank to be able to get a replacement length of hose onto it; I've never tried it myself (not without the entire tank being out already!)

Now THAT is the question! I had twin 125s on an Alexander manifold, but never thought when I had the twin-carb 948 of changing the SUs to Strombergs, as it ran fine on those. EDIT: You'll never guess what just came up on eBay, although the seller doesn't know what it came from. However, after many years of owning mine and never seeing another...

They'll all think it's a street party and start the old 'Kneesup Mother Brown' bit.

That's possible; I thought it was a 13/60 tank but could be Vitesse. One of the Stafford Autojumble trophies from years gone by. If it's only a top-hat kind of seal then something like this should do if ever one is required:

Thanks - I have a PC / USB version, on a 5m cable... but very dark. Even with the little LED lights on, it's still dark bar a small circle of very bright light, so hasn't been much use to me.

The hole in the centre matches a Stromberg 125; too small for the 150. The mounting holes also line up with the Stromberg. The other two line up with the mounting holes for a SU taken from a Morris Minor, which would make it an HS2 AUD13, also 1.25 inch.

GK engine is ok for the late 13/60 but I've no record of CB on a gearbox; is it recon or from another model?

Apologies, Pete, you're correct - to be fair I was barking up the wrong olive and I knew I'd never seen one attached to the pick-up pipe when I'd removed one, but after a trawl of half a dozen tanks in the spares pile I think it's actually a rubber insert that is fitted down into the neck of the tank and the pipe pushed down through it - thus when the pipe is removed the seal stays put! I'm not disturbing these as, if they're no longer available, I can't risk damaging them but the pic should show the idea. 1200 tank on left, 13/60 on right. Also just discovered there are two sizes of pickup pipe, depending on whether it's an early car or a later car... nut insert is the same size but the hole through it is bigger...

I think you're correct; the pipe is quite a tight fit in the brass nut and is held in only by gravity plus the sliding lever / bracket assembly, so there may be the tiniest seepage of fumes but due to the position there's not likely to be any fuel loss without any other form of seal. Now I'll have to go and check my own, just to confirm!

Those are a matching pair, just different sides in the photo. I'll confirm later today, by the simple expedient of aligning carbs with the holes and see what fits. Never got round to that in all the years these have been in a drawer!

If it's a Herald you've got some very solid and permanent seat mountings on the floors, so they'll dictate where the seat goes, and you'll probably find with the wider MX5 seats you'll have very little room for sideways movement in any case. I know that with the GT6 the seat mountings moved on the floorpans over time, but the Herald was always the same.

Those have struck a chord with me, Ian - I don't want to hi-jack Richard's post but I've had a set of these for years, and always wondered if they were Stromberg to SU conversion adaptors. Any thoughts?

Just remove one item at a time until you can access them all. With regards to the manifold you may be able to just slide it out of the way, provided the connections etc are long enough to do so, and make sure you don't let it hang off anything that might bend or snap under the weight, like a pipe or a cable.

I've just done a sneaky search based on that, Pete, and it seems Ford Ka to 2008 or Ford Fiesta to 2002 looks the part: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Fiesta-steering-column-universal-joint/324310765901?hash=item4b826d914d:g:vvgAAOSwBxpfcGMl

That's actually quite a good price, but I hope it turns out better than this one... the rear of it was still lovely, but this one, believe it or not, never went near the road... it just went like that on the car, which is still being restored... However I still need an oil filler cap rechromed, unless anyone knows where I can get one - it's a 2.5 inch cap for an SAH rocker cover?

Just went ahead and ordered one of those nice leather versions with red stitching and a rectangular plastic insert round the bottom... I'm getting ahead of myself as at present there's no rear tub to even fit a handbrake to...

Might not be as good as you'd hope, Graham, the tin's been in my cupboard for over 25 years... even the lid is quite rusty and I'm scared to open it in case the air gets in and ruins what's left, so it may actually be unuseable... the modern stuff I use these days is CS10 Brushable Seam Sealer, you'll find it or a good equivalent in any good Autofactors.