Colin Lindsay

Smug as a big smug thing, Pete. Doug - the unit is encased inside the heater box and hangs well away from anything else, even if it melts and drops off it'll still land in the plastic case, which is quite solid and will take a lot of heat to melt through. Part of the challenge of older cars! (Solid state? isn't that a modern Japanese thing, like MX5s?)

It costs even more if, like me, you pick up a tin of carb cleaner by mistake... oops! Those trays are on eBay, from a seller / manufacturer in Australia. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-SPITFIRE-GT6-Master-Cylinder-Aluminium-Drip-Tray-BRAND-NEW/153191104391?hash=item23aae6bf87:g:b5EAAOxy~ilSSgRb

No problem; it was EP Services of Wolverhampton, they were suggested to me by another TSSC member. When I made contact they were great to deal with, and had no hesitation in offering to recondition two old pumps I had in the garage, even though one of them had been stripped down by me for a renovation that had been shelved. I sent all the parts over in a plastic tub. The pumps came back looking like new so I'm well impressed. The original pumps were so well made, with replaceable bearings and seals and the lovely brass parts, that they're worth keeping for a few more years. http://www.ep-services.co.uk/

Pete, you are spot on! I've just done a quick search and lo and behold, up comes a lengthy article including this paragraph: What is causing the Vauxhall Zafira fires? The DVSA agreed with Vauxhall’s root cause investigations into the Zafira fires issue, which identified the cause of fires to have been faulty repairs of a thermal fuse in a resistor that forms part of the heating and ventilation system of cars with air conditioning or with no air conditioning – cars with climate control are not affected. In the first recall Vauxhall replaced the thermal fuse in affected cars, while also replacing the cabin pollen filter and checking for a hole in the windscreen surround that might have been caused by the refitting of a windscreen and could let water into the system, causing corrosion to the fan. Corrosion of the blower unit, or wear and tear through use, is the most likely fault, which should trigger the safe activation of the thermal fuse. Vauxhall’s inspections involved random checks of 1,000 cars, of which 2.6% had been found to have badly repaired fuses. The fuse is designed to deactivate the system in event of a fault, to prevent overheating. However, Auto Express was given exclusive access to some of the unauthorised repairs where the fuse has been bypassed through highly dangerous, yet ingenious means – including using copper wire to reconnect the fuse terminals, holding it together with a crocodile clip or even screwing it back in place.

I've gone directly to the company and spoke to Otter Controls' Stephen Hollick, who informs me that they don't have any in stock, but sold a batch to the Rover SD1 Owners Club recently. Kev Clark of that club informed me: "This is a thermal cutout switch. I'm not familiar with the TR7 but on the Rover SD1 you have two fan speeds, and this switch is designed to cut power to the fan motor if the unit overheats. They tend to fail so that the fan only works on the fast speed, not the slow one. If you want your fan to work as originally intended, you need this switch working." So rather than rebuild the system with the switch left out, which is feasible, I've managed to source a new one, and will solder that in as the manufacturer originally intended. I might as well, someone thought it was necessary at one time, and I'll not take any chances by leaving it out.

I love a challenge. Following the original problem with the heater blower - which wasn't working - I managed to get it going on one speed by cleaning the terminals at the slider control; these use a spring-loaded brass contact to slide across each of the three bullet connectors to make a contact from a powered cable, and earths through the assembly. A quick polish with a wire-brush on a Dremel and they are as good as new, although on one speed only. The other speeds are controlled by a resistor assembly on top of the heater box, inaccessible from the front until the entire unit is removed. Once removed it was obvious that the bi-metal temperature sensor, which prevents overheating of the fan motor, was too rusted to be salvageable. Unless this works, the system will run on one speed only. So where do you get a 40-year old bi-metallic sensor? Contact the company, of course, and so I spoke to their Development Manager, Stephen Hollick. It's an OTTER G6D sensor, long unobtainable, made by Otter Controls Ltd who are still in business today. No, they didn't have any, they wouldn't make a one-off, but they had sold a batch to the Rover SD1 Owners Club a while back, as their heater uses the same system. I contacted the SD1 Owners club and a very nice gentleman called Kev Clark was happy to sell me one, and offered others from their stock to any owner with similar problems. Once this arrives it can be soldered in, and the system rebuilt.

Pumps these days are really a service part; if you get two years out of them then replace. I've a number of original brass-impeller pumps from early Heralds, I had two professionally reconditioned recently at a cost of £45 each with new bearings and seals and they're good for years now. I rebuilt some myself a few years back but this was a lot less hassle and definitely worth the money.

I'll agree with the guys, replace them when they're out, coat the new ones in fresh grease when fitting and you'll have years of trouble-free no worry motoring. (well, no worries about those bolts anyway.)

Spot on! It's one of the plastic flaps from the dashboard vents - but it did take me a few minutes of studying the heater to work that out. As for the original brake switch feed...... aha! Some detective work required, methinks. I suspect (only noticed it a while ago so haven't started looking yet!) that the feed is OUT of the brake switch to power the flasher, although with no battery in at present I can't check to see if the brake lights flash instead of the indicators...

Ok try this for a competition! This little black bit fell out of the heater, and try as I might, I couldn't work out where it's from... then suddenly realised about an hour later. Any guesses? Second question: why is there a blue and white wire linking my flasher unit to the brake pedal switch, with the (proper) green and white flasher unit cable hanging loose?

I've gone from THIS: To THIS: by vaulting straight over two Herald restorations, which I'll finish someday. The two Triumphs are a complete world apart, but it's interesting to note that the TR7 cost me £400 less than the GT6 did 20 years ago... what happened to inflation? Back then, no-one wanted Mk1 GT6 either...

That's lovely. You just can't beat that period of styling. Pastel paint shades and plenty of chrome.

The 2002 Ford Focus I had displayed all the diagnostic codes on the speedo, so you didn't need a separate reader; although you did sometimes need extra hardware to clear them after work done The biggest challenge anyone can put before me these days is something bearing the message "no user serviceable parts inside" or "refer to dealer". I just love proving that wrong.

All depends on how original you want to be. There are better modern methods for fixing cables, so it's entirely up to yourself if you want to keep the correct unmodified look or go for something neater and more modern.

My industrial sandblast cabinet no longer wants to perform with my compressor; no idea why but it's held me up for a time with various jobs. I bought one of Lidl's Parkside Sandblast guns yesterday and have been pleasantly surprised with how well it works, on a much lower pressure than the professional gun I've been using. It's gravity feed, you just unscrew the end cap and fill - making sure it doesn't all run out of the other end. It comes with a range of nozzles and recirculating bags, neither of which I've used so far, and two bottles of grit, and the test I gave it last night cleaned gearbox mounting plates right to bare metal in minutes. Definitely worth a punt at £9.99.

+1. At last, something worth going to.

Mine is an 18/50 J-type box, and I'm sure it's a W prefix, but of course can't locate the photos to confirm which.

WD40? Or does it rot rubber?

We don't have an Aldi.. and I've to cut a new rear valence panel for the GT6 to take rear lights and overriders in the near future, too...

Yes, repeatedly, but they show a static system, not what does what at different settings. Now that you've explained the coil system - NOT as I thought they switched from one to the other, but that they go from one to BOTH, I can grasp how it works, and from that, work out why it doesn't. Much obliged! I've cut the Otter out from the circuit at present, a replacement is en route but it's second-hand so I'll have to test it all anyway to see if there's any change to the original setup.

Ok. With absolutely no formal qualifications in vehicle electrics, but a garage full of broken things that I now understand how they work AFTER they've been broken.. try this for a theory. The heater blower works on a three speed slider control. At present it only works on one setting, which was position 3. It seems to work like Herald wipers ie power is always on and the slider control earths it to slider and then to black earth cable. One end of the large coil is a green and purple wire which runs to the slider control, position 1. The green and yellow cable, the thickest, goes to the other end of the large coil and was position 2 on the slider. The end of the small coil is attached to a green and white cable, which then goes to the Otter and out the far side to a bullet connector, from which one cable goes to the heater blower and one to the slider control, position 3. I can't get my head around how the coils work, especially when both ends of the same coil are connected to different sliders. I'm assuming that the Otter bi-metallic control is there to prevent overheating of one circuit, as only one cable passes through it - the one to the smaller coil - and so the fastest speed? In which case the Otter is permitting current to pass, and is not the fault? OR: does the Otter open when current passes through, thereby diverting power to a different circuit and so increasing or decreasing speed? There is also a similar kind of circuit-breaker (called a self-resetting circuit breaker) in the headlamp circuit. Consequently as I'm averse to vehicle fires, I want to insert a similar device into the loom at this point to operate as intended, so am exploring the options.

I've just stripped out the entire dashboard and heater unit from the TR7 as the heater is only working on one speed instead of three.This rheostat lives on top of the heater box and is inaccessible to hands, but not to water ingress hence this one is rusted solid. I'm assuming this is what controls the speed, as the slider controls all work but only at the one speed, if I swap the spade connectors about. I can only get second-hand versions which are probably hit and miss. There must be a modern version or alternative that would replace this? It's an OTTER G6D unit and there seem to be replacements, going by a Net search http://www.ottercontrols.co.uk/index.html but what would be the best one? Could anyone advise on replacement with something modern, and secondly a good accurate test to confirm, that a replacement is working (eg using a multimeter?) I've managed to get a photograph of the replacement units Otter supplies; but the ones that look the same are much bigger; the original is 14mm wide. Any thoughts? All advice welcome as always.

Absolutely amazing. When you think of what they went through, and suffered, we should all feel quite privileged that we've avoided any kind of major war in our lifetimes, and never had to endure anything like this.

I take it that this only happens in overdrive, not when it's off, so it's not clutch slip? Check the gearbox oil level as a starting point; if it's okay check the electrics. Mine cut in and out for a time, was very annoying, and started working perfectly when I cleaned the electrical contacts and bullet connectors during an annual service during which I also topped up the oil so it could have been either!

I'm fighting my way through the fairly dire print on my 6-cylinder catalogue and it's quite complicated. For the Mk1 engine they quote the 262 camshaft to obtain a stage 11 upgrade, but for stage 111 they recommend the 307. For the petrol injection and MK2 engines to stage 11 they recommend the 307 camshaft but for stage 111 they recommend the 357. The only description I can find states: 307: High lift / fast road cam specifically designed profile for the Mk2 engines which will give good all round performance improvement. It also states: for a road car the SAH 1920 cam (307) is more suitable, and for late models the 357 cam is the best available. The lower part of the page has been badly copied so that only half the text is visible, but it states that the cost can be reduced if the 307 cam is used (I believe that is in place of the more expensive 357.) So is this any help at all? Colin