Colin Lindsay

Lindt "Classic Gold" for me..... it's well filtered by the time I'm finished with it....

Hi Mick and welcome back! At least in Market Harborough you're close to the centre of things.

Nah, I've done that on other forums..... and always went back again. I missed getting my sixpennyworth in. No point in being a forum if we don't have opinion and debate. I've personally salted away about a dozen Unipart, Fram and Wix filters so should be okay for a while, but my Estate's had an adaptor since the mid 1990s so even then there was an issue with filters. BTW I'm running Wix filters on both Herald and GT6, so the adaptor for the Herald and the spin-on conversion for the GT6 must have the same thread.

Yes, and they are one of the suppliers I mentioned that show the fuses as "out of stock, expected soon"... however if you search on Rimmer's site for 17 amp - as I did - the search result is a 10 amp Mini fuse and a lot of Range Rover links which have nothing whatsoever to do with what I was looking for, so they may not appear unless available.

First one is the emblem of the Black Diamond Shipping company, an American firm that dissolved in the early 1950s. Wonder what the connection was? Second one is the letter 'L', I think?

Thanks Aidan!! Despite all my searching I just couldn't find any; have ordered a dozen which should cover a lot of eventualities! Even my trusty Autoparts shop tried to sell me the 35amp versions claiming they're all the same; in the end I fitted 15 amp fuses which have worked so far. Paul - Canleys seem to have only 15, 20 or 35 amp fuses, I know it's a small thing but that little jump between 15 and 17 may make a difference some day, and I wouldn't risk the 20amp or higher, so have gone for the lower option from my own stock and bought some of the higher spec from Aidan's link. I'm really surprised that Canleys don't stock them as they're the original spec and I would have presumed they would have more than a few sticklers for originality among their customers. ...and yes, I could fit a modern blade-fuse box, but having had no bother with the old one I hate being forced into things.

It's funny, but I noticed the 1/4 inch difference in size, but didn't want to appear an idiot by suggesting it's a coil / diaphragm comparison?

It may not be Accusparks fault, as if they supply an item for a standard setup, if you cause damage by using it with something else, it falls back on you. I use the red SimonBBC units, they're good and most importantly stay on!

And the entire era was referred to as the 'swinging sixties"....

The standard phrase over here is "Sure, what harm am I doing?" usually followed by a big smile and the gesture that says: end of conversation. No lights? Sure what harm am I doing? No number plates? No brakes? Sure I'm only hurting myself... It's a state of mind, true enough!

Thanks Paul - they need to be 17amp 35 amp quickblow for the reasons Aidan and Pete say. Were they originally supplied by Canleys for the GT6 / Spitfire? Their website lists 35amp, but says the ones I need are NLA, and I'm very averse to wiring loom fires.

Clive, you've just cost me half an hour desperately searching the Internet... but sadly to no avail; one of our great local cartoonists Rowel Friers brought out a series called "Sure, it'll do" with some tremendously funny observations on how Ulstermen will settle for anything rather than complain, or spend money. I just couldn't find any but there were some superb examples of botching and make-do which, as Al Capone said, we laugh at because they're funny, but also because they're true. Given that a considerable number of boy racers can't even wait to arrange insurance before getting their cars on the road, I don't think repairs or maintenance will deter many of them either.

I am convinced that they are a major contribution to road safety. So there. Oops... that was Goodyear....

Have you found a source for good fuses yet? I've just tried three major suppliers - all out of stock, expected soon, and Canleys are listing them as no longer available. I need at least one and preferably three 17 amp continuous / 35 amp blow fuses for the GT6 before Friday.

I think someone posted recently that Chic Doig remakes these... he's worth a call.

Status, me boy, status. Why wear cotton when you can wear silk, or eat Galaxy chocolate, or drive an MG when you can drive a Triumph, or whatever the simile is. You have to show people that you have 'arrived' and I don't mean just outside the school gates. It's a kind of moneyed vulgarity, a nouveau riche sort of thing. Personally I prefer the type - and I know at least two - who wear old tatty pullovers, drive real bangers, and can write a cheque with a very impresive string of zeros at the end, that won't bounce either. ...and in respect to the OP: you'd be surprised at how many Chelsea Tractors are running on bald tyres, well over due for a service, and with unpaid road tax.

Over here, you still can get shots at the pumps.... Thankfully they nearly all missed. I still miss 2* and 3* petrol..... but the 5* equivalent was available not so long ago, was it a Shell variant of 100 Octane?

how many cans of expanding foam does that equate to?

I'll agree with that, I'm still trying to work out how a modern tyre, designed for everyday road use on a family car, would be detrimental to a Triumph compared to a design that went out thirty or forty years ago... I'll still draw the line at Luckyland Happygalops, though...

Don't mention biomass boilers, not over here anyway where we're in the middle of the RHI scandal. A few years back people who fitted biomass boilers were receiving a subsidy from the government, which was actually more than the cost of the fuel, so the more fuel you burned, the more money you made. We had farmers burning boilers to heat empty sheds by the dozen and they were raking money in hand over fist. I was approached by representatives back around 2012 and couldn't understand why they would pay you for burning fuel, so knew there was a gimmick even then. It's a bit like paying £1.19 for petrol, and claiming £1.50 back... if only! Re the petrol and ethanol: if your system is clean I wouldn't worry about deposits blocking components - a clean system can only be a good thing - but hoses aside, is it still the case that petrol with ethanol will eat through metal fuel tanks?

I'd go for moderns over looks; my local tyre fitter is a rally driver and keeps me well-advised as to what he recommends, and more often than not what he wouldn't touch. I had to nip out to the garage just there and check; my current GT6 ones are Firestone Multihawks.

Twice now I've dismantled a vehicle that I had previously dismantled and rebuilt, and found tools behind trim - the first was behind the headlining on a Landrover Discovery, where I found a 13mm socket hanging from the roof rail nuts that had been there since I last refitted it (the usual leaking sunroof saga) and the second was my GT6 about two weeks ago, where I went to replace the rusty number plate light and found a small 3/4 drive socket still on one of the nuts on the inside. Incidentally the handbrake system is now all rebuilt; just waiting for 'er indoors to help me bleed the brakes and I can roadtest it all.

I found a NOS one a year or two ago, but it's for LHD so sold very cheaply. I reckoned that all I had to do was turn it upside down / back to front... and paint the inside that would now be the outside as it's always a lighter colour than the front. Haven't done it yet, but that's the plan...

+1 to Tom; the press stud for the millboard pushes into it.

I know they supplied a 2.0 litre to 2.5 upgrade, but the catalogues that I've just flicked through show upgrades to existing engines, or like for like exchanges, but in any case catalogues like this are going to be a great help when interpreting the legislation. The more details we can obtain now, the more help we'll be to members when they apply for exemption.