Colin Lindsay

Currently £60 new on eBay - including carriage - BUT the seller claims you require an adaptor to get the inner set of bearings off the rear axle which is another £48....

Never knew that.

Sounds normal enough, as long as it's not leaking water it will soldier on. Bear in mind modern pumps wear out very quickly and more than a few need replaced quite often, almost like a service item to be replaced every two years or so.

If that's my post you're referring to, I don't at any point say it's a problem. I just don't jack my car under the diff in case the curved diff casing allows the jack to slip off. It's a personal choice, not an instruction.

I use the main chassis rail at the point where the side outriggers join front or rear; a good strong flat piece of inch-thick wood on top of the trolley jack spreads the load. I don't jack or support the car on the diff.

Some would argue that it depends on the securing clamps and nuts - if the nuts go to the rear it causes less corrosion as they're more sheltered from road dirt etc. After forty-odd years it hardly matters. I recently bound the GT6 spring in Denso plumbers grease-impregnated tape, wrapped well round and secured with stainless ties; this apparently also strengthens the spring. I keep it well lubricated with liberal coverings of Waxoyl. You can get leather gaiters which go on over the top of everything and used to be supplied on sports cars, to keep grease in and dirt out, but they're expensive whereas the tape is much cheaper and can be quite smart, as shown on this non-Triumph spring getting the same treatment.

I bought one of those, seemed quite good spec, but never fitted it as yet as the Herald's still off the road....

Love those. So easy to work on and replace valves etc, plus you can see the fuel as it goes through thereby ruling out non-starting caused by a lack of it... if you use Redex it also shows as a light red colour and can be easier to gauge the flow.

That is definitely a thing of beauty. I always wish I had been a woodworker of some description - many of my musical instruments are as nice to look at as to play - but I just don't have the time space or brain power to take up another hobby at this stage... so I can admire things like this knowing the skill and perfection that goes into them.

It happens to us all, Andrew - I bought a lovely little aftermarket dashboard-mounted temperature gauge that fits into the hole of the ashtray on the dash top and replaces it with something slightly more useful.... except the Herald 1200 doesn't have one on top of the dash, only the front... later cars do but they have the temperature gauge already.... D'OH!

As John says count the splines then get a suitable clutch plate; my own GT6 has the 18/50 box and J-type overdrive and uses the Dolomite clutch plate. It’s all a straightforward fit.

Lennon’s Roller, allegedly painted in Romany Caravan designs.

Same car, different group photo. Lennon drove a Rolls Royce himself, a totally hideous paint-job but de rigeur in those days...

My Gt6 has a Dolomite 1850 J type box fitted, works great and no leaks… does this mean there’s no oil left? (Love the smell of gearbox oil in the mornings…)

I didn’t think a f*rt was compressed… it was released? Hence it can be lit at the exhaust port but doesn’t spontaneously combust?

Thanks John, my mistake. I fitted new discs and pads recently and the instructions were that they can take up to 800 miles to properly bed in; 3 - 400 with worn discs but longer on brand new ones. Even my Clio discs and pads, changed for new items two weeks ago, still haven’t got the contact band for the full width of the disc after 200 miles or so. The EBC pads just didn’t get the mileage to do anything at all…

Or cheaper brands of whiskey…

Remember that heavier pads (i.e. fast road or race) will take ages to bed in, so if you’re not using your car every day or driving like a…whatever… they may be a waste of money. I threw my EBC pads out after one season, they weren’t getting enough use to bed in properly.

New bushes will cure things to a certain extent but the rubber is no longer as good as it used to be due to different allegedly-greener processes and chemicals. Certainly older worn bushes will move about more and the sharpness of new components is amazing. you’re really talking longevity; it’s not a job you want to be repeatedly doing. I fitted blue polybushes to roll bar and diff mountings as a fit and forget; red for radius arms for the stiffer grip but the wishbones etc got yellow nylon bushes, very hard nylon with no flex at all and it really transformed the GT6 handling. Ten years on they’re as good as new. There’s no increase in road vibration at all.

As always it’s not the doing, it’s the getting caught…

NOW: on a slightly different note: a Tristan-converted saloon for sale at a higher price than many genuine convertibles, due to its’ alleged ‘rarity’? Missing sunvisors and flaky paint but, because the seller claims not to have seen another like it, it’s held to be worth a lot? At least the cigarette lighter still works…. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-herald-convertable-1970-13-60-/201433175146?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

Totally agree. It’s a learning process as well as an enjoying process; in fact both maintaining and driving should be part of the pleasure of owning older cars. It’s not only older cars either, I’ve just taken ownership of an MOT-failure 2001 Renault Clio from a friend who gave up on it after one too many let-downs and botched repairs; in the last fortnight I’ve learned how to change injectors and seals, replace modern cam belts, clean out blocked breather valves, replace coil packs, sort out aged electrics on everything from radio to power socket, free up dragging brakes and sticking calipers, clear blocked sunroof drains and replace the seal, and repaint horrible black alloys to a more conservative silver. And - it was actually enjoyable! It may be a terrible car in any case but I wouldn’t have tried half the things on something of value. Now I can put my beloved Landrover into storage and have a cheap commuter, with the pride that I did it my way - and it worked!

I thought the Club Shop made dashboards to order and at the owner’s specification? I know they used to, I had my four-dial GT6 dash made to order.

Latest update: replaced all four injectors, no change…. replaced the old coil pack and this appeared to work, so cleared the fault codes and away we went; just back from a two mile drive with only a slight misfire at idle. Looks like the replacement coil pack was faulty out of the box, which didn’t help at all…. £35 down the tubes!

Ok so got an OBD reader, tells me that there’s a misfire in one cylinder THEN says” cylinder not specified…”! I KNOW THAT!!! In any case now replacing the injectors as one of the plugs is shiny clean and looks like it has never fired since fitted earlier in the week, so possibly no fuel getting to it. I think ‘Gallic Travesty’ is perfect, shag.e. but needs must; it can be parked anywhere and if it’s stolen… they’ll probably take pity and leave it back only cleaner and possibly roadworthy…