Colin Lindsay

They were used on all sorts of cars of the period, a quick search of 'Solex' on Ebay gives an amazing range of cars - VW, Landrover, Jaguar and Renault for example. I do reckon however that the fuel connector was Imperial for the earlier British cars and Metric for the continental, but this changed later in production and I'd guess that by the mid to late 1970s they were all Metric. It stands to reason that the top cover can be changed, as in many cases the body is more or less the same across a number of models, and there were a number of cars that continued to use the basic carb years after the Herald was gone. As Morgana has done I'd use the metric nut with metric olive and pipe for the best seal, and on my own cars it's all Imperial as the two never really mix and match 100%.

Strange, as metric would not have been used when those carbs were fitted new. All of mine take the original 7/16 and I've bought a few screw-in fittings from Paddocks within the last year, that fitted first time. This is where the olive sits on mine, new screw-fitting also on the pipe:

Think we can't go off on a thread drift again?

Gorilla tape, Pete. Saving the last of the roll for real emergencies.

Aw come on, I do have SOME standards.

It's like the guy who bought the parrot and the shop owner told him they live to be 125, if it doesn't, just bring it back.

Hadn't thought of that, although my hoses usually wear and crack rather than explode through pressure; new ones are rubbish quality. So technically it doesn't matter what rad cap you use, either?

That's exhaust rather than inlet, although you could use an attachment like the SNIP tailpipe (on cars!!) to extract gases more quickly. One other point as a totally non-Engineer / Technician - I understand the arguments for single and multiple pipes, and corrugated vs smooth, but does it really make much difference in a small road-going tootle of a car?

I was always wary of waterless coolant from the point of view of having more than one hose which went bang over the years, and had to top up from the roadside, so reckoned in my case it would be a waste with the standard of car I usually drive, and especially with the Herald system that Johny mentions and which I'm always topping up as part of a regular service.

Not dumb by any means. You don't ask, you don't learn. I'm doing EXACTLY the same thing on the BMW forums at present - what does this do, how do you remove this bit, why doesn't my car have this bit and so on. I must admit to having received a reply or two that did make me feel about two inches high, but that's their fault for having that kind of superior mentality towards newbies, not mine for asking.

Looks correct, bulges forward in the centre, small downward-pointing overrider brackets and the two large radiator mounting points.

Who cares?? Looks great. You'd forgive any detrimental performance just for the fun of polishing it.

One of my local Facebook pages is called "Classic / Retro Cars For Sale Northern Ireland pre-2000 Only" and at present the number of cars advertised which are 2010 and later outnumber the older ones. We even have brand new cars advertised. At present we have a 2014 Tractor advertised for £26,000. If they can't read and understand what 'pre-2000' means, ands think that no-one is annoyed by their flooding of what should be a specified specialist group, what hope is there for shows?

I think many of us go the pancake filter route at first, thinking it to be a 'modern' and more efficient upgrade, then change back, and certainly the pancake filter was one of the first things I removed from my 13/60.

The motor should be the same, Lucas M35J? (I think the M35G was much earlier, if there's a visible band round it with a screw clamp it's the early version. ) As long as you buy the brushes for the actual starter unit it'll be fine regardless of the model.

Thread drift here we go... but Wheeler Dealers went all American, The Repair Lot are a bit too amateurish, Shed and Buried now has Fuzz who contributes nothing to it, but Dream Car Fixers... they were so positive about the Herald in the few minutes I watched just now, and quoted a price of £22,000 as "what they're going for now"... so I like them more. Haven't yet seen what they'll do to the car, though.

It's entertaining but it's real Laurel and Hardy, if that's the term where there's a smart one and a dumb one and the smart one has to explain everything for the benefit of the camera. So far I've only watched the MGB episode, I'll watch more as it's still quite interesting, but as Pete says their choice of spending is a bit erratic and not very wise.

Ah yes!! Driving my 1200 into work at 3pm in lovely Winter sunlight was easy on December 23rd, driving home again at 3am wasn't. I gave up after a mile at most and put the hood up. I don't think the engine would ever have warmed up enough for the heater to have made even a slight difference. More recently a Boxing Day run almost cost me fingers and ears in the 13/60. Modern convertibles, such as my wife's former Saab and my current BMW have superb heaters, it seems way in excess of the output of any of our saloons, but Heralds are marginal at best.

NOW the on-going debate on the Z3 forum is that my car actually shouldn't exist, as with only one sensor it should be a pre-1998 1.8. Despite the V5 stating 1897cc and the engine number being original and pointing to 1.9, the 'experts' reckon it's incorrect. Having once been told that my GT6 was never made by Triumph then I'll take ideas like that with a pinch of salt, especially when BMW themselves seem to know what it needs. This is the reason I bought this particular car - very few sensors compared to later models and equipment meant to enhance the driving experience, not make it into a home cinema and four-wheeled mobile phone so that if it can't dial Just Eat it needs to go back to the dealer for a full upgrade. I bypassed the EGR on my TD5 Discovery - in fact, removed it completely - with no detrimental effects, but now the law has changed and the EGR must be present and working. They don't test diesel emissions at all, which is now the subject of debate and legal challenge, but petrol cars have always been tested. It will be interesting to see the next test result with the new CAT fitted.

You can always add a variable rheostat control knob (Is that the 'correct' term?) which allows you to control the speed. I bought a very cheap one off eBay, about £4, so you can fine tune the fan output for the best speed to heat ratio. You are always limited by the state and output of the heater matrix, but as long as it's clear and free-flowing you'll have a better chance of demisting the Herald if not heating it to comfortable levels with the higher fan output.

Found it - the 'proper' Spitfire manifold with the supports and more importantly the two sealing rings, often missing from old manifolds. Let me know if you need it.

Just retrieved it from the spares store. It's a Falcon, very nicely made (I believe for Moss Europe) and still with the suppliers label on. Never used on a running engine! As per Jon's enquiry, what manifold will you be using? I may also have the Spitfire manifold, will check in a few minutes.

Definitely a clattering, is it fuel pump?

Never read Parts Catalogues, instruction manuals, or handbooks until you've made an entire mess of things and wasted days if not weeks. THEN you go online and ask forum users, only to get 40,000 different and usually incorrect opinions. Only after all that are you allowed to consult the proper documents.

You can't fake the emissions over here, the machine must register a proper sample and then pass it, so if it fails the machine will let you know. You get a readout of the results on the MOT certificate which is also sent to DVA electronically. Mine was 0.770 CO idle and 503 HC idle, I must check that against the permissable limit. That's with NO CAT at all. The BMW online forum is currently tearing their hair out over why I only have one O2 sensor in the exhaust, pre-CAT, and none post-CAT, but the original 25 year old exhaust and the new replacement from BMW are identical with only one socket for a sensor so it's not a PO mod. All of their M44 engines have two so as the engine didn't alter any settings to compensate we can't account for the drop in performance and as I've examined the old exhaust minutely there's no blockage.