Mark B

Hi Pete That was the initial problem. You can hear the first start up video on YouTube when it was bone dry. Recon head had gunk in the oil way feeding the rockers. Cleaned out with Mig wire. Rockers stripped cleaned and blown through. Oil can now be seen weeping out of the rocker oil holes, but not pouring. I can run the engine with the rocker cover off without fear of oil going everywhere. Done a few hundred miles since rebuild and after a run the rockers look wet through the oil filler cap, but in the back of my mind I am still wondering if I still have oil supply issues.

I have a loud tappet noise in my Vittese. Checked clearences several times. Once you get tuned into the tapping noise it's hard to ignore. I have a worn out Gt6, which runs quiter. Vitesse goes well, but tappetty. https://youtu.be/SXQNV0uxM_I

I replaced all the original sound deadening on my Vitesse a few years ago using black rubble sacks and Acoustic Earthwool. Think the original stuffing was Kapok.The bags were cut to the various shapes and heat sealed, cheap heat sealer off eBay. I just pushed them into the cavaties. I used spray glue for inside the rear wings. I think Triumph used this method because of the large caverties, They used the black bitchermen patches on flat panels to help stop them resonating.

I recently fitted an alarm to my Vitesse. Wanted something straight forward. Ended up buying an unused boxed Selmar alarm from the 60's. Works off the courtesy lights on the doors and I added switches to bonnet and boot. Mecanical pendelum for shock detection. In my case this became more complicated because I have an FIA cut out on my car which caused complications, and in the end ran independent switches and siren separate from the cars loom. It came with a Key switch to arm/disarm, which I tried to replace with a stand alone Key fob and receiver which I was unable to get to work, so fitted the key switch discretely. Works fine. Had a similar Selmar fitted to a Spit in the 80's, worked really well, but I do recall having to adjust the sensitivity in strong winds. Mark

Hi Steve Gone through my receipts, but haven't got one for the prop. It was a propshaft repair, balancing place. Googled propshaft repair and there are several that came up, but none range a bell. I just explained I had clearance issues, gave them the distance between gearbox and diff, engine size, approx power, and they made one up. From memory it cost around £100-120 6 years ago. Mark

Hi Steve Can't remember where I went off the top of my head, about 6 years ago now. Ill have a look through my folder of receipts to see if I can find one and let you know. Mark

Hi Steve I had prop clearance issues, so had one made up from a smaller diameter NOS prop the company had in stock. Similar in weight so presumably thicker wall tube to compensate for the smaller diameter. Think some later Triumphs had smaller diameter props but could be wrong.I know your car is pushing out a lot of power/torque so if you went this route you would have to make sure it was up to the job. Mark

Thanks all My car is a 68 so ideally need the wheel with covered spokes, thanks for clearing that up. Mark

Thanks for the info. I have a couple of photos of mk2s somewhere that I took a shows, and where I remember seeing the covered spokes. I'll Have to keep my eyes open. Thanks Mark

Hi all My gt6 mk2 has always had an after market steering wheel fitted in my ownership. I've seen various photos of different mk2's some seem to be flat, and appear the same as fitted to early mk4 Spitfire's, others look dished with black plastic finishers covering the spokes. Can anyone confirm the correct style wheel that would have originally been fitted to the Mk2, or if the same type was ever fitted to the Spitfire. I know the later mk4, 1500 Spit has a larger spline so would be no good. I wouldn't mind reverting to the correct type if one came up for sale. Thanks. Mark

Restoration and panel fit is looking really good. Is that an additional brace you have added to the inner sill 'A' post. Going to be starting on a mk3 Spit restoration shortly. Mark

You get a similar reaction on cellulose paint if left to dry on the surface. I was able to polish it out using T cut on my cars paint. I noticed it on the chassis after changing fuel pipe. Mark

Hi John No it's a 6-3-1. The chambers on 1 & 6 are further up the primaries. Mark

Hi all Got side tracked, but over the past few months I've been finishing off the manifold I started a while back. John sparked my interest when he mentioned Anti-reversion. I had vaguely heard about this in the past so did a little resesrch. I decided to have a go, and add an anti-reversion chamber in the system. I had seen that some add a single chamber after the collector, where others had been added to each primary. I thought I would add one to each primary. I intend to fuel inject and use a different cam, and thought antireversion chambers would be beneficial. The manifold was virtually finished when I decided to cut up the primaries and add anti-reversion chambers. This ended up being a remake, and not just a matter of splicing in the chambers as initially thought. Additional clearance was needed which threw out the spacing and angles. Reversion chambers have different size ends for the outside and inside diameter of the primaries, and hopefully shaped in a way to catch and trap any exhaust gases going the wrong way. I need to clean up the welds, and add a pipe to the collector. Not sure how effective this is going to be and won't know for a year or so as I am planning on using the Vitesse as much as possible this year. Mark

I have a clip on type mirror on my mk2 gt6, been on there over 10 years. Serves a purpose, a bit small and can vibrate on occasion, idling poor road serface etc. so you can get a blured view. Recently fitted a new old stock desmo mirror to my Vitesse drivers door, bigger convex mirror, and solidly mounted, much better all round in my opinion. Mark

There is either a ball bearing or glass bead, (varies with age of vehical, in the brass tube below each jet. Under pressure the ball rises and water squirts out of the jet then the ball bearing drops back into a tiny rubber O ring seal when the pump is released. The rubber seal becomes hard, so the ball bearing can't seal and holed pressure when dropping back down, so you get the odd spit of water now and again. I've never tried replacing the seal, just replaced the complete item with spare one's I have accumulated over the years. Even when working perfectly they are a bit marginal, so on my Vitesse I fitted an electric one along side the original. Mark

Hi all I have been wanting to increase the brightness of the gauges in the Vitesse. I've been finding if harder to see the temp, fuel, and and oil pressure gauges at night, so yesterday replaced the yellow bulbs with E10 987 LED versions. The illumination is slightly better, a whiter light but not as bright as I had hoped. I've checked all the earths, which seem ok. Any suggestions how I can make them brighter? Thanks Mark

Many years ago whilst sat at traffic lights in my 1500 Spitfire, I was hit from behind at speed by an Austin Maxi. I saw it coming in my rear view mirror, but to late. Pushed the whole car over the white stop line. My passenger cut his head on the soft top frame. The rear light panel, valence, boot floor, were all damaged. Suprised how little considering the inpact. These panels all tie together to make a stiff structure. I would stick with a steel panel purely for the structural integrity. Mark

1/2" to 3/4" is a lot of play, so probably wear in the hinge as well as the pin. I would find a couple of better hinges, the hinges are the same on all small chassis Triumphs, some slight difference in shape on the early herald. Find a couple from a Spit, ideally passenger side, lighter doors so hinges have an easier life. Mark

Hi all, thanks for the replies In the end I decided to drill the rear deck for the FM arial and fit a powered type DAB film arial to the screen. This involved cutting away some of the screen rubber to enable a decent fit. I found an old Audioline electric NOS arial online, basic toggle switch up and down. Fitted the speakers under the dash after making up trim to replace the normal under dash card trim, with a heavier board. Sounds OK but think I am loosing some of the sound quality as the speakers are facing down, but still sounds good. Mark

I just bought the same stethascope off eBay to try and isolate a similar tapping noise. Only a few quid. I just wanted to make sure the noise was coming from the top half of the engine which the stethoscope confirmed. Worth checking the oil supply to your rockers if the engine has stood for a long time, as the initial loud tappet noise on start up after the rebuild of my Vitesse engine was gunk in the recon unleaded head oil gallery, and very little oil was reaching the rockers. This was mostly poked out with a piece of mig wire, and the hope was once the engine had been ran upto temperature a few times any gunk left would resolve or dislodge Tappets re-set twice and little change, so probably wear or lack of oil to the rockers in my case, under further investigation.

Very sad news. Used to see Mike at SEM leatherhead over the years. My condolences to his family and friends. Mark

My experience with misfires intermittent or not has been a faulty plug or plugs. First thing I would replace, despite if they look good or not. Didn't seem to be a problem years ago, but I've had cars that have been running fine then laid up and unused for several months, that have then developed a misfire on start up. Plugs looked like new, replaced and the car ran fine again. The only thing I can think of is damp and moisture gets inside the plugs and degrades them. Mark

Hi all I want to fit a radio to my Vitesse and was looking at ones with DAB and FM. As the car has never had a radio fitted, I was reluctant to start drilling holes for a FM arial. The DAB will be stuck on the inside of the windscreen. Starting to think about drilling a hole for an arial, and was wondering where it would have been located if originally fitted as an option. Cant find any interior type FM arials, and seems they have to be fitted to the outside of the body. Any suggestions? Thanks Mark

Hi Paul Rectangular, on a late Mk2 Mark