NevSpit

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions, as always very useful and much appreciated. I think the next course of action will be an oil change and then 'vigorous' use to see if that helps. If not i will disconnect the switch until funds and time permit further work. For now though I have ran out of time so spent the remainder of last night prepping another car to take, fingers crossed that all works ok.... Russell, I replaced my OD about 5 years ago and it was possible to do it from inside the car with tunnel and seats out. Not too bad a job if i remember correctly although a spare pair of hands underneath to guide and wiggle appropriately is useful - well it was easier than man handling the gearbox out to change the clutch! Cheers.

So.... drove it slowly around our estate and in and out of third OD ok. Went along a main road and seemed ok in and out of 4th OD - for a while, and then jammed in again. Back home i manually pushed the lever forward and took out the operating valve. Neither of which seemed to free it. Once more it was 'stuck' and would not roll back down the slight incline. With engine off I gave it a pull backwards (having tried to drive a little way forward first to no avail) and you could hear something 'donk' and then it was free. Certainly sounds as if something is 'sticking'. OD was replaced about 5 years ago so is certainly not old. Looks like the only safe way to take this at the weekend will be to disable the OD unless anyone has any bright ideas 😞

Some photos to help explain. The first is with the OD switched on - engaged. The second is the OD switched off (note the position of the lever arm) The last is the OD switched off but i have pushed the lever arm as far forward as it will then go.

Thanks all. I have managed to get some time in the garage and take the tunnel off to have a look. This is what i have found but unsure what is correct and what is not... The solenoid seems to have good, easy travel and appears to pull the lever to the back of the car nicely. As it is engaging ok then i presume that direction of travel is ok. When the solenoid releases it moves towards the front of the car and hits the stop at the front, so travel is good. However, i did note that the brass lever arm does not 'spring' as far forward as the solenoid arm would allow. There is no 'nut' or device behind the arm to push it so unsure what would force that forward and thus presumably take it out of OD. All of this was done with the engine off so again not sure if it has to be running to release itself. I took the operating valve nut of and there appeared to be some oil in the reservoir there (again not sure if there should be or not) i took the ball, rod and spring out, wiped an replaced. the oil seemed to drain away at this point. It is currently raining here so have not taken it for a test run as yet but will do so as soon as it stops to see if the problem repeats itself. As always thoughts and suggestions welcome!

Hi all, Slightly concerned here as off to Laon on Friday and just come across a problem with the Spitfire (MKIV 1300 D type overdrive). Have been out in the car and engaged the OD, however, when I went to disengage it nothing seemed to happen. Once stopped i switched the OD in and out and can hear both the relay and solenoid clicking in and out accordingly. Driving home the car was doing approx 45 mph at 2000 rpm, which from memory is probably the ratio with OD engaged. Sadly i cannot drive straight into my garage but have to reverse slightly. with the engine and handbrake off it did not roll back as expected but with a little pull it seemed to 'unstick' and i was able to reverse about 18 inches. It therefore seems as if it is / was staying in OD. Any thoughts on how that could happen and best course of action. With an early start planned for Friday (and work before then) time is sadly of the essence. Whilst going forward with a constantly engaged OD does not overly concern me the fact of reversing with it does. Any help, advice or guidance gratefully appreciated! Many thanks, Paul.

Thanks nonmember. Well, that was typical classic car... After the forces applied to the column yesterday trying to get the bushes out I was expecting this to be a task and a half. It wasn’t. Plenty of plus gas, vice, two mole grips and a twisting action and came out easy!

Hi all, I have finally gotten around to removing my steering column to replace the steering wheel and the top bush. Yes I know you don’t have to take the column out to remove a steering wheel but trust me this one put up a fight right to the end and involved a big hammer on the back of the aftermarket boss. The bush took a fair bit of persuading to, even more the spare column which had two up the spout so to speak. Anyway, getting back to my question.... I want to replace the inner column with another spare I had as the splines and thread are better. However, there is about 40mm difference in length. My understanding is that the bottom part of the column should slide into the upper part (safety feature) and be lightly clamped in the correct place. However, both of my examples seem solid (all clamps are off). Is my thinking correct and any ideas how I free it up to slide appropriately.? Many thanks, Paul.

Hi all, on the general theme has anyone come across Francis & Marshall? Their name is on the number plate of my TR6 with the 'Austin Morris' logo and whilst I have some history of the car I don't know where it has been on its travels too much. I suspect it could be London based. Thanks.

Hi all, The simple answer to this, I know, is that they just pull off. Sadly as you can imagine from this post that is not the case.... The wiper arms on my car (TR6) are on the wrong sides, the n/s (straight) one just pulls off no problem. The o/s (bent) arm though refuses to budge. When you pull it the spindle moves slightly away from the wheel box but still in the wiper arm. There looked to be a hole/pin through the arm into the spindle but i could neither turn or move it in anyway so resorted to attempting to drill it out. Sadly that seems to have done nothing. Is there some sort of secret catch or magic password I should be using? As always any assistance, guidance, or irrelevant humorous thread drift welcome. Paul.

Is it you Monsieur LeClerc !

Interesting points Steve although I for one welcome the core of our organisation such as the shop, this forum and the events they run / support (just placed another order with them this week and found polite service, good prices and postage plus quick turnaround) with social media you can indeed create a virtual club of any description at the drop of a hat. In today's world of blame and claim I suspect there is a thin line between a group of like minded people congregating in the same place and an organised event. On the plus side the interweb has made owning a 'classic' / old car (or even a new one) so much easier in my eyes. Instant advice, support and banter in the blink of an eye. If i had my Spit pre web it would probably have been off the road more than on it or i would have been a lot poorer from garage bills...

Excellent news and welcome to the club. Looking forward to seeing a picture of your new car.

And there was me thinking the topic referred to our cars and the drivers....

The not so old 'Lucas' indicator unit recently packed up and the replacement I obtained is presumably 'solid state' in some manner as there is no clicking when it operates. The current steering wheel masks the original tell tale light when driving so I have made a modification by adding a couple of LEDs. I needed two as the current flows both ways through the normal bulb and of course LEDs only allow current to flow one way. I spliced these into the existing tell tale wiring by soldering and heat shrink and have tucked them up in the right hand corner of the dash near the door trim. This gives a handy additional visual aid whilst still being discreet - plus with two LEDs i can now tell which way I am turning :-) Its quite difficult to photograph but hopefully this gives an idea. LEDs cost pennies from Maplins.

The upright holes were ok. However, having put it all back together the knocking noise appears to have gone! In the end I replaced both rear UJs, one seemed absolutely fine and the other had a very very small amount of play, one inner shaft oil seal and bearing. I can only presume that the minute play in the bearing was the cause, or the fact that I stripped everything down and put everything back tighter. It also had two new tyres but I do not think they were the issue. Either way it is one job of the list but now I am noticing the squeaky door/trim...

Just in case someone looks at this in the future and doesn't have a press I did manage to remove the bearing and change the oil seal on my Spitfire without one. I placed two solid metal strips on a vice below the oil seal retainer and then with progressive force tapped the inner axle shaft out using a block of wood and club hammer. Conscious of comments about damaging the oil seal retainer I kept a careful eye on progress. Changing the oil seal was relatively simple and certainly looked to be the cause of the leak. I took the precaution of having a new bearing to hand and although the old one looked to be in fine fettle I did replace it with the new one. To do this i put the shaft in the freezer and the bearing in the oven as per the You Tube video. After a while I took the bearing out and amazingly it just dropped into place on the shaft. I was concerned as once cooler the bearing seemed very stiff and I thought I had ruined it (maybe i have) but with the application of some gear oil it was soon moving much freer. It is now back on the car and after a gentle test drive and a blast up the M11 (it got past the A414 Pete) to Duxford all seems to be good. Just one word of warning; when you get the bearing out of the oven make sure you have a good grip of it. You wouldn't want to try and chase it round the kitchen floor with one hand trying not to let it melt the lino whilst with the other hand trying to get a knife out of the drawer to pick it up. Not that I am saying that would happen of course...

Thanks Paul, will order the right size set now.

Looking to do this to my Spit as I have the half shaft off at present to change the UJ but I seem to have two sizes of allen key for the output shaft - too big and too small, Does anyone know what size it is? Thanks.

Thanks Pete, that makes sense so will double check the upright holes.

o yes.... picked one up at the NEC show the other week.i was like a child in a sweet shop looking through it and had to physically restrain myself from buying lots of bits and bobs I thought i must need.

Hi all, Having been suffering from a knocking sound at the rear (car not me) I have now replaced both driveshaft UJs, well the o/s is ready to go back on. However, whilst dismantling the o/s I noticed that there is a bit of play in the bolt that goes through the spring bush. So, the question is should there be any play in at all? Just trying to see if anything else could be causing the knocking as the UJs seemed okay, certainly not the destruction of the needles I saw when the prop UJ went. Thanks all.

Maybe that is the idea.... Nagging wife tells him to 'get rid of one of those old cars' so reluctantly, for a little bit of respite, he agrees to put one up for sale. "It's not my fault dear that no one will buy it, it must be down to Brexit'.

Thanks all, my motor is wired as per Gary's diagram. I took the time to dismantle everything and give it a good clean including the parking switch (it certainly needed it) and picked up a new brush set from SVC at the NEC show. Taking some inspiration from Bordfunker I also rubbed down the bulkhead around the motor and resprayed it. End result is that I now have the luxury of two speeds and self parking - wahhey! It appears that the two speeds on these models are just down to the positioning of the brushes.