rlubikey

It can also suggest a low voltage. Check your battery and your alternator before you ditch the flasher. Cheers, Richard

So, we had enough rain to keep me from cycling or working on the Spit (or Volvo) but not enough to do the garden much good. The British are never satisfied with the weather! I'm not making any predictions about when the Atlas is ready Pete. It's a "make some progress when work is light" job at Picton Sportscars. Cheers, Richard

Doug, I take it you've finally fixed the chameleon circuit and got your TARDIS looking like a GT6. (Is it REALLY bigger on the inside?) I'd have thought, with your time-travelling powers, you'd have aged better. Cheers, Richard PS: Off-topic - I saw the Atlas yesterday. It's finally got its 2-tone paint. Perhaps the apocalypse is imminent!

I had mine dipped by SPL after Picton Sportscars had done the necessary panels (sills, etc.) The attraction for me was the phosphoric coating which, hopefully, went into the seams and box sections - blasting only gets to where you can see. In hindsight, people have expressed concerns about acid lurking in the seams, although SPL claimed that this was neutralised by the next stage. Even so, if I was doing it again I would look very carefully at the high temperature process another company does - sounds very interesting. Cheers, Richard PS: Apparently people were going into his workshop and asking where he had managed to get a new Spitfire shell!

Oh, "flickability" - especially one mini roundabout - seems just as good. Seemingly no tendency for the car to wallow or roll.

Colin, a system to take out a big heavy battery and put the new one in is fraught with problems. The weight, lining it up, sparks & short circuits, standardisation between manufacturers ... Actually, did you hear about the electric buses in London in the 1900's? They had replaceable battery modules and apparently the whole system worked quite well. Unfortunately it was an investment scam and the whole project - a really good idea - collapsed. Cheers, Richard

So, here's my report on the new springs. This is an "engine back" Spitfire 2500 PI, so there's almost as much weight on the front as a GT6, but the C of G is further back and lower. It's built from a Spitfire - no "Gitfire" here! First thing is that I was surprised how long these supposedly standard Moss 220lb springs were. My adjustable spring seat Protech dampers are on their lowest position and the front is fractionally higher than before. The lower wishbones are angled about 2' below horizontal (they were adjusted to horizontal before). So if you want some adjustment, don't rely on your dampers, buy lowered springs. The dampers are still on their softest setting - no change there. After 2 weeks of driving most days (7-mile commute plus some longer journeys) the new springs don't make the car feel at all "wallowy". In fact it still feels quite taught, but more "supple" over undulations. It has definitely reduced the tendency to "crash" over potholes - the whole car shakes less. I really couldn't say whether it has more oversteer (which I think is what softening the front does - is that right?) as I barely get the chance to take it that far round here. One thing I think - the back (long shaft swing-axle) tends to get unsettled less by severe bumps/ruts than before. Is this because there's less coming through the chassis from the front? Overall, while I'm not the fastest of drivers and don't tend to use the road as my personal race track, the Spit still feels well balanced - nicely planted on the road - but more supple and I don't get the strong impression that either the car or me is going to get shaken to bits. I've probably lost a few seconds around a race track, but I never do race tracks so don't care. I could always swap the old springs in if I did. This is all very subjective of course. But I'm not afraid to say if nothing's changed or something's got worse. If there's anything I've missed then let me know and I'll try to answer. Cheers, Richard

That's the problem with human beings. We have this wonderful brain and we spend most of our time trying *not* to use it. I know I do! Errr ... don't. Um ... well ... you get the idea. Seriously - it wasn't in anyone's interest to ask that question. You're a company. You've got a great new product. Then someone asks an awkward question. Are you going to spend time researching this? Sound familiar? Cheers, Richard

The problem with fast charging of any battery technology (though "carbon ion" is a new one on me!) is the infrastructure to support the high charging power. Laying in all that copper so that someone can have their car charged in the time to drink one espresso instead of two cappuccinos and a snack means a lot of money. Copper is *expensive* and someone will have to pay. For "someone", read you and me! The alternative is to have a battery next to each fast charging point. A battery to charge a battery - I kid you not! No, I'm afraid that if we insist on making mostly short journeys with a few long journeys thrown in, then hybrid vehicles make sense to me. The engine and generator need only be large enough to sustain cruise, so 30bhp or so. You save money and weight by not having the rest of the power train - gearbox, diff, etc. We will soon learn how cheap electric motoring is when we see how much money disappears into the fuel tank for long-distance motoring. Maybe then we will start living more local lives, Who knows? (Well, not me!) Cheers, Richard

I have this problem, but only pulling the lever out of 3rd - going in is fine, as are all the other gears. The change is OK until the engine's hot, then shifting out of 3rd requires a sort of "push-pull" to release. It's like a brick wall - no slight spring (if you see what I mean) of the selector forks, and this made me think it was to do with the linking shaft. Perhaps a ridge has been worn in, although why that should happen in the steel of the shaft, not the alloy of the cover, I cannot fathom. Mine is a modified (shortened) remote, by the way. Cheers, Richard

With the recent discussion on MOTs and substantial changes, the regulations say that a change in the number of cylinders is usually considered substantial, *unless* it can be shown this sort of swap was being done within 10 years of production ceasing. Those of us with 6-pot Spitfires are therefore quite interested to know when people were doing this. It was too hot this afternoon, so I came in and looked through the Courier Archive DVDs - a most useful tool indeed! - and found some examples as follows:- Sep 83 pp. 18 - A question about doing the conversion. Eddie Evans the Technical Secretary answers, running through what's involved without actually saying it's been done. Nov 83 pp. 30 - A member from West Germany writes that he has put a Spit body on a GT6. Feb 84 pp. 89 - The Spitfire Register writes about fitting 6-pots from Vitesses, GT6s, etc. into Spitfires. He then goes on to say that there are currently 25 registered 2-litre Spitfires and two 2.5-litre Spits. Presumably these are the Triumph engine conversion as this is what has just been discussed. Oct 84 pp. 35 - Another Q&A about the prospect of doing the conversion, answered by Eddie Evans. Aug 87 pp. 42 - A member discusses his Spitfire-6, built on a GT6 chassis & running gear. He comments that building it on the Spitfire chassis would have been easier in hindsight. Mar 89 pp. 45 and May 89 pp. 57 - A 2.0 Spit Mk2 or GT6 Mk1 convertible build - well, the latter really as it's on the GT6 chassis & running gear. So there you go, 3 documented examples, plus the evidence of 27 registered cars way back in 1984. Does anyone know of any other *documented* conversions pre 1991? Cheers, Richard

Well Doug, at least we have the option to generate electricity in a low/zero-carbon way. Based on what we know at the moment, battery technology will never approach the energy density of fossil fuels. Lithium I think is about 300 Watt-hours/litre, whereas petrol is 13 killo-Watt-hours/litre. The reason for this is that the battery is a nice reversible electro-chemical process but fuel going "bang" in a cylinder is a one-way reaction! Actually, the difference in energy density isn't as bad as 40:1 because, whereas electric motors can be 80% or 90% efficient, the petrol engine is, I believe, about 35%. Put an idiot (sorry) human behind the wheel and that can drops to 20% to 25%, something like that. That's still a 10:1 difference in energy compared to batteries! I think that hybrid cars with electric motors driving the wheels directly, run from batteries you charge when you can - over night, at work, etc. plus a fossil fuel engine running a generator to power the motors either on long runs or when you forget (sorry again) couldn't find a charger, gives us the best vehicle (that isn't a Triumph) for our future needs. The engine in such a vehicle no longer needs to be chosen for "driveability", but instead would be chosen for efficiency, such as an Atkinson-cycle or even a turbine. Of course, we've all adjusted our life styles to take advantage of the motor car. Well, if the car as we know it is being phased out, maybe we will have to change our life styles back to something more "local", like it used to be in the horse and cart or Shanks' pony days? Maybe we'd all be much happier then? No? Oh well. As for cars (and other things) only lasting a few years, a friend who used to be in Ford told me how much money they spent designing things *down* so they would work perfectly for just 10 years and break soon after. How many of us ask how long things are designed to last and availability of spares before making our purchasing decision? Maybe we should be doing more - a lot more - of this than we do already! "Our" cars should all be long gone by now. It's only that they are so repairable and also that we love them so much that keeps them on the road. I totally agree, by the way, that manufacturers obfuscate the carbon overhead of *making* new vehicles - far greener to keep old ones going! That concludes today's lecture. Cheers, Richard

Hi Maff. I'm not at home and haven't got the Spit here to measure, but I'm fairly sure I bought Prym 15mm press fastners, such as these antique look ones (so they don't stand out visually, like plain stainless). I think the 15mm refers to the overall diameter, not the stud-receptacle interface like you'd think it should. If you have a local sewing shop, they may have these and you could take one in to check. Cheers, Richard

A company called "Prym" do some pliers which take a variety of inserts to do different fasteners - e.g. soft top & hood bag - and other eyelets & press studs. You get the plier inserts when you buy some eyelets, etc. from them. I find the pliers slightly less hit and ... err ... miss than a hammer and durable dot tool. Look for "Prym Vario pliers" and you'll soon find them. No connection, just a satisfied customer. Cheers, Richard

You need your car documents - a license, V5, insurance *and* an MOT - when driving in France, and possibly other countries. Will Mr Gendarme know that your car is exempt if you get pulled over? Cheers, Richard

220lb "standard" Moss springs arrived on Friday, fitted on Saturday, but no time to test drive. Now I know why people like lowered &/or harder springs - I had to go out and buy a spring compressor to get the devils in! There was me thinking they could be compressed on the adjustable shock seats like the 480lb jobbies! Cheers, Richard

Thanks for your comments everyone. Colin - I do detest "tar & grit" as a surface dressing. Sometimes I imagine whole Scottish mountains have been ground up to become dunes of grit at the side of Oxfordshire roads. Clive - agree it's not good (just cost saving) when they spec. one spring to cover different mks & models. Pete - yes I agree, they *did* know what they were doing and spent a lot of time & money designing our cars. Do you think input from the marketing people probably made the engineers err on the soft side for suspension. (Like the recent thread on steering rack rubbers.) No dinosaurs here by the way, just a wealth of experience. Mark & Iain - I've ordered the 220lb springs so watch this space and I'll report back. Doug - better roads? It seems like they're digging them all up to "upgrade the drains" for all the new housing that's going in. It's deffo. been getting worse over the last 4 or 5 years. It was my drive over to Yattendon on Saturday that made me think how bad it was ... well just everywhere! Cheers, Richard

The roads round everywhere are rubbish these days, I'm sure it's not just Berks. So, I've got a Spit-6 with standard swing-spring/axle at the back and 480lbs springs up front, running on 185/65 tyres & 5.5J steels and Protech dampers on softest setting. I'm not too bad at scanning the road for pot holes & avoiding them (comes from being a cyclist!) but these days it's hard trying to find a piece of road which *HASN'T* got a pot hole. CRASH - oh, there goes another one. Poor Spit; it's getting shaken to bits. So, I'm thinking of changing the front springs - it's not as if I ever do track days. It seems my choice is:- Standard 180lbs (according to teglerizer.com) GT6 Std 200lbs (as above) 220lbs (Moss et al) 262lbs (Rimmers "uprated") 330lbs (Moss et al) Well, 330lbs is only about 30% softer than my 480lbs. 262lbs is 45% softer than 480 and 45% harder than stock. However, I think I'm tempted to go for the 220lb springs and see how I get on with them. They're 22% harder (although Moss call them standard) than stock Spit or 10% c.f. GT6. I've always thought that Triumph got most things right and we don't give them nearly enough credit! Suspension spring rates are something they tweaked on different marks of our cars, so I think they probably spent a lot of time working on this. I would be interested in peoples' views, but I just want more comfort until we get better roads. I'll keep my hard springs in the vain hope that one day, before I can't drive any more, that might happen. Cheers, Richard

Aidan, neoprene deffo. isn't as robust as Viton. A quick search showed that neoprene would swell in E5 and E10 petrol. A small sheet of Viton is pretty cheap - so why not make a seal. We use a company called TYM Seals at work, who also sell on Ebay. Try BEIGE FDA VITON(FKM) SHEET - don't let the beige put you off! It's also 64-Shore so a softer grade of elastomer and I would have thought should give the best seal. Cheers, Richard

Thanks Clive. Sorry to hear your modified trim wheeze isn't quite working out as expected. I'm slightly nervous of machining a groove on a nut, but at least this gives me the opportunity to bump my "original look" question onto page 2 Cheers, Richard

I'm guessing that Triumph 7/16" studs and TR6 nuts would look fairly original on a Mk4 or 1500 Spit. Can anyone confirm this, or suggest alternatives please? Cheers, Richard

Hi Doug. I've PM'ed you about the Hurst Show. RE: LEDs - one thing you have to be aware of is longer/bigger LED bulbs - particularly the cluster type - touching and breaking the green dome filter inside the instrument. Once that's happened, there's no going back to an incandescent bulbs. I've got the following in the Spit (that I can find in my fleabay record) and some others:- 2X GREEN BA7S LED DASHBOARD GAUGE WARNING SWITCH BULB CLASSIC CAR GLB281 LLB281 and 2x GREEN JAGUAR Mk2 TRIUMPH TR3 TR4 TR6 SPEEDO / REV COUNTER LED GAUGE BULBS and they're OK, but I wouldn't call them extra bright. Cheers, Richard

OK Rob, cheers for that. Richard

Presumably, if you had single-point injection (as opposed to just a single throttle body) you don't need a sensor on the cam/distributor, right? Is this part of the set up of Mega/Micro-Squirt 2/3/whatever, telling it what sort of system you have? Cheers, Richard

Hi Roger. I think we're all learning about the poor quality of "new" parts. You've narrowed your squeak down to the yoke and I've recently noticed a squeak coming from the rear of my swing-axle Spit. I heard an interesting theory - albeit related to the hub on these shafts. Somebody speculated that, with our higher power engines, swapping a second-hand shaft from left to right or vice versa was unwinding the tension and reversing it, loosening the hub. I wonder if the same might apply to the yoke? Which of course begs the question; is there any way of telling which side a shaft has previously been fitted? Cheers, Richard