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The black "paint" may or may not be a good base. Quite often it's not, definitely not, really not, as in liable to flake off and take your real paint with it. I think, if you give it a wipe with a soft cloth soaked in thinners, the good stuff stays in place and the not good wipes off. However, don't quote me on that, wait for an expert to answer.

If that were the case it would have the fine spline input shaft. The last photo shows a coarse spline one.

In the "as bought" photo? They look like standard (early) Spitfire/GT6/Herald/Vitesse steel wheels to me. Missing hub caps and in need of a clean up.

It's not a standard Vitesse/GT6 box as it has a J-type overdrive. The gearbox number stamped on there with a "DC" prefix I don't recognise but there seems to be another number there with an MW prefix, or possibly AAW upside down? The adapter is odd. I suspect it's been built up out of a mix of parts from different vehicles. Edit: On second look, that J-type has the extra fixings on top of the tail for a single-rail gearstick assembly fitment. The adapter oddness is probably because that, too, is for a single-rail box.

As Clive says, it probably wouldn't affect the drive line very much. However, I'd be concerned about your gearbox mounting - you're getting the current misalignment by having a broken one. If you fit a new one then it will try to move things back into line. How are you planning to let it be out of line? What you've got at the moment is only supporting, not mounting, and the box will bounce around and hit things as you drive over bumpy roads.

If your engine mounts are as far round as they can go and it's still not enough then I strongly suspect you have a bent engine front plate, as Peter T mentioned. My brother's Mk2 was the same - a result of a serious front-end impact at some point in its earlier life. As a bodge-around, the off-side mount could be moved to the wrong side of the suspension turret to compensate for the bit of engine plate it supports being in the wrong place. And I would seriously think about replacing all three mounts because that gearbox one is shot and the engine one looks on its way out.

We did our weekly supermarket run this afternoon. It was sunny and SWMBO dressed in a flowery top that she described as "70s". So obviously we took the GT6.

That gearbox mount is shot. The rubber is no longer attached to the lower part. Whether this was caused by a problem with the engine mounts isn't so clear.

Weird!! I can't really see how getting some throttle opening on the front would cause a float problem on the rear. Unless... you actually have a fault on the rear float valve but when the whole engine is idling on a single throttle it draws just enough air (and hence fuel) to prevent it overflowing. If so, the correct approach is to fix both problems - clean the rubber sliver out of the rear float valve and adjust the front idle stop to get equal air through both carbs.

I'd agree on an earlier Spitfire, or a car that's been running recently, but if the fuel pipe is dry it won't syphon past the high tank pickup on a 1500 until you give it a suck.

Years ago - 1999, in fact, when leaded petrol was about to disappear - I had a VW Passat which ran lovely. I took it for a service and, given the impending petrol situation, the garage helpfully retarded the ignition to suit unleaded. It then ran very poorly, sputtering and missing when I tried to use 4th gear at 30, or otherwise pull from low revs. I put the ignition back to the 4* setting and it was fine. Some time later it broke down due to, in essence, every single part of the ignition system being really rather tired. So, yes, it could be the coil, but it could also be the electronic ignition thing, or a combination of both. The tacho going to zero suggests a low-side fault - probably the EI unit - rather than the coil or rotor arm or cap or leads.

I assume you're raising the piston at idle, not when you're checking the performance 😁 If the linkage is only a bit off, so that the front throttle opens less than the rear, you may not notice the power being low, but you could be getting almost no air through the front carb at idle, which would explain why lifting the piston has no effect. It would also explain the rear piston rising faster than the front when you rev it. (When my GT6 was "gutless" the linkage had come completely loose and the front throttle stayed at its idle position even at wide-open pedal.)

As others have hinted, that sounds to me like the front throttle plate is fully shut and the engine is running entirely on the rear carb. Adjust as Pete says but beware of slippy linkages. Both my Vitesse and GT6 have, at various times, suffered from a loose linkage resulting in the front carb not opening. On the GT6 it just made it feel gutless - nice and smooth still but no power - whereas the Vitesse managed also to overheat (but the difference is probably down to having slipped while driving in the Cairngorms whereas the GT6 did it in East Anglia)

I think I bought mine from ANG. They're nice and shiny still but I found the fixing studs less than convincing in how they're assembled.

I had one of them on my Vitesse until I changed the engine and discovered just how badly rusted in the sender was. So I replaced it with the original spec. sender and electric gauge. I didn't even have to meddle with any wiring because the original bits of loom were still there, though "your mileage may vary" on that. Senders are easy to get, original type gauges less so but have a hunt around.

It wouldn't exactly "spray" oil unless it was very thin. But with the head removed it's an 8mm bore hose and the oil flows fast enough for filling purposes.

For filling diffs and gearboxes I have an old "killaspray" hand-pumped pressurised weed killer sprayer, missing its nozzle assembly. Poke the hose in the filler hole, pump the pressure up, when the oil level is correct pull the pressure relief valve.

It may just be the photo but it looks to me that the disc isn't quite centred on the shaft - sitting a fraction high - which would possibly cause the problem.

The form and photos can be done by email, too. My premium is higher than yours, @Mashby, but it covers three cars, two of which have agreed value of £14-15K

Not necessarily as the spark may be too weak. It's much easier to get a spark in fresh air than it is once under some compression, so a weak HT can appear to give a spark with the plug visible but not actually do so where it matters. However... Are the plugs getting wet as you crank? If you take one out shortly after failing to start, does it look moist? And does the exhaust smell of petrol?

I've seen both styles. The "all-in-one" is probably a late version to reduce production costs, while increasing repair costs because it forces you to replace everything at once, although that's often not a bad idea. The earlier distributors (certainly all 25D types but some 45D too) had the separate bits with connectors.

You need to run through the standard tests, as described on a couple of recent threads here. - pull a plug, clamp it to somewhere grounded (rocker stud?) and check if there's a spark on it when you crank over - If not, try with the disi end of the king lead held (not by hand!) half a centimetre from the rocker stud. - If no spark there, try touching an earth wire to the coil -ve, which should produce a spark - If the coil is working, try opening and closing the points by hand (plastic rod!) to see if there's a spark then

Sorry, started to say that in an edit. It should be similar to the one on the condenser but, I think, not quite identical. The edges have some shape and you want the crimped bits not to clash. However, short of buying a correct new wire, you can probably get away with any eyelet of the right internal diameter.

Yes. I think it should have a very similar thin brass eyelet on the end of the wire.

It looks to be designed to work the same way as the original hub, so I'd expect the same nut tightening spec, which is along the lines of "pinch it up finger tight then back off until you can put the split pin through".