NonMember

I have an air-powered nibbler - same principle as the one Tony referenced but all-in-one and more compact than an electric drill. It works superbly up to about 14 gauge. Beyond that, I'd probably use my air-powered saw, something like https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/8034592023?iid=362772308262&chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=362772308262&targetid=877508928879&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9044887&poi=&campaignid=9441210654&mkgroupid=95524605733&rlsatarget=aud-629407026905:pla-877508928879&abcId=1139356&merchantid=138359096&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtLT1BRD9ARIsAMH3BtV4YB9CGAT4Ki291DGAvqxl2by-n7Zf5K5Jk0z53MVfjqs_pfoIo6kaAoq6EALw_wcB

Yes, definitely another case of "improved to be worse".

Is the parcel shelf different between Mk1 and Mk3? I don't recall whether the top on mine was a loose flap or attached at both sides.

No, the sender is definitely incompatible. It's far more likely that nobody supplies non-stabilised senders any more, although it's possible the screw terminals are for non-stabilised and spade connectors for stabilised.

One of the times that Herald needed the RAC was a half-shaft UJ failure on the roundabout of J2 of the M6 - ironically within sight of the RAC headquarters. In the half a minute it took us to confirm the fault and look far a nearby phone box (this was before everyone had mobiles) a police Range Rover turned up. They actually phoned the incident through to the RAC for us and declared it a "police priority" needing a tow truck. The RAC still sent a transit first and took over three hours to get something appropriate on the scene.

As Pete says, try it and see. My 2L Vitesse has a 7/8 slave because the clutch throw with a 1" was a tiny bit marginal but - again, as Pete says - I'm probably compensating for wear in all the fork pins and pivots.

Like Adrian, I have a Spitfire hardtop that needs new lining, so put me down too. Absolutely no hurry as I'm unlikely to do anything with it until I've sorted the Vitesse.

If the fuel line is disconnected at both ends, a good blast of compressed air will shift most of it. Don't try that if it's still connected to the tank!

I'm another one with my classics insured through Peter James but never had to use the breakdown cover yet. I do also have AA for the modern, which I've used once, the day I got the cover. Had it not been a Sunday evening in the middle of winter and two hours drive from home, I'd have just bought a new battery. SMWBO has breakdown cover for her car but the only time she's "broken down" (OK, flat tyre) she was close enough to home that she rang me and I put the spare on for her. My past experience with the RAC was poor. Herald with a snapped vertical link, right on a junction, reported as such and with a comment that it needed a "lift type tow truck". They sent (after an hour) a guy in an Astra van. He took one look, said "that needs a spec lift" and called base. He helpfully stayed around with his yellow lights flashing, as we didn't have hazards. Another hour later, a flat bed truck turned up. Driver took one look, turned to the first driver and said "I bet you asked for a spec lift. I wish they'd $&%ing told me that!" That wasn't an isolated case - the RAC seemed to follow that pattern every time.

There are, I believe, two gear sets for the J-type. The most common one, which was OE for late Spitfires, is so close to the D-type that you wouldn't notice. However, some (later?) 2000 range got what is known as the "27%" version - gearing of 0.787. Maybe that's what you've got.

Overall gearing of a non-OD GT6 with 3.27 diff was 20.15mph/1000RPM according to the WSM. With overdrive added, ratio of 0.802 for D-type, this becomes 25.12mph. At 2800RPM that translates to 70.3mph, as Ian said.

I think that obscure electrical section reference translates as 1/8" NPT. The usual situation with pipe threads would be that the male thread (the switch) is tapered while the female (the block) isn't. All of mine have adapters in place (T-pieces for gauges) but all three are the same thread on all ports, and I'm fairly sure they're to that convention. Edit: Apparently the taper-on-male-only convention is a BSP thing and doesn't apply to NPT, which would mean the thread in the block should be tapered. Hmm...

I boiled the fluid in my recently acquired first car (Vitesse saloon) on the way back from my first TSSC meet in Basingstoke, back in 1988. Tonking along at a fair pace on a country A-road, went to slow for a bend and... pedal to floor, no resistance, no effect. Fortunately I wasn't really pushing the speed and was able to round the bend on-throttle, but I did the rest of that journey much slower and having to pump the brakes any time I wanted to stop. Being young, naive and unaware of the limited life of DOT4, I actually replaced most of the braking system (master cylinder, all pipes, all hoses) before driving it again. Flushing and refilling with fresh fluid would almost certainly have been enough.

Agree with Colin, it sounds much more like fuel than ignition. And with YS - timing can be a way off and it'll still run. I once drove a Stag home from TRGB with the ignition set wrong by nearly 40 degrees!

I've* also run 1000A through a bit of copper pipe with water running through, but at only 12V so any voltage drop mattered! These days we generally don't bother to water cool as we find 400A is enough. * OK, technically it was my brother who ran it, I just designed the electronics at the front end.

The frame - especially the front rail that the vinyl is glued to - will be rusted very badly. However you must not dispose of it! They're not available, so your expert Britax sunroof restorer will need it as a pattern and to rescue the bits he can't fabricate.

I do not believe this to be the case. I believe the same gear cluster was used with or without overdrive, certainly on the small car gearbox. There were differences between 3-synchro and 4-synchro gears, and I think between Spitfire and GT6, possibly between 3-rail and single-rail, but not for OD fitment. The GT6 WSM gives the number of teeth on the input shaft as 19, and on the 3rd gear as 22, with corresponding countershaft gears as 26 and 24. This makes the 3rd gear ratio 26/19*22/24=1.2544 while the D-type O/D is quoted as 0.802 (I believe the J-type is 0.797). This means that 3rd-OD would be 1.006 (D-type) or 0.9997 (J-type) - both might as well be 1:1 The standard GT6 diff was 3.27:1 without OD and 3.89:1 with... on most models. There were exceptions both ways and special order options. If you plug those figures and the standard 155/13 tyres into MintyLamb, the OD-top figure is 21mph/1000RPM while the non-OD with longer diff gives a little over 20. So there's a small difference in overall gearing between 4th in a non-OD car and 4th-OD, the same difference for 3rd. The raio from 3rd to 4th is the same for both.

There have been several claims that the resistance of copper is a constant. While this is true of pseudo-crystalline pure copper, that's not what wire is made of. High quality wire has better copper than cheap nasty stuff, and far less corrosion than 50-year-old Triumph wiring. Defects in the atomic lattice or even alloyed other metals will affect the resistivity, usually adversely.

Yes, although not working at that point may mean faulty solenoid or it could be that it's not correctly earthed. A second wire from the solenoid body to battery negative will distinguish between.

I built myself a DIY pit jack out of some steel box section and a couple of scissor jacks. It's not nearly as good as a really proper one but it lifts and supports my Vitesse absolutely fine.

My GT6 got a Heritage bonnet when it was restored in 2001. I don't know whether MW did any extensive fettling but as far as I can see it fits perfectly - much better than the rebuilt original bonnet on my Spitfire.

I think I'd try to (carefully) grind/drill out most (not all!) of the remaining banjo to leave a thin bit of thread, then Pete's hacksaw blade, if required, will have much less work to do. Also, the remnant will be easier to pick out if it's thin enough to flex. My Vitesse has a rubber hose bypassing the inlet manifold - done by a previous owner - to avoid the issue.

The professional (expert) trimmer who fitted my Spitfire's interior cut those wheel arch vinyl pieces and sewed them up to shape. It's a neat job but I don't think the originals had the stitched seam.

No, technically, the weighing scales are a force measurement device, so they do actually measure your weight. Unfortunately, they then display it in units of mass, since that's they intrinsic characteristic of your body that is independent of local gravity.

When I did my Spitfire, we decided to do the sills first, then the floors. We had previously done one the other way round. I don't recall now why we changed. In either case, and for most bodywork repairs, my general advice is to remove as little as possible at any one time. Having the remains of the old sills in place will help you locate the floor pans correctly. Do take account, though, of the issue of accessibility for removing the old inner sill ends once your nice new floors are in. Some parts of the bulkhead and A-post live behind the outer sill, so you will have to fix them while the outer sill is off. They probably are best done first, as the bottom of the A-post (where it butts into the footwell) is the primary structure to which the sill attaches. The bits higher up, including the box section where the door hinges attach, can be done later, if needed.