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Yes, it does, hence the stupid tight lock. 🙄

The bottom plate of the pivot box serves to clamp the bottom leaf into the slot in the diff. It's actually supposed to have a tiny clearance from the upper faces so that the spring leaf is properly clamped.

Certainly plausible - I've had them fail quicker than that once or twice.

Sounds like a disi problem - as Pete said, electronic or points?

Additives shouldn't make it cloudy. Could it be contaminated? Water in it?

I don't think so. It's a standard RH thread on an engine that runs clockwise (viewed from front). This is necessary because early engines had a crank handle fitting on the nut, so the act of hand cranking would tighten it, not loosen.

I believe your figures are mistaken, John. The temperature of the aluminium frame needs to be kept down to about 150C but the forward surfaces reach nearly 1650C during re-entry. By my reckoning that makes the temperature difference almost double what you quote. (Not that it makes all that much difference to the point about a thin wrap of tape)

Around Enfield - Moordale Motors in Potters Bar really know their Triumphs and will give good advice.

Fixed in a fairly loose manner - I realise I may have implied more. As Gary said, it's fixed low down, plus front (to the frame) and back (to the deck) so that it can fold away when down but get pulled straight when up.

I assume you mean the 40mm^2 or 12.7mm OD size? 40mm OD would be huge!

I used to get that in the GT6. It's less noticeable now that I've fitted a decent gearbox cover - my feet are now a little on the cool side.

Those side parts of the hood are fixed to the body, I think under/by the studs for the tonneau cover poppers but I'd need to go check. It's definitely not a case of how the fabric is attached "when erected" - it's a permanent attachment that remains when stowed.

What gearbox did you have in the Vitesse? The clutch plate on the left looks like a fine-spline Dolomite 1850 one, which would be a common fit on a Vitesse with an "uprated" gearbox using Dolomite internals (it's not quite that simple but pretty close) which was a common mod at one time. My Vitesse is like that, as is my GT6. I would expect a 2500 saloon clutch to be much more like the TR one in your right hand photo.

That sounds like a phenominally complex and difficult approach to a problem that's far easier to fix with a diff swap.

That tends to happen if the gearbox oil is old, or the filter in the OD unit is clogged. It's worth giving that a good clean while it's out of the car.

No, of course it doesn't. Have you seen how stupid the full lock is? The front wheels are pointing sideways! So when you remember that this is a rear-wheel-drive car, you're trying to push the tyres off their sidewalls, and unsurprisingly they resist. That's why you need extra throttle. It's perfectly normal. Just don't use full lock.

They're obviously lazy thieves, as they stole it from Verey Close, not Farah Way.

I'm sure Pete's right - it sounds mechanical and rattly - but why does it only happen when hot?

That is not universally true at all. In fact it's the closed time that's likely to be odd, in "closed loop" dwell types (which may well appear S/C on Pete's test because the bulb isn't enough load). Most of the cheap / cheerful ones are still fixed dwell and work very much like points. There are very good reasons NOT to stretch the closed time (which a pulsed open time implies) if you aren't doing closed loop dwell.

I actually can't remember when I fitted the Lumenition to the GT6 but it was at least 20 years ago. The only problem it's ever given me was when somebody disconnected the pickup harness and didn't re-connect it well enough. However, the Vitesse's one was disconnected by the PO, presumably due to a fault, and I've been running it on points for the last 20 years with no problems. (As a random aside, I made reference to that in my first published short story, "Girl on a Bike", in the "Ghosts and Demons" anthology.)

The standard 1300 Spitfire exhaust manifold is the same part as the Herald 13/60 one, so there's no "twin carb"ness about the exhaust manifold. If a 4-2-1 manifold fits a Spitfire then it should fit a 13/60 (the chassis is also the same in the critical area). It probably doesn't have the support / heat transfer casting for the inlet manifold to attach to but then most tubular manifolds don't have the ones for the twin carb manifold either (and a lot of cars out there don't have them attached anyway).

Yes, well... as I said, in the early 1990s I concluded that Castrol GTX was no good for Triumphs, Duckhams Q being far better, so I wouldn't regard "as good as it always was" as a recommendation for Castrol.

I've not tried that particular oil but Millers are generally good, and the Penrite 20W60 definitely gives better pressure (and longevity) than any of the 20/50 oils I've tried. I don't recall what oil @cliff.b is currently using - Castrol Classic? Personally I haven't used any oil sold as "Castrol" since the early 1990s when I concluded that all of the Triumphs I had at the time ran far better on Duckhams.

Those hoses are too short. This isn't uncommon. The GT6/Vitesse arrangement stresses the hoses less but on the Spitfire/Herald you do need extra long hoses for full lock, and they end up being rather floppy at the other extreme of lock. Many suppliers just make them too short.

I'd only tried a couple of oils but ones that I've never had any trouble with in the Vitesse or GT6. It definitely seems to last better since adding the cooler (including doing both the Round Britain and the Coast to Coast). Of course it's possible the issues were related to that engine having sat in a barn for a couple of decades, and all I'm really seeing is the contamination being exhausted, but I do get better pressure after an enthusiastic drive than I did before.