johny

Ha hes not wrong when you think about driving a car thats 50 years old with 10 times as many other road users and a spear inches from your heart for a steering column!

I like my Triumph cos its different from my modern and as long as its not too unsafe (its definitely not as safe but is within what I find acceptable) Im happy to do without power anything....

Has anyone noticed increased pedal travel after fitting a servo?

What 14" tyre sizes would you recommend Mr Scrapman?

Ive had silver minilites on mine for years now (cant remember where I got them now) and the only problem was corrosion under the laquer appearing within months. They were part painted and part clear laquered so I sent them back and they were painted all over under warranty. Since then theyve lasted really well so I dont know why the manufacturer made them with the laquered part in the first place....

Great let us know how you get on...

try driving it on normal fuel to see if it runs without pinking (rattling sound in engine on accelerating from low revs). If ok you could just use a lead substitute additive to protect the valve seats if theyre not the hardened type and youre going to do longer, high speed driving. If pinking is a problem you'll need to either retard the ignition timing (losing a bit of power), use higher octane (RON) fuel or an octane booster (this last option comes in a combined lead additive).

Ive been looking at Powertune remote servos on ebay recently for my Vitesse as the price keeps coming down, now 75pounds delivered. Theres a few things thats putting me off: location as the engine bay doesnt lend itself to fitting a servo, I think there could be increased brake pedal travel with a servo, loss of brake 'feeling' and more chance of locking the wheels up (need ABS but that would be a bigger modification!), reports of people having problems with these servos.....

as youll be jacking the car up to do this you can also check for wear in the trunnions. Your looking for play between the steel threaded of the upright and the brass trunnion (as well as the plastic cross bolt bushes while your at it) which could be excessive if grease has been used instead of oil. You might need some sort of lever to check for wobble and/or up - down movement in the trunnion....

will you try just the hoses so, out of interest, we can positively identify the problem or just do everything at once while the system is drained?

Oh and I always go for the cheapest tyres I can find as I drive sedately, in good weather and my suspension is really old fashioned

Yes they certainly fit the rims but as I'm still running 165/80 (bigger overall diameter) at the moment can't confirm body clearance. However I'm not expecting any problems......

The steering flexible coupling is a potential safety critical weak point but you raise an interesting point about replacing stuff that many people dont consider: The bath tub curve. This is a graph that describes the statistical failure rate of a item and unsurprisingly forms a bath shape in that there tends to be a lot of failures at the start of its usage. Then as time passes the failure rate reduces and stays lower until the end of its life when the number of failures increases again. All this means that there is a certain risk when you replace any component that you are removing something that is in the lowest stage of the curve and returning to the start with a much higher risk of failure. This higher risk includes, as in Marks case, incorrect installation or it can be a defect in the new component itself from design, quality or manufacturing issues. Its something thats taken very seriously in industry and we should consider because quite often the risk of an item failing can be, paradoxically, greater if we replace it!

hmmm Id argue steering shouldnt be iffy or the petrol system or tyres or...... best replace it all😁

one step at a time - theres no learning opportunity in just throwing money at it🤗

5.5 x 13 minilites on my Vitesse with 165/80 tyres although will probably be forced to fit 175/70 in the near future as the others are getting hard to find. Note that the overall diameter is bigger than standard so the engine revs are less and the speedo reads a little low. Also the wider you go the heavier the steering gets at slow speeds....

yes there should be a section on top of the fuel tank that connects its outlet to a long pipe that drops down through the boot floor and along the underside of the car...

hmmm our cars tend to be a bit lighter than equivalent moderns which normally list 30 psi tyre pressures so for me thats a bit too hard and I find with wider tyres than the originals I can get away with more comfortable lower settings.....

If you remove the calipers again and then push the pistons out using the brake pedal - put something between the pistons and do this very carefully or theyll come out too far and youll have fluid everywhere! You can then assess the condition of the pistons to see if theyre useable and whether it wouldnt be better to do as I did and just get exchange calipers.....

Mann filters have a great site for looking up different filters and using the required thread the best I can find is a W77. This seems to have all the same characteristics as the normal spin on item (including non return and bypass valves) but is only 59mm in length. Its also used on a couple of Maserati car models (as well as the Fiat Cinquecento before you get too excited)..... https://catalog.mann-filter.com/EU/eng/catalog/MANN-FILTER Katalog Europa/Oil Filter/W 77

well the manual shows different pressures but in general the front have a lower pressure than the back with the MK1 showing 22 front 26 rear for that size of tyre. I go with what it shows for the MK2 which is 24 back and front.....

that pressure reading is in bar right not psi?

Gary I assume its a single line system so are the back brakes locked on as well? If so as Pete says it could be master cylinder but if its only the front then its more likely to be a caliper problem possibly the pistons arent returning because the new pads have pushed them back further and now corrosion on them is making them stick?

get my Fram spin-ons from careuroparts at 2.63 delivered (including the usual discount code)

each to their own🤗