Darren Groves

Does anyone know if the company selling Ribble Kits are still trading? Website is still there www.sammio.co.uk but landline number has an out of service tone and mobile goes straight to voicemail. Darren

Thanks for the replies. My brakes are actually pretty good on my Herald, I have a set of NOS pads at the moment, so it stops well. The discussion about improving brakes comes up regularly but I never see anyone recommending transplanting the set-up from a Vitesse, so thought I'd ask the question. Cheers

Is there any benefit to fitting Vitesse front brakes to a Herald? Is it just a matter of swapping the upright, disc & caliper?

So in the absence of finding a way of calculating what needed skimming off the head to achieve the desired CR, I went to my usual Engine Reconditioner (Willbore in Bideford) who I know pretty well. He started by skimming off 0.020", I remeasured the cc of Chamber, then had another 0.015" off, remeasured then a final 0.010" and that reduced it to 33cc, that gives me a CR of 9.6:1 so very pleased that job is done.

Just do a search for EP90 GL4 on Ebay, loads of it on there. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xep90+GL4&_nkw=ep90+GL4&_sacat=0

Really? There's more to being in a club than being disappointed that you didn't get a window sticker. I think the tax disc idea was an excellent one.

Used an Aldon Ignitor for over 10 years, fit & forget. Would steer clear of the cheaper units, they're cheap for a reason.

Forgot about those articles, will dig them out to read. Chamber volume was measured using a flat piece of glass, a 50ml syringe filled with anti-freeze (for colour purposes), filled chamber carefully and subtracted what was left from 50. I done it 6 times, got 38ml 4 times 37ml & 39ml once each. I've found 2 other online calculators, both give results of 8.62:1, so a little lower than the first but not so much. I did get a response from the supplier of the camshaft, they recommend 9.5:1, using that figure I need to reduce the combustion chamber volume down from 38cc to 33/34cc

Thanks for the the replies. It's a Newman camshaft and along with the larger valves was recommended by one of the well known (and I believe well thought of) Triumph traders, I asked for their recommendations on both items, just to provide a little more power/torque from standard, nothing drastic, just to make more drivable. I didn't ask and they didn't volunteer if there should be a change to the CR from standard, so I can't be too critical of them. They probably assumed I knew what I was doing.... So say I decide on what the CR should be, it will be pretty easy to find out what the CC of the chamber should be to achieve it, but not so on how to calculate the amount that needs machining off the head to achieve it....any ideas? Thanks

Thanks for the reply Clive. All UK Spitfire's seem to be 9:1. Sorry, more questions! How do I get to know what the most suitable CR is for the engine? Also is there a way of calculating what needs skimming off the head to reach a target figure or will I just have to skim in stages and recalculate each time? What info will I need to calculate a dynamic CR? Thanks again.

As the car's coming off the road for some bodywork, I thought I'd take the opportunity to get the head off again to remove all the carbon deposits that is causing the engine to run on, as mentioned in my post from August. As you can see from the pictures below it's got pretty choked up in the 4k miles or so since I last took the head off. So I know why my car runs on, but not really why I get carbon build up so quickly and to the extent I do, given that Gunson Colourtune & Gastester & Plug Colour always indicate mixture is good. I swapped to hotter plugs BPR5ES (Yes 'R' as I'm running Megajolt), but probably too late as the car was pretty choked up already, so to start I will use these from day 1 when all back together. I will also check the cam timing once again (3rd time), just to be 100% sure it's spot on. One thing I didn't do when building the engine was check the compression ratio as my little brain couldn't work out how to calculate manually, however I have since found an online calculator to do all the hard stuff for me - http://www.summitracing.com/expertadviceandnews/calcsandtools/compression-calculator, so I got all the measurements I needed and it worked out at 8.72:1 So not far off the standard 8.5:1 it should be, so I'm assuming this is perfectly acceptable? Any thoughts? I am planning a rolling road session when the car's back together to fine tune the Megajolt and see what needles I need for the SU's (currently AAR, but have been on AAQ for the most part). So any thoughts or ideas are welcomed as to the carbon build up? Happy new year to all!

Nobody forced them to have one. I'm sure they're a decent bunch of guys, but advertising at one price then charging at a higher one is bad business practice.

Nothing charming about paying more than you were expecting.....if they don't have the know-how or inclination to get the website updated or correct, then take it down.

Website includes VAT, even at the higher price they are still a bit cheaper. I only phoned rather than ordered online so I could get a few bits that weren't listed on the website.

Just a little warning to anyone ordering from TD Fitchett and using their website to check prices, as there are several items which are incorrect. I have recently ordered a number of parts from them over the phone, didn't bother asking the price as I'd checked the website that morning, only to have spent about £25.00 more than I expected. Just a couple of examples: Herald/Vitesse Rear Wheel Arch Repair Panels (Link) Website Price: £19.50 Price Paid: £26.50 O/E Head Gasket (Link) Website Price: £9.00 Price Paid: £19.50 I did then check their advert in the Courier and that is the same as what I paid, I checked a few other items as well, some were the same but many were different. I'm sure many people check the traders websites to compare prices rather than printed adverts/brochures, so just be careful when ordering!. They were closed today so couldn't speak to them.

Look in this months Courier Magazine or click here, this is how I added a second temperature sensor to my 13/60, very simple to do.

Further to Steve's post I also used the Demisteman and can confirm service and product were both very good. I shouldn't bother with changing the fan to the VW Golf one as it actually spins in the wrong direction, so it's pushing air the wrong way. I currently have one I my Herald, no improvement to airflow inside the car even at top speed. I keep meaning to check out a Micra fan, but haven't got round to it yet.

A 1968 Herald would have had the smaller tank, doing a swap to a larger tank is easy. I wrote an article on it a couple of years ago, you can see it here: http://triumphherald1360.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/fuel-tank.html

It'll be GB150805 and yes it's a correct gearbox for a 13/60, the reverse switch looks home made. http://www.wolfitt.com/numbers_and_ratios.htm

I bought some of the Trico ones and didn't find them much better than the Tex ones all the traders sell, though they do look better as that's what was originally fitted. I think the problem is that the arms don't apply enough pressure and allow the blades to skim across the surface and miss areas. In 17 years of Triumph ownership I've never been happy with how the wipers work. To back up what Mike says, I have always found parts purchased from the Club Shop to be of good quality or at least the best quality that is available and therein lies the problem, some parts are just not great regardless of where you buy them from!

I opted for these little 9w LED's, reasonably unobtrusive and very bright.

Yes.....though I can't remember exact figures as it was a few years back, but voltage was down around 10% at the back of the headlamp compared to the battery reading. To me it's a no-brainer if you want the headlights to work at their best. As said in my earlier post, I noticed more of a difference in brightness when I fitted relays to the halogen lights than I did when I converted to halogen from OE. You will also extend the life of the switches. I can't think of a downside to fitting them, unless originality is a deciding factor.

Anyone tried this supplier for Synchro Rings http://r.ebay.com/UQlf1A they claim to be of superior quality.

Thanks for the replies. Pete - I did test the above, all locked nicely with a good air gap between, which was the main reason for fitting it without doing any work. Think I'll buy up any OE synchro rings I come across and take everything up to Mike Papworth.

Further to my recent post about fitting an OD Gearbox of unknown condition, it did turn out to have a couple of weak synchro rings. As all the new stuff around is of dubious quality I have bought some OE used items, so my question is how to you identify a good one from a not so good one? Or is it a matter of trial and error?