Roger K

You had me excited there - the 5Jx13 wheels must be the rarest wheels on the planet! I've found several 5.5Jx13 wheels with the required 16mm offset, but I can't find the later 1500 wheels anywhere. I see that your LP wheels do not have the Dunlop logo next to the 957. I'd think they are 957s made by someone else to Dunlop spec - subcontractor, maybe?

My distant memory tells me I had the same issues in the early seventies with my Vitesse, and possibly in the eighties with my first GT6. Working on this thing is dredging up stuff from my dim, distant past... I can't see the thickness of a shim washer will make much difference. I'm fitting new TREs anyway so will need to get the tracking gauges out.

Just been out fiddling... on my car the brake dust shield doesn't fit between the steering arm and the upright. The steering arm fits through the 'square' hole on the inside of the upright casting, and locates on the two lower bolts. The dust shield locates outboard of the upright, on the hub side. I've put a thin washer on each bolt, between the upright and the steering arm, which have spaced it back from the upright enough to seat properly. I don't want to grind the metal in this area unless absolutely necessary.

Ooops, thanks Colin

I'm attaching my old steering arms to new vertical links. There are two bolts, one that threads into the steering arm and another that has a bolt with a nut on the end. The steering arm doesn't seem to sit quite right against the vertical link, rocking slightly - should there be a shim/washer between the steering arm and vertical link where the bolt with the nut on the end goes through?

Thanks Doug, that's really helpful. That's the same servo that my car has now, mounted in the same position. I have the clip on the chassis as well so should be able to sort something similar out.

Thanks Colin - yes, I have that. It's pipe 30(9?)766 that I'm not sure about - I'd like to see a photo of that and how/where it comes down the bulkhead. My car has no clips on the servo pipes either, so not sure where to put them. It's complicated because it's a replacement servo which I know is different to the original, but I'd like to get the pipes the same where they go down the bulkhead at least. If I could see how they went on an original I can make up something similar.

Does anyone have photos of the brake pipe routing for the front of a late RHD GT6 Mk3 with factory fitted servo? I'm particularly interested in the pipe that comes from the end of the servo cylinder and goes down the front of the bulkhead to the top of the chassis, then goes forwards to the 3-way union just behind the suspension upright, all on the LHS. Thanks, Roger

I know - got myself tied right up in knots on this one! It wouldn't even have crossed my mind if the new Bastuck stud hadn't snapped on me before reaching specified torque. I've decided to test a couple more new studs to way over torque to see what happens (but not use them subsequently!). I have a long-standing and well-founded distrust of modern reproduction parts. Unfortunately the original studs on my hubs, though not broken, are so badly bent I struggle to get the wheels on over them, and the nuts sit at some strange angles. The new rear stud that broke was mounted in a new Bastuck rear hub supplied by the biggest supplier.

That makes complete sense - but these are shouldered bolts and the spanner size does not really relate to the diameter of the nut where it contacts the wheel, i.e. where all the work is being done. The original bolts are 16.5mm in the narrower working diameter, whereas the TR6 bolts, designed to work with the bigger 7/16 studs, are 20.5mm. This is quite a big difference. The original, 16.5mm bolts, are fixing over the 7/16 stud (11mm approx.). This means the wall thickness is only 2.25mm in the highly-stressed area. If I could use the TR6 nut, designed for the 7/16 stud, it would have a wall thickness of 4.75mm, which is what Triumph designed to work with the larger stud. I'm not sure halving that thickness is a good idea. And I can't use the bigger nuts if I want to retain the chrome trims on steel wheels, as it is the conical nut that locates the wheel on the hub. Re-machining the cone on the nuts to fit the smaller wheels would result in a knife-edge to the end of the thread, which I'm also not comfortable with (quite apart from trying to machine an accurate 60˚ taper!). Sorry, making a bit of a meal of this! Why can't these people make decent reproduction parts? On a side issue, there's a great article in the Courier that's just arrived about cross-matching parts from other manufacturers. One suggestion that I strongly advise you not to follow is that Mini wiper wheelboxes are the same as ours, so those can be fitted. Please, only use NOS, if you can find them - the wiper wheelboxes currently sold by all the Mini specialists are complete rubbish. Only buy these if you feel confident that 8 almost-invisible splines are enough to retain a wiper blade. I had new boxes on my Cooper S for a rally in Europe a couple of years back, and they failed completely after 10 minutes of light rain. Rain-X, a drill and self-taps (thereby trashing my wiper arms) were the only way to complete the next week. I asked for replacements, which were exactly the same. The suppliers response to my complaint was 'sorry, but they are a very good price....'

If I'm going to be able to use the correct GT6 chrome centres, I have to use the original-style wheelnuts with the shoulder and plastic washer. I doubt I could get those in 12mm. 12mm is slightly wider than 7/16" anyway. I never use those for wheelnuts. It's not so much the tightening torque, it's the forces on the nut in service. Probably over-thinking it.

Pretty sure they were using cheap Russian steel by then...

I've had another rethink on this. Having machined down a stud to fit nicely in the hub, I've drilled and tapped a wheel nut to 7/16 UNF. I'm not sure it's really going to be strong enough - I've measured the thread outside diameter and the overall diameter of the wheel nut, and the wheel nut wall thickness is around 2.5mm. They don't seem to be made of the highest quality steel, either, being very soft to machine. I really want to keep the chrome wheel centres, so I'm leaning towards the originals again...

N reg?? Boy, they took a while to shift that one...

I think with the run-out cars they just stuck that ratio in all of them, actually. Sure I read that somewhere...

My last late MkIII GT6 (post KE20000) was an overdrive car and had a 3.27 diff. It was only 6 yrs old when I bought it from the original owner, and had not been modified.

The beauty of them is that they are all different and will be hidden in different places. The downside is that any crook with a basic knowledge of car electrics should soon be able to suss it out, but they have to know that they are looking for something, not just bad at starting temperamental old cars!

As Johny said. I've checked it through full travel. I'll report back further when I get it all together again and can check for camber and castor.

It should be, as far as I can see. The bolt is designed to hold the structure together, not to pivot. The spherical bearing allows full range of movement of the vertical link - I've checked with a mock-up. Thanks for the comments! I've been doing it a long time...

My Vitesse 2-litre MkI (named syphilis - work it out) was nicked one night in South London in 1976. They pushed it down the road, but couldn't get it to start as I had a hidden switch shorting the coil to earth. When I recovered it I didn't have the keys, but my mate had the keys to his Mini. Every single one (of 3) worked in the door and the ignition.

Those'll be McGard, I'd think.

10, Pete

Brief update: I bolted up the trunnionless 'trunnion' to the lower wishbone, then attached the shock absorber mount to ensure fit was correct and placed the 'trunnion' in position so the flat sides were parallel to the lower wishbone. I then ran a weld along each side at the top, and a couple on the underside. I'll have the bolt in there as well, but I think this'll do the job neatly. Photo, in etch primer.

Just a brief update - I managed to get an incomplete QH kit on ebay so could compare the parts with Rimmer's and Canley's modern repros. Here is a photo of the inner washer, that fits behind the top hat to face outwards and hold the rubber ring. You may draw your own conclusions....

...so not an 1850 'box then. Hmmm - must be worth a fortune, it's obviously rare. Or very little, 'cos it's a lash-up...