Alan C

Hi Everyone My Lincon vintage look battery has finally given up the ghost. The voltage has dropped to 10.35V after fully charging it and leaving it disconnected overnight. What are the current thoughts on the best period looking battery for a GT6? I'm not after a modern unit so that will limit my options somewhat. Cheers Alan

Pete I have the box and overdrive from a saloon fitted. I fitted it in the late 80's in lieu of upgrading the engine. Although it's a snug fit it only requires a very minimal amount of surgery on the chassis rails. I've no regrets and no worries about it not coping with the 2.5l tuned six pot the car now has. Alan

Hi Alarman 49 Sorry I'm a bit late to this thread. My GT6Mk3 has never had side or radiator valances fitted in the last 29years and I've had no problem with engine cooling. I'd partly disagree about upgrades-if they're done in conjunction with other mods then wothwhile gains can be made. I find the main advantage to K&Ns is that they literally last a lifetime. The filter element is cleanable with the special K&N fluid. So over the piece they work out cheaper than the standard units. Short stub pipes can easily be fitted-I've had them since I bought the K&Ns. I'd also disagree with the idea that an electric rad fan is not worthwhile. If this was the case we'd still see engine driven fans on cars today. Remember that today's driving is a completely different experience to that which was normal when our cars were built. There's much more stop/start motoring now and modern fuels tend to make engines run hotter. I've gone the whole hog and fitted a thermostatically controlled electric water pump as well. I've been glad of this combo on more than one occassion when stuck in long queues at the end of car shows. I've never suffered overheating unlike many of my peers in their standard cars. I've also fitted a thermostatically controlled oil cooler-similar to the ones fitted in later Mk3s. I realise that the GT6 has a more marginal cooling system than probably any other Triumph. Fitting a larger engine into what is essentially a Spitfire was always going to be a bit iffy with the limited space under the bonnet. So any help that can be given must surely be a good thing. Cheers Alan

Hi Everyone My GT6 has been running with a big saloon J-Type overdrive equipped gearbox for the last 25 years. It's still has excellent gear selection and the overdrive operates without hesitation. The only slight niggle has been that it has an audible whine at speed. I have changed the oil regularly, partly because the overdrive likes to leak all over the exhaust. Now I realise that ultimately I will have to remove the gearbox and have both problems fixed as part of a rebuild but that's still a long way off. Can anyone recommend a heavier oil or additive that would reduce the whine in the interim. Just being a bit lazy for once. Cheers Alan

Andy Under no circumstances should you tow a wire wheel equipped car from the rear. It's not an old wives tale about the spinners loosening and the wheels eventually falling off. If you look at a standard spinner the ears are offset from each other. There's a good reason for this-as the wheel rotates forward the spinner ears ensure that the point on the edge of the spinner that "hits" the hub moves backwards on each rotation-effectively tightening it. This is the real genius of the Rudge Design. To see this work, take a key ring and rotate it slowly one way around your finger. You will notice that on each rotation the point on your finger that the ring hits moves back in the opposite direction. So you can see how the spinners will eventually loosen if rotated in the wrong direction. There have been instances, allegedly, of cars having there spinners fitted so that the tightening direction is opposite to forward motion with predictably disasterous results. You should actually loosen and then tighten the eared spinners every month or so to avoid them overtightening. Cheers Alan

Hi Everyone Just spotted this for sale on Ebay:;- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-GT6-MK1-convertible-1967-engine-chassis-totally-rebuilt-4-final-assembly-/321857559118?hash=item4af0349a4e Seems a bit steep for a hybrid that's still got a lot of work to do and has to be picked up in France to boot! Cheers Alan ​

Hi john Thanks for the info. I've got 1 mm steel in the garage so that's that problem solved . Luckily the rusty section is only single curvature so fabrication shouldn't be to onerous . I'm going to include a drain hole so that this doesn't happen again. Cheers Alan

Hi Everyone I need to weld in a repair patch on the GT6's boot flloor where it meets the driver's side rear wing. Can someone tell me the gauge of steel for the job. The passenger side is solid and has a large drain hole whereas the driver's side does not. I suspect water has gathered as a result and caused the damage. The rust is in the curved section just before the flloor takes a 90 degree bend up to the spare wheel well. This 'll be a good repair for me to rekindle my welding skills after three decades away from Technical College. Cheers Alan

John Why didn't. I I think of disconnecting the multiplug! I was soldering all around it. Oh well you can't be bright all of the time. Alan

Andy I've just upgraded my GT6 with a 16 way fusebox. In hindsight a 20 way would have been ideal. Like John I've amended the standard wiring diagram to show where all the new fuses go. I'll post links to them when I get back from holiday. I used soldered bullet connections throughout and cheated with the wiring by using an old TR loom to maintain the correct colour coding. Splitting the circuits up fully will require some contorsionism behind the dashboard if you are going to attempt this with the loom in situ Splitting the green (ignition controlled) and red(secondary lighting) circuits,requires sticking the soldering bolt deep inside the dash. With care it can be done. There's no way you'll get a crimping tool into the space. Finally the quality of glass fuses is suspect to say the least. Much better with the modern blade fuses. Good luck, it's well worth the effort. Cheers Alan

Hag I've just replaced the fusebox on my GT6 with an Autosparks 16 way box. A very worthwhile upgrade. I checked the current draw on each of the major components with a DC clamp meter. My electric fan and water pump draw 13A. You only need to size the supply cable to cope with the running current not the startup current. The spike at switch on is termed the mag inrush current. It only lasts for a few milliseconds and does.not cause any damage to the cable insulation. Power it via a relay as.has been suggested and power the headlights through one as well while you're at it. The master light switch isn't really up to the job and will cause dim headlights after a while. Cheers Alan

David I've had these problems in the past. I'm not familiar with the Herald's horn wiring but if it's like the GT6's there will be a relay on the bulkhead. This means you'll have to run both a + & - feed direct from the battery in order to test the horn. If this works it would point to a dodgy earth as John has said. Alternatively you could swap the horns over and see if that works. I discovered to my surprise that my GT6 had only one functioning horn and I'd never noticed it for years. It only came to light when I removed them for blasting and painting. The horn was duff but the new one refused to work until a new earth lead was fitted. So you may have a duff horn and earth combined. It's probably even more important for our cars to have fully working horns due to their rather small stature and the amount of morons driving on the roads today. I'm not certain but I think it's an MOT requirement to have a working low and high tone horn. Although I seem to have got away with it for several years! Cheers Alan

John Thanks for the info. What you've described is actually what I've already done. I used a period Lucas relay situated on the RHS of the battery box. Handily there are two holes drilled in the side of the box which match the relay mounting bracket. It seems Triumph we're expecting to have to mount at least one extra relay at some point. Or it could be to accomodate the horn relay on LHD cars. The master light switch now only acts as the relay control and direct feed for the sidelights. Strangely both wiring diagrams I have show a purple lead going to the dip switch from the middle fuse. This looks to all intents and purposes like a separate supply for the main beam. There definitely isn't one there in reality. Doubly confusing is the fact that there is a purple wire with a connector under the steering column. After much head scratching I discovered it's for the ignition courtesy light This is where the wiring diagrams show a double connector and a supply to the main beam. It's the right wire gauge for the it but perhaps Triumph decided it was cheaper to omit it and hopefully no one would notice. It just means that I now have a spare fuse which can be used to sub divide another circuit. The top candidate for this is the radiator fan and water pump manual override plus the anti run on valve. They're piggied onto the heated rear screen at the moment. The logic behind this was if it's hot then you need the cooling system at maximum and obviously no requirement for the heated screen. Not sure how sound that logic is but now we'll never know. I've also successfully fitted the windscreen recess drain pipes-photos to follow eventually! Cheers Alan

Hi Everyone I'm just finishing off a fuse box upgrade which will increase the number of fuses from 3 to 16. I've come across a slight snag with the headlights. I've wired the dip beam through a relay controlled by a 20A fuse. I ran a separate circuit for the main beam but it looks like the main and dip beam have one and the same supply, at least on my car. Both the workshop and Haynes Manuals seem to show a separate supply. Has anyone come across this before? I'm going to dismantle the column switch and see if it's possible to separate the two. Cheers Alan

Hi Everyone Has anyone got a photo of an original jack for a GT6 Mk3? When I bought the car in 1986 there was a jack in the boot but I've never been able to find out if it was the correct one for the car. Cheers Alan

Well I'm making slow progress with the drain pipes. Currently on the mk3 version:- Mk1 was done using the flanged kunifer clutch pipe and Two pack epoxy JB weld to hold it in place. This initially looked just the job until I tried fitting the flexible pipe and it just fell apart. Mk2 was with the same pipe in conjunction with a brazing torch. All this achieved was me setting fire to the surrounding masking tape. I don't think this is a viable option for anything other than as part of a much larger repair- an option for you Jon. The intense heat generated will almost certainly damage the exposed dashboard top.not to mention the bulkhead paintwork. Mk3 was with the flanged pipe brazed onto a rectangular steel collar. This assembly will be offered up to the underside of the windscreen recess and riveted on from above. The area around the drain hole will be 'sculpted' and sealed with JB Weld. I'm hoping this will form a profile like a sink waste and increase the catchment area. Anyway loads of photos to follow once I've finished the job. Cheers for now Alan

Another update. I've tried making a drain pipe with larger bore clutch pipe. Using my flaring kit and then a drift and hammer produced a sizeable thin flange which would be more than adequate for the job in hand. I'll post all the photos if this turns out to be a success. Cheers Alan

John Blame Michelotti, being Italian he has an inbred love of all things rusty! The windscreen recess seems an unnecessary complication where a flat windscreen mounting with the seal sitting proud would avoid this hassle-your Spitfire Mk3 for instance. Another rust trap is the rear hatch recess-again with no drain holes. I might look to modify this if the windscreen drain holes prove successful. Cheers Alan

John This is getting spooky! I've just come in from the garage after looking at flaring a piece of brake pipe. It looks like a definite possibility. I think forming a recess around the hole is the key to ensuring the drain is at the lowest point. A brake union could be temporarily fitted under the flare and it could then be hammered flat while the pipe is clamped in a vice. This should increase the size of the flare and also reduce it's thickness. Unfortunately this will all be delayed due to an impending French ski trip. Cheers Alan

John I've been thinking about the drain holes again and may have come up with a solution. Drill a hole large enough to pass the pipe through from the top and then form a recess all the way around the edge, similar to a sink drain recess. You would need to source a steel or brass pipe with a flange on the end. This flange would sit in the recess with a silicone seal between the mating surfaces. The flange could then be contoured using something like JB Weld. You could even pre-fit a flexible tube to the end of the pipe before it is inserted through the hole. This tube could be routed into the engine bulkhead via one of the wiring loom holes. Simples! We'll not quite, I need to source a small bore pipe with a thin flange. Any ideas fellow Forumites? Cheers Alan

John I've thought about doing the very same thing. Although the logistics of fitting drain holes and a pipe underneath each one seems extremely difficult without taking out half the dashboard. This has already turned into a 'right said Fred' job so I'm loathe to make it any bigger. Has anyone else attempted this before? Doug Taking the windscreen out is the only way to go. A new seal is only £25. Compare this to the many hours I wasted trying to fit the strips with the windscreen in situ and it's a no brainer. You'll be amazed how much crud collects in the windscreen recess. I used a Stanley knife to cut the screen out from the seal. This allows you to lift the screen out single handedly. The seal remaining on the.surround can then be pulled off . I'm now at the stage of sanding down the filler I ran along the recess. I also found that a thin bladed screwdriver finished off the top rail repair very nicely. My next problem is matching the paint in the rattle can to the scuttle. Cheers Alan

Latest update in the stainless steel trim saga-despite having both "special tools"(thanks Doug) I only succeeded in mangling the windscreen seal. So I've now removed the windscreen, which is an easy job if you're binning the existing seal. I'm now glad I did since there was a lot of rust hiding under the seal on the lower part of the windscreen recess. It was especially bad in the lower corners-a natural water trap. So after a session with the Dremel and jenolite it was looking much better. I also took the opportunity to clean out the area between the top of the seal and the roof seam-another notorious rust spot on the GT6. I'll post some photos once I've finished-whenever that happens! It started out as a small repair to the screen surround and changing the stainless trim for a better one. Cheers Alan

Henry I completed a full rear suspension rebuild last year with new rotoflex couplings, UJs and wheel bearings. I didn't have access to a spring lifter but did discover a trick to help in the reassembly which might be useful to you. Getting the spring eye bolt mount and corresponding upper hub bolt mount to line up is extremely difficult even with the spring retained in it's original tensioned position. After many failed attempts to get the two of them to line up, I decided to try again with a piece of hardwood between the top of the rotoflex coupling and the underside of the leaf spring. This acts as a pivot point when you jack up the driveshaft from under the brake drum. The outer driveshaft will swing up when the wood makes contact with the leaf spring and the two bolt mounts magically line up. I took two days of struggling to fit one bolt and then only half an hour to fit the other side using this method. One of the dreaded lower hub bolts was the reason I carried out the rebuild. It had started to sound like a creaky door when driving. I discovered that the other hub had a stainless steel insert fitted which meant you could pull that bolt out by hand. Has anyone else come across this mod? I also had grease nipples fitted to both hubs to try and keep the new bolts well lubricated. I ran a hackaw blade through the hub bolt hole at the same point as the nipple hole. This will form a channel for the grease to travel along. I fitted the cheaper £50 QH rotofex couplings. The last ones, also QH, were still in good nick after 10 years of service. I have to agree that the ever increasing price of these couplings might make me consider the CV conversion next time around. Cheers Alan

Driver's side sag at the rear is most likely caused by the rear leaf spring loosing it's strength. After all the driver's side is always "fully loaded" during every journey, unlike the passenger side. This was the case on my GT6 when I first bought it 28 years ago. Changing it for a new one cured the problem. The big advantage you have is that the Spitfire is not 'blessed' with the rotoflex suspension set-up as my GT6 was. So replacement is very straight forward by comparison, Swapping the spring around will only transfer the sag to the passenger side. This would however comfirm that the culprit is indeed the spring. Cheers Alan

Henry I've come a bit late to this thread but thought a reply worthwhile. I fitted the chassis brackets for exactly the same reason as Cookie. My wife was driving the GT6 to work at the time, when the driver's side upper shock mount disintegrated. I wasn't even allowed to make a joke about uneven weight distribution. Anyway I ended up removing both bump stops and fitting the chassis extension brackets. This was many years ago so at the time the Spax shockers were the preferred choice. I set them to the mid setting and have never had any bottoming out problems. Last year I carried out a full rear suspension rebuild. My car has the rotoflex set-up. The Spax units were still in excellent condition so I refitted them. I did however replace all the transverse spring rubber buttons which certainly improved things somewhat, even though the old ones looked OK. I also discovered that one of the lower hub carrier bolt mounts had been sleeved with stainless steel. Resulting in the dreaded bolt virtually sliding out on disassembly- what a bonus! Has anyone else come across this mod before. Unfortunately the other side bolt was rather more resistant. I ended up fitting grease nipples to both hub carriers so hopefully this will stop any future seizure of the bolts in their carriers. Finally I discovered a trick to aligning the transverse spring bolt mount with the top of the hub carrier bolt mount- Place a piece of hardwood between the top rotoflex coupling and the underside of the transverse leaf spring, before jacking up the hub carrier. I didn't have a spring lifter so used a combination of a trolley jack and large crowbar attached to the spring with two D shackles. Jack up the leaf spring to the vertical position. Then jack up the hub carrier and the wood insert makes the hub carrier pivot at the rotoflex coupling and hey presto the two bolt mounts mounts line up. Sorry if this went a bit off topic but I thought the last bit was worth sharing. Cheers Alan