Htiek

Similar to Pete's installation I opted for removing the battery mounting brackets and moved them as far over as I could. No need to reduce the size of battery. Really pleased with the reduction in pedal effort. Cheers, Keith

Thanks for the replies chaps. I've tried epoxy glue on it tonight. It is currently setting under a cunning array of old speaker magnets acting as a clamp. Hopefully it will take a hold. I think a new badge would look 'too new' if you know what I mean ? I'll keep an eye out for one with some miles on it! Cheers, Keith

A long shot I know, but if anyone has one of these in any condition I would be interested. On mine the graphic plate has become detached from the backing plate and I doubt it will repair well.... Thanks, Keith

Aha! Thanks chaps, makes sense. I suppose they must have been missing from my car when I got it. Cheers, Keith

Good Evening, The Vitesse is close to being all back together but I have come across two new parts in bags that I cannot identify. They are 630755 A-post P seals. I can find mention of them on Rimmers, Paddocks etc.websites but no real clue as to how exactly they were fitted. I don't see them listed in my parts book either. I can't say that I recall removing them during the strip down either, but that was a few years ago now.? Any advice gratefully received! Cheers, Keith

Thanks Richard, I think that confirms that the CV shafts do not need the 'fat' spacer (red arrow) that was used on the original shafts but just the usual shims and spacer rings (green arrow). Just waiting on new wheel bearings then I can do a 'dry' assembly and measure required shims/spacers. Cheers, Keith

Oops, premature posting, ctrl + enter does not put in a blank line! Richard, Could I impose on you to compare the length I have measured in the photo below and see if it is somewhere close to your original parts? I don't think that the 148850 will be required but it would be nice to know for sure. Adrian, It would be great to get to HQ for the Triumph fettling day but it's a wee bitty ower far doon the road as we say up here! Cheers, Keith

Evening Chaps, Offside dismantled tonight and no sign of damage. Bearings are possibly fine but as I ordered 2 sets I think I'll change them anyway.

Hi Richard, That's a very kind offer, thanks. It would be good to see a photo of an original driveshaft with the 148850 spacer fitted. My CV conversion kit was from Rimmer Bros but I think it is the same as the Canley version. The description on their site sounds exactly the same anyhow. Is this the same kit you have? -Keith

Home made spring lifter worked well. As you can see I ended up supporting it on the road wheel. Perhaps not the best way but the height was perfect. I ended up removing the whole vertical link after I saw the amount of shrapnel that was in there The spacer ring has shattered into many pieces. Looking at the driveshaft I am now wondering if the large spacer (I think it is part No. 148850 in the attached drawing) should be fitted to the driveshaft? I thought the new shafts were machined to include this spacer distance...maybe not? I don't have my old rotoflex driveshafts to compare with now unfortunately. It is a concern that it all seemed to go together OK with what looked like the correct amount of end-float but within 50 miles has failed dramatically. I can only assume that something loosened off allowing the shaft to wallop back and forth destroying the spacer ring. New wheel bearings on order, I'll hold off on ordering the spacers until I can get an accurate measurement of distance required. -Keith

A mate managed to come up with some thick wall box section and flat bar. An hour or so and we've welded up a rough approximation of the spring lifting bar shown in the workshop manual. I'll have a go at attacking the upright tomorrow evening. -Keith

Thanks again Adrian. I also got sent a link to ebay, someone on there is re-manufacturing them in various thicknesses. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=152483&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xtriumph+152483.TRS0&_nkw=triumph+152483&_sacat=0

Thanks again Adrian. A new problem I hadn't expected is that the 'usual' suppliers are all showing the bearing spacer (152483 to 152487) to be no longer available. I'll have to cast the net further or possibly look at having some made. Hey-ho...

Thanks Adrian, you've confirmed what I was thinking ☹ I don't have a spring lifting bar so was hoping there was a way to avoid disconnecting the vertical link. Did you manage without using one? I will admit to using ratchet straps when I assembled the suspension but at the rolling chassis stage, access was a lot easier. Cheers, Keith

Well, my Vitesse passed its MOT with a couple of advisories: Binding front calipers and rear wheel bearing play getting excessive. I made a start investigating the rear wheel bearings. I had gone to some trouble fitting and shimming new bearings at the same time as converting from Rotoflex donuts to CV driveshafts, so was surprised that they were a problem. Anyhow, I pulled the nearside hub only to reveal the shattered remains of the spacer ring and some mangled shims, hopefully you can make these out in the attached photo. It looks like I must have got something fairly catastrophically wrong during assembly. The next step is to remove the driveshaft to find the rest of the spacer ring and probably replace the bearings. The driveshaft conversion were fitted when at the rolling chassis stage and now I am a bit baffled as to how to remove them with the body in place. I have it unbolted from the diff but can see no way to manoeuvre it past the diff to withdraw it from the vertical link. Can anyone out there who has done this conversion point me in the right direction for taking a shaft out? I am hoping it is not necessary to disassemble the vertical link from the car in order to proceed but it is looking increasingly likely If anyone has any suggestions as to what is likely to have gone wrong and caused the damage, I would love to hear them too. Cheers, Keith

Thanks all for your replies. DJN you are correct. On closer inspection I can see that the float bowls are different on both carbs. The mounting to the carb body is lower down the side of the bowl on the rear carb compensating for the engine angle. The float bowl covers appear identical and both covers have the same casting number. As suggested by Pete and Richard, I have been in touch with Burlen and obtained a couple of 'Stay Up' floats. These arrived in Bonnie Scotland the very next day, a very impressive service. I fitted them today and set the float heights as per their instructions. Things look encouraging, car is running and the petrol is staying in the float chambers.... so far! Thanks again, Keith

For reasons best known to the DPO my Vitesse has been fitted with, what I believe to be, the manifold and SU HS4 carbs from a 2000 saloon or similar. Now being at the stage of coaxing the beast back to life, I managed to get her started briefly until the rear carb dumping fuel out of the float chamber overflow stopped play. Tonight I whipped off the float chamber lids to clean out the needle valve assemblies. Now, up until now, I have only ever worked on one carb at a time but, as there looked to be no danger of mixing up the front and rear assemblies as their fuel pipe arrangements are different, I had both on the bench side by side. As you can see from the photos the float heights are significantly different front to rear. The front float is the one with the extra hole close to the pivot pin. Apart from this hole all the other dimensions seem to match the rear float. The needle valve and its seat also are identical which only leaves the cover castings / pivot point. As an experiment I swapped the floats over and the heights remain the same. So... Does anyone know if float height should be different front to rear? I could see no way of adjusting the float height on these plastic floats. Does anyone know differently? Is this discrepancy in float height anything to be worried about? Cheers, Keith

Having just done this job last week, I can pass on what worked for me. As Pete says, the clips are too closed up. I opened mine up by knocking them over the end of a large flat screwdriver, the taper opened them up nicely. Prying them off the screwdriver occasionally had them pinging all over the garage though! I put a dollop of blu-tack in the hook portion of the tool. This held the clips quite securely and let me manoeuvre them into position. Then, as per Pete's method, make sure it is 'started' over the rubber, one hand pushing down on the seal and pull up on the tool with the other. Not the most pleasant of jobs but, once I had found the 'technique', it went reasonably smoothly. The inner window glass 'brush' clips are a lot easier to fit than the outer seal thankfully. Keith

The holes in the mystery bracket do indeed appear to match the spring cover plate fixing screws. Millboard mounting bracket looks to be the answer. Guess I'll have to paint it red now! Thanks again for all the replies. Cheers, Keith

Many thanks for all the replies. The bracket for the boot millboard has started some vague bell-ringing. I'll be back to the garage tomorrow evening so will check if that's its home. Cheers, Keith

Vitesse Mk2 convertible... Found this bit on the removed parts shelf tonight and,rather worryingly, I can't remember where it came from! I've had a flick through the parts book but couldn't say I saw a likely candidate. Does anyone recognise it? Cheers, Keith

I've been avoiding the garage for a few weeks but have finally kicked myself into action again and had another go at the bootlid. Here is an update to this post. Bill, there may well be some tub spread involved. I temporarily hung the passenger door and it does look to protrude a bit at the bottom. I gave the boot aperture a scare with some bits of fencepost, scissors jack and a ratchet strap and the boot lid now passes between the rear wings. The panel gaps are not perfect but I feel if I strive for perfection this project will never move on Many thanks to all who posted, it is really much appreciated. Cheers, Keith