KevinR

Simon, If its an original starter, which it sounds as if it is, then if it spins then the motor is likely all right. What you have is probably the most common problem with the Lucas inertial starters, the bendix mechanism is simply gummed up with crud so that the rotation inertia does no shove it into the flywheel ring gear. The fix is simple, remove the starter and clean the shaft and everything related to it and the bendix end with your favorite solvent and dry it thoroughly. Normal health and safety warnings apply to the use of solvents - don breathe them in, work in a well ventilated area and no naked flames or sparks or other sources of ignition. Do not lubricate it with any kind of oil or grease, it is the accumulated grease and oil that attracted the dirt that created all that crud in the first place. If you really feel you need some "lubrication", then some graphite powder (ground/crushed pencil lead) can be used. Reinstall the starter and all should be OK again.

You could even make up your own design to look like the old disc, and print it to show the current expiry date of your (hopefully) free car tax.

Love it !!!

Paper copy gets my vote too, and once read it goes into my collection, which goes back to the 1st Courier. I've also got the DVD archive, but I don't use it. When I need to refer to an old article I go to the book shelf and read the relevant magazine - post-it notes and book marks don't stick to a PDF very well !!!

The same cam bearings as fitted to the MKIII and early MKIV Spitfire can be fitted, and then you can use a genuine Spit MKIII / Early MKIV camshaft, which is a well respected camshaft that gives a good compromise of performance, economy and driveability.

Original thread deleted by the moderators after consultation with the original poster. It would appear that the posting was a joke perpetrated by a friend of theirs.

Barry, Quite a few people have them stashed in their garages (or lofts) but are unlikely to want to part with them unless there is a significant quantity of beer tokens involved. They do occasionally come up on ebay - expect to pay between £100 and £150 when one does. The GT6/Vitesse ones are much more common, as all GT6 and Vitesse gearboxes were fitted with them - but they don't fit a 4pot engine so they are no good for your needs.

You must never pour antifreeze, or antifreeze contaminated water down a normal rainwater drain is it will either end up in a soak away, or go directly to a river or outeh water course, and contaminate it and poison the fish and other wild life. Pouring a very small quantity down the toilet and flushing it with plenty of water will at least mean that it ends up being "processed" in a water treatment works before being discharged into the river network - still not great, but a thousand times better than down a rainwater drain ! Try asking what your local garage does, or as Mike suggests, ask at your local municipal recycling centre. I would also add, KEEP IT AWAY FROM PETS and other animals and birds. It has a sweet taste which most animals love, but it is poisonous, and destroys their kidneys.

In case anyone is wondering where their November Courier is? There has been a problem with one of the machines at the publishers and it is a few days late, thank you for your patience. http://www.tssc.org.uk/tssc/news_final.asp?news_ID=47

Pete, You need to be a member of the TSSC to log-in to the main TSSC website to get the details from the classified ads. You can join the forum and be a "member" of the forum without being a TSSC Club member. If a non TSSC Club member wants to get in touch with a classified advertiser, then just ask the HQ to pass on your details to the relevant advertiser. For Data protection purposes they will not release the information the other way around. Kevin

It could also be bad seating of the glass in the lift channel - especially if the glass has been replaced at any time in the life of the car. It could also be a problem with the lift channel. If all the panel gaps are good, then it shouldnt be a problem with the bulkhead itself leaning back - unless the panel gaps have been fixed by fitting a new door skin.

The TSSC Club Shop sell Inertia Reel seatbelts suitable for a Vitesse. Give Garth a call on 01858 434424 Discount if you are a Club member.

Photos are best posted in the Gallery, and then linked into your postings on the forum. There is no real size limit on the photos posted in the gallery, and you can post as many as you want. Photos posted directly to the forum have an individual size limit of 500Kb, and you are limited to no more than 500Kb of photos total, so just one 500Kb photo will put you at your limit. Linking photos from the gallery is explained in these threads - http://forum.tssc.org.uk/index.php?/topic/47-picture-display/ and http://forum.tssc.org.uk/index.php?/topic/11-picture-size/

There are effectively two types of fuel pump - those with short arms and those with long arms. The long arms stick out much further than the short arms. The short arm ones will physically fit with a spacer, but then the arm is too far away from the lobe on the cam to operate properly. The long arm ones normally will not fit unless a spacer is used - if you do manage to fit one without a spacer, and then run the engine the lobe on the cam will apply too much pressure on the arm and it will break the arm off. So long arm pumps are used with a spacer, and short arm pumps are used without a spacer. The studs need to be longer when using a spacer. The advantage of using a long arm pump (with a spacer) is that the spacer thermally insulates the pump from the engine block, which reduces the heat transfer from the block to the pump and onwards into the fuel, so the fuel arriving at the carbs is slightly cooler, which in turn makes the engine very slightly more efficient. I use short arm pumps as I have old rebuildable ones that I only have to recondition with a repair kit every few years.

The range of needles available for SU carbs is much bigger than the range available for Stromberg's. The Stromberg carb is technically better than an SU, but an SU is easier to tune - which may be important if you want to play with your engine performance to get the best from it. There are also many more people who understand how to tune an SU compared to those who know how to tune a Stromberg.

They should not be necessary if the brakes have been setup properly.

The list of file types that can be posted to the gallery is : gif, png, jpg, jpeg, tiff, flv, f4v, mp4, mov, m4a, m4v, 3gp, avi, wmv, mpg, mpeg, mkv I suspect that this is another default setting that the forum software provides. I am very suprised that TIFF files can be posted, as TIFF files can be crafted to contain a virus payload, and simply opening such a file can infect your computer and infect all the TIFF files on it. The file type that is missing from this list is a BMP file, which is a very inefficient file storage format, with files sizes out of all proportion to the contents, so in my opinion has been quite correctly ommited from the list of allowable file types. BMP files have no compression what so ever, so take up huge amounts of server disc storage, and more importantly take a long time to down load, so anyone posting BMP files will slow down the viewing experience of anyone tyring to view one - and we have had complaints about slow server response and downloads in the past, and we do not want to go back there again. BMP files are very easy to convert to JPGs using Windows Paint - and there are apps for the iPad and Android tablets to do the same.

I've had a look around some of the help files, and it would appear that the gallery will allow the majority of popular image types to be posted, plus some I have never heard off. The list of file types that can be posted to the gallery is : gif, png, jpg, jpeg, tiff, flv, f4v, mp4, mov, m4a, m4v, 3gp, avi, wmv, mpg, mpeg, mkv I suspect that this is another default setting that the forum software provides. I am very suprised that TIFF files can be posted, as TIFF files can be crafted to contain a virus payload, and simply opening such a file can infect your computer and infect all the TIFF files on it. The file type that is missing from this list is a BMP file, which is a very inefficient file storage format, with files sizes out of all proportion to the contents, so in my opinion has been quite correctly ommited from the list of allowable file types. BMP files have no compression what so ever, so take up huge amounts of server disc storage, and more importantly take a long time to down load, so anyone posting BMP files will slow down the viewing experience of anyone tyring to view one - and we have had complaints about slow server response and downloads in the past, and we do not want to go back there again. BMP files are very easy to convert to JPGs using Windows Paint - and there are apps for the iPad and Android tablets to do the same.

Interesting bit about colour. I haven't seen any IAT antifreeze that isn't blue / green in more than 20 years, and I've never seen any OAT stuff that isn't red, orange or purple.

Normal old fashioned blue/green stuff, 30 to 50% mix

The usual advice is to just run the car on unleaded fuel and monitor the valve clearances, and if they keep closing up then bite the bullet and get the head converted. Try googling the subject - try "Lead Memory" for starters. http://www.canleyclassics.com/?xhtml=xhtml/infodatabase/unleaded.html&xsl=infodatabase.xsl

Without removing the cylinder head it is very difficult to tell if the head has been converted or not - without waiting a long time and measuring the valve clearances to see if they are closing up with time. If you have an endoscope, you may be able to examine the exhaust valve seats via the sparkplug holes, or via the exhaust ports on the head.

We've not had time to get together to discuss it yet, but we should do soon.

1.4mb is luxury, mine varies from 300kb to 1.1mb on a good day !

Although there isnt a "cancel" quote button immediately available, you can simply highlight and then delete all the quoted text and the quote box dissapears.