Graham C

Happy birthday, she is catching me up. Get her on the road before she needs a zimmer frame. Graham

Colin, for nuts, washers and bolts I generally go to engineering suppliers they seem quite happy to supply very small quantities. Generally I buy six if I only need 1 or 2 then I put the spares into stock for next time. Cheaper than motor factors, halford, etc. as well. I have been in these places when someone from a small workshop is ordering stock for a job and they may only ask for a couple items. For example of cost I was after 10 mm studding to make and secure boards to make concrete wall capping, 3 mtr for £3 while B and Q over £2 for a mtr. And they are very helpful with good advice. Graham

I did think about a hole and also an external magnetic around the bell housing but I not sure whether the nut had actually fallen into the bell housing as I did not see it fall. I am surprised that it took some time for the thread to drift. Anyway for £15 pounds I have a useful tool for looking into those hard to see dark spaces such as under floor boards when feeding cables. Graham

Last weekend when tightening all the bolts around the bell housing after fitting the gearbox in a GT6 I drop a nut that was going onto one of the top studs, not hearing it drop the floor I suspected it had dropped into the bell housing though the clutch lever opening. I spent Sunday night attempting to convince myself this had not happened and failed miserably. So to avoid separating the prop shaft, gearbox and engine I thought though various options. End up searching Amazon for an endoscope found a wireless one that links to an iphone for £15, brought it. This Sunday spent a few minutes searching the inside of the bell housing though the starter motor opening found the nut and with the magnetic attachment pulled the nut out. Very impressed and saved me a few hours of fruitless work. So this weekend this cheap endoscope is my favourite tool in my garage. Graham

I have now shut the bunker door. ☺️ Graham

I believe the original service requirement for oil changes was every 6 months (6000miles), Colin I can't remember the need for oil flushes but then I serviced the car myself. So garages may have carried them out but from 1984 to 90's my Spitfire ( x reg, 1981) was an every day car in the 90's I was driving 30 miles a day to work at various speeds up to 70 plus. So at the end of the day just change the oil regularly. Remember these engines are based in the 1940/50 designs not like modern ones. Graham

When I was running my Spitfire 1500 as an everyday motor during the 80/90s I use to change the oil (20/50 oil) twice a year including the filter (approx 10000 miles per yr). I just went and got Wilko' s best. I am afraid that engine is still going strong even though it is not doing the same mileage. The important thing is changing the oil regularly. I can't believe our car are doing the same mileage now as everyday motors. So my advice is what ever you buy then change the oil regularly. In addition now a days it is the trend to add flushes to the oil prior to look changes. Did not happen in the 80/90s. So to my mind why spend lots of money on expenses oils if the car sites in a garage and not moving. If doing 10000 or 1000 miles then just select the oil you need. Remember if the car does not move the oil is in the sump. Posted a similar comment on the old web site, and got shot down so just off the the bunker. Graham

Hello Mark Very good pictures, what camera and len do you use? Graham

The basket frame is clipped between the tabs on the rear of the frame so it slot into the gap then held by two brackets on the front of the seat base that curl round the frame. Hope that helps. Graham

Hello Further progress has been made in that I have design a support plate to hold the gearbox/overdrive in place to the chassis. See pictures below Basically I had originally thought I could just install a Spitfire 1500 gb mounting plate but it soon became obvious that the gb sat further back and the chassis rails would not allow the plate to slide/fit further back. So I decided to extend the plate as shown, the extension is 2 mm thick steel with the edges folded up (12 mm fold) to provide extra strength, in addition I had a reinforcing plate attached underneath it to provide further support this was in 4 mm steel. the width of the extension is 98 mm to fit between the rails, and 70 mm long. this is in addition to the extension plate being fully welded to the 1500 plate. Upon fitting it I found that the od filter was sitting on the 1500 plate fold so I had to cut and bend that flat that part of the plate flat as can be seen from the picture of the painted plate. The advantage of using the 1500 plate is that two of the original holes line up with the chassis bolt hols so that helps with alignment and getting the gearbox central. I had to drill 2 extra holes in the plate and chassis so the plate is held by 4 bolts near the pivot point, further 2 holes for the od mounting bracket (taken from the Spitfire 1500). Measurement taken to ensure things were central. The next job was shortening the prop shaft as said below the GT6 shorten prop shaft is too long, I measure the gap between the diff and gb flanges as 880 mm, so had the shaft shorten/balanced so the slide was in the middle of its movement allowing for a bit of movement either way. Just over an 25 mm was taken off, as I think Colin suggested.The shortening /balancing came to £84 and was turned around in a day. (Wilson Drive shaft, Nottingham, they did seem use to these odd jobs so were very helpful.) Fitting of the gb was as normal, I believe the part of the gearbox I ground off to allow extra movement of the clutch lever may not have been required, better to have done this out of the car rather once installed if it was required. The fitting of the prop shaft and completion was done yesterday but i have not driven the car yet to see if it all works OK as the battery was flat. Annoyingly I had to take the exhaust off to get access to the bolts securing the mounting plate and snapped an exhaust stud, so need to sort that out. Have applied heat but still will not move. I have not driven the car yet as the battery was flat. One problem I can see with the design of the plate is that od filter housing is covered by the plate and it means the mounting plate needs removing to service the od filter. May redesign the mounting plate another day. Graham

As I was fill my gearbox with halford GL 4 80/90 thought after reading the start of the thread,oh well it will be a good flush. Now the lAter replies makes me think that's OK. Graham

OK, oh well. Hope your solution works well. At the end of the it has to fit you. Just one word ensure the tunnel carpet can fit around your solution. Graham

Hello Adrian I have done a simple drawing of what I meant about bending the foot of the footrest, you then can attahc the footrest to the tunnel with it own screws/bolts. Graham footrest.pdf

Hello Adrian Sorry I may not have used the correct word, by flange I meant the larger foot that has two holes to secure the footrest, why not bend that so it fits on the curve, ratherther than flat. Graham

Hello Adrian Why did you not bend the front flange of the footrest so it would fit around the curve of the bell housing? Was there any reason? Graham

Actually it was a good question as I had thought long and hard about capping the tube. Above was simply my thought process, Hopefully this article will help others. Graham

I had my Spit 1500 gearbox and OD rebuilt by Mike Papworth a few years ago and cost me £800 from memory. If you need a new clutch I have a spare Borg and Berg one for sale. Graham

Just some information I forgot to post is the the selector shaft extends 32mm out of the gearbox and the length of the splinters pin at the end is 18mm so I used a tube with a thick wall tube approx 3mm with an internal bore of approx 20/21 mm. The gentleman doing the welding did have to bore out the tube very slightly due to it being slightly off centre. Advantage of aluminium, the split pin scored the tube when we tested it and a quick whizz with a drill and a very small flap wheel. Graham

Hello Richard In my research over numerous years people have advise you need a tube, obviously the shaft passes through open space so can collect contamination which may cause problems. I capped the tube for the same reason as it was close to the clutch lever slot in the bell housing. Basically that was an easy weld for the workshop I would rather do it now rather than latter. I have looked at the Spit 1500 parts manual and it does not show any o rings, I assume that because it would be located above the oil level and only affected by splashed oil. In addition the Dolly and also the Spit 1500 bell housing has the selector shaft fully recess close off from the clutch area. I intend posting more pictures as and when I progress. I had hoped to fit the gearbox last weekend but I had ordered the wrong clutch - I do not know why possible confusion on my part of the web site. Hopefully the picture will help others I have to admit that the gearbox and overdrive are untested, purchased from e bay approx 10 years ago when I had this idea. So it will be interesting driving the car for the first time. No major noises when turned by hand, can select all gears and the magnet did not have any bits of metal. So fingers crossed for that part. Graham

Hello I have now started work on this project, I will not cover the remove of the gerbox as this is detailed elsewhere, the differences in the single and three rail are shown below As you can see the single rail LHS is taller and you have the selector shaft protruding through, inaddition covered by the red gasket to the RHS of the selector shaft is another shaft. As discussed previously the selector shaft impacts the GT6 bell housing which requires altering. You can see the selector shaft to the side of the clutch lever opening. Above shows the hole which was drilled and filed out, as you can see the selector shaft comes out close to the clutch lever which will need adjusting. I had an aluminium tube cut and welded in the hole, this tube was closed off with a blanking plate which was welded onto the tube. This is the tube being held in place. The tube was tack welded into position while the bell housing was attached to the gearbox and later fully welded up when seperated. Inaddition a small plate was welded next to the tube to hold the other shaft. I used super steel to fill any gaps between the tube and the bell housing to ensure a good seal. As I pointed out earlier the clutch lever had to be alter this was a simple task of taking a bit out of the side and re curving the edge back and welding. As well as that I noticed that the clutch lever was catching the top flange of the gearbox which I decided to cut off to ensure the clutch could move through its ful range of movement. I thought it was better now than when in the car. You will noticed I also removed part of theside of the lever. The next move is to re fit the gearbox, my intial thought was to use a 1500 gearbox support plate however due to the chassis (limitations in surface to bolt the support plate) and the extra length of the overdrive this is not possible. I am thinking of having a plate made to enable the plate to be bolted in positon but extended between the chassis rails to support the gearbox. I will provide updates as I progress. Hopefullybthe pictures will reamin in position. Graham

Hello Adrian As promised a picture which is similar to yours, hopefully it will help. If there is a difference in the tunnels may be hte best is to set the footrest in a position that is comfortable to you.

Hello Adrian Right then I think I have spotted the problem the feet of the foot rest, with the two hole actually is located on the curve of the tunnel not the flat so the flat you have is bent at 90. So be 110 degrees Approx if looked from above. Graham

Hello Adrian I will get some similar measurement/ pictures as your pictures tomorrow evening I wonder whether the budge on your tunnel is shorter. Just out of interest have you actually fitted the tunnel in the car to see if it fits? Graham

Hello Adrian I have measured my footrest and have the same as yours. My pictures show approx 3/4 to an 1 gap between foot rest and inside edge of tunnel ( not bulk head side) Let me know what measurement you want off the tunnel to compare tunnels? Graham

It is a GT6 tunnel. Graham