Peter Truman

Pete how do you wire it in to stop both right and left flashing simultaneously if you connect to both lines to get a beep if either direction operated, a diode?

Always flinch when I watch Wheeler D'er's as they reuse the rusty old Nylock nuts, ironically when I buy Nylocs their cheaper in bulk than std nuts & UNF Nylocs nowadays appear easier to obtain than std nuts?

From memory don't just check the hole thro the M/S adapter as suggested by Pete but check it's extension into the pump housing the water channel at this point is very narrow and there could be a deposit build up fromthe extension of the adapter end.

Used to do the same re avgas/mix on the daughters Dolly Sprint in the early 90's, a friend filled his 2500PI up with avgas the injector metering unit leaked it all on the floor overnight, appears the rebuilt metering unit seals were not suitable for avgas, he was a tight ar*e and still complains about us recommending avgas to him to this day!

Matthew I had trouble on the Mk2 Spit with the thicker section window rubber, not fitting the plastic chrome trim but I couldn't get the hood front strip to fit under the windscreen Aluminum header, i had to pack the header off the frame a little with washers to get an adequate clearance, there's Denso tape between the header and windscreen frame to seal from water now!

I believe the tech term for the black or white sealant is "potting mix" a two part epoxy of some sort Danfoss supplied it for our buried flow meters when joining the instrument elect wires to cubical cabling to seal the connections in the terminal box usually rated to say 6mts water submerged use, can't remember the ISO std number. I still have a couple of sachets I picked up eons ago, used it on the swimming pool lighting connection terminal box's in the pool coping.

For Stroms I have different thickness Al washers to fit under the needle valves to help adjust the float height cut off, but for the SU just a thin one like Pete suggests.

I’d just refurbished a set of what I believed to be type 14’s ex Escort as that was all that was available here, fortunately they mount on the Spit vertical links ok and fit the disc’s too. They we’re a bit of a gamble but at $60 plus new pistons/seals a good deal.

I had to revert to a grease gun the compressor didn’t develop enough pressure the grease. Was easily cleaned out of the calipers piping and piston/bores. I thought type 14’s had 4 bolts holding the two halves together, type 12 had 2 bolts, I stand to be corrected.

I used a S/S turnbuckle from the cable balastrade type I had to shorten the female threaded ends a little and the U shaped brackets at the male ends had to have one lug cut off to mount onto the pump bolt and the alternator to get it short enough but it works a treat easy adjustment and looks smart Brought the turnbuckle from Bunnings here about 5 quid

Some cartoons re the current increase worldwide re petrol prices, sent to our local club members here in Melbourne.

On the daughters Mk2 Spit I made my own Al shields one for each carb and mounted them on the back on the manifold to carb flange, the reason so I can remove the shields to improve access to the engine bay without interfering with the carbs. It reqd the flange studs to be removed and the holes threaded right thro the flange & replacing the studs with threaded bar. The reason I fitted heat shields was Fuel Vapourissues.

Hope alls well and you get sorted soon Re car I’ve always taken the g/box tunnel out but I also have the engine bay shrouds in two sections each side so it’s quick to remove the rear section so it comes out too. Every time I do it I think why didn’t Triumph put studs in the bell housing so all I had to do was undo the nuts and slide the starter in or off! Think yourself lucky my Sprint has 3 mounting bolts one you can see and easily undo/refit the second can be seen but is a bu@@@r to get to and the third can neither be seen or get onto without lunch long extension bars and knuckle joints, usual practice is only 2 go back the two directly opposite each other as per normal car layout, later models Triumph replaced one bolt with a stud mounted in the bell housing so you could locate and position the starter for the 3 mounting bolts. Why 3 bolts why!

My Mk2 Vitesse which I've owner since 2 years old (1970) has never had one fitted, daughters 66 Mk2 Spit has and it's handy on long runs. Like Colin with my size 11.5 feet and wide foot the support isn't a starter on the Vitesse too little space.

Thanks for the update thought the space wouldn’t have been enough you live and learn something every day!

talking Alternators the Sprint developed a light knock on idle I couldn't locate exactly where it was with the big screwdriver but didn't appear to be any bearings etc, so in frustration & having a couple of new Alternators I decided to fit one in place of the original just in case it was that well after two big scratches with blood on the back of my left hand and a 3in bloody scratch on my arm and a big bruise on the right hand hand I still had the noise, when my wounds heal I'll put the old Alt back!! & will fix the middle big Lucar at the same time the wire into the Lucar is getting flexible and very thin! Sorry for a little drift here, the source of noise after removing the rocker cover & plug tubes which is big on a Sprint I found the steel cam wheel support bracket had "work fractured" and broken off and was rattling around in the cam cover touching the chain, all was OK and the bracket is only used when removing and fitting the head so is not reqd for normal operation, so I got out of jail there! The bolt on the cam wheel inner sleeve which is used only when the bracket is connected is knarled up but doesn't affect the cam operation but why did the bracket fail when it's disconnected in normal operation, the chain is tight and cam wheel all tight and camshaft is good and tight with no abnormal wear/movement? Time to rebuild the spare Sprint engine to be ready in case! There's always something to do!

Were currently hovering around $2Aus here for 91 Octane petrol, late last year it was around $1.10A, Gas heating is expensive even tho we have our own supply off shore, retailers quote something about world pricing parity (what we can charge to make even bigger profits), this winter I'm going to use the house Air Cons in reverse cycle as its supposedly a lot cheaper, may need a 4th big unit for the front of the house tho,

On Spitfires not Vitesse and therefore presumably the GT6 as the starter motor is on the drivers side and the gearbox tunnel is therefore wider on that side. can’t remember one on my Herald 1200 in the 60’s. othees may know more and correct the above

Yep have a selection of those slotted head locknuts in the smaller sizes, never knew their specific name! I got them from my son 20 plus years ago when he was an apprentice aircraft mechanic, they appear to be a special material. The car ones I have seen have 3 dimples in the top ring which crimp on the male thread. I flew RC Helicopters 30 years ago and I think the handful of lock nuts I brought for the heli cost a small fortune, the construction instructions advised thread lock but with the vibrations involved I wanted something better! Adding a gyro to the heli made life a lot easier to fly! I still have an uncompleted 1mt wingspan Spitfire RC plane in the garage and have all the gear to finish must do it! Thanks for the info.

Are those the locknuts with no plastic parts having a deformed top lip, ie 3 dimples in? I've learnt something today, thanks.

Don't know how you all would survive here in Aus where you can pass on the inside or outside of the road, hey it works BUT you do get the idiots on the freeway who switch from the fast lane across the middle to the slow lane then back again just to get one car ahead, then there's the young chinese girl sat at 95kph in the outside fast 100kph lane, I'm doing the max speed so I'm staying here "no one should be going faster", then of course all modern speedo's except my Sprint read fast so an indicated 105kph is actually 100! The Sprint reads low 100appears to be 105 probably due to the tyre choice! All I know is when I'm doing an indicated 100kph down the freeway in overdrive I'm passing everything, so I assume it reads low!!!

Try a Vitesse Mk2 Rotoflex rear pipe from the rear outrigger, along the outside of the chassis around the back of the diff bridge upright, then along the top of the chassis, but then how to get to the rubber pipe connecting to the steel pipe thro the boot floor! It has so many bends and offsets that it has that many potential alignments but only one right one, but first you have to work out which end of the pipe is front or rear, I nearly went mad lying under the car with the pipe fouling everything, and wishing I'd taken photos, the coloured Triumph Ad photo I had of the Roto chassis set up bears no relationship to reality either! I fully understand why people start from scratch and do a DIY set up!

In the mid 80’s we had a XJ6 Series3 During a service The fuel filter was changed a few months later during summer it started to vapour lock my service chap removed the filter again and if was dirty and partially restricted so I removed the drain plug in the bottom of each tank and was very surprised at the amount of silt and grit that came out, the car at the time would have only been 4 years old as we’d brought it at only 2 year old Don’t know if it was due to the fillers being in the top of the rear deck and the caps were below the surface of the deck but from then on I flushed them every couple of years until the car written off by a semi trailer. in the classics I use an additive that keeps the petrol fresh and controls the moisture it cost enough so I hope it works!!

The two poster I installed with a friend at his garage had a hydraulic ram that thro a set of pullies pulled cables in each tower, and it had mechanical latch's as per Colin's approx 150mm that locked the mechanism a bugger when lowering as each step had to be delatched. The big issue to me as a civil engineer was the foundation under the towers to ensure the set up was stable, his tower baseplates would only have been 18in sq His shed was 60ft long by 25ft wide & 100years old and the concrete was rubbish, I made him dig out a foundation 3ft sq by 18in deep with a reinforced beam 18in sq between the tower foundations. I note more modern two tower hoists have a substantly bigger baseplates improving stability! The next problem has height clearance of the towers he was a house renovation tradie so measure thrice cut once, YES? He assured me the tower tops would just clear the corrugated iron roof, NUP missed by 2in as the foundations were slightly higher, he had to fit two skylights over the towers to get the reqd clearance, he just happened to have two skylights spare he'd removed from a previous job! The upside was one of the towers acted as a support/brace to the ageing roof structure which had seen dubious modifications and repairs and had been damaged by fire over the 100yrs, when in a previous life it had been the maintenance workshop for a sand quarry.

Colin it appears there's a detour at every corner! lucky there's no roundabouts