Peter Truman

A large hole isn't reqd, I use the female end of a 1/2in socket extension bar ie the internal 1/2in square loosly fits over the sq of the gearbox top up plug and I've drilled a in hole in the bottom of the sq socket of the extension bar and fitted a small magnet into it to hold the plug so I can extract and replace the plug without loosing the plug or having to use your fingers down a small hole, there are cheap extension bars so its a special DIY tool, assuming the daughter hasn't pinched it when I want it!

I seem to remember the bulb wattage affects the alternator cut in revs ie recharge rate hence LED’s we’re no good as alt wouldn’t cut in till say 4000 revs. maybe suffering from old age here!

I'm the odd ball out in our local car club here I prefer Strom's, for all Pete's reasons, where as the other 's are olden's "not really" and swear by SU's. I've just rebuilt the Sprints HS6's SU's a PITA not helped by poor engineered butterfly shafts where the flats were out of line with the butterfly slot so the butterfly wouldn't close fully, the rebuild kits were sourced locally who get from a major UK SU supplier! To their credit the local suppliers Tech Dept acknowledged the fault and sourced from their stock a pair of correctly aligned shafts! One member who restored a 68 E type with new triple SU's and correct E Type manifold had major issues of adjusting the UK supplied parts to fit and that's after they cost over $4k to buy and ship in a beautiful plastic container! The only issue I've had with Stroms other than my USA supplied Grose needle valves (my fault for believing the blurb), has been aftermarket poor quality ebay Diaphragms as Pete L appropriately said made from Rhino Condoms!

Ed China used a concrete mixer to shake/agitate to clean/derust a Range Rovers fuel tank with stones in worked well, who do you know?

What about nylon hose as used on the big saloons with suitable thin inserts at the ends to stop the nylon pipe swaging in with the hose clips

You mean this!!

Out of interest I went the USA Paul Teglizer route and used an Isuzu Trooper Hi Torque route the spacer had to be reduced to half thickness otherwise all fitted OK the advantage was cost around $100 reco unit direct from the rebuilder a reputable Co here, supplier hand delivered to me and explained what reco meant, a virtual dismantle and replace any wearable parts, also 18 month warranty, with the limited use the car gets it'll last a lifetime. Ref bypassing the old solenoid I did that when I fitted the Hi Torque starter BUT then changed back to using it as someone mentioned to me I was putting the full start load onto the ignition switch where as using the old solenoid meant that the load was as per original design.

We have a couple of divided highways here like that both down the Mornington Peninsula east side of Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay one’s the Mooraduck Hwy on the west side of Peninsula it’s roundabout after roundabout, the other is on the east side of the Peninsula Dandenong Hastings Hwy again divided Hwy it even has roundabouts with only 2 roads one in one out? There are another 2 off takes in anticipation but blanked off WHY a roundabout now! Presumably to slow traffic down. It doesn’t work if there are no cars around using both lanes around the roundabout and hugging the inner and outer kerbs you can take them at just under 100kph, the sat nav seated beside me erupts very loud!

I assume the intent of the double roundabout is to short circuit having to go around the outer big roundabout to get to your last offtake, you enter the inner and drive anticlockwise so the last offtake effectively becomes the first, but you then have to enter & cross the the outer circuit to get to your exit! obviously works with the UK disciplined and courteous drivers, but here I reckon with our multi national population it would end up with guns drawn at 20 paces.

Seen it done on the freeway here in Melb the offender have missed their offtake, stopped in emergency lane then backed up, trying to miss other cars exiting via off ramp as they back into the offtake ramp, some people are JUST STUPID! Cars exiting the freeway are travelling at 100kph!

Ask TSSC HEad Office in the reading room I think I saw some Standard Triumph drawings when visiting there around 2007 when on holiday.

On my Vitesse 3.89 Diff the planet gears brass thrust washers (clearly stamped 37) had torn in half and been spat out, when I rebuilt it I used the slightly dished GM Holden ones of the same thickness appears OK no noise's, i assume there still in place prior to strip down there wasn't any noise either and the roto flex donut took any bangs and slack up!

One of the major metro train lines here in Melb pass’s the Rosella food manufacturers where they make tomato sauce or ketchup the smell of cooking brewing tomatoes is very very strong made me a HP man for life!

Alternatively Rivnuts as captive nuts

If you remember Belgium steel was poor quality in the60’s I remember stories of Cortina’s wings rusting in 6 months. In the late 60’s I was doing a chem plant in STH Korea and the rebar steel was terrible when you bent it it just layered, had to ship replacement deformed bar from Aus and the UK to complete the job. In my early working life I built iron and steel furnaces and rolling mills all over the world.

Oh he doth dislike postage costs! TRY the cost of postage to Aus or NZ, or even NZ to Aus Colin. even ORC or HK have started charging be it nominal, a sign of the times!

interesting boss, looks a lot more complicated to make rather than the std turned varieties.

I use DeWalts & have done for 30 years I upgraded to brushless and Lion batteries around 5 years ago, my son needed a bigger replacement for his AG? battery drill so he brought a Bunnings 20v Ozito cheapie, powerwise it is within a midgies dick of my DeWalt, it comes with two 3Ah Lion batteries and charger, guaranteed for 5 years nonprofessional use, and cost only 1/3 of my deWalts, I'm impressed and he's happy, esp because I paid for it! I still use my old DeWalt NiCad 14v drill the most, no electronics in either the battery or drill it'll just keep going, unbustable & it's light!

I like the way the attendant looked the other way was it that bad! Them New South Welshman are a weird lot!

I think the supposed death rattle on start up with the 6 potter upsets most of us even tho' on all accounts no damage is done, it's upsetting. With my Vitesse I was having problems with my mechanical fuel pump priming up even with a replacement new pump and having replaced all the fuel lines, so I bit the bullet and fitted an electric pump next to the tank in the boot, the issue then was as soon as you turned on the ignition the pump was priming and turning the engine over with the choke in/off resulted in fouled plugs, solution a dash mounted interrupt switch and light so I could turn the engine over getting oil circulating (count of 12) before switching the elect pump on and a couple of sec's later brrmm and no rattle or plug fouling, maybe those NKG plugs will last longer now. If the car hasn't been started for a while I do turn the engine over by hand first to ensure nothings tight or seized. There is/was a member called "GT6, Marcus" I think, who had the ultimate solution a pressurized oil tank as part of the engine lube system mounted on the bulkhead that fed oil to the engine when the ignition was turned on using a series of solenoids, pressure gauges etc, I have pic's somewhere, a lot of engineering but well thought out!

the J clip long leg could also have been ground back, but hey what Pete did worked and he's happy, the J clips are I think used on the Vitesse rear lower side bumper panels where they mount to the rear wings, so the top or J isn't visible.

Try the respective exhaust gaskets I looked eons ago and decided they didn’t

Pete sure it shouldn't have been one of these, a short leg spire clip, don't know there proper name.

A friend with a concour E type roadster used pot belly stove black cured in the BBQ I think 150 for An hour it’s still going strong he did my 1500 manifold and it appears OK looks nice and smooth the thick paint filling the casting irregularities.

another thing to watch with Rivnuts is the thickness of the steel your anchoring into too thick or an extra washer will result in the rivnut not compressing adequately behind, never tried to see if you can get longer rivnuts, .