Peter Truman

I’ve had a cheap alloy rad in the daughters Spit 15 years plus and it’s good BUT the inlet and outlet bends are suspect and need care when attaching hoses. It’s been good value for the cost, I do keep an old copper rad in case I need to upgrade.

I Did ask the question but I was assuming that the long rocker cover bolts/studs were similar to head bolts, a pitfall for the uninitiated, as Pete L says one for the library of useful info!

Confirm 60’s casting quality the very large heavy and consulting engineering Co I worked for had a foundry too and I remember the foreman telling me they would have to recast a very big compressor body due to porosity, my father who was a director came down into the foundry to get me to take me home the foreman who had known dad since the late 20’s showed him the blow holes which weren’t in the bores or stress areas, I remember dad saying try iron filings and sulphuric acid to rust it all together and after extensive testing that’s how the compressor went out for a chemical plant across the other side of the world where I saw it 5 years later in Asia when doing a plant upgrade and it was still working with no issues & probably still is!

I’m assuming that the studs have a slot in them to clean the threads or stop hydraulic locking in the should be blind hole and it’s that slot that facilitated the leak. Question what would be the best way of sealing that slot, locktite doesn’t appear effective enough.

When we brought the daughters Mk2 Spit 21 years ago we had the fitted prop balanced twice but still had a vibration 3rd time I got a new prop made by Hardy Spicer here no problems since not cheap around 300 quid in your money. can’t blame Triumph for the original a CKD car and prop shafts made locally!

Iain easy enough to wire the reversing cibie up and see the effect, you've already got a std Lucas reversing light on the boot. The Cibre with over riding on switch would be great at dazzling those hotted up blue BMW headlights that blind your rear view mirror! don't tempt me!

Daughters first Sprint the PO had a couple of planes and had aircraft landing lights fitted in the main beams., very effective but Had to change them to get a RWC. In the 60’s I used Marchel spot lights for club rallying.

Yep no good on stone bitumen surfaces that came late 50’s. sliced my ankle 7 stitches, making a bonfire my brother put a fork thro my foot, to this day he says I did it to myself, now why would I do that!

You've got everything else in that garage now you need a pair of hydraulic wheel trollies to move the car around out of the way! would be very good as your garage floor is smooth and level, next birthday or fathers day pressy.

Being brought up here in Melbourne until 16 we made our Billy Carts with Ball Bearing Wheels, we'd go down to the local garage and bot the old ball bearings the bigger the better, impale the inner race on a square timber axle, held on with a nail thro the timber axle & race down the hills, our footpaths weren't made of concrete flagstones but continuously cast concrete with an expansion groove every 4 foot or so. The ride was a clippedy clop down the hill over these joints, but eventually the trees in the nature strip lifted the footpath and hitting this broken & cracked section would eventually lead to the ball bearing shattering, after that it was a hairy ride to destruction and grazed everthing! If the road surface was smooth tarmac we'd go down that but on very hot days it was too sticky. Sometimes we'd collect a housewife coming out of their drive to go shopping and even have to do an emergency slide onto the grassed nature strip to avoid a car backing out across the footpath, all the kids in the street did it so there was no point a parent complaining as they were as guilty as us! There were no tyres on the ball bearings just steel to the footpath so steering was at best vague! Aagh the good old days of youth and freedom!

Last photo has the convertible vertical rear brace been repaired/welded?

Iain, Pity I’m so far away I’ve got 5 of the buggers, all have good spade contacts, two very clean brass & look nearly new. You would have been welcome to one. Continunity between spades, over 3 positions; OFF - 1&7 FIRST - 1, 7, 6, & 4 SECOND - 1, 7, 8, & 4

Paul only trouble I have here is the receipts are usually out of the Visa machine and the print fades with time so I scan them and print it out keeping copies in the glove box and car file. I also write on the side of the battery in silver permanent marker the, Date purchased, who from, warranty period, how paid for, and receipt number.

There only the cars Colin's owning up to, how many more are hidden away from SHMBO! A friend had one immaculate Sprint in the official garage, but 10 others hidden in various farm sheds around Vic!

I brought a suction pump here in Aus think Aldi I found that none of the suction tubes would fit down the moderns dip stick hole as modern dip sticks and very small in dia didn’t work on daughters Commodore and Mazda. also with the gearbox and diff it may be difficult to navigate thro the fill plug and swing thro 90 degrees to get down into the oil to many internal obstructions gears etc in the way

Had one get very hot and fail on the Dolly Sprint appeared it had been leaking oil for a while!

Did copper grease them but now I know threads length etc are OK I will get M/S alternatives as there is moisture from the petrol in the fuel bowl and when I took the cheese head cap screws out they were moist. Irrespectively I seem to have to take the float bowls off frequently enough I doubt they’ll have time to seize.

I thought the closed round cell type seal was to be avoided as it caused the door not to close properly, and the lip/flap type seal was preferred ie ETS60 or ETS4060FC, can you get the lip/flap type with Furflex covering.

Just a follow up re the Stromberg replacement Float Chamber Screws, they arrived today and the 4 long bolts per carb are about 1/16 too long so a quick grind on the wheel & the two short one's cut down to size too & I've replaced the Vitesse's standard slotted cheese heads with the S/S #8 (5/32in) by 32tpi UNC Socket Head Allen screws so much easier to remove and do up, esp insitu when everything's upside down and the slot is a pita to find!. Pic showing the old and new screws below, cost $25. Now to do the modified Spit 1500 dual 150CD Stromberg Carbs too, and the spare set of 150CD's I've just rebuilt, that's 36 of the 40 screws I brought used.

Aah if you still had Bunnings they would have had plastic packs of different length and dia UNF bolts with different shank lengths. Even better the US Masters had everything. failing that do you have bolt specialists retailers or am I just spoilt living in a city I have 3 bolt/bearing suppliers within 1.5klm.

When I was on exec of my previous triumph club here I had committee meetings at our house my close friend & fellow club exec who was then a very senior police officer here in the SE Melb would trade his civies for full uniform complete with all belt equipment gun and his unmarked car for the full paddy wagon and park outside in the street and come in for the meeting I bet the neighbours were looking thro the curtains. He had a wicked sense of humour

Or increase size/rating if going long distances eg alternative fuel pump at rear larger size reduces voltage drop under load.

how do the air vents line up? the PO of the daughters Mk2 Spit covered the dash with vinyl, quite professionally such that we've left it, its neatly folded at the ends and no creases, but he didn't cut the demister vents out as I found out one wet day, not so easy to cut when dash is fitted!

been in the same boat this last week Colin with carbs on both the Sprint and Vitesse, new Spindles on the Sprints SU's caused butterfly seating issues see Fuel section of forum, and the Vitesse was leaking fuel whilst running from the rear Strom carb, pulled the float cover off (hate those 6 slotted fixing screws so have purchased 40 allen headed 5/32 32 TPI screws, replaced float valve with a spare Goss Valve refitted all, started engine poured fuel out now! repeat and fit some very old float valves reassembled whilst also replacing the big O ring on the jet body as fuel was pis***g out of there, the O ring fitted was slightly smaller than new replacements I had, started engine ALL OK, so I did the same on the front carb with the paired float valve, I really should throw those American Goss float valves away, the newer versions don't appear to be as good as the old man originals!

Make sure you get the flats in the exact alignment as the originals, as I've had all sorts of trouble with my Sprints replacement shafts, which had the flats already machined, the originals had the flats in line with the butterfly slot, whereas the replacements were between 3 ant 5 degrees off line. The shafts were supplied by a reputable Aus Carb supplier who I'm advised by other club members here are supplied by a major UK Carb Co! With the new front carb the throttle spindle cam fouled the carb seat lug before the butterfly seated with no idle screw fitted, and the rear had a 8mm gap. It may b a Sprint percularity & the throttle cam variation that makes the alignment issue worse too. The supplier advised he'd had no previous complaints, so to progress the rebuild I had to buy another new pair of shafts which ended up with one spindle as original ie in line but the other still offset, by mixing and matching the 4 shafts I could achieve a 1/16in gap on both carbs between the throttle cam with butterfly seated and the carb body before fitting the idle screws. The worst two shafts have been returned for hopefully a full refund, it's still cost me $30 in postage, for the replacement shafts and return of the worst two poor quality shafts! First pic original shaft Second and Fourth, poor quality replacements Third good quality replacement