Peter Truman

could the cast iron of the head water jacket to rear stud hole be porus ie casting air hole. When I retired in 2001 I purchased my company car from my employer as it was top of the range V6 Mits Verada with everything, my ususal mechanic who serviced the family car advised me when servicing it the first time it had a small coolant leak in the engine block at the rear of the engine below the head ie out of the water jacket, he used a top quality chemical coolant sealer which we drained out after a couple of weeks, I had that car around 14 years and it covered nearly 300,000klm and it never leaked again.

eons ago I did my Vitesse but at the time late 70's I only had UNF taps so I tapped 5/16UNF as I had a brass plug of that size, now I'm better equipped and have 3/8in NPT and BSP taps and dies so I should probably redo it preferably BSP as it's not a tapered tap. It makes you feel better being able to drain the oil out at decent intervals.

Everything is expensive in NZ, except fresh air & the ocean! I have a Dremel gas portable soldering iron, works OK but I found it a bug**r to refill. For wiring & instrumentation I use cheap 40watt irons last about 4 years then buy another cheapie around $20 to $30. The one I have now is adjustable cost $20, I strip and clean regularly and is lasting >4yrs, having said that I bet it fails tomorrow!.

Don’t think the 3 Honda’s would keep the 3 A/Cons going but water ain’t an issue I still have the master key to access all things Melb water system and with the dams 90 percent full and with a system that’s capable of around 5 years drought proof. hey at the supermarket on Thursday and toilet rolls on short supply again delivery issues this time I assume drivers in isolation due to Covid contacts, and so the disaster continues even we’re not in lock down no one’s going out so still a status quo!

That's why it was half the price! even bikes now have front suspension. Here's my first car, mid 63, a Goggo of 300cc brute power, best fun a teenager could have, & learn about car mechanics, we always got home under our own power! Would love one now just for the memories! Taught the then girlfriend now wife of 53 years to drive in it on an airport runway up north yelling brake, brake as we passed under a gate battier arm!

You mean a spray can of “Start You Bast**d”

With my Sprint which had the dash restored my a PO using marine epoxy lacquer, it looks good but in retrospect there have been issues for new players eg the glove box lid the PO had not only painted the front and rear copiously but also the edges so the lid struck shut when closed, problem compounded by the build up of lacquer on both the lid and main dash aperture. The solution was to remove the glove box lid and quite heavily sand around the outside to obtain the necessary clearance then repaint the raw edge with a thin coat of Airfix brown Humbol paint. The bigger problem was the instrument panel the edges were copiously covered with marine epoxy lacquer but also the dash had been recovered, so the instrument panel fit into the dash fit was far to tight, to the point I was scared of damaging the panel when trying to remove. This required the removal of ALL instruments and the instrument panel removal and the edges heavily sanded then lightly sealed with Humbol so the panel fitted into the smaller dash area. The PO learnt on the Sprint he has subsequently restored a Stag, Mini Cooper, TR4, Mk2 Jag, E Type, Mini 850 & early 50's 175cc Moto Guzzi bike.

I get the same message as Matthew, but there again it's got a lot of Australian immigration visa's to pass!

is the last one a right angle drive I have a Dremmel one not used it yet. John never had much success with the UJ sockets always seem to bind, maybe I expect to much, and put too greater angle on it. The drawback of the gearless wrench is definitely the tolerances of the shaft it turns on as there must only be a slight displacement of the needle roller bearing/pins, too larger a shaft and it won't fit, too smaller and it'll slip around not grip, hence I spent so much time just getting it dead on at a neat 0.25in shaft dia. Don't think I'd use them over 1/4in sq drive, as otherwise the torque would be an issue.

I have a geared ratchet wheel it’s all metal and very good but can be difficult to get into awkward spaces the 1/4in gearless socket wench is just a variation that works in some places and you can get good torque with it.

My son did an apprenticeship as a Aircraft Mechanic and obviously he had to get good quality tools usually purchased from the local mobile "Snap on Tools" truck, one of his purchases was this stubby screwdriver set with a ratchet style torque lever, Pic1. The lever doesn't have a ratchet mechanism but what looks like a needle roller bearing which obviously has a mechanism that lets the needles lock onto the screwdriver 1/4in shaft pic2, the tightening or undoing simply occurring by rotating the spanner over 180 degrees. I've had this tool around 10 years and as a screwdriver only used it 3 times, but always thought that it could be modified or extended to use on small 1/4in drive sockets. Well yesterday having put the rebuilt Sprint HS6 carbs back on I couldn't get to or adjust the choke adjustment screw and my usual rotating wheel ratchet couldn't fit SO I got an old cheap 1/4in extension rod cut it down to 1in long then put it into by drill chuck and turned the shaft down from 0.32in to an accurate 0.25in shaft dia using an old bastard & finer files, then smoothed it off with emery and after some fine trimming it worked, Pic3. The advantage of this needle bearing non ratchet wrench is it doesn't rely on having to move at least one cog but you can just move the nut a fraction of a rotation less than 1 degree if necessary. It was easy to fit and hold onto the adjusting screw and 2 min all fixed. I haven't seen a mechanism like this before it obviously relies on the shaft dia being very accurate at 1/4in, but it's a dream to use and locks well and gives good purchase.

I use DeWalt and have done for 30 years, reliable kit, around 8 years ago I added to the old NiCad 3/8in drill, saw's, torch etc with new Li-on brushless 1/2in drill and impact drill BUT I brought the skins, batteries (2*4Ahr), and charger separately off eBay and Gumtree rather than the kit costing around $700 ex wholesaler I only spent just over $200. I did have an issue with the Li-on charger but a trip to the local Elect Tool Retailer fixed that for $15, I was telling him about my exploits and he said the NiCads have no electronics/chips and will still be working in 30 years and NiCad batteries ex Taiwan or Hong Kong are dirt cheap (cheaper than buying and replacing the batteries DIY), whereas the Li-on are full of circuit boards, diodes chips and not worth fixing, throw away society! All that said I wouldn't be without the Li-on Impact Gun I use it extensively to undo and do up all the car nuts and bolts, getting lazy with old age! The irony of all this my Daughter in Law is Taiwanese and her dad is VP to one of the biggest tool manufacturers in Taiwan' they make mains power and battery drills and other equipment for many of the major manufacturers, as well as supplying brushless motors to a lot of them, whenever he visits here he checks my power tools out and gives me the thumbs up! Since Covid his company have been concentrating manufacture on their personnel exercise equipment products and are working 2 shifts 6 days a week and have been shipping up to 200 containers weekly to the States! There's a light at the end of every tunnel!

We store our suitcases in the roof of our house plus other things, a section of roof beams timbered out for storage, the wife stored those big scenty candles in one case which became a river of wax, wrecked case! Obviously our roofs here in Aus get extremes of temperature and there are very few days that it is possible for us DIY'ers to work in the roof for long, as its either too hot or too cold! it's not even seasonal it could be cooold at 10AM and boiling by 10:30! Fortunately neither our heating or air conditioning is in the roof, only structure routine inspections are necessary. Reminds me I must get our Termite guy in for the annual inspection! One of our daily driven British cars Triumph or Jag had some distorted dashboard plastic trim eons ago, the X type jags demister trim always popped up on hot days! can't beat nuts and bolts!

I was having too apply much pressure to refit our frame with the new thick carpet so I ended up cutting the carpet in two one section behind and one in front of the brace, you can't tell when all refitted, and changing gears doesn't dislodge the carpet. So in our case the brace is bolted to the floor/chassis which in retrospect "I" think is better solution, Also beware the frame bolts into a bar welded onto the top of the chassis not through the top of the chassis, caution don't fit bolts that are too long as they'll bottom out and potentially strip the thread, I'd ASSUMED the bolts holes were drilled right thro the chassis and so I stripped ours, subsequently I had to drill right thro the bar and chassis top and heli-coil, I'm much happier with the necessary upgrade!! On the Spitfire the top right hand nut and bolt thro the dash bottom is a bu**er to fit the nut, hidden behind dash structure & support, needs small hands, when I had the gearbox cover off the daughters Spit a couple of weeks ago to replace the clutch slave, she had to fit that RH nut (small hands) and commented can't we fit a large Rivnut (steel) for future ease of dis and reassembly, she's thinking! I must investigate?

The one that always worried me is the drain cock on the engine block the cock is a parallel thread into the block and has a tapered wedge plug passing thro the body of the valve, which keeps its seal to the body of the valve using a mild steel spring which rusts and could (never has!) loose the seal/tension on the tapered plug! the spring and tapered plug is held in with a washer and split pin which also rusts! Surely a simple brass plug with fiber washer into the block was easier and safer.

Josef those MGF seats appear to clear the Convertible B pillar, hence enabling adequate leg room for us taller people, so I'm interested in this mod, are they any particular MGF model seat or do they all fit!

does this help from my 68 Mk2 Vitesse, with 150CDSE Stromberg Carbs

I think Bonds fitted a different seat into their Herald/Vitesse variant don’t know which aftermarket supplier they used

Not from my daughter who worked for General Motors Holden here in 2001 up to about 2010, in Engineering and Development Sections but from an old Friend who had an aquaintence who worked in the GMH body design section for years, this Old Friend had a very large cross sectional drawing of the Triumph 2000 Mk1 in half scale fully dimensioned up BUT on official GMH Drawing Sheet with their Drawing Number and GMH Titled, the drawing was so old it was tearing at the numerous folds. So Triumph must have got it right with the 2000 Saloon!

I've just fitted rebuilt HS6 Carbs to my Dolly Sprint and the above issue mentioned by Pete was the cause of my front or RH carb choke sticking on, the thin coil spring cover jet tube was causing too much curvature causing binding I took off about a 1/8in and all OK now. I have other issues ie the new Butterfly spindles the butterfly slots are not in line with the flats that locate the idle adjustment levers, meaning the front or RH carb butterfly with no idle adjustment screw fitted won't seal ie seat in the carb body, changing the LH to RH spindles achieved the butterfly to seat and 1/16in clearance btwn the carb body throttle adjustment lug and the lever flat/seat on the front or RH carb, but the LH carb with RH spindle now had over 1/4in gap (no adjustment screws fitted)! I'm going back to SU Midel here in Sydney to discuss on Weds when they open again after Xmas Hols, there usually helpful, they have two HS6 dual carb rebuild kits CRK185 (red Jet which is what were fitted to the original carbs) @ $95, or CRK249 (black jet) @ $145, I used the CRK185 kit for the rebuild. The original worn out spindles had the butterfly slot and location flats for the idle lever in line ie same plane! Oh the issue of aftermarket quality!! If SU Midel here can't resolve I will email the UK supplier Burlin and get two new spindles, has anyone used the ebay O ring alternative spindles?

Is your Vitesse 6 a CV or saloon and do the MGF seats clear the CV B post. My Mk2 Saloon seats won't slip past the CV B post causing me at 6ft 2 legroom issues? So it takes a day for our hot weather to reach NZ, it was 39C here on Saturday, 37 on Sunday, it takes 2 days on average for Perth's (very) hot weather to reach us here in Melb

I think I remember blank tax discs being available on eBay several years ago you could request a year and month consistent with your cars history would they work

Looks WET

What no snow! Always snowed Christmas and New Year! We had 39C in Melbourne

I helped a friend fit a pair of Mazda MX5 seats with headrests into his Spit1500 complete with the inbuilt head rest speakers, if I remember correctly it took ages to wire up and the quality of the sound was terrible! there was a stack of wires going into those seats, but they were very comfortable, and he made good money selling the original hounds tooth covered seats.