Peter Truman

No fun running out of brakes due to boiling, it happened to me in the early 70's in the Mk2 Vitesse crossing the St Goddard Pass and doing battle with a Alfa, he finely nailed me coming down on a straight section. I limped into Como and after booking into the hotel I took the car to the RR garage next door to get the brakes and steering sorted, left the car with them overnight they changed the brake fluid and bled the brakes, and welded a bolt onto the sheared U bolt that holds the rack, they wouldn't change me, saying they'd get it back on the next Rolls service! The owner asked who won, I told him the Alfa on the way down, I'd held him off all the way up and most of the way down the pass, he said I hadn't tried hard enough, he'd taken the Vitesse home overnight and was very impressed with it's easy revving good torque and roadholding, great car for driving the alps. I then dropped a UJ in the tunnel at Monte Carlo, being a smart arse, well the GP had only finished a week earlier, and I gave the car some real wellie when I entered the tunnel, now that repair did cost me a lot, only a UJ, but the Frenchie garage in Nice charged 50quid!

Cars in Canada have a built in engine emersion heater & usually owners have a stand alone electric fan heater which is switched on to heat the car before driving off in the morning, its a coooold country, & why I live in Australia!

Re the felt hub seals somewhere in the past I read when fitting new ones soak them in oil for a couple of days, then squeeze the surplus oil out and leave compressed for a period (I left a week) then fit and reassemble hub and adjust, this process worked for me.

I fitted permanent grease nipples to the Vitesse 50 years ago and used to bugger around emptying the wanner of grease, filled it with diff oil “oil them trunnions” then empty the wanner of oil and refill with grease what a faff that was, so around 15 years ago I removed the spring and ball from the 45 degree grease nipples and converted an old lever oil can with a grease gun hydraulic nozzle filled it with diff oil and easy peasy now to pump clean oil thro both the Vit and Spit trunnions then to seal the grease nipple I simply push on a cut down plastic emission small bore pipe soft plastic sealing caps which stay in place to the next service. I have noticed after 15 years the caps are getting hard so I’ll need to check my stock of spare or buy some new ones and replace them a few cents only. Oh I’ve also soldered the bottom sealing washers to the brass trunnions body to stop the oil draining out over time ie so there’s a reservoir of oil kept in the trunnions.

I use Irwin pozidrive/phillips bits in the impact drill and they last well even with my abuse! just put hundreds of screws in the back fence palings where the nails have walked out!

Seconded for Mick Dolphin, always helpful and will put you in contact with some else if he can't help.

I recently upgraded to the poly bush's in the std insulated joint can't advise if any better due to Lockdown No.6. PeteH I know the UJ joints are probably all metal thereby hopefully providing some earthing across it, but shouldn''t there be a earth wire across the two bolts to ensure a good earth for the horn, similar to the insulated joint, the rack itself has it's own earth strap/wire to the body even tho' it's of all metal construction, maybe belt and braces.

I did some lateral thinking re what other cars might have used Type 14’s and came up with Marina and Escort/Capri/Cortina so I found a set of Escort calipers in Sydney after checking with the Gumtree seller mounting lugs correct and pistons same dimensions so at the price of $45 the pair they were worth the risk. They arrived yesterday externally quite clean but couldn’t move the pistons even with compressed air so had to revert to the grease gun using a modified bleed nipple internally threaded to take a UNF 1/8in grease nipple ex UJ, process worked well pistons pushed out piston bores OK but some heavy rust on the bottom which has cleaned up. getting the grease out has taken some effort but in practice the pressure the old Wanner develops does the job! might have to space the disc off the hub to get the offset correct 1/16 to 1/8in should work. But I need to check if the later Spit upright with 3 bolts has the same mounting offset as the earlier Type 12 Herald seperate mounting bracket. Now to buy a set of 4 pistons and seals to reco the calipers, I found some for around $100. Well it’s keeping me occupied during our current lock down.

On the Vitesse I just unclip the dizzy cap pull it forwards and use the std 1/2in drive spark plug socket

Here too, the roads were sprayed we always had black feet when down at the beach house in summer, it was done to keep the dust down.

Yep in the mid 60's & early 70's living in the NE of England I kept the oil change oils and once a year plugged the 2 heralds we had & later Vitesse chassis drain holes pumped the old oil into the chassis frame box's then drove up onto the York Moors near Osmotherly pulled the plugs out and let the oil drain out, well there was peat up there on them moors, so it was earth to earth and all that!

I always understood/thought it was the quickest way to a divorce was to get SWMBO to operate the pedal when bleeding the brakes or clutch, very challenging, down, sorry I let it off, BUG88r! Start Again! Eons ago I had trouble starting the lawn mower so I got the wife to hold the plug to earth with a screwdriver whilst I pulled the starter cord, I told her to hold the driver by the handle, but her finger was in contact with the shaft ZAPP! well you'd think I had tried to kill her. My close friend did similar with a car, but thinking the plug lead was insulated got his wife to hold the lead, similar reaction, but she's a lot more vocal than my wife being a British Sgt Major's daughter, she may be small but can she bark!

Wonder what the Triumph car said to the Rover both being born on the same assembly line, seeing they were arch enemies!

In the 60/70's there was an Elect Window kit in the UK that fitted on the outside of the door trim/card obviously a thin disc motor that was obviously ring geared and drove the sq winder shaft I thought it was a nifty design never saw one though.

My 68 Vitesse has a replacement solid Stainless steel insert in two halves clockwise from 12 to 6, and anti clockwise the same I got it out of a scrapped early Herald in a scrapes outside Staithes near Whitby around 1970. It took time and patience to fit and it’s still in place today a lot better looking than that plastic stuff which we fitted to the daughters Mk2 Spit that was a bugger!

When I got my Dolly Sprint around 5 years ago it had rear lights earthing issues, the cars original bulb holders didn't have earth spade connectors, I started soldering on individual earth wires to each bulb holder, it was a PITA, talking to a close friend and fellow club member here he gave me a set of 6 bulb holders single bulb and twin bulbs which had earth spade connectors as original fitment. I made up a separate earth wiring loom for each set of lights earthed to the body and since then there's been no problems. Try and source the big saloon bulb holders (earlier models I think) which had the earth spade connections on the individual bulb holders, it makes life a breeze.

I have a 1st Nov Reg 68 Mk2 Vitesse which I've owned since 70 & it has the pointed/wedgy twin park/turn len's not flat ie it has the same circular prism pattern on both park and turn side of the lens. There original lights. Not flat like Jagnuts, There's always exceptions, Triumph Parts bin again?

To cap it all I've just had a small parcel delivery (local) "a knife sharpener" now I haven't ebay ordered it nor do I have any record of it there's no ebay or PayPal record of it, or payment for it, my wife and daughter reckon I'm loosing it! I told them Why would I purchase a new sharpener when I have a perfectly good one. There's no record of order on the parcel, there's a slip inside with a phone number I rang it the phone numbers chap advised he hasn't worked there for 6 months! I google map the address on the slip, the property is up for let!! Someone's after me!!!or I've got a freebee!

It's been a stupid week, First I brought some S/H type 14 calipers off UK ebay, all was going OK till they got to Global Shipping who deemed them "restrictive" and wouldn't forward them or return to seller ie scrapped! fortunately I was fully refunded and seller kept his money too. Then I presumed the replacement water temp sender thread was 3/8NPT so I cleaned the water pump housing thread with that tap, it was in fact 5/8 UNF so it was too loose and I had to buy an adapter around $15! Now I've just received from a UK supplier a set of Small chassis steering column coupling O ring kit (SPF1179K), they are made by 'Super Pro' made here in Aus, Queensland!! cost wise its cost me around $5 extra from the UK, bugger, so the little buggers have been round the world during Covid! I reckon it's time to go back to bed or stop trying to do all those small jobs during our Lock Down No. 6!

Well I stuffed it, eons ago I replaced the original Smiths temperature sender on the Vitesse as it was steel bodied construction and was looking a little worse for wear, I put in a herald one and the gauge ever since has shown 3/4 range. Anyway on the local Aus ebay there was a Stag one for sale which equates to the GTR108, but I buggered the installation as I thought the tapped thread in the pump body was 3/8in NPT (18TPI), so I ran the NPT tap down the thread to clean it only by hand, relatively easy it was! when I fitted the new sender it was loose but held and appeared OK with ptfe plumbers string (not tape), Na didn't like it so I searched for a 3/8in male NPT to 5/8in UNF adapter (18TPI too), there hard to find, the opposite configeration is easy, finally found one locally at a reasonable cost it was delivered in 2 days even with lock down, the male NPT adapters end locked up easily in the pump body with no tape, and the adapters 5/8in UNF female end with internal tapered seat sealed tight on the senders tapered seat, all fixed Phew!. I should of checked before jumping in!!! The new sender sits half way on the gauge, thank goodness considering the buggering around.

Thanks for the advice have replied direct

safe trip, good luck and enjoy the ride back home, and future use.

We brought a 76 2500TC saloon around 78, and around 80 the wife put the 2yr old daughter in the back passengers kids seat then forgot to shut the door and backed out of the garage, jacking the N/S rear door on the garage brick opening, buckling the hinges and the door, fortunately a local Triumph spares garage had the right coloured door (In Aus Toyota paint) with matching parchment door trim. A little straightening work on the hinges and refitting the complete new door all good, BUT I did hang the buckled offending door on the rear brick wall of the garage directly in front of the drivers line just to remind her, I think it hung there for a couple of years and the daughter just giggled every time she saw it & asked is the door shut mum, Aah she's has her dads wicked humour!

Clive It’s the Spitfire type 14 that I want, currently the type 12 that’s fitted as it isa 1966 Mk2, I did replace them around 20years ago with new type 12 as used on Formula Ford racers. As I can determine type 12 have 38mm dia pistons and type 14, have 48mm dia. Type 16’s easily obtained here in Aus as were fitted to the Holden Kingswood & Ford Falcon or similar. In fact a couple of years ago I was offered NOS units less than$50 ea

interesting mounting screws in the corners, I could be sarky and say its got a lot of holes! Good luck