Peter Truman

trouble with satin it will show all the oily marks, whereas gloss will wipe clean a lot easier.

I know there's numerous posts re Seat Belts including comments re mounting the retraction module on the inner rear wheel arch, but no photos showing the installation, I think Chris A has fitted them. I'm interested re it's location on the wheel arch so as to keep the webbing straight & in line through the slot in the inner side trim panel & over the seat back. Also the belt only extracts so far which could be a problem with the limited seat travel backward in the convertible restricted by the larger B pillar. I should add that the retractable seat belts are Securon purchased from the club shop a couple of years ago. Any photo's of the installation would be greatly appreciated.

Roger the Little Grey Fergie is held with a lot of esteem here in Oz and are very valuable a few years ago they did a Rally from Geelong to I think Mildura quite a feat slow but steady. At a Victorian Triumph Concour around 15 years ago an old hand country engineer brought his rebuilt concour Fergie and put a sign in front of it calling it Triumphs F1 model little wheels at front big wheels at back.

so long since I cleaned both the Vitesse & Spitfire trunnion cap and thread I cannot fully remember Colin, but as I cleaned them all and have lubed frequently with brass acceptable oil it's not an issue, I also soldered the bottom steel trunnion sealing washer to the brass trunnion body so the oil doesn't leak out ie there's a reservoir of oil kept in the trunnion. I have a spare set of assembled front suspensions on the spares shelf sans backplates and discs, I looked at those, in fact I popped the trunnion bolt out and slid the trunnion out of the lower wishbone that's why I thought it was so easy! My error.

A Wanner grease gun full of oil should displace the hard grease and freely expell oil thro the top trunnion seal. But removal of the bottom trunnion bolt and unscrewing the trunnion and cleaning both the vertical link screw thread and trunnion isn't too hard, I've never bothered to jack the wheel up to take the load off. If oil is expelled thro the top seal I've always assumed it's lubed, mind you I give it a good flush. I oil the trunnions twice a year its messy but that's what paper towels & old newspapers are for.

Beautiful drilling job there Ed, did you cross drill the trunnion and fit a grease nipple, also plenty of copper grease on the tie rod bolt, mine are solid!!!

Simple 4in vice and DeWalt 14.5v Li-on drill, and very slow drilling with a lot of checking the alignment. Re sharp corners just got back to working on the cars after slicing the back of my hand around 2in long and requiring 7 stitch's, the small movable vice on the pedestal drill fell off the drill table & I missed catching it! PRC stuff has very sharp edges, of course it happened on a Saturday morning around 11AM medical centre closed fortunately our Dr. also friend lives near by and was just packing up to go to his working farm so he stitched me up, he's just out of a back brace himself after cracking a vertebra from falling off the farm house roof, did he get some grief from his collegues over that, I won't tell you what he called me when I fronted up at his front door with a dirty bloodied rag around my hand!

On a 3 rail box gear stick I did drill a hole down the centre very carefully it worked out OK the hardest part was profiling the lower outlet hole so the wire radiused out and didn’t get caught where the wire comes out of the stick. Re switch I just used a push on push off in the top of the gear knob ie min protrusion I suppose I drilled around 2.5in down the shaft.

I've just brought a set of Hel branded S/S braided hoses for the daughters Spit Mk2, to replace the 20year old Goodridge S/S ones which aren't Roadworthy compliant here in Aus, the S/S braiding needs to be plastic covered where its swaged at the ends, ADRules are worried about the S/S fatiguing where it flex's at the ends? I need to replace the old ones to get a local Roadworthy to transfer ownership into her name, complicated she was working for VW in Germany when we brought the car so it's all in my name. Interestingly I brought the Hel set locally, well ex Queensland, but only 3 hoses turned up, I queried why only 1 rear hose for a car with Independent rear suspension, answer was some owners only ask for 3 hoses, (Crap) but sir we do a 4 hose set too, I argued with them got the extra hose at cost and no postage costs, and their Customer Dept is reviewing their advertising! Even with the extra cost they were marginally cheaper than buying and shipping ex UK. Mind you the Hel product looks good, the S/S braiding has a plastic sleeving over it's whole length similar to the later Goodridge ones I got for the Vitesse around 8 years ago.

I refurbed the daughters Mk2 Spit plastic steering column cowls using black vinyl spray even in the Aus sun its still good after nearly 20 years. Re the switch panel wood effect, here in Aus Bunnings (Hardware superstore) used to have larger Formica/Laminex type swatch's for Laminae flooring finish's which were around 14in long 8in wide, there were some nice finish's in their range. The extra size swatch obviously very handy it was double sided laminate finish only no timber/planking backing. I had a set of steel cowl's but gave the turn lever one to a club friend for his TR4 rebuild.

Roger thanks for that info, obviously too much time on my hands? I'll take heed of what you advised and & will revert to the std Vitesse solenoid setup, but I'll now re access the battery in the boot set up I have, and consider how to refit the brake servo as per Pete L's Vit 6 set up ie the battery as per normal set up with servo mounted next to it but in line/orientation with the engine, I had moved the battery & mounted the servo transversely where the battery was. I step forward then back!!! to much time on my hands with another lock down!1

Gary thanks for that,& Pete I’ve now got 5 solenoids spare round ones sq ones and even sq with remote buttons it just seemed tidier to remove the solenoid as it was surplus. Its like all jobs they create more work had to remove the hi torque starter to access the spade terminal for the ignition wire to get to the starter bolts had to remove the transmission tunnel what a bummer, whilst I’m there I might heli coil the top starter bolt in the bell housing and fit a stud (threaded bar) should make life easier in fitting and removing the starter. There’s always something to keep you busy during lockdown

Can any one please advise what gauge the thick brown wire connecting to the starter solenoid of the Mk2 Vitesse, similarly the white red ignition wire to the same solenoid. Reason is I’ve bitten the bullet and connecting the High Torque Starter direct to the battery feed bypassing the original solenoid cause because I’m sick of catching my hand on it when fiddling around the carbs

I think I've described this before, I have fitted the later saloon, Spit, Dolly Dipping Rear View Mirror to my Mk2 Vitesse and daughters Mk2 Spitfire, It required a little work as you cannot get the ball out of the later dipping mirror without destroying that mirrors body & the Vitesse mirror ball is slightly smaller than the later dipping mirror's ball. I cut the taper off the later dipping mirror (pic1) leaving the ball insitu using a Dremmel cutting disc, then tapped the insitu steel ball in that mirror (pic4, it doesn't rotate easily very tightly held in the dipping mirror plastic body, next I cut the ball body with clip out of the old Vitesse mirror (pic3) and screwed that fitting onto the dipping mirror via the tapped hole in fixed ball of the dipping ball (pic2), then I simply reassembled the Vitesse ball clip to its repositioned body on the dipping mirror. I've done it 4 times now on our 2 cars, a friends Vitesse and another club members Mk 3 Spit, in all cases the original cars mirror stem was retained. End result a substantially larger and more attractive mirror, which is dippable too!

Out of curiosity did the Heralds main dash surround have holes already drilled for the Vitesse style two small gauges fuel and temp?

Sorry Colin we don’t appreciate the issues your damp wet climate causes you as our cars are garaged and seldom get taken out in the wet and definitely not salted slush I think I’ve only had to cut thro one bolt in 47 years and that was because a Sprint sub frame bolt lock nut seized it started then locked electric saw sorted that in 1 minute.

Colin the ones on the daughters Mk2 Spit are chromed brass Phillips head look OK and not as deep a head as cheese head bolts. maybe their aftermarket. I think the ones on our Spit are the same as the Herald/Vitesse rear light covers screws. could always use a S/S Allen head angle doesn’t matter then, I assume you want originality?

Watch them J bolts just the right height to really do some personnel damage, I always close the Michelotti bonnet catches when the bonnet is open as if left open there just the right to catch my eye as I bend over!!

Interesting comment re insulating Ali Rad from chassis/body, I understand the intent but we've had a custom Ali rad fitted to daughters Spit Mk2 over 15 years directly bolted to to the steel rad mounting frame with no issues, admittedly the cars used infrequently twice a month and the battery is isolated when not in use. I must also advise the Ali rad doesn't appear to have degraded with blocking of the tubes, we do change the rad rust inhibitor coolant regularly and check its ph (Castrol litmus strips) at least twice a year. Iain Re gleam in her eyes I know the feeling mine can't go past italian shoes or expensive handbags, how many people have an out of fashion Yves St L toolbag in their Triumph boot! I've got a weeks reprieve here in Melb we have just been put in a 7 day lockdown AGAIN with a 5klm limit, returning traveler quarantine failure again, hotel quarantine has serious breach issues!! I think about 30 related cases with thousands told to isolate and get tested, hundreds of hot spots, gee one fellow got around all over the city and into country areas surprised he had time to sleep! Personaly we had first jab of AZ 6 weeks ago, the second in July, our vacc roll out has been slow usual federal vs state govt rows & blame game even tho AZ made locally!

Re your effectiveness of a low pressure "pressure gauge" I worked in the Water Industry for 40 years and when we metricated in the early 70's rather than going from psi to kpa we went to metres head of water, now when we changed the now old tech pressure recorders the 0 to 100psi chart was replaced with a 0 to 70mts chart, SO 1psi = 0.7mts head or 3psi = 2.1mts head etc. So to measure the delivery pressure of your pump just put a poly tube on the pump delivery and raise it to over 2mts high so fuel doesn't flow out of the end of the pipe then lower it till fuel just flows out and that equates to your delivery pressure! The height of the end of the pipe is the critical point not the length of poly tube it could be X mts long. It won't be too messy if you start high. Oh and remove the rotar to avoid elect contacts.

Re drain back I spin the engine with electric pump isolated so I don’t flood the engine for 20sec then reconnect the pump and start her no rattle using the original Vitesse filter element oil pressure light is off by then. I do like GT6M’s oil header tank and solenoid set up that backfeeds the oil ways when ignition key is turned on. A lot of add on bits but we do like to fix original Triumph short comings

Over here Colin it’s Indian rubber we had saloon engine mounts supplied by a local Triumph specialist that if you were lucky lasted a year, tracked back to India manufacture, the vulcanising failed. We still have a local manufacturer who makes rubber hoses of good quality called McKay there local so I’ve always been able to find them but not Vitesse as not originally Aus CKD, I assume McKay supplied AMI in the day as CKD local manufacture component so have the formers/moulds Got a set of Spitty ones ex WA from a known Triumph eBayer at $60 look and feel good in fact there were 2 spare small formed hoses that don’t fit our Spitty that fitted the Vitesse heater so that was a bonus!

Nice pad! when we returned to the UK in 63 I lived in a "Hall" it was bl+++dy cold esp for us warm blooded Aussie's, I remember the oil heating bill for the first year was greater than twice the average wage, you'll need very deep pockets! but a beautiful place Pete what's the garage facilities like, heated & air conditioned I hope!

My fibre glass cover comes out easy enough BUT I do have to remove the radio which is underhang from the front bottom lip of the dash

I believe I've put the inner drive shaft seal in the wrong way on the offside wheel ie not letting excess grease escape as I found grease in the hub, hadn't contaminated the brakes tho. Fortunately I have 2 spare hub/backplate RH/LH rebuilt set ups ready (Covid homework) need to select a good drive shaft to install Bummer, but I need to replace the brake S/S braided hoses anyway because they are the older Goodridge style without the plastic protection at the crimp point. Aus ADR's require an insulator at the crimp point as they believe the S/S braided cover could work fatigue with constant flexing and fracture, the later plastic covered S/S braded hoses appear to be OK as that's what a local supplier has sold me!