Peter Truman

I also have 2 old round ones they had perished boots but I found a neat fitting pliable plastic boot that fitted neatly over the lip and cable ties into the groove so completely water tight. I had around 7 of these boots (red) but friends have used them for the same purpose on all manner of Trumpies Spits, Gt6, and the TR range. I think the boots came off the emergency stop switch’s for each pump when the station was getting its 15 year complete upgrade, my motto waste not want not!

Colin here is a NEW very old spare solenoid I have in my store and this arvo I drilled (1/8in) the end and fitted a pusher button (red nail varnish) the internal spring push's it back after operation so it now has remote operation. If needed I could fit a rubber bladder to make it fully water tight but in reality water wouldn't get thro my new button

JB Weld is very good can even be tapped when set but a good cure takes say 6 hours. I was going to say an Aluminum Rivnut but I think that might pull through, maybe use a Rivnut without compressing it and JB Weld it into place.

Colin it was that long ago I can’t remember but I did try pushing the red button today and it kicked the starter so it’s connected thro the red plastic cover and presumably a rod or something to investigate any further I’d have to remove the solenoid and that’s a right bugger! Probably why Pete L moved it onto the bulkhead shelf.

Colin I modified your Left Hand no button solenoid to have a remote push button by drilling a hole thro the solid raised black section see attached photo. I can't remember what the little red plastic button/cover is off, as I did the mod around 30 years ago, Oh and yes it works but in reality I've probably only used it a couple of times since installation. I've recently converted the Mk2 Vitesse to a Hi Torque Starter see under the solenoid it's a Isuzu Trooper (Aus Holden Rodeo) starter, it's wired thro the old solenoid, but I think I might wire it in direct and remove the remote solenoid ie to remove some of the congestion around the carb throttle lever, and twin battery cables near starter note the battery is in the boot and the battery cable is routed along the outside of the main chassis rail. In the proposed modified cabling only the cable near the speedo cable would be used and wired direct to the Hi Torque Starter underneath the starter, there's adequate clearance/space under there.

OK I can’t type “Colin”

AusPost too Colon but eBay usually pays up just no product!

I like the Rabbit solution, one car I've owned in the past had a hole in the drum face to do just that maybe a Sprite? bit of a fiddle but worked well Would the Hart style Stag aftermarket lever adjusters help application leverage' I know my Sprint has self adjusters they appear OK but I seldom use a handbrake anyway even in a modern (had stretched cables on a car once) and after brake overhaul I think its a drive it backwards and apply brakes hard!

This one not car related we had a baby skink get into our big (9kw) split air conditioner in the external fan part on the ground section and shorted out the fused connection and there were also tracks across the circuit board the AC was toast, replaced under household insurance (no argument) because the repair tech specified fusion failure, final bill probably because it was an insurance job > $3k. We had possums in the roof, had them removed twice now, Peter the Possum man advised when possums are removed rats move in, a month or so later yep we heard scratching, so now the pest eradicator came threw Ratsac around in the roof esp around the perimeter over the next month 4 dead rats, a couple of years ago we had a relatively minor termite infestation laundry floor not in the structure appears they love Tasmanian Oak, Termite solutions treated the house internal and external continuous barriers and annual inspections, during their initial inspection they found a couple of dead rat skeletons in the roof space around the perimeter. The termite problem came from the 2 acre council reserve we back onto, old rotten trees, also the 18 hole golf course that surround our small housing estate, so it'll be an ongoing inspection & 7 yearly treatment cost to ensure there's no re-occurrence, they say in our area 1 in 3 houses will incur termites!!! We had a good run we've been here 43 years. A country club member had his Stag seats demolished within a month by a mice plague!

A friend with a Stag had his viscous fan fail on a club run, fortunately it missed his rad and he got home using the electric fan, he replaced the viscous, the bearing had failed. I have as standard a viscous on the Dolly Sprint and must admit it works very well controlling the very high temperatures experienced here in Melbourne (up to 40C, 37 net Monday) the gauge normally runs just under the mid point of the gauge, in traffic on a hot day just over no where overheating, but if I have problems with it I'll go electric sucker fan, would love to shroud it. The Spit runs only electric temp controlled but they are pushers where shrouding wouldn't be effective? Originally the elect fan operation was manual and there were times our oversight saw the temp get hot it took quite a while to pull the water temp down, now there auto the temp is maintained well and there's no overheating.

can't comment on the corrosion issue but around 8 years ago I brought 24 new NGK BP6ES plugs as a job lot at a club meeting over the following 8 years there've all failed ie the Pete Lewis advised saturation of the non glazed insulator, I put the last 2 in a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they were cheap for a reason! The issue is how I start the car so as to get oil circulation before firing the engine after she's stood unused for a while, choke in spin the starter for 8-10sec then pull the choke and churn for another couple of secs then she fires, she is obviously flooded a little as she runs rough then clears. With an unglazed plug insulator it gets saturated and fails, there very hard to dry out and clean sometimes its fixed the issue for a short period but once there've been saturated their life expectancy appears short, Being honest because I had a good supply I just replaced them. I'm now looking for Bosch replacements, but for some reason there getting hard to source here locally in Melbourne almost as if Bosch are limiting there supply! NGK virtually have the market covered esp with the major aftermarket suppliers. Ridiculous as it sounds I'm looking to source plugs from the UK, and pay the shipping

From memory used on RSJ's (Rolled Steel Joists) and there about 5 degrees, got some in my jar of special washers, there heavily galvanised and they came with me from UK 48 years ago! Usually round on the thick end

Remember a lot of senders earth thro their body ie the screw in fitting so don’t put too much pyre on I think the oil pressure sensor is not.

Paula re 1600 O/D gearbox, there's a fully rec'd one just come up on ebay maybe from TLD? starting price 250GBP buy it now 1050 can't see a reserve price quoted, the ebay item No.143906509385

Well done started the new year right I’ve watched your work with interest

Had a similar problem with a friends PI that wouldn’t ‘t start which hadn’t been run for eons fuel smelt terrible drained and refilled started immediately. I put a locally made product into our classic car tanks every 6 months called Fuel Doctor to stabilise it and reduce tank corrosion

I believe In the 60’s in the NEast ICI had a chemical plant by product and processed it as fuel thro a network of garages I seem to remember/think it was methanol based it was a bit cheaper than other fuels the Vitesse ran well on it with no apparent damage to the engine, someone might be able to clarify what it actually was and if it had any effect on our engines.

Pete is the issue with reconditioned or new aftermarket calipers, I thought the issue was with new aftermarket calipers where the profile of the seal groove in the caliper body was different affecting the seal/piston operation.

I used the plastic type fitted before the mechanical pump but it was the one with right angled top outlet, it works well cheap and easily fitted , only issue I've found is the plastic pipe tends to neck with the petrol pipe clips, I use the sprung type of clip. often wondered if the necking was due to ethanol affecting the plastic. The filter has the advantage of two sized molded inlet and outlet pipe 1/4 and 5/16in you just cut the smaller off if using the 5/16in hose.

Colin my starter is fitted the other way round ie connections on the bottom but toward the block there was adequate clearance to fit cable eyelet and washer/nut even with my big hand. Re The flywheel and starter ring position on my Vitesse Mk2 is original and only has 19mm from the front face of the backplate to the front of the flywheel starter ring hence the need for a thinner (5.2mm) aluminium adapter plate, this resulted in the leading edge of the starter stationary gear being 17mm from the front of the backplate, ie 2mm clearance to the flywheel starter ring. The half thickness aluminium adapter plate was what Teglizer advised with the cheaper Isuzu style hi torque starter, if I’d used the normal 10mm thick spacer the stationary starter gear would have been around 7mm back from the face of the starter ring. Looking at your set up It looks like it would have been about the same BUT mine would have had the full thickness 10mm aluminium spacer fitted.

John thanks for the op explanation, always wondered re the pre-engaged description, the starter gear can be pushed out a significant distance so in reality did I need to have the alloy spacer reduced in thickness, having the starter set back might not have been a problem, any thoughts from the members? So no need to remove the starter in a month and check meshing, good I don't have to bugger around with the gearbox cover again, removing it made it easier to fit and tighten the starter mounting bolts single handed

OH&S wise where your head rests on the seat relative to the roll bar tube I'd think of fitting the foam noodle tubing for head protection. I agree with Peter H why did you go for the convertible initially, lets face it the Heralds saloon roof isn't that strong anyway it'll crush very easily.

The machinists comment was the alloy spacer being thin it was difficult to hold and kept coming loose causing issues with an uneven/ constant thickness ie took a lot of hands on supervision! Knowing the issues now I'll get another and do the daughters Spit, what I really must do is the Dolly Sprint but must research what Hi Torpoe starter to use as the specific ones designed for the Sprint are around $500 vs around $130 for the Spit/Vitesse.

I’ve just fitted an Isuzu Trooper 2600 (Aussie Holden Rideo) type high torque starter as per Teglizer directions and had to get the starter alloy spacer cut down to approx half thickness .205inch thick. I had it done in an ex-neighbour’s machine shop he told me to pay what I thought was fair as it cost a lot as it was difficult to hold the spacer to skim it down as it was it was too thin, I gave him $50. Like the suggestion previously it’s probably easier & cheaper to determine the thickness of spacer reqd and get it cut out of alloy plate. Too get adequate clearance I had to fit a thick steel spacer too. Mine a Vitesse Mk2 was 19mm from front of engine plate to front of the ring gear and with the starter at rest the geared drive is 17mm with spacers fitted, appears to work starter spins with no grinding noises. On mine the starter gear can actually spin out quite a distance how far the inertia lets it I don’t know. I was a little worried whilst I set it up to clear at stationary I did worry it would spin out too far and the rear of the starter gear would contact the starter ring so I’ll probably run it a month and remove the starter to see all’s OK with the starter gear and starter ring.

I think it was on this forum long ago the advice re putting a new felt seal in was to soak it in oil for some hrs then compress the felt over a period of days not just to get rid of excess oil but to attain the right felt thickness so you don’t have to keep adjusting the hub play as the seal compress’s now your making me think which way I’ve put the seals in a job for next week, like the rear drive shaft hub seals go in backwards so the excess grease can push past them