Peter Truman

I'm not suggesting this is your problem causing the hose mis-alignment but it is what we found on my daughters Mk2 Spit after a lot of searching repositioning the rad elongating holes ensuring the rad cap cleared the bonnet etc!. Her Spit had been in an accident before we brought it near completion with a full bare metal and body off rebuild by the previous owner it was determined the chassis was damaged so a replacement chassis which was in good condition was fitted (interestingly within 100 number of the original chassis), but unfortunately it wasn't realised at this rebuild time that the Spits used different Turrents to the rest of the small chassised Triumphs ie the distance from the top wishbone pivot to the engine mount differs on the Spit it is shorter by more than an inch which relates to the engine sitting lower and hence the thermostat cover and top hose having a better alignment. We changed the RH Turrent to a Spit one and it dropped the engine at the front by just more than an inch so the top hose alignment whilst not perfect is very acceptable (good quality 3 row alloy Rad fitted). It was quite a faff changing over the turrent ie powder coat the new turrent dismantle steering column, shim and align the new turrent.

gives a new meaning to "I can p##s higher than you". The UK water authority I worked for in the early 70's had distb/retic mains pressures up around 60psi at the lower elevations and I can remember transfer pressures of 100psi, do you now pressure reduce your household offtakes? If I remember in the UK only the kitchen sink cold water tap, garden tap and supply to the header tank is at mains water pressure all other house supply is from the in roof header tank, whereas here the whole house operates at full mains pressure generally even the hot water services are direct mains pressure. Interesting thing about domestic PRV's (generally spring and piston) they cannot control pressure without flow, so when you go to bed at night the pressure in your house will be regulated if you don't use any water overnight the pressure will slowly creep up to the incoming or street mains pressure so when you open the tap for the first time in the morning it'll blast out hit the sink bottom and you'll possibly be one of the wet tee shirt brigade (how do I know one recently married young lady complained, should have asked her to show me! solution told her to go to the toilet first thing before making breakfast so the cistern took the pressure blast), thereafter with normal daytime use the pressure will be regulated, we here in Melb legally only pressure regulated the house service if the mains pressure was >105mts head (150psi), the customer can put his own PRV on downstream of the meter if he wants. Our own house was used as a test service for domestic pressure reduction (in late 70's 80's) and we found you had to get down below 30psi to reduce/have an impact on household consumption, we also tried flow regulation to an upper limit using Dole valves, found below a max of 8lpm was too restrictive and the direct mains pressure hot water could cause dangers of scalding in the shower as the cold water didn't dilute the water temperature as effectively, ask the wife!! One of the 3 main Retailer Co here has had a program of pressure reducing zones more to reduce mains burst frequency min pressure in zone of 40psi, but some of it was notional ie minor reduction and not worth the expense or water quality issues with more dead ended bigger retic mains at the increased number of zone boundaries, and the workforce necessary to keep those boundaries in tact, the other 2 Retailers aren't convinced! of the benefits & haven't followed the exercise. If I remember Wessex Water used to successfully pressure reduce in tiers thro their system with pressure regulated by zone demand, ie as demand increased the pressures were increased to maintain adequate min pressures/supply and conversely reduced as demand decreased, that was late 80's and not aware how it progressed.

Just read the Sept Courier on the club Web site at least 2 weeks earlier than receiving paper copy, here in Aus. Read it using a 10in iPad The page Is bigger than paper copy so easier to read one page per screen, It’s taken some time but well done TSSC Committee and esp thanks to Bern for uploading and Int Sec’s for perusing. Maybe ask the Int members if they need the paper copy so save the postage I know Overall it’s a minor expense Peter T

What about modern car wiring thin with a harder and thinner insulation

Remember in the UK the garden hose operates at full mains pressure probably between 40 and 100psi and water contained (shut outlet) is in-compressible so a sealed matrix would be at full pressure probably many times its normal operating pressure!! I flush my heater cores out using the garden hose at 100psi mains pressure (generally in Aus the whole house plumbing/fittings operate at full mains pressure) via both the inlet and outlet pipes. It cleans the matrix out well and there will be an increase in pressure within the matrix equal to at least or probably greater than the car coolant pressures of say 15psi.

Synchroniser sounds like mine the little domed valve In the throat can be adjusted to give more air by screwing In/out a little then the little red ball will drop down towards the middle or bottom of the tube & you can balance the two carbs. Had mine around 40 years made in Taiwan I don’t know if I lost the instructions or there weren’t any?

I used nylon hose on the Vitesse as I omitted fitting the steel pipe when the body was off & to avoid a central rubber pipe joint thro the central outrigger, I strengthened the nylon jointing by using a thin internal stainless steel sleeve in the nylon at the joints so when joining the nylon to steel pipe with rubber pipe the hose clips don't compress the nylon pipe which would neck at the joint and with time ultimately leak if not supported internally

My Mk2 Vitesse fan switch failed just last month it was only 52 years old, why did Triumph use double pole switch, the internal spring had disintegrated. I simply replaced it with a single pole on off Lucas switch the Vitesse is easily accessed thro the ash tray on top of the dash. If I remember correctly the daughters Mk2 Spit has the same single pole switch

I got the idea from the 6 potter engines which have threaded ends so why not the Spit

On the 22nd I advised I had cut the steel pipe off , drilled it out for 2in and tapped the two ends of the manifold heated pipe with 3/8in NPT male threaded and barbed brass fittings, it could be NPT or BSP threads as there nearly the same and I have both? Here's two pics of the arrangement note the barbed ends to grip the rubber 1/2in hose that is a good fit.

Colin those bullets sleeves look newish so they should hold the bullets tight. I’ve had problems with the old original 50 year old bullet sleeves/connectors the spring metal internals have relaxed and tarnished and eventually break a lug off so the bullet is loose inside. I brought a swag of new bullet sleeves single and double connectors and have been slowly replacing them on the car so they are tight. Reconditioning also includes using a small Dremmel rotating wire brush to clean up the bullets before reconnecting Pushing them home. Replacement started with problematic connections under the bonnet especially at the front lights and in the boot tail lights, but continues on I will probably have to buy around another dozen or so single and half that Double connectors To finish, Think I’ve already used around 20.

Bummer re high torque starter option, If you have to replace the ring gear its not to hard send the wife out, ring gear in the oven for 1/2hour and flywheel in the freezer, make sure the flywheel is level and drop the ring gear over it, mine dropped down easily and immediately locked in place, but you only get the one chance!

I've got a set of new GAZ Adjustables to fit on the Vitesse with some dark blue new poly top bush's which are quite hard. I will probably do in the next month anything to watch out for in fitting and setting them up, noting Pete's comment re subsequent wear in the top plate. Were running adjustable Koni's on the Mk2 Spit been on 15+ years and still good, brought cheap on local eBay as NOS and I took them to the local Koni Service Centre who confirmed they were new, BUT that model/year/age had a fibre washer in them that didn't last so suggested a service to replace it, I was never sure if I wasn't taken, but the cost fitted cost me just under $230 so I was happy.

I believe a high torque starter engages from the opposite side of the starter ring to the std Lucas Bendix unit so replacing the std starter with a high torque could get a second life out of the existing starter ring gear. Anyone done this and is it that easy a fix? I've heard ref to it but never seen it done.

why not use P=V*I, simpler, 60 watt power at 12v = 5amp.

Colin I feel for you the frustration! the fact all was OK for 40 miles then the issue re-occurred, had you activated the O/D in that 40 miles? I know its illogical as independently reverse works but as the reverse power source is the common supply, have you isolated the reverse supply at its incoming supply at the reverse switch on the gearbox so the O/D is the only active circuit on that supply, then see if it still blows the fuse. I know it doesn't make sense BUT at this point I'd try anything! Thinking out loud what would happen if the reverse light was on all the time ie switch failed and circuit to earth via reverse bulb then you activated the overdrive switch via gate 3/4 would that common source already be earthed? it shouldn't be a problem till the column switch is closed and provides power! sorry just thinking out loud its doing my head in & that's not hard at the moment when you've been in isolation/lock down effectively since March! Otherwise as Non Member says isolate the new column switch at its bullets again and see if it blows or even wire in a loose hanging separate switch and see if all is OK.

I cut the pipe at the manifold drilled out the rusty heater pipe for around 2in at each end then taped the alloy manifold 3/8in NPT and Screwed in a threaded/push on hose Brass Union fitting so the hoses just went right up to the manifold

Seems to be current trend we were in Taiwan for our sons wedding and his father in law arranged one of his chauffeured cars to take from Taichung to Taipei 2hrs freeway driving. The young driver had a Merc 250 which did 1500rpm at 110kph it was raining like hell 2in on the freeway what a great driver he was maintained speed without getting close to any other vehicle By comparison our Jag does 2100rpm at 110kph

Davies Craig beat you to it their controller part No. Kit 8001 at $313 or around $505 incl pump. The controller is adjustable and controls both the pump speed and thermo fan, several of our members here in Oz have installed them both in the Stag ( hence OK for Sprint and slants) and big 6 saloons and they work very well, even at our higher ambient temperatures. although today here in Melb its Bl***y cold an Antarctic blast from the south with a max temp of only 9C and snow flurries down to 400mts, at RL of only 20mts I think were OK but expect hail. rain from the south very good for our water supply catchments so there's some good from it!

Colin I was alluding to was the worm and pinion drives in the O/D, the Spit 1500 with J type O/D could have 2 different worms 5 or 6 start and correspondingly 2 different pinions with 18 or 20 teeth ( the non O/D appear to have 1 of 5 different pinions with 20 to 25 teeth). By comparison the Dolly 1850 non O/D 3 rail and single rail appear to have different worms and pinions with the single rail having 2 pinion options too. The worm is the same part No as the non O/D GT6, 157028, couldn't find the corresponding GT6 pinion But the Dolly 1850, 3 rail and single rail J type O/D both have the same worms and pinions, worm NKC45 (blue) and pinion NKC48 (grey 20 teeth) So it would appear the speedo worm and pinion drives should be compatible between the Dolly 3 rail 1850 and GT6, don't know about the speedo head though & it depends on what diff ratio is fitted too! for info I've attached a spreadsheet I made when trying to determine what was the best worm and pinion for the Mk2 Spits conversion from 3 rail to single rail internals in a 3 rail box casing with a J type overdrive and using a 4:11 diff, I won't say its definitely right but it was the best info I could find. Gearbox Speedo Worm & Pinion Drive.xlsx

Colin what speedo drive is fitted if your car as your using a Dolomite 1850 J type box, if ratios are the same then I assume the speedo drive should be consistent with a GT6 but are the speedo heads comparable. I’m interested as I have one to put in my Vitesse but it’s a single rail so needs internals fitting into a 3 rail case. I did my daughters Mk2 Spit with 1500 box internals and J then need to use some weird US spec speedo drive.

Don't know about Davies Craig controller but the normal Elect Fan Conversion using a simple relay (see Richards post) we found when wiring up the Spit fan; A manual control illuminated switch didn't work ie lite up when 'switched on' except at the instant of turning it on and off, a separate light as per Richards diagram had to be fitted powering off the battery feed to the fan relay 87. Power to the fan is controlled by the relay which is activated by the ignition supply 86 so when the ignition supply is turned off the relay deactivates and the fan will stop as the battery supply to the relay is broken, ie the latched battery supply 30 thro 87 is broken. We brought a cheap $20 kit locally supplied here, which included the fused relay, thermo switch (3/8in NPT), 3/8in NPT to 3/8in BSP brass adapter, good length of various coloured and gauge wiring, connectors, and thermal cut out, we had to supply the manual over ride switch. hey it works great I've subsequently brought a range of Thermo Switch's around $4 ea ex Hong Kong so the daughter can experiment which she wants, I pulled one to bits its all brass and its well made, I also glued (JB Weld) a second blade fuse holder onto the relay integral blade fuse so both the battery and ignition supplies to the relay were fused. Re the D-Craig controller our club members have installed them on the parcel shelf and in the glove box where they can play with the controls/settings.

Isn't a 1/2in chuck on a drill OK!! Like Colin I have access to a large engineering workshop (neighbors) BUT I have to wait their convenience, but the finished job is better than any Triumph quality. Reminds me I have a couple of jobs I want done, Merv are you there! no that's not Kimba's shit on your lawn!

I'm with you classiclife, the proof is in its actual fit for purpose. We fitted a probable Chinese 10in elect fan adapted as a pusher on the daughters Mk2 Spit eons ago from a local motor supply chain, the local product name was Calibre it performs well and the car has coped with greater than 40C and extended traffic jams. next time I'm out of covid lock down and down at her place I'll check the power and amp ratings and its actual performance. Iain very interested in your thread as I've always wanted to convert my Mk2 Vitesse but the space and possible size has always thwarted my doing it!

Have a dismantled J Type solenoid on the bench, the circlip is 10.1mm uncompressed outside diameter, by 0.96mm thick