Peter Truman

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

There was a rebuilt 3'27 locally here for sale for quite a while on Gumtree but it wasn't cheap around $1100Aus, haven't seen it advertised for a while. Nigel I never understood why the 3.277 was fitted to the Swiss supplied GT6 models with all them mountains! having driven over them around them and thro them many times in my Vitesse Mk2 with a 3.89 diff the 3.27 long legs just didn't add up!

Thanks Colin but the 9500 number Would indicate an early car Spit 4 around 63 which I would have thought was pre emission California and Nadarism

Pete it was at the end ie suffix

We have a couple of skinflint members who have both had issues with aged tyres failing (bleb on inside one blew other couldn't hold the steering wheel) fortunately no injuries or car damage but scared the sh**t out of them. Even then we had to threaten them with withdrawing their Club Permit on the car (effectively their registration) unless they replaced all the cars tyres Up until around 15 years ago it was normal for Taxi owners to leave their new tyres out in the sun for an extended period so they got hard so when they were fitted they lasted a long time, practice has stopped now! Personally I go for the softest rubber compound I can find as I will never wear the tyres out on my classics due to mileage.

I had a call today from a fellow Triumph nut here in Melbourne searching if I knew of a Spitfire with Engine No. FC95XXGE, presumably a Spit4. What interested me was the engine GE suffix, E is for Engine I assume, but what is the G, The car was Australian delivered, but as I understand it Triumph UK delivered fully assembled engines complete with their engine numbers to AMI for CKD assembly, AMI fitted the Triumph bulk provided Comm Nos to the Aus assembled car

I seem to remember a local chap here who races a very nice GT6 putting the higher ratio 3.45 or 3.27 diff in his car which required a larger crown wheel hence some internal surgery with an angle grinder was reqd to make it fit, it was a discussion over coffee at a club early morning drive. I could ask him for clarification as to what he used and what was necessary if reqd.

Ian as I said I'd measure my spring ie original 52 years old it is 1.51in free length less than the WSM of 1.55in and I run at over 70psi hot and 2000rpm, I won't be replacing or assisting the spring. Interestingly in the early 60's dads merc 300SEL OE oil pressure gauge had a max full scale of 4.5kg/cm2 (around 70psi), and when running always ran at full scale and only dropped onto the scale at idle, so I assume from that that higher pressures were irrelevant and running pressures of 50 to 60psi were good. In reality the rough accuracy of our oil pressure gauges mean they are only indicators that everything is OK normal if 50 to 60 or there is potentially an issue if dropping to under 40, if your not consuming oil or blowing smoke then alls good!

I agree with you Ian it is a PRV so if it blows off pressure to the sump by opening up at 50psi it will deliver more flow to the oil ways and bearings at 60psi when it opens within the limitations of the oil way "coeff of friction", the result of the increased pressure could be more leakage than usual for a Triumph engine from the external extremities. My never rebuilt Mk2 Vitesse engine develops nearly 100psi on startup and around 80 normal running dropping to around 65/70 on a hot summers day, idle >25 normally maybe around 20 on a hot day. For the first 30 years I always worried that there was a restriction in the oil passage ways, for the next 20 years after that I reckoned as it had lasted that long (now 52years) whatever caused the high pressures wasn't causing any long term effect! I did remove and clean the PRV once around 1972 when at 4:30AM driving my wife to catch an early overseas flight I noticed the running pressure was only 40psi, at Middleton St George Airport I removed the valve checked all was clean refitted and all OK back to around 70+psi as it has been for the last 48 years since! What caused it maybe the valve dislodged sideways a little a bit of debris I'll never know. I'll check the spring length and let you know, it could be the depth of the valve seat in the block varies between engines which increases or decreases the spring tension and seat pressure, there's tolerances everywhere! I've tried different PRV cap nuts from other engines which hasn't made any difference to the pressures.

I pulled the plunger out after taking the cap out by inserting And screwing a small self tapper Into the hole in the piston rod then pulling it out. Colin you are having fun hope the switch bracket is the end of the tunnel

Would a multimeter continunity test ie the buzzer determine if there is any polarity, ie each lead to the solenoid body in turn if no buzzer or continunity signal then I presume the solenoid is not polarity sensitive. Any comments advice from those electricity charged appreciated!

Our Mk2 comes thro the floor at the boot floors front left hand corner but the car had a body off bare metal job so that may not be original!

Are the rollers are the same size!. Gee your having fun I have had a roller come out and trap in the end of the cap. the cap wouldn’t sit home and stopped the circlip seating what a bugger that job was and if I remember I thought about putting another roller in but it was a different size so I replaced the whole UJ again.

Thinking about the polarity the old solenoids didn’t appear to be polarity sensitive as they just had two same sized spade terminals so supply and earth could go on either so why would it’s replacement which has flying leads be any different?

Unfortunately it’s the weekend (and were still in lockdown) but our old neighbour has a relatively large gear manufacturing business his nephew had a side business specialising in 4wd equipment and sold a Modern US overdrive option for the previous model Toyota Landcruiser which was a direct copy of the Laycock J type I would run down and find out if the solenoid wiring was relative it’s colours and what the solenoid looked like?

Both my J types had copper washers on the solenoids BUT was that original?

Thanks for that clarification I’m waiting for a set of new O rings to arrive then will re-assemble and hope it moves enough I must re-read Marcus’s expose on his solenoid

Colin I’m confused after the video you advised yours moved like video, then in the last post you state it’s solid! similarily mine seemed not to click in the box but definitely clacked and moved after cleaning and on the bench. Marcus any feedback re amount of movement in video is it enough!