Peter Truman

I've just got up and read the full discussion, what a quandary, with flippancy could I suggest put an overdrive in then the figures would nearly add up ie revs and speed, the revs should drop around a quarter! what is the engine noise like at the indicated 4000 rpm, at 3000 bearable at 4000 getting a little busy! & forget the radio. I know you tried a friends alternative mech tacho but do you have access to an elect tacho & temp wire it in to confirm revs, easy done. What other Brit cars used a mech tacho driven off the distributor as Pete says has it been switched? I recently converted a Spit Smiths Mech tacho instrument ($20 off fleabay) from mech to electronic with a cheap Chinese aftermarket tacho $10 delivered, hence keeping the face, needle and instrument correct, works great and I can switch between 4, 6 and 8 cylinders. I should buy a couple of spare elect drives! Peter T

In the late 70's on a long drive back from Phillip Is in 40C temp our 2599TC developed a very noisy rocker assembly on dismantling it was scored and some rockers lacked full movement, The cause was lack of oil, the little countersunk bolt/screw that hold/locates the rocker shaft had come out letting all the rocker oil to simply pump out draining straight back to the sump. I had to temporally rob the Vitesse Mk2's full assembly till I could rebuild the rockers! Ref the countersunk bolt fortunately it was too big to fall thro to the sump and had lodged against the rear push rod. My Mk2 Vitesse in the early 70's whilst still in the NE of England suddenly developed a top end "tap" I removed the head checked the push rods, removed the rocker assembly checked all OK, thought a valve might be sticking so gave each valve a tap on the top with the hammer to ensure they moved freely all appeared OK. Time dictated that I put it all back together, NO TAP! and that was nearly 50 years ago and I haven't removed the head again! was the fix luck or ignorance! Peter T

I second the comment re the poor quality of the fibreglass covers, I spent a lot of time re-moulding the mating flanges to get them flat & in the right sealing position. Th covers were UK supplied & shipped so NOT cheap. I would definitely go for the poly units, available locally here in Aus for $190A. I would change them to poly but I have spent too much time & $ installing/moulding the aluminum/bitumen heat sheets I can't remember problems cutting the holes in the fiberglass or chewing up the jigsaw blades, BUT I made a carbonfibre dash board for my daughters Spit Mk2 cutting the 2 big and 2 small instrument holes totally destroyed the cheap electric jig saw blades, I used 12 blades, the blades had no teeth left and were half the depth and cutting the round holes I wasn't going fast! Interestingly the tank hole cutters I used for the switch's & ignition fared a lot better. The same problem was experienced for the Oil, Voltmeter & cigar lighter mounted in a panel set into the radio hole.. Peter T

Just a hint I use an old Jubilee clamp tightened up on the pipe to ensure I get a square & straight cut. Doing it that way I can even use an electric recirc saw & still get a straight cut. Peter T

See attached photo of a Vitesse Mk2 publicity shot showing the rear suspension, the radius arms appear straight with mounting brackets offset, so I assume that means the GT6 are offset. Hope this helps, its too wet & cold tonight to go into the garage, grovel down & check! Peter T

Here's my special UJ home made grease nipple, I think I made it around 30yrs ago, yes its only 1/8in copper oil pressure pipe so obviously you have to be careful but hey its survived 4 Triumphs and a Jag XJ & it still gets used at least once a year on 3 Triumphs but only UJ's. Overall its 4cm long & the ends are just soft soldered on. Tightening up I use a small 1/4 socket just hand tight or a little nip up, every so often the stem gets bent but straightens up Ok till now!! Peter T

Colin L I'll bench test the oil can again with new refluxed nipples to see if the oil will flow through. Poppyman, Johny & Pete I'll ensure the ball is free by probing the nipple orifice with a straightened paperclip, but just the thought will bring tears to my eyes, being a sensitive type of guy! Grumpy aka Peter T

An extension on Pete Lewis comment on bulb alignment another issue is the actual lamp mounting into the lamp bowl esp dipped lamps. here in Vic Aus we run cars on what’s called a Club Permit which isn’t a registration but the owner has a permit to use the classic for 45 or 90 days per annum and whilst no annual roadworthy is required the club and owner are charged with checking the car is roadworthy. Our CP officer (senior police officer!) used to undertake random inspection when the club re-authorised the annual permit, he pinned a stag owner for his dip lights which were rotated out of position. lt appears some cheap Chinese lights have the lugs incorrectly positioned so when on dip they were actually high enough to dazzle oncoming drivers a new set of lights were purchased rather than cutting the mounting ring beware cheap Chinese aftermarket items peter T

Colin with your oil can, can you develop enough pressure to push oil through the grease nipple when oiling them trunnions, I have a similar oil can and I can't get the oil through the std nipple so I removed the ball & spring in the permanently fitted grease nipple and the oil flows easily then I just have some plastic caps (air vacumm seals)to seal the nipple off afterwards. I chose an oil can which was all steel with a brass/steel pump ie no plastic but still not enough pressure. to push thro an un-modified nipple. Peter T

Call me Stupid! When my daughters Spit had the Fuel Vaporization issues ie running badly & stalling before finding the float bowl issue I checked everything electrical & came to the realization that there was NO EARTH STRAP on the engine for 10 years at the time since 2001 that we'd had the car the engine had been earthing out through the choke cable! It now has TWO engine earth straps one at the timing cover to chassis and another from the upper bell housing to the body at the bulkhead. Marvellous what we blame PO's for! When I brought the Dolly Sprint from a friend who has restored many cars to concour, the horn didn't work, no earth wire at the horn! heater fan didn't work, no earth connection! heated rear window, similarly earth connection missing, rear tail lights intermittent , inadequate earthing, fixed with individual earths to each light! I was looking at his TR4 and similarly found a couple of missing earths, I now call him EARTHY as Dopey is already taken up by another club member! Oh by the way I'm Grumpy! In the late 90's my daughters Spit was restored by a Mech Eng, & he did a good job but obviously he only had metric taps and dies coarse thread too boot so sometimes you come across a rethreaded bolt or captive nut which isn't UNF it can be very frustrating, when I find them they get drilled and heli-coiled to the correct sized UNF, but I'm only a Civil Eng. Oh by the way re fuses the Spit has the std two fuses reduced to 25amp fast burn, but I have added an additional 6 point blade fuse box 3 battery and 3 ignition taking their power from the input side of the original fuse box and feeding some existing and new elect items. Similary the Vitesse has been done, but the Dolly (76 and still only 2 fuses??) maybe this summer. An English couple here in a local club who brought their Spit 1500 over to Aus when they immigrated has a multi fused system like the Stag but they fully rewired the car when rebuilding it in the UK, its mounted on the bulkhead behind the battery box, the fuse duty is clearly marked and it looks great. Peter T

Pete's a tenth Dan, who knows everything Triumph & by experience he knows it's going to hurt! A lot of my doctors visits have been Triumph related! cuts, burns, bruises, even scalping of the forehead! Good luck yours is only 12V, our first NEW house in Yorkshire still had power to everything with the fuses removed, NEEB (late 60's) were there in 20 min to investigate & rectify. I was going to wire in power and light to my garage so had removed the fuses to do the hook up! NEEB did it all for me including a separate fuse box in the garage, extra power points and lighting gratis. Peter T

I saw that too & am interested as to why/what the "SPECIAL" relates to? He states it's a Mk1 engine in a Mk2 GT6, I have a very early August 68 Vitesse Mk2, Eng No. HC502xxHE which is flat sided ie no bulges that I can see & feels flat with no strengthening rib at the bottom (my photo isn't too good), I also have a spare Mk2 Saloon 2000 engine MF58xxxHEP which has the bulges, see photos, presumably this was a common block with the bigger throw crank 2500 Mk2 engine. So why would a Mk1 GT6 (pre 68) engine have the bulges from the later Mk2 Saloon engine. & when did the Mk2 Vitesse and GT6 Mk2/3 get the later block. Peter T

My solution to bleeding the heater high point on a Vitesse Mk2, copied from a Renault 8 Gordini I had in Montreal in the late 60's. I always thought what a good idea it was, its just a Yorkshie T with soldered in brass nut in the vertical offtake. Yes it works. PeterT

Aren't all 125 & 150 CD Stroms with the inlet manifold bolts/studs at 45degrees. Just looked at my Vitesse Mk2 and I think you could fit a one piece heat shield via the bottom bolt/stud by replacing the stud with threaded bar right thro the flange and bolt the heat shield on the back of the flange it would be held on by only two bolts not 4. If you need a heat shield, but my Vitesse has never suffered from vaporization even here in Aus!. Peter T

Ref the extractors being a 66 Mk2 I assumed they were OE, definitely look it! The extractors have been there since we brought it in 2001. suppose I could have thought about wrapping them, but it looks so untidy! As Pete said one bolt mounting would fatigue but you could just mount them on the bottom stud/threaded bar but you would have to have a one piece shield where mine was two separate shields one for each carb. It took around 2hrs to make the shields after using a cardboard template to get the mountings right you'll notice the shield has two horizontal folds, that was my error nothing ever goes directly to plan! I reckon they cost around $5Aus to make a bit of scrap Al from the supplier. The other thing about the heat shields is hopefully it will deflect any fuel leaks from the hoses/jets/floats away from the exhaust, I've had a bad run on hoses failing cracking in around 2 yrs, only around the pump and carb connections not the in line fuel pipe connections. Hopefully the last lot of Aus McKay hose will fair better with ethanol fuel says it is OK? just did the Vitesse & Sprint last week. The 2500TC I had in the late 70's used to have a minor vapor lock on very hot days usually after being stuck at the lights, and a Series 3 XJ6 in the early 80's was a bugger I found changing the fuel filter before summer cured that, gee there was some heat in that cars engine bay, there was no where for it to go, but it never boiled. interestingly Jaguars solution to cool the fuel was to run the fuel pipe in parallel and enclosed with the air conditioner cold supply pipe. Somewhere I have the dimensions of the two shields I made. Peter T

My daughter has had a Mk2 Spit for nearly 20 years here in Aus even in hot summers it didn't have vapor locks issues until around 5 years ago then it was a bugger not even hot days it occurred I eventually tracked it down to the plastic washer locating the float chamber to the carb body & keeping the float chamber vertical on the HS2 carbs. The plastic bush had failed letting the float chamber rotate backwards from vertical towards the exhaust extractors hence the vaporization. I replaced the float chamber locating bush and also installed a hat shield to ensure the heat transfer was minimized. I have to admit it took me some weeks to realise this I unnecessarily even removed the head to ensure it was all OK, I also renewed and did a basic carb overhaul at the time. Here's some photos of the home made simple aluminum sheet heat shield you will notice its mounted on the back of the carb inlet flange on the manifold so it can be removed for access without removing the carbs. The original studs were replaced with threaded bar protruding right thro the flange. Note the front shield is scalloped for the incoming hose and also to give good access to the dip stick. Regards Peter T

I've had my Vitesse Mk2 nearly 50yrs (1970) and its always had a 13psi rad cap. Ref running with rad cap off I accidently did it on a Series 3 XJ6 here in Melbourne in the late 80's it was a hot 40C day and I had to drive thro Friday evenings peak hour traffic to a friends beach house down the peninsula, the car ran a little hot but didn't boil (luckily) on checking at the destination here's the rad cap sat on the exhaust manifold heat shield! Did I feel lucky no after effects the Jag surprised me! Re the fan speed at idle the Triumph preference of mounting the fan on the crankshaft pulley ie the point of lowest rev's always annoyed me even the Spitfire has it mounted on the water pump where the different pulley sizes nearly doubles the fans speed. Quite usual here with classics in traffic to sit with the foot on the pedal keeping the rev's above 1500 to aid cooling, but I've never got to the point of putting the heater on to assist cooling like a friend had to in the early 70's in the south of France to stop his Ginette G15 from boiling his girl friend wasn't impressed & she couldn't in modesty take anything else off! Peter T

Pete my typo their both 44D4 one with the other without the advance. Peter T

Haven't seen many queries re Sprints here but here goes I have a 76 Sprint supplied new here in Aus by Leyland Aus, it's one of around 50 recorded as supplied originally with a LSD. My question were all Sprints supplied with auto advance retard vacuum on their 44D4 distributors as the one fitted to my Sprint doesn't have it, the place where it is normally fitted has a pressed & formed bulbus cover (presumably Lucas) utilizing the normal advance/retard mounting screws. the carb vacuum offtake has a plastic plug over it. I have a spare engine and that 42D4 distributor which I have recently cleaned and recoed has the auto advance/retard diaphragm fitted. The Leyland or Hayes maintenance manuals only mention the auto advance/retard fitted distb, same the Leyland Spare Parts Book. Were some Sprints fitted without the auto advance vacuum & does anyone know why? Could it be a Leyland Aus fixture for the 50 LSD models which I assume was something to do with the Sprints homologation for the Aus Bathurst 1000 race around 1976. Regards Peter T

Seen Minty Lamb's site but I used the Telgez** site for the step point measurements. I have access to a small lathe (heart surgeon friend! who doesn't have time to play) but by the time I finished with it bet it would be hour glass shaped! Think I'd do better with a drill and emery paper. The 5P has an interesting profile up down, richer, weaker, richer? Will try the 6J first daughter already working on how to run engine out of car. Had to get my daughter (aerospace engineer) to produce the graph, I initially did it old hand "Drew it". Re weather all relative as anything < 10 bloody cold, sometimes 14 can be nice all depends on wind and sun, Sat 16C BUT windy! Cleaning the pool at 10C gives you chilblains. I have a cousin in Winnipeg Canada now that gets cold. I've lived twice in Canada and that's why were in Australia. Peter T

I've been doing some more searching re the compatible Twin 150CD Stromberg Carb Needles as an alternative to the usual HS4's fitted. The attached graph shows the usual needles fitted to the HS4's on a Spit 1500 ie ABT or ABN, with similar profiled needles for the Stroms. In my mind it appears the 5P Stromberg Needle looks the nearest, any comments? am I on the right track. I'll try the 6J's first as I have several! The graph is adjusted for the difference in measured points between SU (16) and Stromberg's (13), that's why there are 30 steps on the X axis. Interestingly the 7B needle fitted to the 150CD Vitesse 1600 appears richer than that fitted to the 2000 Saloon Mk1 needle 6J? The jets on both the SU & Stromberg carbs were 0.0900in so compatible? Its a cold, cloudy, damp winters day here in Melbourne with a max temp of only 14C so playing on the computer in a heated house was appropriate. Regards Peter T

It'll be a little time to I get to try the mod, but whilst cleaning and replacing parts on the 3116 carbs I decided to check the difference of the 7B (Vitesse 1600) & 6J (Mk1 2000 saloon) metering needles, the 6J is slightly larger (see table attached) meaning the orifice annulus between the jet and needle is smaller with the 6J needles could this therefore be a better starting point for the smaller capacity Spit 1500 engine? My query is simply the availability of the 6J needles I have 4 from my old store of 150CD carbs. Comperison of Stromberg 6J & 7B Metering Needles.xlsx

I like the description of Thames Barrier Choke, my wife was Sec to the MD of the company in the NE that I believe made the gates" Head Wrightsons" & I worked for the opposition, where my father was an exec "Power Gas/Ashmores" interesting when we were both quoting on the same job! I think it's called "Sleeping with the Enemy"! I have good condition 3116F & R carbs with 0.9jets, two heavier diaphragm weights, I need the metering needles 7B/ B16837. I did find an Aus outfit selling all different Strom needles (from Ford falcons & Holden Torana;s & Kingswoods) on ebay, but am having difficulty locating them again, if not I'll chase Burlins. Thanks for the help Peter T

Thanks for the info both of you. Pete I have 4 spare 150CD carbs all 3116 models (F & R, and FN, RN) 2 ex saloon 2000 model which have the light weight diaphragm retaining ring with dashpot springs of the other 2 rough spares both have the heavier retaining ring one with and one without the spring? so with Triumph as usual anything goes! I checked the Burlin model specifics pages and for the later 1600 Vitesse it quotes 3027F & R model carbs, with the heavy weight diaphragm (damper) and no spring, as you quoted Pete the metering needle is a 7B & quotes a B16837, so that's a starting point. I'd be interested what is the difference between the 150CD models 3116 and 3027. Regards Peter T

Thanks Pete I haven’t seen one of those thick/heavy diaphragm retaining rings before. I’ll have do some searching re local carb suppliers firstly then UK. I don’t think there’s any Vitesse 1600’s here in Aus, there’s only about 25 in total in Aus, NZ more as sold/assembled there. there’s a Chris Witor tome on Storms that shows the retaining ring with part No. so that’s a start Thanks Peter T