Peter Truman

Ref the old sender had fuel in the float I’ve replaced these plastic floats twice because of this I found a very small hole cut in the float from the cut sharp end of the float mounting arm where it wraps around the float. The cut end has a very sharp edge to it, fix is to file the barb off and round the wire end a little.

As said previously I found the aftermarket felt seal steel backing ring inner dia didn’t clear the stub axle mounting boss and hence was deformed or pushed in on the inner race stopping the bearing rotating freely. I had the lip seals fitted presumably by PO they werE mounted so the rubber slipped over the stub axle mounting boss and I found wear or rubbing marks on the rubber seal backing plate not good hence conversion back to felt seals with serious modification reqd to get felt and backing ring to clear the stub axle mounting boss!!!

These were Formula Ford style reverse rim 5.5in wheels originally fitted to my daughters Mk2 Spitfire when purchased 23 years ago, now fitted with Aus Superlite 5.5in Mini Lite replica wheels. Note there are NO breather holes in the wheel rims, similar to racing Formula Fords here. They were changed as they looked a little bland on the car.

had the same issue of a leaking olive but I soldered the olive to the pipe this stopped the weep/leak.

I used the original dymno bracket too but lightened it with extra holes? as it was a heavy unit all ok but I fitted a new Lucas 15ACR brought very cheap off local eBay chap brought it for his Lotus but had wrong mounting flange! The daughters Mk2 Spit has a locally made NOS Lucas 15ACR for a Holden it’s a lot smaller sized unit compared to the UK Lucas variant brought very very cheap whilst on holiday in Tassie at a bric n brack shop $15 still going strong after 23 years on that I used the std cast ironTriumph Alt bracket which I had.

Yep I used a stiff black belt as the strap on the roof hand straps on my Sprint! Replacing that horrible plastic

you could even fit a tarp plastic clip together eyelet into the mounting hole to limit wear

Switch in the gear-knob in the gear lever is a Touch of the James Bond Goldfinger Ejector Seat! I fitted gearknob switch in the daughters Mk2 J type conversion she prefers it

The gear knob plastic top with gearchange pattern on it just pushes off, there's a small rectangular cut out on its bottom lip where it joins the metal of the actual knob put a thin bladed screwdriver in it and twist, be careful and not ham-fisted, the top then comes off the knob complete with switch you can then remove the two push on electrical connectors & check the switch for operation & connectivity with a multimeter, replacement switch's are available and if you don't mind losing the ON/OFF lettering there are other easily obtained and cheaper generic switch's available, a bit of the wife's red nail varnish for the ON or active position suffices. Ref the knob left on the gear stalk it should be tight there's a thin nut in the top of the actual knob body which is hard to tighten up just ensure it has enough grip then tighten the chrome tapered nut on the underside of the knob using the two small flats filed into this nut, that should tighten the knob on the stalk. The two very thin wires that go up the stalk into the knob and push onto the switch can get damaged causing an earthed or active connection but there easily replaced with suitable thin wires reconnecting to good wiring below the gearbox cover (gearbox cover out job) new switch push on connectors are difficult to obtain I've used some Telephone push on connectors soldered on and heat shrunk that were locally available here in Aus. Hope this helps & others may also expand the knowledge, sorting out the problem is not difficult just needs care. There could also be an issue with the inhibitor switch fitted on the gearbox or other wiring issues, don't select reverse with the overdrive active as this can damage the one way clutch in the overdrive!

We had great issues with big valve flanges (600mm plus) which had full face gaskets the flange bolts got thread bound with the rubber gasket, which is why all my specs specified insertion gaskets only ie a narrow gasket which fitted between the flanges and inside the line of bolts. Mind you I've never had any issues with full face gaskets in a car environment.

Found This in my records, hope it helps

Have you looked at the Anti Roll Bar on my Vitesse the RH side was low I removed the ARB and when layed flat on the ground one side sat 3/4 in up in the air ie twisted, I had it reset ie normalised with a 1/4in preset the other way the car now sits even ie wheel arch to ground equal on both sides.

Rather than the double Brake/Clutch tray you can get individual uints I've seen them fitted to a GT6 locally here.

Had a bent front plate on a MG 1500 engine that I rebuilt to fit into the daughters MK2 the engine is still in the garage decided the 1147 was better a better performer. Interesting to hear Colin’s comment re different front plates between MG and Triumph 1500 engines but even better to read later comment they were the same! I got a a metalwork shop to straighten the front plate by putting in a press with a straight piece or knife edge across where the bend was it looks straight and a straight edge across the bend shows everything is good.

did that on a Morrie 1000 nearly 60 years ago, cousin towed me with rear wheels dragging before the penny dropped!

I replaced the Mk2 Vitesse 2/35A glass fuse holder with a new Lucas unit 20 years ago because the original fuse box clips even when cleaned used to quickly loose tension. After fitting several accessories over the years which I wired through an extra 6 blade small fuse box a couple of years ago, last year I finally wired two 6 blade fused box's one each Battery and the other Ignition each having their own buss bar, the work was simple the only wire extensions necessary were the 3 original battery purple fused outlets a 2in wire extension was required to connect to the existing loom. The dual box's are mounted in the same position as the original Lucas fuse box behind where the battery was,n advantage is if a fuse blows a LED lights up so easy identification is seen. My battery is in the boot/trunk.

That’s as I understand it too don’t blank the offtakes to an oil cooler

I have several DIY tools for awkward bits on Triumphs eg very ground down thin thin-walled sockets and ring spanners for carb insulator to manifold nuts on a Dolly Sprint, cut out ring spanners for brake pipes, thin 1in AF for J Type solenoid plus numerous modified old ring spanners to get around corners. I have a set of long sockets hadn't used them for eons but were handy a couple of weeks ago to tighten up the brake union thro the bracket on the front turrent, now back in their drawer for another few years! I've always used 1/2in drives but found 3/8 and 1/4 handy recently to get the angle/leverage in tight spots.

Looks great Colin, be careful passing cables through, have you got the multi prong tool for doing the dash rose nuts up saves damaging the dash. The rings in the laminate are memorizing as you look at them! Beware!

I run Silicon DOT 5 purple in colour in the Vitesse and I have this DIY plastic covered label screwed to the bulkhead as a warning. Normal brake fluid is hydroscopic ie absorbs water so using a brake moisture test tool should confirm whether or not it's silicon.

The daughters 66 Mk2 Spit has the original removable roof and hood sticks, I looked at and acquired the parts to convert to a folding Mk3 hood, BUT gave up because of the metalwork necessary to mount the 3 bolt mounting flange (each side), this requires major work to the inner cockpit B post to get the angle as well as the adjustable 3 bolt mounting ie new panel work, to much surgery required. Ref the original Mk2 removable soft top, I replaced the windscreen glass rubber seal (by a professional) and the aftermarket seal rubber was thicker than the original so much so that the metal strip that's in the soft tops front envelope wouldn't fit between the alloy top cover strip and the windscreen rubber, so I had to space the cover strip to windscreen frame out a little using a washer between then pop riveted through the 3, ie top cover, washer, windscreen frame, the gap between was also protected with Denso Wrap to stop water ingress.

When I recently stripped the front hub of daughters Mk2 Spit down for the Type 14 brake upgrade the PO had fitted mech (ring) seals not felt so having new felt seals in my spares stock I reverted to original fitment that’s when I found the new aftermarket felt seals didn’t fit easily and needed significant modification to felt thickness and enlarging the steel backing ring inner dia to clear the stub axle mounting annulus outer dia and NOT collapse inwards when the hub was fitted and tightened up which put pressure on the bearings so they didn’t rotate. Sorted now but having to split the felt seal from its backing means the actual felt of the felt seal is stationary and seals or rotates on its backing plate/annulus. I can live with that short term. Ref the rotar to caliper gap it’s not quite central but even with new pads the hub rotates OK and will probably sort itself out. I’ve made but not fitted a couple of thin steel shims to fit between the rotar and the hub so rotar will be pushed back a little. I’ll wait and see how the gap adjusts with use and tightening the hub nut before fitting them. I’m going to get new felt seals I’m awaiting till I get a decent order to optimise postage costs any one know of a supplier of good quality felt seals?

Running esp when stopping never thought to look at the fuel bowl orientation!

I realize were talking Vitesse and Stromberg Carbs here, but just to expand members info my daughters Mk2 Spit had serious vaporization issues around 15 years ago it was only after making DIY heatshields & trial fitting them I realized what the problem was the float bowls weren't vertical they had rotated towards the standard tubular exhaust causing the vaporization. The plastic bush in the carb which orientates the fuel bowl on the rear carb had failed allowing the bowl to rotate, easy fix with minimal dismantling was to replace the plastic sleeve/bush the bowl was then vertical, there are different bush's available to suit different carb and inlet manifold inclinations eg BMC Mini etc, the bush's are colour coded depending on the required float bowl inclination. My DIY heat shields are separate for each carb and are mounted at the rear of the carb to manifold flange so they can be removed for access without disturbing the carbs ie studs replaced with threaded bar extending behind the manifold flange, see photo. I've never found this mod necessary on my Mk2 Vitesse, it's completely standard, with cast iron exhaust manifold.

Metrication When I returned to Aus in 74 the water authority I worked for (MMBW, = Melb Water Corp) was in the middle of metrication and converted to Meters head of water from psi as the pressure unit rather than the more usual engineering pressure unit of kpa. So the pressure recorded at our house is the top water supply of our supply reservoir Dandenong Res at 84mts AHD (above sea level) minus our property RL of 22mts ie a pressure of 62mts, or in the old imperial units 89psi, or metric 608kpa (1mt = 9.81kpa), so to the outside world it could be considered that we totally stuffed metrication up!! To make matters worse we did a soft conversion for all our chart recorders (700 plus) which were converted by changing the weekly circular graph papers from 0 to 100psi to 0 to 70mts (the suppliers nearest available chart),