Roger

Hi all, There has not been any updates about my Vitesse project for a while, but I just found out that PO made a bodge I have never seen IRL before! Long story… I bought an engine (MB prefix) from a scrapyard in Sweden to replace the cracked engine block in my Vitesse. The chap at the scrapyard said that the engine “was a runner before it was removed from the car” and it looked indeed to be in good condition. It was a bit of a challenge to find the correct combination of flywheel and clutch in order to mate it with the original gearbox from my Vitesse but now it is finally back in my car (thanks to all the support on this forum). However, the engine refused to start despite many attempts and I checked everything twice. My approach was to change as little as possible of the settings since the engine was supposed to be a runner. If it ain’t broken, don’t try to fix it… I tried and I tried to start it, but no joy. Finally I had to “dig deeper” in my troble shooting and I used a USB connected “snake inspection camera” to inspect the inside of the cylinders. I was very surprised to find that the top of the pistons where shiny and no carbon deposit on them at all. Some gaskets and all core plugs also seemed to be new as if the engine had been taken apart recently. When I started to check ignition timing I had a lot of problems. There was a good spark but I could not find a proper setting no matter how much I turned the distributor to the left or to the right. This information added up to the fact that this engine was probably not a runner after all when the car was scrapped, and I decided to check if the PO had put the distributor 180 degrees wrong. So I turned it 180 degrees and hey presto! The engine started! The compression is excellent and it is hard work to turn the crank by hand, so I guess that PO took it apart and either had it re-bored or just cleaned it up and put new piston rings. AND he put the distributor 180 degrees out! He probably also tried to start the engine a hundred times and perhaps he just gave up and sent the car to the scrapyard in anger. I’m only guessing of course but I see no other explanation to the facts above. It has been extremely frustrating failing to start the engine over and over again (why didn't I think of this before!) but the positive thing is that I might have bought a renovated engine for peanuts! I paid less than 150 pounds for this engine, so it might have been worth driving a long distance to collect it after all. Happy days! 🙂

The result was not so bad after all! Initially the accidents went down, but increased agian in 1969. From Wikipedia: "The relatively smooth changeover saw a temporary reduction in the number of accidents. On the day of the change, only 157 minor accidents were reported, of which only 32 involved personal injuries, with only a handful serious. On the Monday following Dagen H, there were 125 reported traffic accidents, compared to a range of 130 to 198 for previous Mondays, none of them fatal. Experts suggested that changing to driving on the right reduced accidents while overtaking, as people already drove left-hand drive vehicles, thereby having a better view of the road ahead; additionally, the change made a marked surge in perceived risk that exceeded the target level and thus was followed by very cautious behaviour that caused a major decrease in road fatalities. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents dropped sharply as a result, and the number of motor insurance claims went down by 40%.[citation needed] These initial improvements did not last, however. The number of motor insurance claims returned to "normal" over the next six weeks and, by 1969, the accident rates were back to the levels seen before the change.[14][15][16] Trams in central Stockholm, in Helsingborg and most lines in Malmö were withdrawn and replaced by buses, and over one thousand new buses were purchased with doors on the right-hand side. Some 8,000 older buses were retrofitted to provide doors on both sides, while Gothenburg and Malmö exported their right-hand drive (RHD) buses to Pakistan and Kenya.[17] The modification of buses, paid by the state, was the largest cost of the change".

They changed it on 3:rd of September 1967 but the decision was taken by the goverment in 1963.

I usually check what Triumphs and parts are for sale in Sweden and found this rare thing: Bond 1966 Advert According to the owner it was sold new as LHD in Sweden in 1966 and it is the only Bond in sweden. I hope someone will save it!

The Courier finally arrived to this remote little island today! Great work Pete! The more users we can attract the better, this forum is definitely one of the best benefits with TSSC membership.

Welcome to the forum!

I think I found a reason for my confusion! There are 7 pipes to connect so no matter how I do it one will be left... It turned out that the cylinder head on my old Vitesse HC engine is different. There is a water pipe on the cylinder head on the Mk I Saloon engine but the HC engine has a blanking plug in that place. I guess I will just put a plug where there is a pipe, then I have 6 pipes to connect which should be doable with 3 hoses... Anyone who knows why this is different on Vitesse HC engines and Saloon Mk I engines? (Picture from HC engine). BR Roger

Thanks a lot Paul, that was just what I was looking for, at least the matrix hoses are clear on that picture! I don't know if it was Firefox or if you have spent a lot of time in Sweden, but the answer in Swedish was appreciated 🙂

Progress has been slow on my Vitesse project but I have finally reached a point where I soon can try to start up my “new” engine for the first time. I usually take a lot of pictures before I take anything apart, but unfortunately I have no pictures of where the water hoses goes. I searched for pictures in WSM and by Google “Vitesse engine” but haven’t found a picture yet that shows which hose goes where. Do anyone here have a picture (or can explain) which hose goes where? There are too many of them! I could bypass the heater matrix for the moment, but I don’t want to stop or restrict the water flow in the engine in any way, so even that became a too complicated task for my brain. Thanks in advance! /Roger. Edit: I forgot to mention: The engine is from a Mk I 2000 Saloon, inlet manifold is from original Vitesse HC engine. I don't know if the 2000 Saloon had any different system for heater matrix.

I look forward to read that!

It will take a long time until the latest issue of the Courier reach The Åland Island so I tried without success to download it from the website (despite logged in as a member). But I noticed the latest number is 666 so I suspect that this is related to April the first...

Cats are very vulnerable when they are upside down with their belly exposed to any possible enemy so it’s a good sign to see them in that position. Then you know for sure that they are in a good home feeling purfectly safe and relaxed. The picture doesn’t tell, but Nisse was snoring very loud when I found him on my desk. Never had a cat snoring that loud before. Priceless! Sixten lived for many years in a house with drug addicts and they did not treat him well. He was extremely scared and afraid of everything when we got him. It took two years before he trusted us, but now he is also upside down in the chair. I try (without success) to keep them away from my garage since they get oil on their paws and there are many sharp items on the floor.

Interesting thread! The white / grey one is Nisse as I found him on my desk this morning. A bit difficult to concentrate on work... The black one is Sixten which we rescued a few years ago. I attend a lot of Zoom meetings in my work and they are both a bit famous now within the company I work for. They often attend the meetings.

The Norwegian language is very similar to Swedish so we can communicate to some extent using Swedish & Norwegian. They seem to do a lot with their Triumphs! Norsk Triumph Klubb

Thanks for your reports in the Courier John, interesting to read. Unfortunately I have no updates or photos to share at the moment. There are many Triumph clubs abroad, most of them very small compared to TSSC. A report about some of these clubs might be a subject in the future? Just a thought. The club "nearest" to me is Triumph Club of Sweden Im not active in TCS but I guess most countries in Europe has at least one small Triumph Club and there are several in the US.

I have not tried to fit the large gearbox to the MB engine (yet) so don't know if that works.

Voilà! No gap! Thanks again SM!!!!

Its difficult to show the difference between HC flywheel and MB on a picture, but also the clutch from the MB engine seems to be needed.

Obviously I have collected more parts than I can remember! I DID have a flywheel from a 2000 saloon Mk I and I have done some initial measurements and it seems to have potential 🙂 I will try it tomorrow evening. Thanks @thescrapman for this info!

Thanks for this info SM! I have a big pile of flywheels and that is probably the only version I do not have in my evergrowing collection of six pot parts. A few more one thousand mile trips to Sweden and I should have that one too! 👍

The HC engine is frozen and has long cracks. The HC crank is probably ok, but it is "small crank" and I have 3 other engines (in different condition) but they all have "large diameter" cranks. Hence my questions about bossless small crank engines.

Looking at pictures there is at least one ”small crank +short tail” engine for sale in sweden from an early saloon. Im not sure but maybe that block is identical with my original vitesse block minus the boss. If so, I would investigate the possibility to make an adapter to compensate for the missing boss. The engine for sale has number MH44HE and my Vitesse engine has HC585. Both very low numbers so maybe (I'm only guessing!) they might share the same combination of "crank diameter and tail length". Or maybe I just wish, since I'm a bit desperate to find a combination that works. I wish I had access to the abundance of spare parts you have in the UK.

Hi Nick, the engine I planned to use is not "bossless small crank" it is a later saloon Mk I (MB prefix "with boss") and I honestly don't know why my Vitesse HC gearbox wont fit despite Vitesse flywheel etc. My Vitesse engine is one of the first hence small crank. My thinking was that my gearbox from a small crank vitesse engine would fit a small crank engine from a saloon... It certainly does not fit the MB "big crank" engine I have.

I don't have the luxury of choosing ratios in neither gearbox nor diff. Whatever I get my hands on that brings it back on the road will be used :-)

The saloon gearbox does not seem to share many parts with the Vitesse (just by looking at it). But I just got a reply from PO he will dig deep in his pile of saloon parts and get back to me this evening. It seems like Chris Witor also have most of the parts for the clutch mechanism so there is still hope!