Waynebaby

Not sure Dave's are sourced from the TSSC shop. The ones from the shop (which I use without problems) have a mixture of right angle and straight plug connectors to make sure the leads fit easily around the dizzy and avoid the alternator (they have right angle only on cylinder 1, 4 and 5) They also have a natty TSSC logo printed on the leads! Wayne

Have you had the top of the fuel pump off at any stage? It is possible to put the top back on slightly “out” (there is a tiny peg) which means that the pump sucks air rather than fuel. This usually means no fuel gets drawn at all, but if the leak is very slight it might explain your problem.

A second vote for Trying Mick Dolphin for the asbestos spacers. I bought two off him last year - I don't think I got his last two! Wayne

When you come to retightening the nut and bolt in your photo don’t over-tighten things. Just nip it enough to hold the fasteners securely. There needs to be a little play or the gear selection can be difficult.

Silence is golden It never fails to impress me what a great resource the forum is and how invaluable the advice can be. As suggested, some anti-rattle springs quietened my noisy pads. Looking at the pin holes on the Mintex pads, I can't see how they can ever be quiet without the use of anti-rattle springs because the holes are lozenge shaped. When you spin the wheel too and fro you can hear them clacking back and forth in the calipers. If anybody is thinking of up-rating their brakes to use Mintex pads and the calipers don't have anti-rattle springs already fitted, then it would be worth getting some at the same time. Wayne

Hi Pete, This is the style of shim I have fitted. No anti-rattle spring. Wayne

Many thanks Pete, My shims don't have the spring bits so I'll get a set and see if that quietens things down. Wayne

Hi Chaps, The old pads were silent, these are the right mintex pads (big holes with large diameter pins), I've fitted the old steel anti-squeal shims and the hub end float is fine, so I'm not sure what the problem is. There is a slight warp on one of the disks so perhaps the "grabbier" pad material is, well, grabbing the disk when it is warm? (having said that, the pedal is nice and hard, so there is no evidence of pad knock back). What are the edge loading springs you speak of Pete? I don't have any anti-rattle springs fitted. Wayne

Kwik Fit can check the toe in , camber and castor and if they don't adjust anything it's free. They'll only be able to adjust the toe in at the front though, since removing/adding shims is beyond them. Wayne

Hi All, I recently fitted a set of Mintex 1144 pads to my GT6, and after following Pete's guidance for bedding them in I have to say that the improvement in performance of the brakes with the new pads is excellent. I have noticed however that the new pads rattle from time to time - usually after a few miles of 60 mph+ driving without using the brakes. Slow down to drive through a town and its NAKANAKANAKANAKA for a couple of miles before they quieten down. Has anybody else found this issue with the Mintex pads and is there anything that can be done stop it? I know that noisy pads is a small price to pay for actually being able to stop as quickly as the car in front, but it is a bit embarrassing! Wayne

Chris, The timing you quote is for an emission controlled car. I believe that for UK cars you should be aiming for a idle strobe setting of 10 to 13 degree BTDC. In my experience most carb problems lie in the ignition system 🙂, so altering your timing may well sweeten things up. Wayne

Try the willowtriumph.com website. Tim has a gallery of pictures of a V8 spit conversion he did for a customer.

The "first operating position" seems to vary from trunnion to trunnion (perhaps depends on where the thread starts?) You need to make sure that the trunnion will allow the full range of lock to lock movement. Wayne

Thanks gents. That’s what I thought would be the case.

Hi All, Can anybody tell me how the rain gutters (part # 815015/16) are fixed to the windscreen frame on a GT6 Mk3? I've got some rust in mine and wonder how to get them off/replace them. I'm guessing that they're spot welded? Many thanks Wayne

I had similar sounding symptoms on my GT6 (a "soft misfire" in the high gears and a sporadic fluctuation in the tickover) After changing practically every ignition component and endless fiddling with the carbs I eventually tracked the problem down to the ignition timing. When set "correctly" using the timing marks and a strobe the misfire happened. Using the tried and tested timing method of adjusting the distributor to give the fastest tickover and then backing it off a gnats (which gave way too much advance according to the timing marks) cured the problem. This might not be your issue, but a quick check to see if advancing the distributor changes anything might be worth a try. Wayne

Hi Dave, The TSSC North Yorkshire group have a facebook page. They tend to meet near to York - don't know if that is any closer to you. Wayne

I’ve lived in the North East of England for 35 years and I still can’t get used to drinking pints like this. This is at the Sun Inn in Stockton on Tees, which serves more pints of draft Bass than anywhere else in England, so they must be doing something right.

Matthew, There's an article in the latest Practical Classics magazine on buying Spitfires which contains the attached graph showing the increase in price over recent years. Whether this trend is going to continue is anybody's guess. I wonder if anybody else has spotted the deliberate mistake in this article? Apparently the rear spring is a pig to fit without a spring lifter! Can't say I've ever seen a rotoflex spitty. Wayne

The WSM says to press out the stub, so I’m guessing that there’s some force required. It might be you need to take the VL out to do this but I’ve not done it myself so perhaps someone else might have a better idea.

It should come off if you undo the big nut on the back of the vertical link. It’s torqued up to @ 100 lb ft so it’ll take some effort.

The other spares you'll need for this job are two medium sized friends (or anything else equivalent to ~140kg) to put in the car to achieve the necessary static load before you torque up the trunnion and lower damper bolts. I understand that this is necessary since otherwise the bushes suffer because they'll be set in a different orientation to their normal operating position.

In my opinion they are more trouble than they are worth. I only keep one on my Mk3 GT6 because, being a late car, it is a standard fitment and therefore not having one would be an MOT failure. I might be unlucky, but my experience goes like this: The original servo didn't work and drank brake fluid, the replacement NOS Girling Powerstop leaked fluid through the breather valve and after "repair" this servo injected fluid into the manifold like the first one. Only after being overhauled by a specialist did the new one cease to be incontinent. Given that the service schedule for the Powerstop is to re-seal the unit every three years this is a lot of trouble for a servo which gives minimal assistance. Wayne

I've just changed the trunnions on my GT6 and found the job a lot simpler than I anticipated, but I think this is down to how readily the bolt holding the trunnion to the wishbone co-operates. As far as spare bits are concerned, along with the trunnions themselves I got a couple of new split pins for the hub nuts, two new trunnion bolts/nylock nuts (7/16" U.N.F. 2.5"), and two trunnion bush kits. If you think you're going to mangle the hub grease caps getting them off you might want to get a couple of these. I bought new trunnions because both of mine were leaking the oil from the swaged plate at the bottom. This leakage is a common fault and can be remedied by covering the bottom of the trunnion with an epoxy paste like J-B Weld, but this can only be done successfully if applied before the metal is contaminated with oil. I got all the bits from Canley classics, but any of the usual suppliers will stock these parts. I'd hold off buying new vertical links until you've examined them, because they're ~£100 a side. Wayne

Thanks guys. I noticed that it is possible to buy complete new hinges after I bought the pin (typically) but now I have it I may as well use it.