yorkshire_spam

MOT tomorrow for the Spitfire, if it passes then I'll book the Dolomite in for next Saturday morning, if it fails I'll book the retest. Interestingly for both cars if I do an online MOT check it now shows as "no information" even though both have had plenty of tests in the last few years. Probably something to do with them both being MOT exempt.

You have to wonder if the toothpaste tube was invented by M C Escher and is using some sort of non-euclidean geometry internally.

Bienvenue @frenchiemk2, la mkII, c'est une jolie voiture ! Welcome to the forum and the Triumph madness.

Proper Yorkshire engineering... just up the road from us! :-)

Good point! I tend to fill with premium (usually VPower) and tune to suit, if some of the volatiles have gone in the last 12 months it won't be quite right.

What's up with the back end? 0 or +ve camber? "jacking up" under hard cornering? What's the overall vehicle mass like compared to stock?

Spitfire out of the garage.... first time since (I think) May 2020! Started, ran ok, a quick run up the road and back to see how she's set for the MOT. Engine not so smooth at very light throttle, but pulls nicely all the way up to 5500 RPM. Slight pull to the off side under very heavy braking (maybe some rust on the discs?) Very happy. A few more checks and I'll be confident to book the MOT.

I believe that's the theory. I never had any issues with it and the threads on the trunnions and uprights were fine when I replaced them - I just wanted the peace of mind of the trunnionless for the 10CR The one-shot grease is described as: STC3435 One shot gives ‘filled for life’ protection > Formulated for all leaf & coil spring Land Rover, Discovery and Range Rover models - 1951 - to date. > Lubricates swivel pins and housing seals, protects spheres. > A semi-fluid grease designed to withstand shock loading in oscillating joints. > Reinforced with solid lubricants, highly resistant to water and salt corrosion. > Better lubrication while driving, less leaks while standing. > One shot gives ‘filled for life’ protection. Land Rover originally specified ep90 for the swivels and it was "superceded" by this stuff.

My 2p's worth... 1) Expensive option: Just go trunnionless 2) Controversial option: Use Land Rover "1-shot" swivel housing grease. It's a special grease formulated to replace EP90 in Series/Defender swivel housings. I used option 2 for years before I invested in the trunnionless kit.

I tend to use LRDirect for them, it allows you to choose which maker you want. https://www.lrdirect.com/TVF100000-Universal-Joint/?keep_https=yes

Brilliant, but given the title "Soil Sifter 2000" I was expecting it to be powered by a Triumph straight 6, not an electric drill!

If this was in Bradford there'd be another car to the right of the one at the junction, too impatient to wait, also turning left, but overtaking the stationary car at the junction ;-) Rules of the road mean nothing around here!

I paid just over 50 each for Falkens fitted, balanced and old tyre disposal with a mobile fitter, so I'd say that's a bargain price!

You young hoodlum!

I run Falken Sincera SN832 Ecorun (175/70 R13 ) on my Spitfire 1500 and I'm very happy with performance and price. I'm afraid when it comes to tyres and brakes I'm happy to have something that looks a little "modern" but is safer. Sorry, no experience of the Mitchelins you mentioned.

On the Spitfire I just run the best branded quality non-adjustables I can source when/if I need them and shortened stiffer front springs. On the Dolomite I'm running ride adjustable but not height (I've tweaked the ride with spring choice), all I can offer is.... when putting ride adjustable shocks on a road car, set to the SOFTEST setting and then back 1 adjustment and road test thoroughly! 🙂 My limited experience suggests that ride adjustable can be a bit hard for road use except at the soft end of the adjustment scale. (Unless you enjoy a shattered spine at every pothole)

Went out to the garage the other night to clean/paint some metal parts for an arcade machine I'm restoring, so I decided to see if the Triumphs were in a good mood and tried firing them up. The Dolomite behaved and fire up no problems, but the Spitfire is clearly sulking, struggled to start, when it did it over-rev'd and then died.... and then it pee'd fuel out of the rear carb. Might need a bit of TLC.

Sounds like a great route taking in some areas I know and love! So really nice "driving roads" around the forest of Bowland

I heard that too @Saltddirk, I hope that by the time we can travel freely again it will be running again, but if not I don't mind travelling to hoek of holland.

Wow, that's just sh1t @ferny, having adventures like that cancelled. 😞

My favourites fall into 2 distinct categories: Frequently used and just make life a little bit better every time (Decent set of combi spanners and sockets!) In-frequently used, but make an impossible job possible (specialist tools) (Brake pipe flaring tool!) But I think the one that's provided best value for money is the cheap digital vernier caliper: No more struggling/guessing the size of anything, bolts, metal thickness, etc etc.

We are playing a "wait-n-see" strategy at the moment, but miss taking the overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge. If things return to "normal" by late summer 2022 I think we'll be taking the Spitfire for a run down to Northern Italy and back. We might go sooner, but I doubt it. Hoping to get a trip to Vienna in again some time, but that'll be a flight, haven't got the time to drive that route!

I stand corrected Tim 🙂 How about "That's strange, because we are hoping to be allowed into Europe mainland by then! 😉" I think the thing I've missed the most over the last 12 months has been some European travel.

That's strange, because we are hoping to be allowed into Europe by then! 😉

I don't think there really is a "cost effective" way to do it. I re-foamed mine using Owen from Park Lane Classics' products - they are excellent, but not cheap.