Mik

Well that was fun

I believe camping is available on site on Thursday night.

I'm entered for the track day too. Based on a recent email I think the organisers are waiting for a better idea of the number likely to attend before coming up with the final plan for the day which is probably why there are no "rules" yet. The entry form asks you to classify yourself in one of three experience categories though so I assume the intention is to run sessions for each group if there are enough people.

You can get a much bigger single box under the boot floor and make it really quite high if you exit the tailpipe under the rear wing. As others have commented though the lowest part will be where the pipe passes around the diff. and chassis. Also where it goes under the gearbox if you have a larger than normal diameter main pipe section as my rather non-standard car does. Having said that, on a standard car I always found the original silencer arrangement to be fine. Please excuse the amateur mechanic fiddling with my driveshafts

Yes, I do Polycarbonate (genuine Lexan in fact though that was just what turned up when I ordered them, no idea if there's any difference between brands of polycarbonate). The question of how to fit the side windows depends largely on how much of the original door you want to keep. In the previous incarnation of my race car I just cut polycarbonate to the shape of the original glass, removed the winder mechanism (to save weight) and bolted a channel across between the original winder channels at the position the glass would have been supported with the window fully up. Then I just fitted the plastic windows as a direct replacement for the glass. Apart from the usual issues with plastic being more flexible than glass and therefore being pushed out at speed (two or three inches at the top in fact) this system worked well. The flapping top edge was solved by attaching a small length of aluminium angle under the edge of the hard top. Just push the window under the "tab" when closing the door. Having just finished rebuilding the car I've replaced the steel doors with fibreglass ones that have the inner skin cut away (mostly to clear the roll cage but I must have saved at least a couple of grams weight too ). That meant a new approach to the windows so I started again with a polycarbonate window that extends down inside the door and is supported with aluminium angle , long bolts and spacers very much like John was describing earlier. Despite using much thicker plastic I couldn't get enough tension to hold them in though so I've kept the tabs under the hard top as well. Not sure if this link will work. If it doesn't I'll try and share this picture a different way. https://goo.gl/photos/knBow2rV3VTaowi97 As for the rest of the windows, I've left the windscreen as standard laminated glass. I don't have quarterlights and all the others were polycarbonate anyway that came fitted to my fibreglass hardtop.

Steering column bent perhaps? I've seen a column with the lower part bent slightly before now although it never affected the steering at all in that case.

Yes, the bushes fit from the inside with the clutch fork between them. Unfortunately that means you can't replace the bushes without removing the gearbox from the engine. There should also be a "tolerance ring" which is a sort of crinkly metal thin walled tube that pushes into the hole in the clutch fork itself. That takes up the slack and grips the pin so the pin turns with the fork and rotates in the bushes (rather than being jammed in the bellhousing and rotating in the fork which wears the fork pivot). The tolerance ring dissolves after many years and at the very least that leaves some lost motion in the clutch fork pivot which won't help if your clutch is marginal anyway. Lack of this part is also the reason the pin can fall out. At least some of the replacement pivot pins come with a head on them these days too so they can't fall out downwards. If you choose to use a bolt instead of a "proper" pin, do as "yorkshire_spam" said earlier and find one that has a long enough unthreaded part and cut off the thread. Using a threaded bolt just damages the clutch fork pivot (especially if the tolerance ring is missing as well!). I used a threaded bolt as a temporary fix once. Like all "temporary" fixes it ended up left in there for ages and ruined the clutch fork.

Just thought I'd update this thread. I didn't have any old parts to compare with as I've converted from spitfire to GT6 brakes and lost the spitfire parts somewhere along the way. Found someone who had parts though and could take some measurements for me. The cylinders were identical but my adjusters were several mm too wide. I tidied the rather rough casting of the body with a file and then took an angle grinder to the back of the wedge shaped adjuster pistons and shortened them until they fitted properly. After refitting, the drums will go on now. Then I discovered the square adjuster head is 6mm instead of quarter inch. Not a large amount out but it's the difference between a well fitting spanner and one that just wants to slip and round off the corners! In short, a case of badly made reproduction parts it would appear. All fitted now though. Just need to finish the brake lines and flexi-hoses and I can try the brakes properly. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

Thanks for all the comments so far. It's not the handbrake cable causing this as it's not connected. Neither is the hydraulic plumbing for that matter so no pressure coming from either of those sources. As I said earlier, I know the trailing shoe is upside down in that picture. I tried both ways just to see what would happen (nothing changed, all four shoes are identical anyway). That bottom spring should be behind the shoes, I agree. It rubs on the hub where it is now. That's not causing the bigger problem though I think. I've just been and had another look. I've removed both shoes and all the springs again now. The cylinder is definitely fully retracted. I can easily move the piston out and back in and it comes to a definite stop at that point. The one on the other side is identical. At its shortest, the cylinder measures 1[sup]3[/sup]/[sub]4[/sub] inches between the outer faces of the piston and the opposite bearing surface for the other shoe. (Perspective on the photo below makes the reading look a little more more than it really is). Measuring the same way across the adjuster gives 1[sup]1[/sup]/[sub]8[/sub] inch (into the bottom of the recess in each adjuster piston). Anyone got any of these lying around that they could measure for comparison? Next time I'm in the garage I'll take some measurements from the shoes themselves.

Update: Drum/shoe radius is perfect...

All new parts apart from the drums. No modifications, just standard GT6 brakes (albeit fitted to a spitfire with CV driveshafts). Not sure what happened to the picture, I'll try again The shoes looked to be the same radius i.e. when I offer up the drums they fail to fit by the same amount all round. I'll do a comparison on the bench though next time I'm in the garage.

So I've now spent most of the last two days trying to assemble the rear brakes on my race car. I finally got all the shoes, springs, thingumies and whatchamacallits back in the right order after a battle with the shoe hold-down springs but now the drums won't fit over the shoes. The adjusters are fully unwound (and I've not got them balanced on the "peaks" of the square either!). The cylinder piston isn't stuck and it is pushed fully in (and the same for the adjuster pistons). The cylinder is free to slide on the backplate. The handbrake cable isn't connected yet. The brakes are the standard manual adjustment ones for a rotoflex GT6 (8 inch drums). All the parts are brand new apart from the drums themselves and the backplates. The drums (and the backplates for that matter) have been cleaned so there's no paint or corrosion on the friction surfaces. The two drums are slightly different (one's an original Stanpart and the other some later replacement version) but neither will fit. The problem is the same both sides of the car and the amount by which it's out of alignment appears to be the same on both sides. I've even tried fitting the trailing shoe upside down which made no difference whatsoever. I can move the shoes about to centralise them on the back plate but whatever I do the drums won't go over the shoes. I've experimentally tried modifying (i.e. grinding a bit off!) one of the adjuster pistons and also the contact heel on the back of one of the shoes in case the issue was just the thickness of paint/plating etc. This didn't seem to make much difference. I don't want to do to much damage though without knowing what the actual problem is. Anyone got any suggestions? Did I miss something? Picture below which probably won't help... and I know one of the shoes is upside down, I was clutching at straws!

The run on the Saturday is still on if people are still interested. Not the same route as the previous "Bramble" in case anyone is wondering. Still a day of driving and exploring some great roads. Triumph cars preferred of course but not mandatory :)

The road run has been approved now so a weekend of driving related activities (plus some probably-not-driving ones on the Friday evening) is available. You can do some or all of them. Who's coming out to play then? Either for the autotest or the road run or both.

Raider wrote: Please note that the October Pendle and Pennine meeting will have been on the Friday night. In addition we may be able to organise a road run/Touring Assembly in the Yorkshire Dales on the Saturday as well. I just finished drawing up the route for this road run after a recce at the weekend. Subject to MSA approval for this "touring assembly", we now have a full weekend of activities available for anyone who wants to come out and play :)

My race car has a pair of full glassfibre doors (from Honeybourne) on it now, fitted as part of the current rebuild. They fit well although I didn't do the actual fitting so I don't know how much effort it took to get them like that. There's no strengthening in the doors themselves which would offer no protection at all to vehicle occupants in the event of hitting something solid. My car has a full roll cage with door bars though. They need a plate where the hinge bolts on to strengthen that part. Anything else is up to you. Not the best picture of the door itself but you can get the general idea...

My race car has a pair of full glassfibre doors (from Honeybourne) on it now, fitted as part of the current rebuild. They fit well although I didn't do the actual fitting so I don't know how much effort it took to get them like that. There's no strengthening in the doors themselves which would offer no protection at all to vehicle occupants in the event of hitting something solid. My car has a full roll cage with door bars though. They need a plate where the hinge bolts on to strengthen that part. Anything else is up to you. Not the best picture of the door itself but you can get the general idea...

Some alloy wheels used sleeve nuts (like the revolutions I know John has on his car) but the minilite replicas I had and the newer revolutions I now have both use taper seat nuts. The taper is however different from the standard spitfire wheelnuts used with the original steel wheels. Are you really confused now?  :)

Sorry I couldn't make the Mallory Park meeting but it's good to see so many cars (and drivers of course) out there. Thanks for the pictures John. I did spend most of that weekend getting my own car a few fractions of a percent nearer to being race-worthy again. Someday I'll join in myself again.

1317 wrote:The plug is then replaced as it holds the earth connections to the column. I don't think that's true for the later cars. It's a while since I looked at mine (which are both in pieces anyway at the moment) but I think only the cars with the horn push in the centre of the steering wheel have an earth strap on the steering rack. The later ones (with the horn push on a column stalk) are earthed elsewhere. Wim may have the type with the earth strap for all I know (though I'd think a 1978 car would have the later switchgear) but just in case anyone is wondering why they can't find this connection on their car...