sparky_spit

Ah... the classic Haynes phrase "Tap gently with a hide-faced mallet"....

Same as Howard. I've now had an integral garage built, from soon after moving into this house, which has a solid concrete floor.  I've used carpet from the bedrooms left by the previous owners. Works well for me and seems to help keep the place warm. I use a runner under the car to soak up any drips.

Have a look at Falken Sincera SN832 tyres.  They have a good reputation, especially in the wet. I've found them to be very good for rattling though the lanes on night rallies in the wet: probably the best tyres I've ever had. Good value too. I think Nuala has them on her Spitfire and I'm pretty sure Nick J has them on his Vitesse. I actually went for 165/80 instead of 175/70, purely to up the final drive ratio a tad. It needed a slight bit of tin bashing on the front bulkhead for clearance, but I'm very pleased with them.

Club Triumph are pleased to announce the 2020 Rallies Mini-Series,  a series of rallying events, both CT organised rallies and also those run by clubs that CT have a close relationship with. The objective is to promote entry-level rallying within the club by using a separately run series of existing rallying events that members can enter on their own accord, but which will score towards a “Rallies Mini-Series Championship” award at the end of the Club Triumph competition year.  The events themselves will range from the most simplest form of rallying motorsport, through to some more serious and advanced rallies, but all being well within the capability of all club members.  The 2020 series events are listed below: 10th January  CMC January Jaunt 7th February  CMC February Fling or 16th Feb - Bedford CC 12 car (1 to count) 8th March – Bedford CC 12 car or 22nd March - CT Three Counties Rally (1 to count) 3rd April –CSMA 12 car rally May – None 7th June  BCC Treasure Hunt or 20th  June East Anglian Classic (1 to count) 19th July  BCC Summer BBQ Scatter-Hunt 16th August – CT Warwickshire Scatter Rally September – Date TBD CMC Priestley Trophy October – Date TBD CMC Halloween November – Date TBD CT Not-Essex Winter Rally December – TBD BCC Santa Rally  You can find more detail about each of them from the Rallies - Events - side panel. The rules and series format is: Rules and Registering your Results: All entrants will need to register their participation in the series with Club Triumphs rallies co-ordinator (Mike Banks – mike.banks@club.triumph.org.uk).   You will be able to choose as many, or as few, of the events on the list to enter and the finishing results from your 8 best events will be added to the series table. You can do a fewer number of events, which will all be counted up to a maximum of 8.  As you can see, we have tried to include events that cover a reasonable geographical spread of the country, and a range of difficulty within the events.   Where there are two events listed in a particular month, only one may be used within the mini-series results. Listing two or more events in any month is purely to increase the geographical spread of events.  Within this series, Club Triumph will only nominate the events that are part of the series. Once the event is formally announced by the organising club it will be up to each individual crew to enter the event and gain a place. Club Triumph will not do this for you.  It will also be up to the entrant to pay for their entry fee and any club membership that may be necessary. It’s important for the entrant to state within the entry form that they are a member of Club Triumph, as this will allow them to take advantage of any “invited club” status we may have with the organisers, or any discount, etc. Where we can, we will state whether there is invited status or a discount.  Rules will be as the organising clubs rules for the event, there will be no CT Rules. Within the series, CT will make no allowance for ‘Novice’ and ‘Expert’ status and results used will be the overall placings within the group of CT entrants, or in class if there are no other CT entrants.  It will be the entrant’s responsibility to inform the co-ordinator of their result in each event, and provide a results sheet from the event organisers, confirming their position placing, if asked to do so.  Points for driver and navigator will collected separately to cater for any differing crew makeup throughout the series.  An award for the winner(s) will be given and presented at the awards dinner in March of the next year.   Points will be awarded as follows:  Starting the event (but declared DNF) = 2pts  Starting and Finishing the event, but outside the top 12 places = 4pts Placed 1st against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 16pts Placed 2nd against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 15pts Placed 3rd against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 14pts Placed 4th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 13pts Placed  5th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 12pts Placed  6th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 11pts Placed  7th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 10pts Placed  8th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 9pts Placed  9th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 8pts Placed  10th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 7pts Placed  11th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 6pts Placed  12th against other CT crews, or in class if no other CT crews entered - 5pts Organising or Marshalling on an event – an average score will be given, up to a maximum of 3 marshalling instances, based upon all your scores and added at the year end. The average score figure will be rounded up if equal to or greater than n.5  For example: a score of 8.49 will be rounded down to 8 and a score of 8.5 will be rounded up to 9.  You will appreciate that this will create the situation where final scores will not be fully known until the last event has been completed.

Hi Tim - it's hidden right at the bottom of the diary entry for the event, on the right-hand side, here: [Sorry, link no longer available] Mike  

...not sure what has happened above with the font size change. Sorry.

Hi Andy - yes, I have had similar several years ago and it was not a pleasant experience.  I had new trunnions and vertical links on my Spitfire and one of them failed coming off a roundabout at about 40mph, after being on the car for just a few months. The failure mode was a shearing of the VL  just above threaded part.  It was clear that the oiling hole that runs down from the nipple into the trunnion itself was drilled off-centre in manufacture. I bought new trunnion-less kits from Canleys and have been very pleased with them, as have many others who have them fitted. They are almost fit and forget; just keep an eye out for any sign of corrosion and give them a quick spray of WD40 every now and again. I don't think you will find many, if any in fact, people who do not recommend them.

Before my 1500 engine was rebuilt it had a cam follower looking like that, but worse, matched to a cam lobe that was almost non-existent. It's difficult to know whether the cause is due to the follower? Or the cam?  Or poor oil distribution? What are your thoughts on the cause of all that damage to pistons/cam/followers/etc Dirk? What is the crank like?

Don't worry Craig, we have all done similar.  I once changed the big-end bearings in my Mk2 Spitfire back in the 1970's only to find that I'd put the old ones back in by mistake.  I only noticed the new ones sitting on top of their packet just before I was about to fit the sump back on.

And the other joint winners Dale and Nigel driving over what was a level crossing:

Picture of joint winners Steve and Richard in action:

Congratulations to joint winners Dale Barker/Nigel Abdullah and Steve Radley/Richard Warr in Sunday's Essex Winter Rally, and winners of the Beginner class Annie & Chris Andrews. Results are: Combined Expert/Novice Class Joint 1st Expert: Car 7 Dale/Nigel – 0 Fails – 1 TB point Joint 1st Expert: Car 5 Steve/Richard – 0 Fails – 1 TB point 3rd Expert: Car 4: Mike/Darren – 1 Fail – 3 TB Points 4th Expert: Car 6: Pete/Mark - 1 Fail – 2 TB Points 5th Exp/Nov: Car 3: Jon/Alex – 1 TB Points 6th Expert: Car 8: Colin/Michelle – 2 Fails (2 TB Points) Beginner Class 1st Beginner: Annie/Chris – 2 Fails (1 TB Points) 2nd Beginner: Alistair/Mike – 7 Fails (0 TB Points).

Grease is the word.... If you take the wiper arms off and the motor/gearbox is already open, you can lift the end of the rack cable off its pin and pull it out of the entire length of the rack with the rack in situ.  The wiper spindles will spin round as you do this. Clean it up, grease it liberally, including the square section part which sits in the square edged channel, and push it back in. You may need to wiggle the wiper spindles a bit to get the rack cable to engage with them. Reassemble and the job should be done.

Final Instructions have been emailed to all primary entrants, with a note to forward on to their respective navigator/driver.  If you fail to get the email, let me know and I'll resend.

We now have 8 entries, so 4 places left for anyone who might be wanting to enter. Final Instructions will be sent out to all entrants this weekend.

Another entry has been made - please keep them coming.  Just 2 weeks to go now.

I think the ex-Picton/Bancroft/Picton car had these on when it was up for sale recently? Maybe worth giving Tim a shout?

We now have another couple of entries, making a total of 5 so far.  If you intend entering, and with just over 2 weeks to go, please put an entry in soon so that final arrangements, bookings and trophies, etc., can be organised. I've driven the route several times over the last few days, making some changes to cater for road closures due to road maintenance work, and it is a very good mix of road types packed into 77 miles split over 4 sections in quite a small geographical area. If there are any questions then please just ask.

Entries are now open for the CT Essex Winter 12 Car Rally.  Suitable for all levels of experience, from 1st time beginners to experts of many years standing, is there a better way to drive your Triumph around 70 miles of Essex countryside on a Sunday morning while having some competitive fun? Click the title headline banner on the home page, just above the picture of a Herald in a puddle, and you'll be able to get more information, download the event regulations, and then press the enter button. It will cost just £15 to enter and you'll be able to buy breakfast at the start location as well as a great pub lunch at the finish. If you want more information, just ask.  There are 3 entries already, so be quick if you'd like to enter as we are limited to just 12 cars for this type of event.

Am I right in thinking that the Mk3 1296 FD cam has a very similar profile/duration as a TR5 one?

Am I right in thinking that the Mk3 1296 FD cam has a very similar profile/duration as a TR5 one?

On long events (10CR for example)I take what I think is most commonly likely to break, what you would be prepared to fix by the side of the road, and what is possible to carry for failures that would be difficult for me or a local garage to fix without a specific part; a Spitfire driveshaft for example.  My boot was literally full of tools and spares on the recent 10CR. It gave me a measure of confidence that I had most things I'd need. It was no trouble: the boot wasn't being used for anything else and the weight was not noticeable. For "normal" use I just have fuses, fanbelt, oil/water/brake fluid, plugs, toolroll, etc.

Hi Dirk - the 1500 engine that was in my Spitfire before it broke a few days prior to the 10CR had a MK3 Spitfire profile camshaft.  Although not lasting long enough to really test it or even be set up properly on a rolling road, it was obvious that it had plenty of torque and the engine pulled well between 2000 and 4000 RPM.  The cam was installed 3deg (crank) retarded to supposedly give better torque but I don't know how effective this is, as I've got nothing to compare it with, but I was very happy with it. Whether a MK3 cam is right for you with a 1300?  I don't know...  Mike

Hi Dirk - the 1500 engine that was in my Spitfire before it broke a few days prior to the 10CR had a MK3 Spitfire profile camshaft.  Although not lasting long enough to really test it or even be set up properly on a rolling road, it was obvious that it had plenty of torque and the engine pulled well between 2000 and 4000 RPM.  The cam was installed 3deg (crank) retarded to supposedly give better torque but I don't know how effective this is, as I've got nothing to compare it with, but I was very happy with it. Whether a MK3 cam is right for you with a 1300?  I don't know...  Mike

Good news indeed.  Hope all is well.