yorkshire_spam

This is a great write up for my purposes! My wife and I are planning on doing the RBRR in 2014!

Planning to do 2014 in the Spitfire - to do list

• Suspension bushes
• New Rad
• Hardtop
• Overdrive conversion
• More clocks! (Oil pressure etc etc)

You need to know the "parameters" for the suitable rims for both the car and the tyres - obviously stud PCD will relate to the car, as will offset.
Diameter and width - a combination of the car requirements and the tyre requirements

Personally I'd look at cutting a section out of the mid pipe and adding something like this to reduce noise:
http://exhaustpartsuk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1342_1344_1348
Assuming of course that you don't already have a mid-resonator in your system.

I know it sounds a bit dumb - but do you have a local factors or unipart dealers that you could call? Even if they don't stock them, if their suppliers do they should have them in for you the next day.
My local factors managed to source a brake master cylinder rebuild kit for me on a next day basis (although it cost a hell of a lot more than the online Triumph specialists)

Been offered (reasonably locally) "Full kit with everything £395 " to do the O/D conversion - does that sound reasonable? Cheap? Over the odds?
It's more than 2 bob and a co-op coupon so it sounds like a lot to this tight northerner! ;-)

Well, looking at my calendar for access to my kids etc. I should be able to make the December meeting. Unfortunately most "first Friday of the month" I have my kids.

Are you on some sort of commission for everyone you get to attend the P&P meetings?  ;)

Thanks for all the great information guys!

I appreciate that you can't attach an OD to a non-OD gearbox - but there's an OD Box sans OD on eBay at the moment - so I was just trying to get a clear idea of what's required/involved.
ie. Does the OD have to be one specific to the Spitfire 1500 gearbox (which would make it as common as rocking horse poo from what I can tell) or "any" J-Type OD (it's not like there are millions of them for sale.... but might be a little easier!)
Thanks for the replies everyone - pretty much confirms/clarifies the stuff I was finding online!

Wiltshire? That's dooon sooooth isn't it? Somewhere below Sheffield? ;-)
No desperate rush for a conversion as I'm doing mostly country roads and round town at the moment - just thinking ahead to motorway miles in the future.

More dumb question(s):
Does it matter if the O/D is from a triumph or are all GKN/Laycock J types the same?

Cheers, Sam

Is there a dummies guide to Triumph gearbox/OD applications anywhere that I can't find?
I'm considering that I should have bought a Spitty with an O/D - but now that the kids have adopted and named the one I've got (and become very attached in the space of 1 weekend) I might have to stick with the one I've got and add overdrive.

Now... I understand that there's an overdrive and a non-overdrive gearbox.
I also seem to have gathered that the O/D "should" be a Laycock/GKN J-Type (am I wrong?)

So I'm looking at figuring out which vehicles had the same box/od as the 1500 '97 Spitfire (if any).... surely there must be some sort of look-up table somewhere that tells me what model of gearbox was fitted to what year of what model of Triumph?!
;)
Somebody please point me in the direction of the right information (if only to stop me asking even more dumb questions!)

Can't give any advice specific to the model - since I'm to total newbie when it comes to Triumph - but from experience of rebuilding Land Rover engines and gearboxes I can only reinforce what Clive is saying organisation and cleanliness are the two big factors in success.

Looks like I'll end up down the Super Flex path given these recommendations.

I like SuperPro, but there was a sharp intake of breath when I saw the price of them.

So.... thinking ahead I'll probably set about re-bushing the Spitfire.
Over in Land Rover land (where I've been for the last 20 years) there is much debate about the ride quality difference between OE quality rubber and polyurethane bushes (and how long they last)

General consensus seems to be that cheap polyurethane are, at best, no better than decent OE rubber, but that decent polyurethane are better (both handling and longevity)

What about in Triumph land?
I would normally go for SuperPro Polyurethane, but they seem massively more expensive than PolyBush for the Spitfire - are they worth the premium?
Personally I wouldn't touch flo-flex with a barge pole - am I being unreasonable?

Cheers,
Sam