Rosbif

The lever serves to 'switch' the pick up pipe from main to reserve. In the normal position it points towards the back of the car, in reserve position it points to the right. It is a very basic system that just turns the pick up pipe a bit lower in the tank.

There is a label on the tank top to show this  - well there should be/was. The label is still available I think from some suppliers. One of the experts will be along in a minute to give you the part number and who has them.

1 hour ago, poppyman said:

https://www.poundshop.com/elbow-grease-degreaser-original-500ml.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIktDLwOKU8AIVhu7tCh0zHAXKEAYYASABEgKV1PD_BwE

This stuff work's great on all sorts of cleaning jobs and is cheap. No it's not a joke! It is available from lots of shops and Fleabay.

Tony.

Seen it mentioned before, never tried it though

1 hour ago, Tim Hunt said:

 Cif (why was Jif so re-named I wonder) 

Tim

Probably as part of Globalisation. when we moved here to France in '94 it was already called Cif.

Another tip I recently came across was vaseline to brighten up hard plastic interior trim. I've tried it on the moulded plastic cover for the indicators and lights lever on the steering column, also the rubber boot on the hand brake lever it has given them a shine.

I have even tried it on the cover fitted to the hood storage area, again has given it a shine.

No idea how long it will last.

I might try it on the hood itself, a vinyl one, although mine is quite good and spends its life out of sight.

You might find a company doing the same somewhere near you, give it a google.

If I remember I will ask my mate to take before photos then we will be able to compare the results.

Andy, I don't know where you are but if you google cosmichrome you will find links to other companies outside France.

The friend who sent me the link is going to take some Simca bits to them at the end of the month, I will possibly go with him to look at their set up. Turn round time is a month.

As it happens a friend here in France sent me a mail with the link below yesterday, I haven't looked in detail at the site. He suggested I looked at a video of a radiator grill being sprayed.

Click on the 'Videos' option along the top the scroll down to the last video.

https://www.l-aero.com/fr/pages/contact-4.html

Back in the day when about the only cars with daylight running lights were Volvos it was quite common for foreign drivers of such cars in France to be stopped as the Gendarmes didn't appreciate them being on in good conditions.

Now lots of cars have automatic lights it is common to have cars with just them on and no rear lights when in the old days the driver would have switched them on. A case of 'the car knows best' I suppose.

My Skoda seems very keen to put headlights on the moment visibility isn't 100%. I tend to keep mine on manual and switch them on when I think they are needed. It also gives me something to do and helps keep my fingers nimble.

I have a 13/60 with Accuspark, fitted in 2015, and no problems.

I like the fact that it is inside the distributor so the engine bay looks original 😇

My 13/60 does the same. I give it a moment without the choke initially, when the engine is cold of course. Once the engine has been running there isn't the knock on restarts. I agree, don't move off or rev the engine until the knock stops, it should only be a few seconds just until the oil light goes out in fact.

I have a similar problem, brakes work fine just a lot of travel. There have been threads on sites and an article in a club magazine about new calipers having the seals on the pistons set so normal position is too far from the disque, hence the travel.

The tip of putting something thinner in place of the pads and applying the brakes several times is recommended, the theory is that the seals then 'reset' on the pistons. There was no mention of the need to open the bleed nipple.

I have to admit I haven't tried it yet, been much to busy driving the car. I aim to look at it in the next few days.

Welcome to the forum, you will be able to get answers to every question you have and even questions you don't ask!

Any chance of a few photos of your project as it is now, I'm sure they would be appreciated.

Quoted from sparky_spit-

It's not surprising I suppose....  I normally walk over to our local village-sell-everything type shop to get a newspaper every morning, but have stopped now as the shop is very small and cramped and cannot possibly accommodate proper social distancing. I actually felt quite exposed standing in a cramped queue to get served. So now I read the paper online.  Not good for the shop or the community spirit but our household's health has to come first.

Can't you do what happens here in small shops like that, 2 people inside the rest waiting outside. OK when the weather is fine as at the moment

In France the rule is that a car registered before 1st January 1960 doesn't need the French version of the MOT. It is not a moving date but fixed.

My 1968 Herald is registered as a"collection" therefore only needs the test every 5 years instead of the "normal" registered cars at 2 year intervals. The test was last done in august 2018 so this summer I will get my local garage to put it on his lift and give it a look over.

Quoted from RobPearce-

I don't think 13/60s have a closed breather system (as I recall, the hose runs from the rocker cover to the air filter), 

You're correct there

Quoted from glang-

Can confirm that everytime I use the Vitesse the bottle level goes up when hot and then back down as it cools. The overflow pipe is also always full of liquid and logically when I remove the rad cap its full to the brim. In fact when you look at a rad cap its not just got the thermostatic element but also another little reverse sprung valve that is pulled open whenever theres a drop in the system pressure. In the end coolant is going back and forth to the bottle with engine temperature changes such as those produced by hills, traffic and stopping after high speed runs🤪

I wonder why Triumph did away with this for the Herald? Maybe they just thought as the Herald had an air gap the bottle system wasn't needed.

The filling instructions for the 13/60 radiator, after a change of coolant etc, actually do say to fill it to the bottom of the filler orifice. This explains why on the first run afterwards there is a small quantity of coolant vented.

In the periodic checks for the radiator water level it says to :-

top it up to one inch below the filler neck. This will allow for the expansion of the coolant as the engine warms up and is particularly important if an anti-freeze mixture is being used.

All of this doesn't help the origin question for a Spitfire - 7 lb or 13lb.🤔

Quoted from PeteStupps-

I was intrigued enough to look at the 13/60 parts diagram on Canley's website - it shows an overflow pipe but no bottle (unlike the Spitfire) https://www.canleyclassics.com/triumph-herald-13/60-radiator.

My old MG had the same setup, and whenever I filled up the radiator there would be a trickle from the overflow next time it warmed up. Presumably this then created an expansion air gap in the top of the radiator, which is sufficient at normal running temperature. 

Spot on, treat yourself to a glass of something - as long as it isn't anti freeze 

Quoted from PeteStupps-

I was intrigued enough to look at the 13/60 parts diagram on Canley's website - it shows an overflow pipe but no bottle (unlike the Spitfire) https://www.canleyclassics.com/triumph-herald-13/60-radiator.

My old MG had the same setup, and whenever I filled up the radiator there would be a trickle from the overflow next time it warmed up. Presumably this then created an expansion air gap in the top of the radiator, which is sufficient at normal running temperature. 

Spot on, treat yourself to 

Quoted from PeteStupps-

I was intrigued enough to look at the 13/60 parts diagram on Canley's website - it shows an overflow pipe but no bottle (unlike the Spitfire) https://www.canleyclassics.com/triumph-herald-13/60-radiator.

My old MG had the same setup, and whenever I filled up the radiator there would be a trickle from the overflow next time it warmed up. Presumably this then created an expansion air gap in the top of the radiator, which is sufficient at normal running temperature. 

Spot on, treat yourself to 

Quoted from PeteStupps-

I was intrigued enough to look at the 13/60 parts diagram on Canley's website - it shows an overflow pipe but no bottle (unlike the Spitfire) https://www.canleyclassics.com/triumph-herald-13/60-radiator.

My old MG had the same setup, and whenever I filled up the radiator there would be a trickle from the overflow next time it warmed up. Presumably this then created an expansion air gap in the top of the radiator, which is sufficient at normal running temperature. 

Spot on, treat yourself to 

Quoted from RobPearce-

Quoted from Rosbif-

 It is only in exceptional conditions that a 7 lbs cap would open and extreme conditions that a 13 lb cap would open.

Simply not true. As glang pointed out, the cooling system on Heralds and Spitfires is designed without any expansion room (no gaseous header) so the coolant will always exceed the cap pressure once it warms up. Liquid water expands with heat and is near-as-damnit incompressible. It overflows into the desertising bottle, to be drawn back in as the engine cools down.

Modern cars (and even the later Triumphs like the Dolomite) use a different design of cooling system, where the cap is on a separate expansion bottle, which provides a compressible air buffer. On those, you may not get the cap opening.

Sorry but you are wrong. The 13/60 does NOT have a bottle therfore if the cooling system does overheat and liquid is vented it is lost. If your comments were correct then everytime I took my 13/60 out I would need to top up the coolant when I returned, which clearly isn't the case.

You are correct in that the liquid isn't compressable but the air above it is. A correctly filled radiator has a level of air above the liquid which can be compressed hence no venting. Occasionally I have overfilled my radiator and the excess is vented, but that is all.

Some models of Triumphs do have a reservoir bottle and any vented liquid can be sucked back in as you say. I don't think the bottle is there on the basis that everytime the car is used liquid vents to it, it is there as a reserve and stops the total loss of liquid should the system overheat.

Quoted from cliftyhanger-

 

So if temps stay lower than that it won't make a jot of difference. The higher pressure one is there to stop boiling under extreme conditions.

I agree.

The thermostat opens well below 90° so if the cooling system is working as it should there shouldn't be any effect between a 7 or 13 lb cap in practice, i.e. they wouldn't open. It is only in exceptional conditions that a 7 lbs cap would open and extreme conditions that a 13 lb cap would open. My 13/60 has a 13 lb cap which is the standard item for this model so I guess Triumph wanted to add an extra buffer to overheating before the cap vented.

Quoted from Tim Hunt-

Sorry to be a pest myself but doesn't a place name panel automatically indicate a 50kph limit which rises to the previously prevailing  one, probably 80kph, when you pass the place name sign with a diagonal red line through it? 

Tim

Yes, basically.

There are zones when there is a 70 sign at the same time as the entering a built up area which means the limit is 70 rather than 50. Then there are the growing number of 30 zones, usually in conjunction with speed bumps of some sort.

Once past the sign with the diagonal line the speed limit returns to the national limit i.e. 80 unless there is another sign with a different limit on.

Quoted from thescrapman-

This time last

 year when the 80 to 70 change occurred you had to know that when it said 80 it meant 70, I wonder if they are still updating the signage, so you had noticed a 80 and witntheb5kph drop mentioned you were bang on the posted limit, if not the actual limit

Sorry to be a pest, but - the change was from 90 to 80. The 80 signs were put up in place of the 90 version. There are quite a few sections of roads that are 70, they tend to be where the roads is twisty and there are several exits / junctions or where you enter what is classed as a built up area i.e. the panel with a place name on but as there aren't many/any properties on the road side they up the limit to 70.

The all knowing powers that be are beiginning to rethink it and it seems likely that they will do the sensible thing and allow each Departement (county) to determine which sections will be 90 and which 80.

Locally it won't make any difference we will all continue to do as we did before & after the change - drive at 100. 🤫

Oh, I forgot to add that they have started to introduce unmarked cars with radars that work on cars behind them or even coming in the opposite direction. My own Departement, L'Orne, is one of the first.

It might seem they were very severe but the way it works here is they take the spped recorded by the radar and then :-

For a fixed radar they deduct 5km/h for a speed upto 100 km/h, above this thet deduct 5%. This is the speed used for the fine.

For a mobile radar they deduct 10km/h upto 100km/h, above this they deduct 10%.

Examples:

Fixed radar

Speed measured at 95km/h the speed 'retenue' is 90 ( 95-5)

Speed measured 140km/h the speed 'retenue' is 133 (140-5%)

The amount of the fine, and points deducted, is less if the excess speed is less than 20km/h over the limit. i.e. speed limit 80km/h speed retenue 99km/h, fine = 45 Euros if you pay within 15 days of the notification if not than 68 Euros, if not paid within 45 days it is 180 Euros.

This info is taken off the back of a form from July that I have in my possession, guess how.

My holiday budget for trips to Spain includes 1 fine per trip. I always seem to get one on the return leg once back in France. This year's was a zone on a motorway with sections of roadworks. Limit was 90 I was flashed ( I even saw the flash) by a temporary radar at 97, speed 'retenue' 92, 45 euros and 1 point.

Happy holidays to all. . . 🤑