aknight123456

Oh really? I assumed they all came on as a "lights check" thing I guess. I was fairly certain that when you turned the key to on it would light up all three then they'd go out once the engine was running.

Sorry forgot to mention, it's a UK mk3 negative earth spitfire.

A minor one that's been puzzling me for a little while. My lights etc all work as they should however the full beam indicator light does not light up when I turn the ignition to on (i.e. when the oil and ignition lights are on). It definitely used to however at some point it has stopped working. The light does come on when the light stalk is pulled to turn on the full beams. I'm assuming it's a dodgy ground or something but it must be on a specific part of the circuit. If anyone understands wiggly amps and can point me in the right direction to solve this I would be very appreciative! Cheers!

Hi Yorkshire, just wondering if you got round to fitting this yet and what your experience is with it? Cheers

Might be a bit late to the party on this one but I've been looking for something similar and stumbled across this. It's exactly what you're describing, a amp and Bluetooth reviver in one. It's not too expensive but I haven't ordered it yet so couldn't give a opinion on how good it is unfortunately.

So I can finally wrap this one up. We pulled the gearbox. Clutch fork had an obscene amount of play. Bushes disintegrated and the seal snapped as in the picture. The clutch fork was replaced as was the bronze bushes, oil seal, pin and tolerance ring. The pushrod on the clutch fork was a good 10+mm longer than the previous one (so no spacer). The fitment of the clutch fork was nice and tight but free moving. We used the old Borg and beck clutch cover (we previously used the new one supplied unbranded). Double checked everything then got the gearbox back in the car. Success! The clutch no longer drags and engages all gears without any noise etc. We can't say exactly what it was as we changed so many parts at once but I would out my money on the sloppyness of the clutch fork as the main culprit, probably also causing the oil seal snapping. Thanks for everyone's help...on to the next task 😅

So, I checked the pin that I was sure would be there. It wasn't. Got a new pin in there, lots of slop. Got a borescope in there, big gaps between the bronze bush and clutch fork. Basically whole top of bush warn away. Gearbox is now out. Clutch fork shows reasonable amount of wear so that's being replaced. The bellhouse centre (rubber oil seal type) was snapped (with only about 300 miles on it) and completely disintegrated, again providing more slop in the set up. When we took apart some old gearboxes to look for a new oil seal more often than not they were snapped in the same fashion. As was my old gearbox, now the new one too. One thing we did notice was that the clutch fork push rod was longer (and a similar size on both) than on my old and "new" gearbox (which again we're similar size). Making me wonder if mine had just both worn to a very similar length and probably be a probable cause for my original issue? New oil seal centre on order. New bushes and pin in the bellhouse along with repurposed clutch fork which is all nice and snug. 2 questions that have come from this; 1. Any one familiar and have a solution to the bellhouse oil seal centres snapping? 2. What is the correct standard length for the clutch fork pin? Many thanks for all the help so far on this voyage of swearing!

Yeah agree with you on that, it's definitely looking that way unfortunately. We checked putting it back in, I personally wasn't there when it went back together the final time. The clutch cover was replaced as the engine rebuild came with new parts so we thought best to use the new stuff. It's an XRM clutch if that brand means anything to anyone. Nick, we actually did exactly what you mentioned there and replaced the pin with a bolt so that's why I feel it probably won't have fallen out. I fear I'm at that point where we take the whole thing out again to reinspect everything...

We have not checked the pivot pin as we haven't pulled the gearbox out. We did replace this on the rebuild though so not expecting this to be an issue. We took the slave cylinder off and put a small (2-3mm) off cut of rod into the spacer (see below, the offcut can be seen in the top before we pushed it in, total of about 6mm extra length). Unfortunately this has not solved the issue. With the engine on she is still hard to get into gears and makes a strange mechanical rubbing noise when operating the clutch. New working theory is possibly the clutch plate fingers being pushed in and making contact with the clutch plate however it's hard to say. Needless to say it's been a disappointing morning as this continues to be an issue 😞

Yeah aware it's probably not the textbook solution and he's probably hiding the true issue however we cannot for the life of us identify what the true source of this issue is. It's presenting us with issues which would suggest it's not got enough range in the clutch and so if this solves it then it's a viable solution in my mind.

Yeah so it was small rod of metal with a divet in it to allow the pushrod to sit in it. It's narrower than the piston so doesn't interact with the circlip and as far as I'm aware it hasn't fallen out! Here's one of the only videos I found talking about it... https://youtu.be/jZci7tRrdoI We're going to try a longer one extension piece in the hope that this will give the clutch fork enough range to work properly. I will report back with how it goes next week...

Thanks for all the replies. They were useful. We went with the spacer in the slave cylinder eventually. It got the car working but as described above. I fear the clutch is still dragging however, if you try to put it in first with the clutch depressed you can feel the car wants to creep forward slightly before the clutch is released. It clunks going into reverse most times. There's a metallic rattle as you push the clutch pedal in whilst moving (although this is hard to actually pin point as something in the clutch/gearbox. It makes a bit of a strange noise if you fully hard depress the clutch pedal and now it's started getting very hard to put it into 1st. Any gearbox/clutch gurus who can suggest what needs to be done to fix this? (Beyond going back to the non overdrive 3 rail, which has definitely crossed my mind once or twice in this ordeal!!!) Thanks

Hi sparky, thanks for your reply. That is essentially what we have concluded and gone with. We couldn't figure out why but it just seems like it's a common fault with these. We found an old slave cylinder which upon inspection had a 10mm spacer in it which confirmed to use that it's one of those issues that most people come up against and that is the work around! It's all in and running now, although it feels like I've traded the issues of my previous set up for a new set 🤦‍♂️ the clutch has full travel but is quite heavy, the biting point is quite close to the fully out position of the pedal (as in just before I remove me foot) and the car clunks as it goes into reverse suggesting the clutch is not fully disengaging the shaft. What was meant to be a simple swap has turned out to be a real pain!

So from lots of experimentation it appears that the problem is lying with the clutch actuation mechanism. When we took the original gearbox apart the gearbox push rod was inside the bell housing and a bodged bracket and bolt welded together was being used to push the arm. We assumed this was when the put the gearbox together that they forgot to move the pushrod out of the hole in the casing and instead of taking it apart when they realised they made this bracket. Turns out though that the pushrod doesn't give enough travel. It looks standard and is exactly the same as on the other gearbox. We could extend the rod but we shouldn't have to, something must be not right. We've measured and compared the components and unless they're both worn etc in the same way everything looks good. We've checked the bore of both the master and slave cylinder and both are good. The extended rod is about 10mm longer. Anyone experienced this before?

So the pedal is depressing about half the travel of how it used to and then it goes rock solid. We released the nipple for the clutch and confirmed there's no restriction on the pedal end. So we're thinking it must be something in the clutch but can't work out what. We've measured all the clutch pack and flywheel compared to the old engine and we can't find any noticeable difference.

MK3 engine with single rail gearbox and O/D issue Has anyone got any experience using a mk3 small journal engine with a single rail gearbox? I bought a donor car which had an old MK3 engine and single rail gearbox already mated together. Car was a non runner. I've had the engine and gearbox refurbed but we can't get the clutch to engage properly. It's got a 20 spline shaft and the flywheel is the MK3 style with a triumph dolomite clutch plate so it's the right diameter. Any help appreciated. Cheers!

Morning all. I'm currently in the process of restoring my MK3 Spitfire. I am not trying to keep it completely original but I'm just looking for information. What was the standard finish to the dashboard (1) and the windscreen frame outside (2) and inside (3)? I've got John Thomason's guide to originality which doesn't give much specific information on it. It does suggest that all mk3s had the exterior frame painted black, which I seem to remember someone saying was actually part of "drama in black" package they did in the final year of the MK3...? I've got vinyl for (1) and (3) and then body colour for (2) and just looking to see what I should have and what other people are rocking. Cheers for your help!

Thanks for the info Clive! Yeah I'm definitely getting a new propshaft, hadn't thought about the flange though! Just curious...who's Dave Mac? 😅

Oh excellent thank you, I hadn't actually clocked the herald figures so hadn't put two and two together! Hopefully that'll be the answer then. Many thanks.

Hi Tight wad, I've seen the stuff on canleys website but I was looking for clarification that the difference in size of the propshaft is down to the size of the gearbox+overdrive and not some other factor that was changed between the mk1-4 and the 1500. Cheers

Morning all,   I've got myself a donor herald which has a MK3 spitfire engine with a 1500 single rail gearbox and J type overdrive already fitted. The herald is a wreck so I want to remove the engine and gearbox to put them in my MK3 spitfire. Obviously the propshaft will not be the right size in the herald at the moment.   I've found online the various lengths of propshaft for different Mks of spitfire but I haven't found any dimensions so you can mix and match. Can anyone confirm what size propshaft I'd need? I assume the difference of length is down to the single rail box being a bit bigger than the 3 rail so using a 1500 overdrive propshaft should work but I don't know if anything else factors into this.   Cheers for your help!

Ideally one that's good to go however open to one needing a rebuild too. Are the ones you have in a reasonable looking and complete condition? I've got a 4 synchro non overdrive box at the moment attached to a MK4 spitfire engine so I'm only really looking for an overdrive unit or full gearbox.

Morning all. A bit of a longshot however thought I'd ask just in case! Does anyone happen to have a MK3 spitfire engine and ideally an overdrive gearbox to go with it they would be willing to sell?  Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your reply Rob.  The 100bhp comment was based on what I'd read as a roughly realistic flywheel bhp but it's by no means a target. I just want a bit more than what I currently have without getting too serious on the tuning side! In your opinion is the difference between the small and large journal 1300s that big? As alluded to I'm not going to race it but I'd like it to be sportier for the roads and maybe the occasional track for fun. Thanks

Afternoon all, I'm at a point where I am starting to consider my options. I've got a MK3 spitfire which has a MK4 engine which I feel is going to need some work soon as the oil pressure when hot is triggering the low pressure switch at idle.  I've been doing some research and it seems that my engine model is the large journal engine post the change in camshaft in the MK4. I believe that means that the main differences between the MK3 and MK4 engines of my age is a larger heavier crank and a less sporty camshaft all meaning less power (boo) by the tune of about 14bhp...a fair amount in an already underpowered car. I want to keep the small 4 cyl triumph engine as opposed to swapping in a gt6 lump etc but do you think it's worth sourcing a MK3 1300 or is it easy enough to convert my current engine back to a small journal MK3 esc engine as I've read they are the most fun and freer revving ones. I'm looking to have it mildly tuned whilst it's out of the car to bring it closer to 100bhp to give it a bit more of a sporty feel so it makes sense to tackle everything together.  Cheers in advance