Nick Jones

Not hardly……. Man of many aches and pains….. It’s down to the shape of the wheel and how deep the well in them is. These wheels have a deep well in them which you can shuffle the already fitted sections of the bead into, giving just enough offset to make hand fitting possible. Triumph steel wheels (Spit 4.5 and 5J at least) do not enjoy the same feature and are a right sod to fit tyres to.

Gulp indeed…. That is pretty fierce. Don’t think the Vitesse is that bad on the track……. Filled up and put 33.2 l in this evening after 196 miles, about 86 of which were on the track largely at full chat…. Plus some very crappy traffic on the way back ….26.8mpg. I had to go out and retrieve the receipt to check! The Jag would be an ENTIRELY different user experience though…… As Colin says, congratulations on the successful voyage. Probably best not let management know the bunkering costs though

Lots more manufacturers using metric fine these days. In some “unusual” sizes too. VAG now use M7 and M9 in occasional weird places. Often with some wacky splined head on it requiring a new tool (or whole set because can’t find singly). Usually discovered on a Saturday evening. Bastards. I like metric fine. “Normal” metric from M10 up is pig thread. Ok for farming and building but not engineering! I despise multiple head variations on the same vehicle though.

How old is the fuel? I think that was my job, but thanks With 2 new and 2 almost new SN832 tyres I don’t mind wet….. though the event in general is nicer in dry, warm weather!

Been using it as transportation. Have to report that I’m not entirely delighted with the clutch action. High biting point, very short action (exact opposite of before) and somewhat snatchy, though the short action could be most of that. It does work though and no funny noises this time so I’ll persist with it and hope it mellows a bit. Also bought a new pair of Falken tyres and fitted them to a spare pair of matching alloys. First time I’ve ever managed to fit car tyres by hand, without levers. This so I have four tyres with similar tread depths as I find these tyres behave quite differently depending on wear state and prefer matched ends for track day on Wednesday. With 4 effectively new SN832s wet would actually suit me better as they are rather squirmy in the dry. And finally, one of my headlights took a hit from a flying rock and was holed. So I had to buy a new pair. Sticking with halogens. Wouldn’t mind LED units if they looked fairly (normal) but failed to find any that were remotely affordable. Remains to be seen how good these replacements are….. The old ones were nothing special but worked fine. Still need a hood. I can buy a hood easy enough….. getting a warm day to fit it though…..?

Yeah, was considering doing something similar. More because the Vitesse is a weightier beast, especially 4 up (rare!) and/or with a boot full of luggage! Does the spring sit flat on the bracket or is it wide enough to catch on the arch?

Another approving vote for Faulkner. Adjustable spring seats do significantly ease spring choice.

On the bright side of the last, the trap failed to bite my bum….. Little bugger is still in there. I’ve now blocked the hole properly. The other one is sat on the roof unable to get in. Trap set in the loft baited with raisins, chocolate spread (hazel nut) and water…. I think there will have to be some significant reduction of the local squirrel population!

Yes, you can halt the booting process and go into the BIOS/UEFI by holding down a key (often delete or escape, but varies by motherboard manufacturer) just as the first manufacturers splash screen flashes up. Be careful in there….. there are things you don’t want to change! However, you should be able to start windows in safe mode from there. Not sure where that gets you to though. Some worry that this could be linked to your previous issues?

This. It’s true. I run 350lb on the Vitesse. They were good on the OE trunnions. Too soft with trunnionless…… 330lb on the GT6 are fine. Bit soft if anything.

The squirrel saga continues. Huge crashing and banging above our heads from about 4.30am and persisting. Opening the window and banging on the soffit would shut it up for maybe 10mins. Went into the loft armed with a long stick. Noted that one of my rat traps had gone entirely missing and the mousetrap sprung. One rat trap remaining set and bait untaken. Poked my stick down into the soffit box. Easier said than done. This established that there was something at the extreme end of the soffit box. Something that made noises a bit like a cooing pigeon when the stick was near it, but wouldn’t leave the corner. The stick got various bracketry attached for poking around corners, but didn’t gain much. From the top of a ladder outside I was able to thump the bottom of the soffit and bounce the creature up and down. More noises. Also an odd clatter. Was able to prise the soffit up just a bit which revealed the creature as a squirrel and that it had my rat trap attached to it. Also that it wasn’t moving away as it had got the trap wedged behind a joist. Not sure what part of the animal was in the trap, but nothing big as the jaws were fully closed (maybe hair only). To end the standoff I managed to prise the jaws open just a smidge which was apparently enough the little sod scampered away along the soffit. The worked my way along cleaning the gutter and thumping the soffit as I went, looking for the entry point, which turned out to be the extreme other end. While doing this we established there were in fact two squirrels in the soffit, on at each end, and in spite of the trauma, squirrel 1 was reluctant to leave her end. One small piece of good news was that squirrel 2 decided to leave of its own accord, almost followed by squirrel 1, which unfortunately ducked back in at the last minute. This meant I had to go back in the loft and poke some more. This revealed that squirrel 1 was back at the far end…… Finally managed to persuade the little sod back up to the hole end and jam some loft insulation into the soffit box to prevent easy return. Still won’t leave though….. Current situation is that the hole is obstructed in a way that will allow a fairly easy exit but not entry. I’m hoping it will leave, and then I’ll block the hole properly. Otherwise I’ll block the hole anyway and set a “humane” trap in the loft. I can’t set a rat trap as one is unreachable in the soffit and I sat on the other and broke it. Any of the traps is the end for the little sod as a) it’s illegal to release trapped vermin and b) I’m not feeling very humane towards squirrels just now, especially this one! Not a fun morning and I have many better things to do! Positives To date, squirrel damage is light I know how they get in and can fix it Gutter is clean and ticked off my pending jobs list.

Looks like the “value engineers” have been at it. Good work! Should be in the “can’t fix that” thread really

^^^Exactly this. It was the main way of extending plug life/re-gap intervals before the special electrode materials and pointy tips came along. The latter have somewhat taken over from the multiple electrode these days, but I don’t find they work as well. Heat range comments apply regardless of electrode design.

As said before, the triple electrode plug design is primarily to extend life. Only one gap jumped at a time, takes easiest path each time, wear spread three ways. These come with a larger gap than would be normal for points ignition. They can be adjusted but not as easy as a conventional plug and really need a tubular gap gauge. However, I suspect the actual issue here is heat range. BP5ES is a reasonably hot plug (and NGK are known for having a good range tolerance) I suspect the Bosch plug is colder (can’t find a decent comparison chart off the cuff) and this is why they are more susceptible to fouling. Not had this problem myself even on non-injected cars), but I don’t do much town/city work. Incidently, my theory on why the Triumph engines seem to like them is that they are side-electrode plugs and the spark is exposed to the combustion chamber, not shrouded by the earth electrode.

This!