Herald (Vitesse) Estate Project

[Martin]

engine was only idling, thus no load,  the oil had only appr. 60 degrees C thus not really hot

[JohnD]

I didn't do that, and blew the oil lines apart.    The model of 'stat I was using (can't recall the make, but it looked like this Mocal: 

 

Was arranged to short circuit the cooler when cold, and pass the oil directly to the engine.   So if it was the wrong way around, at that point it blocked the supply to the engine completely, and the pressure blew the lines off the barbed connectors.     All my engine oil ended up on the road.     I stopped immediatley, no harm done, except to my pride.

Since then, I've used only lines swaged onto threaded connectors.   Easily and cheaply available from my local hydraulics shop.  

JOhn

Edited May 24, 2019 by JohnD

[Martin]

Martin is happy. Had a dealers number-plate yesterday (bank holiday) and could drive the Estate a bit. Everything works. Overdrive (D-type) fine. Some leakage at the cylinderhead where the heater valve (like TR6) screws in, ….. and some other little niggles. 

No rumbling, strange noises, ….

Now I have to sort out how to get it MOT´ed (upgrade of a Herald to Vitesse not familiar here in D).

Cheers 

Martin

 

[rustbuckit2011]

Good grief that is a lovely motor! Well done on that. I have been thinking recently of selling off or swapping my coupe body in search of an estate- you may have just fed the fire a bit there

[thebrookster]

17 minutes ago, rustbuckit2011 said:

Good grief that is a lovely motor! Well done on that. I have been thinking recently of selling off or swapping my coupe body in search of an estate- you may have just fed the fire a bit there

Where are you based?

There is a guy in Dumbarton (Scotland) who is selling a Herald Estate right now, priced at 3 grand? I can testify that it is solid! He has posted it in the Club Triumph page on Facebook.

Cheers,

Phil

[rustbuckit2011]

Ah- NZ at the moment, but I spent years in Scotland. An estate would be some seriously overweight luggage.  There are still a few about NZ but because they were so plentiful, (and worthless) for so long, there are very few solid ones

[Nick Jones]

3 hours ago, Martin said:

Martin is happy.

He should be - looks great   

3 hours ago, Martin said:

upgrade of a Herald to Vitesse not familiar here in D

How about change of body style from saloon to estate?  Though that assumes you had Vitesse paperwork to start with, which I guess you don't.......

Good luck anyway!

[triumphlux]

Looking good 

Good luck with the registration and enjoy the car during the summer !

JC

[Martin]

As I had an in my opinion a too long pedal travel with the brake pedal, I installed a 0.813 brake master cylinder (Rally Design RD4005).

Now I have a much  shorter travel, and I feel very comfortable with the change. Had  yesterday the chance to drive a bit with the special dealer number plate. Somewhere is perhaps oil dribbling to the exhaust as  the car smells ugly when I stop. I have to investigate.

Martin

 

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, Martin said:

I installed a 0.813 brake master cylinder

Is this with a remote servo? 

I went the other way on mine and fitted a 0.625" instead.  Pedal travel remains ok (especially after I overhauled the calipers) but I do have to keep the rears adjusted.

Have a 0.75" on the GT6 with a remote servo and pedal feel seems good though I've not really driven it yet!

[Martin]

Yes with Remote Servo. I have in the (I call it now) Vitesse a GWC1208 rear wheel cylinder. Diameter 0.75.

In the GT6 I do have the 0,75 master cylinder, remote servo but GWC1202 (0,625 diameter) rear wheel cylinders.
Pedal travel ok in the GT6.

 

I think it is much about which rear wheel cylinder is used and how the tight adjuster is set.

 

[Nick Jones]

What about the front calipers?  New 16PB (copies) or overhauled originals?  If the new ones...…. good luck!

But you are right about the rear wheel cylinders.

[Martin]

I always recondition the original brake calipers. I shot blast them, split them, get them zinc plated and use Girling overhaul sets (Stoneleigh, …). Stainless pistons from Moss.

 

[Nick Jones]

That's the right way to do it!

[Martin]

number plates obtained today. It took some time for MOT, Authorities, Certification as an historic vehicle, …. but now all done. 

Now I hope for some dry weather to run in the engine.

Seasonal Greetings from a happy Martin

 

 

 

[Nick Jones]

Legal!!

[JohnD]

VERY nice!

The Vitesse Estate is another of the cars that TRiumph should have made, but didn't.   AS a sporty load lugger, dog and golf clubs transport, it could have beem as popular as the Reliant Scimitar.    Just get Princess Anne to drive one ...

J.

[Nick Jones]

7 minutes ago, JohnD said:

another of the cars that TRiumph should have made, but didn't

Agree.  I think they would have sold well and it isn't as though they needed to do any new tooling up!

[roulli]

What a beauty, in and out!

Congrats Happy Martin!

Merry X-mas

Patrick

[ahebron]

Wow what a great car.

Dont know how I have managed to miss this build.

Many many years ago I acquired a Herald Estate to do the same but never went ahead with it, I had a few spare Vitesse bits.

Adrian 

[Martin]

some pics from the brake master cyl , as I could not insert them in a private communication. I`m to old for URL. Whatever that may be .

 

 

[Nick V]

Thanks for posting Martin. Was intrigued to see if reservoir would fit directly or MC would have to be remotely fed. It fits as the 1st photo  in particular shows.

Food for thought as have the servo fitted but the brake travel was longer than I felt happy with and the 0.813 brake master cylinder would no doubt help.

Ta

Nick

[BiTurbo228]

Just catching up on al lthe threads I've missed (one by one!). Bloody lovely car there  great work!

There's a more expensive mocal thermostat called an OT2 which is open all the way through (although I think it still has a direction). Glad to hear the OT1 works though (shame I sold mine to fund the other!).

[Martin]

This I did not want to see. Vietesse on lift.

hmm, as Vitesse still has to be "run in" I started to drive a bit. Front brake gets very warm. The calipers do not "open" again fully. Thus they do not cool down.  Pads Always in touch with the Disc. I restored the brake calipers and took the Stainless steel calipers. I googled around and read Messages that SS calipers can be a bit sticky.

Anybody some experiences. I measured them and they are exactly as specified.

[Nick Jones]

Oh.....   Not ideal.  Have not heard that about stainless steel caliper pistons before.  Perhaps it makes some sense due to differences in surface finish as the OE steel ones are ground finish, then chromed, so very smooth, whereas the stainless steel ones are just fine-turned.  Their finish is very good though - at least on the ones I have seen.

That said, I have rebuilt calipers for the Vitesse, Chris's Spitfire (also type 16) and my GT6 using stainless steel pistons and seal kits from Bigg Red.  They all work well.  It is certainly the case that on the Vitesse at least, the pistons return less than they did with the old seals/pistons (which were quite rusty).  This suits me well as it keeps the pedal travel really short (good news when you have a 0.625" M/C!) but doesn't actually cause the pads to drag.

What I did discover when trying to make the pair of new copy calipers we originally bought for Chris's Spitfire is that small differences in the seal hardness and size make a big difference to performance.  The seals those calipers came with were quite soft and caused way too much return of the pistons.  The new Girling seals I tried measured more or less the same size (as far as you can tell measuring rubber with verniers!) but were noticeably harder.  These caused the calipers not to return at all (and was really hard to get the pistons out again!).  I then tried a used set of OE seals which were also quite hard but slightly compressed.  These almost did the trick - but slightly too much piston return again.  These calipers have chromed steel pistons.

As I understand it, the pistons are supposed to stick in the seals to a certain extend so that the seals roll and stretch a bit before slipping through.  It's this roll/stretch that is critical as this is what determines the return of the pistons.

Are the rears definitely fully releasing?  Just wondering if the servo is fully releasing, not keeping some small residual pressure?