I can scarcely believe it but I've now had my car on the road for almost two years, during which I've covered just under six thousand miles.
I've made a few changes along the way - taller profile tyres, less lowering front and rear with softer springs, quicker Spitfire steering rack, series one Landie mechanical starter solenoid, etc etc. - and I've enjoyed every single mile.
Its one and only breakdown was due to the failure of a modern electronic 'upgrade' component, a multi spark ignition unit, other than that it's never failed to get me where I want to be, and you wouldn't believe the positive attention it gets everywhere I go in it.
With the MOT looming in July and a couple of advisories to sort out from last year, I thought it was about time I took it off the road for a week or so to get a few jobs done.
Number one on the list was to whip the engine out and tackle a couple of persistent oil leaks, one from the timing chain cover where a stripped thread in the block was preventing the seal from doing its job and the other from the cheap and nasty (OE) tin rocker cover that had the oil-proof qualities of a sieve with no mesh. So I've now drilled and tapped the block for a bigger bolt and fitted a nice new alloy rocker cover. Oh, and while the engine was out I thought I'd freshen it up with a lick of Ferrari red engine paint -
Next job was the advisories on the MOT, these being front and rear wheel bearings and a gap in the welding (not mine) on one of the age-old chassis repairs.
The front wheel bearings were pretty easy to change, and while I had the front suspension in pieces I also took the opportunity to fit GAZ ride and height adjustable shocks, which I've set at their lowest position, and a new pair of uncut 180lb Spitfire front springs.
Although I was much happier with the shortened 150lb springs than the original Vitesse 220lb springs (that I'd chopped 95mm out of), there was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind as to whether it was sensible to drive around on cut down springs. So, for the price of about three tanks of fuel, I bit the bullet and bought a pair of proper adjustable ride height shocks. I know you can't really see them but here's an 'after' pic -
As for the gap in the welding, I thought it'd be a good idea to take a screwdriver to the chassis while the car was jacked up and bang it pretty hard to make sure it was all still sound before welding up the (tiny) hole.
The chassis sounded reassuringly solid until I got to one of the old repairs (again not one of mine), which made an unnervingly hollow 'clack' instead of the solid 'thunk' everywhere else. A slightly firmer hit with the screwdriver and it went right through...
Bugger, it's another patch of thin tinplate that's been 'expertly' welded over a hole in one of the main rails by a previous owner. I thought I'd found all those when I sandblasted the chassis but this one was so well welded I missed it.
Given its awkward location, right beside the driver's footwell, I've decided it's probably not a good idea to attack it with my cheap stick welder, so I'll be taking it to a pro this time to make sure it's done right. At some time in its forty-seven year life, my Vitesse donor had the world's worst mechanic bodge anything and everything he touched. Carrying out unsafe cosmetic repairs on the chassis is inexcusable, but he hadn't finished when he did that...
So, on to the king of bodges next trick. Sorry to digress, but since I put my car back on the road there's been a bit of 'shunt' in the driveline on take up as if there was some slack to be gathered in before the drive goes to the wheels. It always felt as if the nuts on one of the universal joints were loose but I'd checked and they were fine, so I assumed it must be wear in the diff.
When I jacked up the back end I decided to take a look and see if I could find out where the slack in the system was. Rather unexpectedly it was actually at the hub end, not the diff. I could rotate both rear wheels about an inch each way before the drive shafts started to move, which was a bit worrying as I couldn't imagine how that could be (I've never stripped the rear suspension on a Triumph down before).
With the wheels and drums off it was time to remove the hubs and see what was going on. All the received wisdom says that you need a proper hub puller to get the rear hubs off the axles, so I'd bought one from Canleys (and an impressively heavy duty tool it is too). I had it standing by ready for the superhuman effort required to separate the hubs from the drive shafts, which then just dropped off the ends of the shafts when I undid the big securing nuts, which were loose. Hmm.
On closer inspection, I found that the keyway on the offside drive shaft that transfers drive via a woodruff key to an identical keyway in the hub had completely shattered at some point in the past -
As the whole thing was sealed and there were no bits of metal present, the bodger had found this fault, cleaned up the swarf and just reassembled it. They'd used the woodruff key from the other shaft to minimise the slack on take up as I found a badly damaged key fitted in the nearside hub, which at least explains the matching slack in that side.
One saving grace is that the Vitesse, Herald and Spitfire (I - III) all used the same shafts so there are plenty out there, and I've ordered one from Canleys as I trust them to send me a decent one quickly (plus a couple of new woodruff keys). When it arrives I'll be taking both drive shafts and hubs to a workshop as I also completely failed to get the old bearings to come off the shafts, and shattered a G clamp in trying.
Overall, it's going to be an expensive month.
Still, summer is just around the corner and once my Spyder's back on the road the pain of the credit card bill will quickly fade into the past.
