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Gonna try and get a plate on friday. Wish me luck!!

Thanks heaps for the reply @440bbm and also for the offer of assistance. I have looked at a few of those online calculators, but the biggest issue that I have is that I'm not running a tacho in the van, so I've got absolutely no idea what revs I'm actually doing. What I was hoping to do was to work out the optimum ratio by using my gearbox ratios as a guide. So at the moment 1st gear has a ratio of 3.928 and it's hardly worth using with my current 4.1 ratio diff. The van comfortably pulls off in 2nd gear which has a ratio of 2.333. So to my simple way of thinking if I could find a diff ratio that would effectively turn my 1st gear into 2nd and so on that would be ideal. Sadly maths is not my strong point and I couldn't find an online calculator that could work this out for me. My gearbox is a Toyota G54 (5 speed) with the following ratios: 1st - 3.928, 2nd - 2.333, 3rd - 1,451, 4th - 1.000, 5th - 0.851. My rear tyres are 225/50/15 which works out at an overall wheel diameter of 606mm if the online calculator that I found is to be believed. Any guidance that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Dropped frame and bars to a powder coater ..

Heavy duty meat cleaver I forged, its not cut from plate, it will cut virtually anything and hold an edge, I spent the afternoon splitting fire wood with it and cut an old tire off a rim with it.

Get your signwriter to do the NZ in the same green as th middle stripe, that was one of the approved variants of the logo.

Oh yeah plugs and leads arrived…. no spark Ordered coil and rotor dist cap arrived 6am this morning so will try tonight buuuut turns out these things run a mono leaf rear with 2 vertical air shocks run off a compressor and reg and two horizontal shocks air shocks are shot hence it squatting its arse these seem to be NLA 335MM compressed 485mm extended found these with similar specs (another 50mm extension) https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gab-49205#overview any reason they shouldn’t work? I’m sure I can manipulate the regulator to get the correct ride height/make it adjustable even Disregard, more googling shows rock auto list them for 1968 on ones it’ll be fiiiiiine

NNNoooooo............... Im penning a strongly worded letter to my signwriter. (In Comic Sans and Wingdings, of course.)

It'll it fails on that, I'll email them asking them to provide a letter that it's of the required standard

I did buy that from a Honda dealership too.

Sweet rig! Have wired up a couple of escorts with 4ages and confirm they go good!

they are supposed to have the E marking on them (or equivalent). its in the entry cert paperwork if you are looking for it. china will put an e on anything you want, and i recall a wof doesnt need the e you can of course put some big ugly definately road legal gn125 lamp ziptied on for the inspection and then remove after for a small one, i did something like that for DR200 For motorcycle (Class L) this is apparently only required if built after 1st jan 2006, for brakes. Indicators are 1996. Also only needs to be shown to.comply however that is, but just easier to put modern complying ones on for thr inspection tbh

Motorcycle re-vin question. Do the lenses all need to have the factory markings on them? (Someone told me they thought they did) I have all genuine Stanley (oem honda) indicator lenses. But the stop/tail lens is a generic replacement one.

Recently got a bit more done on the trailer. Made sure it was about the right size etc, and made the up rights/sides. For ease of use and simplicity, the front and back tailgate board things just slide into slots made from angle and flat off cuts, Then I figured out where the axle needs to be, then whipped up said axle on the BIL's lathe, made some mounts and welded it on, As you can see in the background of the pic posted above in the last update, the alloy wheels were very oxidized (they have been outside for years) so I gave them a water blast, spray painted them black, and then buffed the paint off the face of the wheel to make them all shiny again. Slapped some tyres on that match the cruisers, and good to go. Then I whipped up some mud guards. Decided just to make them out of 3mm thick steel and not bother with mounts, and just weld them directly to the frame. Found an off cut of steel, cut the desired shape out, removed the rust, and put them in my fancy press brake and bent them into shape. I don't know why, but I find the little mud guards soooo adorable! Now I just have to cut and mount the wood, paint everything, and its done. Regards VG. P.S. Say hi to your mum for me.

Found rear seat and carpet etc Went to jaycar and got a shift light, and a momentary button for launch control, so when it gets final tune that will be an option, drilled through the gear shift but doesn't interfere in the thread or how you put it on.. you do have to press it in fairly hard so wont hit it on accident shifting gears etc, both go through relays and fuses, i may change it to steering wheel maybe will see how it works.

Yeah….. looks odd on those wheels too. In answer to your propshaft question…. I don’t think there’s much to be gained buying an MX5 propshaft. I’ve got 1 1/2 here because they came free with very cheap gearboxes and the half does actually slip snugly over a random Triumph section I had kicking around. I even though about welding them together myself….. until I considered how close it runs to my arse!

Giz a hoon g 😇

jesus that's a lot of work... I think they're stretching the definition of "the engine fits". I wonder what would actually happen if he floored it

Bugger about the fail! not a huge difference in rpms between 4.3 to 4.1 and the same from 4.1 to 3.9 What is your gearbox, and tyre sizes? there are a few online calculators we can run to show you the change. it may only be 150 RPM, but that might be enough to bring first gear back into effect. what rpm are you doing at 50ks and 100ks? So we can let you see the difference. gut feeling is a 3.7 would probably be far more suited to your requirements.

I'm in with a grin! Middy said yes! Just need to ensure bike is reliable.

Hello This topic is old, but do you have any pictures of the front assembly of the Toyota 3s gte distributor? Thanks Eric

Chat gpt rollers look pretty cool

It's been almost 3 months since my last update on the Thames and he is still running like a champ. So following the old adage of "if it's not broken why fix it" ringing in my ears I figured now was a good time to stuff around with something. These days I've given up using first gear as its just too short and since the old Thames seems happy enough to pull off in second, things are hunky dory. But in the back of my mind I've been wondering what life would be like with a taller ratio diff. So a good 4 or so years back a mate of mine was parting out a Toyota Surf 4x4 and donated the diff to my Thames project. Winner I thought as it is a 4.1 ratio LSD and apparently an easy bolt in modification to replace the Y series HiAce factory 4.3 open diff that my van is blessed with. On Friday last week my mate Grunty had his hoist available, so I loaded up my tools and the spare diff centre and headed over to his place for a bit of spannering. And this is where the wheels on my plan literaly and figuratively start to fall off: When I pulled the original pumpkin I immediately spotted the "post factory" gasket sealer - a sure sign that someone had been in here before. I'm obviously a bit slow as I still didn't smell a rat: Anyhoo buggerlugs here carries on regardless and chucks in the pumpkin from the Surf together with lashings of super spendy fancy gear oil that the LSD apparently needs. Got everything together again and headed out for a test drive. Now those of you who may have watched an episode of the TV show called "The Nanny" back in the day will hardly forget the voice of the leading actress, a lady called Fran Drescher. Well when I tell you that the old Surf pumpkin whined worse than Fran does, you will have an idea of how bad it was. Yikes ! To add insult to injury the bloody gearing seemed no better. How can that be I figured. Now being the numpty that I am, I never physically checked the diff ratio when I transplanted the HiAce axle into the Thames. I'd always assumed it was the factory original 4.3 ratio based on the Toyota factory data plate that I found attached to the donor van chassis. Not so grasshopper. On doing a teeth count on the original pumpkin it turns out that old mate had swapped out the factory diff for a 4.1 somewhere along the line. What a rookie mistake. So now its late Friday arvo. I'm cold and hungry and my van sounds bloody terrible. My mate Grunty took pity on me and suggested I leave the van on the hoist over the weekend and then shoot back out on Monday to swap the original diff centre back in. Being the GC that he is he even gave me a lift home in his work ute. So yesterday in the pouring rain I hopped in Mrs Flash's Moke and headed on out to Grunty's to reverse the swap. I'm glad to say that the Thames is now back to normal and I'm now giving some thought to my next steps in terms of the diff. At least all the experiment cost me was some wasted LSD oil, a bit of gasket sealer and a few hours of discomfort out in the cold. Ideally I'd like to replace the current diff with a taller ratio so that I can make decent use of 1st gear and at the same time drop the revs down a bit when I am cruising in 5th gear. In hindsight I can't really justify fitting an LSD. So I'm currently thinking about sourcing a reco'ed pumpkin from a crowd down in Gympie, but I'm not sure whether to go for a 3.9 or a 3.7. I'd love to get some advice from those who know more about diff ratios than I do, so any suggestions via my discussion thread would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading folks.

Nice and cold tonight quick squirt up road to grab dinner. Way more induction noise than before maybe the old maf was a restriction. Logged on weekend upt to 4000rpm air/fuel is safe could do with a bit more under boost to get it to magic 12:1 fuel ratio recommended on these things it's only mid 12.5:1 so I won't stress for now. I need to get the Blow Off valve on I'm paronoid of blowing another turbo. Overall big MAF appears to have fixed a few things it appears it wasn't as rich as I though once warm doesn't stink like first start so I could pull some fuel out on start up. Feels faster but I've been driving a diesel Holden Colorado all week could be placebo. Going to pull some timing and tidy up fuel a bit more..... Maybe crank it up to 15psi see what falls out.

I m just going to leave this here https://www.hpacademy.com/blog/ryans-1973-triumph-spitfire-with-a-twist-featured-build/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=scheduled-post&fbclid=IwY2xjawLQZB9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHq8k0ZI_yiNDEQkIZjcwFnZOdaxkeYGKIXDCQXkpfgJwBPKYjKyn6I6hXtwC_aem_EPNTwerkO3unV2ROUDGLnA