Hi, I have a Triumph Spitfire 1500. There is no gate between the forward gears and reverse. Can anyone help me identify the fault? Thanks John

Hi Brian:
Gotta love old Triumph cars and lucas wiring! Well, maybe love the car and hate the wiring.
I've got a '73 GT6 MkIII to restore when I decide to retire, and I did a GT-6 a few years back.
If I'm remembering correctly, the speedometer has a manual drive off the transmission so the only electrical wire to the speedometer would be for the light. Makes sense since there are separate lights for each gauge.
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Cheerfuls.

10 to 50 SAE is ok

the little plastic /rubber bit has come off the shut off valve ,although you have no doubt found this out by now .

sounds like the diff is at fault

You mentioned original engine. There are thrust bearing on the crank main bearings. If these wear out then the clutch has problems. There is a spec as to allowable forward backward movement of the crank. Press the crank pulley to the rear then press the clutch. The movement should be in thousandths.

sounds like the brake light switch is bad or not making contact when the pedal is pushed. check with a meter the switch and also make sure it is getting pushed in when pedal is pushed. could also be a disconnected or broken wire to the switch.

c...

On older model vehicles we start having lots of electricle issues. the current flow gets interupted and broken because ALL of our GROUND wires get corroded where they are screwed to the body or frame. it is important that these connections get sandpaper shiny cleaned and tightly screwed backin. solves many issues.

Jumping out of third was a common problem with the Spitfire quick changing up from forth gear would beat the syncro and chip the teeth on the drive dog then the bits would stop the syncro from engaging fully and it would jump out. If you replaced the syncro and the drive hub it may just be a bit stiff, the selector also wore quite quickly and misaligned the drive hub causing it to be hard to select.
I will scratch about in my very old manuals and see if I can find the spitfire gearbox manual, If I can I will post it.

Aston Martin early DBs and V8 Austin Healey Sprite 948/1275/1500 Austin Healey 3000 100-6 100-4 Austin Mini Cooper, America, Jensen Healy, Marina Buick Olds Aluminum Block V8 215 Bentley (1960's- 1987) Jaguar 3.8 Jaguar XKE 4.2, XJ6 Jaguar XKE V12, XJ12, XJS V12 Jaguar XK120/140/150 Land Rover Discovery V8 Defender V8 and others Lotus Elan, Elite , Esprit, Eclat, Europa, Seven [Caterham] MG TD TF MGA 1500, 1600 MGB [early Pre-1968] MGB [late, 68 on] MGB-GT V8, MGB V8 MGC MG midget 1275/1500 Nash Metropolitan 1500 Range Rover V8 Renault R-16 powered vehicles Rolls Royce / Bentley 1960's - 1987 Rolls Royce / Bentley Silver Cloud II and III 1959-1966 Triumph Stag Triumph Spitfire Triumph GT6 Triumph TR2,TR3 [early] Triumph TR3[late] Triumph TR4 Triumph TR6 Triumph TR250 TR5 Triumph TR8 Volvo 4cyl 1961-1984 by my online engine catalog books these calculations for a 1500 spitfire it states that these vehicle starters are applicable to the 1500 spitfire motor hope this helped