Electric Washer Conversion for my Herald

I should soon have one of my Herald 948s back on the road. This one hasn't been in use for some time, and always had trouble with the screen washers.

The car hasn't been on the road for a few years, the washer system was substantially rebuilt but was always slow to prime after standing for any length of time. Having been idle for a few years, I can feel pressure but there is no movement of water, I suspect the non-return valves in the jets have become stuck in the open position.

The first picture shows the original type installation, albeit with a non-original knob on the pump.

I've never been too happy about fitting a modern replacement electric screen washer system, so I used some spare components to produce my own drop-in replacement.

The switch mounting bracket is an original one, albeit turned 180 degrees. The mounting hole has been opened out to fit a momentary contact switch. The switch itself is one commonly used as a button starter - well over-spec for driving a washer pump! I would prefer something which more closely resembles the original plunger arrangement, but I've not found anything through my suppliers yet. When I find something more appropriate I will replace the bracket with another original one, turned back to it's correct orientation.

The washer pump is currently mounted on a hand-cut piece of flat aluminium sheet. That's not pretty, but it will mount using the same holes as the switch bracket, placing the pump out of sight behind the dashboard.

The ground connection to the pump is made with a ring terminal to the bracket mounting screw, which locates to the lower dashboard's metal rail - a good ground point!

The live feed uses a piggyback connector from the heater blower switch. I need to check the current rating on the switch feed before installing the assembly.

At the moment it's snowing, and the car which is receiving the pump conversion lives about four miles from here along a single track road! When I get the kit installed I'll post an update.

Herald 948 Oil Filter Conversion

I've had this project on the back burner for a while. With the original bypass filters for the 803 and 948cc Standard-Triumph engines selling at upwards of £20 - IF you can find them at all - I needed to design an adaptor to accept a more readily available oil filter.

The same filter is also in demand for some Stuart-Turner small marine engines, so we have some competition in finding them!


Oil filtration on the 803 and 948cc engine is implemented as a bypass system. This means that a small quantity of oil is diverted through the filter as it is pumped around the engine. By comparison, the 1147cc and larger engines in this family have a full-flow filtration system, so ALL of the oil passes through the filter as it is pumped.


The full flow filtration system is obviously better, but changing this really isn't an option here. The best we can do is make use of the latter system's readily available filter.


After a few months of stop-start activity, I now have a working product.




With the prototype adaptor now fully tested on one of my own Herald 948s, I have commissioned a batch of adaptors for sale. These will be available during the first week in January.

The adaptor has a retail price of £32.50, however I am accepting pre-orders paid through Paypal before December 24th, at £28.00 each, plus carriage. Carriage is £3.00 in the UK, £6.50 overseas.

Please contact me for ordering details.

A modern Triumph!

Well everything's relative! I can't say I was looking for a Spitfire 1500, my own tastes lean more towards the earlier roundtail Spitfires, so this is a modern car in my world.
Nevertheless, I found myself enquiring about this one, after it was mentioned on one of the mailing lists I subscribe to. Sometimes you get a gut feeling about a car, and this one turned out good.

Having spent 14 years in a nice dry garage, the tyres even hold air. The mechanical condition is unknown, the rockers are completely dry so I have not tried turning the engine yet. The car has been well looked after and shouldn't need any structural repairs before returning to the road. An overhaul of the braking system looks like the most complicated work needed, so hardly rocket science. Nevertheless I won't get too excited in case that engine needs serious work.