Raoul,
It's been a couple of days, but no-one seems to have gone through your list of
questions, so I will do what I can here...
1. Seat-belts. Your best bet is any of the major Triumph dealers. Living in
the UK I'm not so familiar with what your US dealers, but the names that keep
cropping up are British Parts North West (BPNW), Ted Schumacher Imports, Moss,
Victoria British (Viccy Brit), The Roadster Factory (TRF). Someone your side
will have a better idea than I do, and will be able to give you contact
details. In the UK you cannot buy belts identical to the original inertia
reel units (for safety reasons), but there are up-rated belts that fit that
are sold by the major dealers here - I suspect it will be the same in the US.
2. GT6 brakes - I have no idea. I have recently done some work on my brakes,
when the performance got very poor. I found replacing the (very old and
floppy) rubber brake hoses with steel braided ones improved my brakes a lot.
You can also buy remote servo assistance units (about 200 pounds ($320) in the
UK) which will reduce the force needed to press the pedal, although the brakes
will not stop the car any more effectively. Without assistance, you can do
what you want to your brakes, you will still need to press the same force on
your pedal to achieve the same stopping effort (unless GT6 brakes have a
different piston area - force on each pad is the force on the pedal,
multiplied by the pedal lever ratio, multiplied by the ratio of the piston
area to the master cylinder piston area, ignoring parasitic losses) - unless
some brake pads can give greater retardation for the same pad pressure, I'm
not sure about this. Other tricks like cross-drilling are aimed at improving
the cooling of the brakes, to avoid the danger of losing braking effectiveness
due to over-heating if the brakes are heavily used.
3. Tops - no idea, never replaced mine. Again, the major Triumph dealers will
be able to supply you with a choice of tops, and will be able to tell you
which best suits your needs (or gives them the biggest profit...).
4. If your wiper motor is one-speed (MkI to early MkIV) it is GXE7714, if it
is two-speed (later MkIV and 1500) it is 517621, according to the Rimmers
catalogue. Part number for the park switch for the one-speed motor is 511006;
for the two-speed motor the park switch is 520160A.
5. Never looked at my trip meter cable, so I don't know if one can be bodged
up. However, I doubt they cost much, so you can either buy one, or pull one
off a scrap car.
6. Speedo - strange. I'm not sure how it could be reading wrong - as I
understood it they read right (or at least as right as a mechanical speedo
ever can be, and they can be several mph out), or not at all. The same unit
is used whether or not O/D is fitted, so you shouldn't have the wrong one.
However, compare the part number of the one you removed and the new one. What
model is your car? Rimmers list one speedo for each mark, except MkIII, where
there is a choice depending on your axle ratio. I have no idea if they can be
adjusted, but they are not cheap to replace (50 pounds ($80) in the UK), so
it's worth finding out!
7. Vacuum advance - never played around there, can't help you. Sorry!
8. As before, most of the big suppliers should be able to supply new window,
new head-liner and whatever else you want. Failing that, try Rimmers
(www.rimmerbros.co.uk), who seem to stock a bigger range than anyone else,
although they are not the cheapest, and you will have to pay for shipping to
the US (unless you catch them during one of their 'free shipping' offers they
have time to time).
Hope I've been able to help a little - really I'm just bombarding you with my
opinion on most of this stuff!
Richard & Daffy (Inca Yellow '78 Spit 1500 - battling determindly through the
winter, and loving it!)
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