The Club and website are for you - leave your suggestions here.

General Suggestions messages

Just an idea, but how about a 'how to' section, explaining how to do from basic tasks such as servicing, trunnion oiling etc, through to more complex stuff like replacing sills etc?

sounds like a great idea - there's a wealth of material here but its pretty ahrd to navigate for newcomers.......

Great idea. I'd certainly be interested, and would benefit. As I've said before, I know a screwdriver from a hammer, and which end to hold, and I'm not bad at following instructions, but a central repository of 'How To ...' sounds great. Just one cautionary note - are there any issues with copyright if diagrams / pictures are, er, borrowed from elsewhere?

If you want relatively simple descriptions and pictures of how to adjust, repair or replace the vast majority of bits on most of our cars, it strikes me you want to buy a Haynes workshop manual. They are available on ebay and through Amazon. The Herald/Spit/Vit/GT6 restoration manual is also quite good.
While not infallible, neither is the advice on this messageboard. Haynes OCCASIONALLY get the spec wrong, but generally their repair techniques are sound. If you need the definitive info, you can also get the original factory workshop manuals for our cars. Autobooks manuals are also pretty good, but tend to have fewer photos than Haynes.
Personally I see no need for the club, or this messageboard, to replicate the info that is readily available in those manuals. What this messageboard is more useful for, (IMHO) is help in diagnosing problems, or advising on tools to use, or how to repair broken stuff, sources of spares or alternatives, or modifications/improvements to what Triumph produced. That said, except where one is dealing with performance tuning, or transmission and braking upgrades, it is rare that there are any genuine improvements for ordinary road cars compared with what Triumph produced, either for that model or later ones.

Haynes however, while nigh on invaluable, doesn't actually have anything like the amount of little "tips" that can come in priceless when doing a job - they'll tell you what to do step-by-step but sometimes its especially useful to hear from someone else who has gone through the whole process.

According to the Haynes manual getting a cylinder head off is relatively simple - all of the haynes manuals were written from a stripdown and rebuild on a pretty new car, not a well used 38 year old engine/axle etc, something that the users of this messageboard are intimately experienced with.

Maybe what we need instead is a decent search function on the site that lets you search within specific parameters for things on the site - all of the information is already on here, it's just a bugger to find it all.

Guys

FYI, both Triumph Workshop Manuals and Haynes Manuals are available for most models from Club Shop. Contact Sean for more details.

Regards
Mike

Chris,

Whilst I don't deny that Haynes manuals are invaluable when undertaking almost any task, what they don't give you is the little touches or suggested improvisations that club members do.

Isn't one of the great joys of classic car ownership (and club membership) being able to discuss problems and solutions with like-minded individuals rather than just reading the text-book answer? I often find that the Haynes answer (whilst useful and clear) often overlooks something (like the thread that you'll strip if you do this, or the bit that'll drop into the engine unless you do that etc etc), yet advise from members (both in person and on these messageboards) always seems to include this as people rarely forget an irrating experience and they're happy to share with you.

Likewise, it's often nice to be the person being asked for advice, especially when you know the answer, and it's always good to know that others are experiencing the same frustruations when doing the same jobs!

If members don't wish to contribute to a thread about how to do a certain task they are under no obligation to do so, but if they want to help out other members then that in itself can be rewarding.

The problem would be organisation and time.

Writing the articles, quality checking them, watching them for changes and checking them for use across the whole range etc.

It is something I have toyed with the idea of myself. Inviting some of the Triumph world proven geniuses to contribute to an editable resource. All properly searchable and indexed.

Isn't there a triumph Wiki ... couldn't we do that there?

I dunno where people find the time edit these things! My current priority list is; refit gearbox and finish other numerous jobs prior to Castle Combe and Stafford. My wife's (for me) is; build fitted wardrobe from scratch and redecorate main bedroom, change bathroom suite for a white one ( coloured is sooooooooo eighties) and refit the kitchen. Oh, yes. I still owe Nigel another article!

Neil

I thought that that was the entire purpose of the MessageBoard - post a question and get and answer, or two. Further help can often be obtained from your local Area meetings too. Often someone there, who does not always follow the MessageBoard, has a way around a problem.

As nice as it would be, unfortunately the world does not revolve around MessageBoards, although they are clearly an important component part.

Regards
Mike

Yes, Mike one of the purposes of the message boards is for members to be able to post questions and get answers.

The idea of a 'how-to' is to help keep this information available once the question has been asked and definitively answered.

Anyone who has been on these forums (or any other similarly forums) knows that the same questions come up time and again. Normally they come up so often the search is flooded with comments, suggestions (but not answers) and off-topic posts that finding the actual answer can be a real pain.

Not picking on anyone or passing any judgement but two examples off the top of my head...

1) Gearbox oil.
This has just been raised again. It's been raised and covered many times before - so many that it's actually easier and clearer to ask then try and sort the wheat from the chaff.

Oh, and the second topic that keeps coming up -

"Where is the search?"

If you don't find the search, tucked away in the menu your left scrolling through old posts and that's a really hard way to find your answer!

I have an answer for you and lots of experience of website creation/management to offer.

Q. Where is the seach?
A. The left of this page... see "Site Search" just above the Sign out link.

My experience of websites with messageboard...
Essentailly we are talking about a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section. ie a part of the website that provides answers to commomly asked questions.

Many webmasters and forum moderators will tell you that almost no one reads an FAQ section. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've seen this. The bigger they become, the less they are read... it's a fact I'm afriad. Even providing customisable searches does not solve the problem. What tends to happen is a user posts their question in the general messageboard anyway hoping that either another user provides the answer or another users searches the FAQ for them and points them at the appropiate page.

Please don't think I'm trying to put a stop to this happening in any way, it's just so much of a been-there-done-that for me and I have never seen one work yet.

Perhaps simply making the Site Search more prominent will help. I just searched "Gear box oil" and found loads of messageboard threads listed.

With the search facility in mind, perhaps we can all help the process by keeping the topics "on topic" and starting afresh when it drifts onto another issue. Clear, concise, accurately spelt (sorry to raise that ghost, but it matters with search engines) and accurate topic or message headers will help others find what they are looking for in months and years to come.
I now see the distinction between what Haynes et al offer and some of the "tricks of the trade" or common pitfalls which the original poster was suggesting. Problem is there are over a dozen basic car types catered for by the club, with perhaps 50-100 readily identifiable tasks owners often undertake, so the repository of helpful knowledge suggested would be a huge job to create. That said, by a natural Q&A process, much already exists, albeit well dispersed, on this board.
Although similar topics do come up time and again, there is often a little new knowledge or a fresh idea injected each time, so folks should not be dissuaded from asking about something in case it has been mentioned before.
Over the last 3 or 4 years I suppose I have tried to answer more queries than I have raised myself. NOT seeking any brownie points for that, because I enjoy doing so (makes the brain work!) and I hope my experience of Triumphs since the 1970s (I was actually brought home from hospital as a new-born in a 948 twin carb saloon though I do not recall that car!) can help others.
However I would ask all those with questions to please look at the manual first! To expect someone else to look things up for you which are readily available is simply rude, and there is a risk that in misunderstanding the message, or making the wrong assumption about certain details which may not have been mentioned, the advice or information given can be plain wrong. And any car at speed is a potentially lethal object so getting it wrong can have dreadful consequences. By looking up things first, people may be able to make the question more detailed and specific, which can make getting to the bottom of a problem much quicker!

Chris wrote:

(I was actually brought home from hospital as a new-born in a 948 twin carb saloon though I do not recall that car!)

That would explain a lot!

I came home in a Signal Red London RT Bus, Route 77a

(Yes, that's RT, the predecessor of the Routemaster)

Regards

L&195;&169;on

I agree in principle with your points about FAQs. It's well known that people won't search and read if there given the opportunity to have there question personally answered.

The answer to that is if a repeat question is asked, then direct them to the existing post and make sure that the original post is a quality one.

I would hesitate to say that information on triumph tips and tricks would regarded in the same way as general FAQs. But the answer is to have a separate site/micro site not offering a forum function.

I would be interested to see how much traffic the www.triumphspitfire.com "how to" pages gets http://www.triumphspitfire.com/Article.html

Just a note on the search function, I do think it would benefit from some improvement.

Jon

Mike,

This was the point I was trying to make (sorry - probably not very clear).

The messageboards and the area meetings give members the option to ask (and answer) questions. This is one of the reasons for being part of any club, and something I find most useful myself.

The point I was disagreeing with was that the answer to everything can be found in a Haynes manual.

The problem with Wikis is the quality of the information.
Jon

I think many valid points have been raised in this thread - the various manuals available are generally concise, thorough and (hopefully during the decades since which they were first published!) now pretty much spot on with their technical advice. However, as Neil and others have pointed out, they are not always the simplest things to follow, normally have fairly small black and white photos (in which it is often difficult to pick out the required level of detail) and they usually reply on a fair degree of technical knowledge already being posessed by the reader in order to complete the tasks invoiced.

On the other hand, a huge resource already exists on this site in the form of the messageboard which contains many of the hints, tips, suggestions etc that the Haynes (etc) manuals would need to be 1000 pages thick to accomodate. In addition, they give the poor sod who's not been able to get his car to shift from his garge from months on end with an unknown fault to go back time and time again until, usually, the problem is eventually diagnosed and fixed!

However, I think the best way to add value to the website would be to create a new type of resource for the club as a whole - rather than to simply replicate the messageboard in another area of the site.

Why not create a 'How To' section of the website which provides pictorial step-by-step guides for a limited number of routine service and other frequently-required tasks, many of which would be fairly applicable to most of the cars owned by the club members and wouldn't even need to be model-specific. These could include simple topics such as carb balancing, trunnion oiling, points replacement and gapping, UJ replacement, timing, valve clearances, gearbox oil changes etc - things that can often be taken for granted that everybody already knows how to do. More intricate topics such as clutch replacement, suspension rebuilds, head/block rebuilds, carb refurbishment, gearbox rebuilds, body tub removal etc etc could also be covered.

If someone fairly knowledgeable was planning to undertake a task that hadn't already been covered in a 'How To' guide before and they didn't mind doing it armed with a digital camera and a notepad (and the time to write it up on a computer afterwards) then I'm sure that before too long we could end up with a good number of well-documented and photographed articles such as the two excellent examples below which I have found elsewhere on the internet:

http://www.rarebits4classics.co.uk/Hints%20and%20T...

http://www.mintylamb.co.uk/?page=sutune.htm

Based on my own personal opinion and average level of technical knowledge I would be much happier carrying out either of the above tasks (albeit possibly with a Haynes or similar manual to hand for backup) with one of the above step-by-step guides with large, annotated colour photographs and plain not-too-technical English. If I just had a black and white Haynes manual to go from I would possibly be tempted to skip it and get someone else to do it for me. If we had one of these guides for many of the common tasks needed to keep our cars on the road this would be amazing. I'm not 100% sure but I have heard the MG Owners Club website has a similar section covering various service tasks.

Whilst this would obviously take time to build up, within a couple of years with a bit of member participation (which this club is definately not short of) I think we would have a very good pictorial technical resource, much more user-friendly than any Haynes manual, available to all members - which would especially benefit the younger, less technically acomplished amongst us and hopefully ensure our cars, our club and the many benefits of home-servicing survive for even longer.

Agree with that wholeheartedly, maybe an idea would be for the site to have a small area where we could all post how we ourselves went through jobs - I know quite a few people who already go through a job with a digital camera, just as an aide memoire in case some stage goes wrong.

It's quite easy then to add some comments next to each photo and voila, one "how-to" guide. I'm pretty sure that if we had the ability to do this (it would require being able to put multiple photos on a post) that it would develop in no time.

This suggestion is now more of "how I did it" rather than a "how to" idea. Still has much merit, but unless readily searcheable, there might need to be some consensus as to what people want to see there. I would not want to wade through pages of trunnion oiling, plug changing, filter changing etc which I maintain ARE more than adequately covered in the manuals. The 1200 Herald owner's manual even told you (with photos as clear as you could wish for) how to do all the service tasks, even including decoking the engine!
There have also been a pretty good set of routine maintenance articles in The Courier from time to time. Perhaps those could be grouped together and issued as a club publication if there is demand for such?

There is merit in this suggestion... many Courier articles are archived as PDFs and could be collated... it will need investigation.

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How about a 'how to' section for each car?

How about a 'how to' section for each car?

How about a 'how to' section for each car?