Triumph Repair: 1975 Triumph Spitfire Hose Connections, charcoal canister, haynes manuals

Question

1975 Spit Pics   Hi,

I recently purchase a 1975 Spitfire 1500 (federal, non-CA) which has had its engine replaced but has not been fully re-assembled. Although I have both the Bentley and Haynes manuals, they’re designed for owners who are disassembling complete cars, with only the dreaded phrase “Refitting is a reversal of removal” to help me with re-assembly!

For that reason, I’ve had trouble identifying the connections for some of the pipes and hoses. I’ve assembled a complete set of pictures of the connections I’m not clear about and hope you might be able to advise me. I’ve numbered the photo to help with my questions, which are as follows:

I’m assuming that #1 is the fuel feed, and that #2 is the float chamber vent pipe which needs to be connected to the charcoal canister, correct?

I really have no idea what the #3 connection is – it doesn’t appear in any pictures I can find in the service manuals. It currently has a cut-off piece of 3/8 in. O/D hose connected to it.

Is #4 supposed to be connected to the manifold vacuum line that goes to the anti-run-on valve?

For #5, although the hose next to it appears to go to the heater, I can’t see where this connection should go to.

#6 sits next to ignition coil, and I haven’t yet been able to figure out what it is. Could it be where #5 should connect to?

#7 are brackets to hold the emission control pipes together. Are they supposed to attached to something, or do they just hang in space?

In #8, the choke cable isn’t connected and I can’t quite figure out from the manuals where it’s supposed to go. I’m especially confused about the purpose of the fitting in the bottom right circle.

I’d really appreciate your help in identifying these connections.

Many thanks

Answer
Hi Nigel,

#1 is the upper pipe on the carb and a float chamber vent that goes to the canister (probably one of the pipes in #7 picture.

#2 is the fuel line to the fuel pump.

#3 is "ported" vacuum and depending on where the car was for, goes to a vapor trap and then on to a "T" and on to the vacuum unit on the EGR valve and to a EGR cut out switch on the throttle linkage or if you don't have a CAT it will go directly to the EGR valve.

#4 is straight vacuum to a "T" and on to the vacuum retard unit on the distributor and to the charcoal canister.

#5 goes to #6.

#7 and #8 are not large enough for me to ID except that the #7 is the three pipes going to the canister and the top #8 is the choke cable and I can't tell from the little picture what you are circling in #8 down lower. You need to take a larger closer shot of #7 & #8 maybe I can ID them.

You are correct that Haynes and Bentley manuals fail on hose diagrams on most of the British cars they cover. It may be so because the factory manuals also fail most of the time on vacuum diagrams and hose diagrams. I worked in many dealerships over the years and we always had to look around in our parking lot for a like car to get the routing of vacuum hoses etc because even the factory manual lacked diagrams and no one could remember all the variations they had. but the factory had to have a diagram somewhere. They just didn't bother to share it with us at the dealerships.

Many import cars suffered from complicated routing of vacuum hoses due to emission control. We at the factory dealerships many times had to just connect up the unites as we knew they would operate and give up on finding a diagram.

Howard