A tale of 2 TR7s

Non starting BRP.

Fitted new points and condensor, squirted some fresh petrol down the carbs and put the rest in the petrol tank.

Also swapped over the coil from the convertible which I know works fine just in case.

Turned the key and ...... no go still, although it did give me a little encouragement.

Whilst I had the coil swapped I put BRP's on UNJ and that started straight away just as it always does so both coils will start UNJ and neither of them make a difference to the non starting BRP - it's not the coil then!!

State of play with BRP is now the battery on charge again while I think some more.

UNJ - I returned it's coil back to keep things sweet on the TR7 that will run!

I had also purchased (along with the bits for BRP) a hose that goes from the air filter to the top of the exhaust manifold

I fitted that but whilst doing so it's necessary to remove one of the thermostat housing bolts and that's when I noticed what appeared to be plain water in the housing. These cars need a good antifreeze mixture all the time for the inhibitors in them to make sure the alloy in the head doesn't silt up and cause overheating mayhem.

A few minutes had the bottom hose off the radiator and lots of sludgy brown water out of it - next a topping up of water/antifreeze mixture to put things right. Must get some more antifreeze.

I think next though will be a switch of attention over to the 2000 - time to start preparing it for the trip to the Alps.

Still not what I wanted!

For the technically minded - here's the engine at tdc and showing the lobes of the camshaft "up and away" from number one inlet valves meaning that they are fully closed. At the same time the rotor arm (which can't be seen) is pointing at number one plug lead in the distributor cap.

This all is correct for the plug leads being set up correctly with the right firing order.

The timing has been set statically at 10 degress BTDC which is the standard setting and the cam timing marks are in line with the standard position (co-incidentally after timing the cam in with the protractor). This is where it was before all the work on the timing chain etc and the car ran well other than the large amount of rattling going on!

So, all in all, the engine should run - it's back where it was but with a new timing chain and tensioner but it certainly just does not want to know.

Thinking caps on and maybe some new points, fresh fuel and some East Start next I reckon.

Not what I wanted

Well, I put everything back together today, quietly and slowly so as to surprise BRP!

Finally when it was all back in place, the big moment came - turn the key and ....... no joy.


The engine sounds like it's firing but not at the right place so there's probably something wrong with the timing - oh good! I thought I'd try swapping plug leads around but having pulled the number 1 it came apart as can be seen in the photo.

Time to call a day I decided, after all, I can't drive until November at the earliest!