BRP - oh dear!

After the HCR had finished today Dale came over to my house to see what he thought of BRP.

If you remember we got BRP running but there was a hell of a racket from it - a rattle or knocking noise.

Well this time it didn't even start but there was a horrible noise. Whipping off the rocker cover we could see the bolts had come out of the camshaft sprocket and the retaining half moon washer thingy had gone as well! I don't flipping believe this.

Turning the engine over by hand it locked up at a definite place in the cycle so that's not good.

Most likely is piston to valve contact due to the sprocket falling off etc etc. Advice from Dale is to remove the cylinder head and with a bit of luck there will be no damage to the pistons and block but the head will almost certainly have bent valves.

OK - so I brought a spare cylinder head from my garage (as you do) which we agreed looked to be in good condition and really only needs a bit of cleaning and a light skim (with a bit of luck).

So, stuff the special cam etc etc I decided there and then to ask Dale to recondition this head for me to completely standard spec while I get the old head off. It's a good thing I don't need the car in a hurry.

Don't PMW look good!

Here's a picture of PMW in it's winter storage whilst I work on it. Those facilities don't belong to me by the way!
It struck me though that in this picture the 2000 looks very very good - well it's not quite as good as that as the next picture will show!
It aslo struck me that this picture looks like the works PIs being prepared for the World Cup Rally in 1970 but no, there's not the same skill and money being thrown at it either.

So, what have I been doing? Well, fitting the front inertia reel seat belts actually which went quite smoothly. The original mountings are a long way back though so if I had fitted the inertia reels themselves in this position they would have been in the middle of the rear door entrance to the seats! A bracket supplied moved them forward though so they are now in a tolerable position and everything works correctly with no twists in the belts etc - must be a first for me to do something to an acceptable standard.

I also tried to fit a spare set of alloy "minilite" wheels I had as well, only to find that the PCD is different to every Triumph I have come across before. I'll need another cunning plan now.

Meanwhile, here's the otherless flattering picture

BRP runs - BUT!!!!!!!

First of all, thanks Kevin for coming round yet again to give me a hand with BRP.

Also, thanks Dale for your help over the phone (MOTL).

Just before Kevin arrived I checked there was fuel in the carb float chambers - three was and it was all clean.

Then I pondered on everything a while followed by fitting the battery and turning the car over. At least this time it backfired through the exhaust which seemed a step forward.

When Kevin arrived we went through all the checks we could think of - at tdc cam alignment marks in line, rotor arm pointing at number 1 etc.

Likely cause number 1

But then there was no spark at the plugs so looking in the dizzy cap we noticed one of the posts had been scored badly by the rotor arm- aha! Faulty replacement rotor arm must be the cause especially when I remembered that the electronic ignition module had been damaged and two wires worn through.

So, replacement old Lucas second hand rotor arm fitted and we gave it a go. No joy although we were now happy about the spark at the plug leads.

Likely cause number 2

Back to fuel - but then spraying Easy Start made no difference and if it had been fuel this would have sorted it, at least for a short time.

Likely cause number 3

Checked the static timing, then found it should be at 14 btdc not 10, adjusted it and still no go.

Likely cause number 4

Now it's time to call a friend - Dale of Moordale Motors. We discussed everything we had done so far and even held the phone over the engine while we tried to start it. Dale immediately said it was a timing problem and that we were well out. He then came up with a really good one - check the points aren't opening after the cam lobe and not before it.

So we did and he was right you know! Further advice over the phone and we moved the dizzy one tooth so we could get it set up right - job done surely. Err - no.

Likely cause number 5

The car sort of now ran on a couple of cylinders and we were scratching our heads. I said to Kevin "what else could make the timing so far out?" He being more mechanically minded than me listened, thought about it and said "let's check the dizzy".

Doing this the rotor arm was now pointing in a different place when at tdc - aha, eureka! Of course, change the plug leads in the dizzy cap to new positions and Bob's your uncle. And you know what, - it worked, BRP fired up!

But what's that horrible loud rattle?

Problem 6

Sorting the rattle out - my theory was I hadn't tightened the timing chain guides up and they were slapping against the chain. Or maybe there was a horrible problem with the jackshaft.

Then again, it could be in the cylinder head so we whipped the rocker cover off.

Aha- one of the cam shaft sprocket bolts had come out (gulp) and the sprocket was very very loose. No wonder there was a horrible rattle. One longer bolt found and fitted as a test and we fire it up again in all confidence that all will be well.

The rattle's still there!

What more can be thrown at us?

Time now to give a little time to pass methinks before returning to this one. The positive thing is that the car now runs, on the negative side there's a horrible loud rattle/knocking and the camshaft sprocket bolt that was in place is now probably in the sump!

Even when it's easy, it's not!

First day in 2010 working on the 2000 getting it ready for the Alps.

I decided to take a photo of it in the big shed it's living with under wraps along with lots of vintage buses and Green Godesses but the camera's batteries were flat! Good start that was.

OK then, move on to replacing the non existant steering column bush which was pretty straight forward in the main, especially after Bryce pointed out I needed to remove the steering clamp bolt entirely rather than just loosen it. What a plonker ! That's me, not Bryce.

Putting it back, mind you wasn't easy either. There are 4 x 7/16ths small bolts to hold the column in under the dash, 2 at right angles either side of the column up under the dashboard. Unless you have done this that probably won't make sense but I can tell you that they need to go back in in the right order. If they don't then it takes a long time and the swearing level increases exponentally.

When it was all done though the steering column was secure, rather than slopping about all over the place.

With that accomplished it was on to fitting inertia reel seat belts. I had bought a full set as I try to be big on safety.

Well, Triumph had put rear set belt mountings in already during manufacture even if they didn't actually fit them themselves. So, a piece of cake was obviously on the cards.

No, removing the bolts for the lower mountings that go through to the rear wheel arches was far from easy. 40+ years of underseal, grime etc were reluctant to let go but eventually they did - no stopping on this job even if it takes a very long time!

End of play though saw the rear seat belts fitted and working so all in all, not bad at all.

Oh, and the car started OK too and ran quite happily in that smooth straight 6 way so a good day after all.