One week on

Unfortunately I had another epileptic seizure a week ago. It's a bit of a blow as it's been more than two years since the last one and it now means I have to have a year off driving again.

Still, it's now down to 51 weeks!

I have already surrendered the road fund licence on UNJ so we might as well have some money back in the bank.

Next I'll fit the upgraded brakes from BRP onto UNJ, save some money from events etc and get back to working on the engine for the 2000.

I must say I am now starting to miss the 2000 so it will be good to get back onto it and have it ready for when I start driving again on March 20th 2013.

Looks like the rallying will be put back even further though so the next big adventure will be the 2013 10CR in UNJ.

You can almost feel it!

Wired up the relay for one of the headlight mainbeams and it still works - amazing!

Only did one though as I didn't actually have all the wiring I need etc so one side at a time is fine.

Then moved on to the steering wheel and non cancelling indicators. The steering wheel I had fitted is on loan from BRP and is an original TR8 type. The boss though had flaking black paint and I have been having trouble lining it up straight.

So first I removed it and took it apart. Then cleaned up the boss and gave it a few coats of matt black paint as below.

Meanwhile, I gave a thorough clean of the wheel itself with oven cleaner (!) on the spokes where there was some dirt that didn't want to be removed. Having cleaned the rim I then used hide food on the leather and my goodness it feels great as a result - so good you can almost feel it from the picture below!

And the non cancelling indicators? Well I removed the cowling over the steering column, loosened the bolt holding the indicator and wiper stalk mechanism and slid it further up the steering column so that the collar would engage with the steering wheel boss.

Then put it all together and no, the indicators still don't cancel :-)

The steering wheel looks and feels great though :-)

A light serving of swarf sir?

Well, at least things have improved since the last time I updated the blog.

Charging the battery on a slow battery conditioner for a week did the trick and UNJ started no problem.

Next was a service and I started with an oil and filter change for the engine which went along quite OK and I didn't even spill too much!

This weekend I thought I would drain the gearbox and replace the ATF in it. This is the first time I have done this on a TR7 and the photo shows the swarf held on the magnetic drain plug. I cleaned it off, inserted it again and got some more out before filling the gearbox back up.

It's no fun lying under the car getting the ATF back in. I had the car up on axle stands and removed the exhaust mounting bracket which is "handily" in the way of the plug hole you fill up from. Then for me with no clever pump or anything it was just a question of filling up a hypoy type oil bottle and squeezing it uintil I had got the necessary 2 litres in.

Followed by re-assembly of course.

The diff level was fine, oil immediately dribbling out as I loosened the plug. This was EP80/90 dropping straight onto a halogen light I was using - ah, the smell of burning EP80/90!

Also retorqued the bolts holding the hubs on at the front and then all good to go.

Next week is wiring up the relays for the headlights.

I have had the chance to find out how good they are though on the short trip to the Old Stone Trough last Friday for the Pendle and Pennine meeting and they certainly are so much better than the original sealed beams.