Replacement sump now in place

At last I have managed to swap the sump on the 2000.

I have had to lower the entire front suspension though which was a real pain. All to stop an oil leak around the sump plug (hopefully) - mind you it was quite a leak and we had taken a spare 7 1/2 litres of 20/50 on the 10CR to make sure we got round!

Here's the suspension lowered from the car -you can see the nearside rebuilt strut from Chris Witor leaning out of the wheelarch.

Here's the sump off the car as there was at last enough clearance with the subframe lowered.

I cleaned the interior of the "new" sump with Jizer and rags and then refitted it although it appears there's a missing sump bolt! Was it there originally I wonder?

I just got the strut and drag strut back in place and then changed the oil filter and put fresh oil back in the car which I hope stays there and doesn't leak!

Next will be a patient repositioning and bolting up of the front suspension, get the oil level right in the car and check for leaks. After that I will turn my attention to the new radiator.

Two small things

Two small things have made a big difference to my Rover.

The car has the original Rover radio as can be seen here but there are cover plates or end caps missing at either side of the radio. This exposes the fixings and I have really felt it spoils what is very  nearly a perfect car.

So, when I bought the spare wing I also spent about £2.50 on new caps. Here they are in the original Rover packaging.

This is how the radio looks now with the caps fitted. Two small things but very satisfying!

I also gave the car a quick wash and had time for a quick photo of it's rear end - looking good!

Sump and wing

I have started on replacing the sump on PMW. This isn't because I think it was damaged during the "wild boar" incident although it might have been, it's because I want to try and stop the leak around the sump plug area. It might seem a bit extreme but I think it's the brazing of the insert in the sump that is the problem, not getting the oil to be retained via the sump plug itself.

Anyway, a second hand sump from Chris Witor is my solution and here it is pre and post painting.

 Getting the old sump off without removing the engine is a bit of a challenge mind you. As was trying to undo the sump plug which I think I over enthusiastically tightened trying to stop the oil leaks. At the moment the oil has been removed via a pump down the dipstick tube and all the sump retaining bolts removed but I will return to the attack shortly to actually get it off and the repainted "new" one on with a new gasket.























Meanwhile, if you check the last post on here it shows the wing arch repair panel which is on order. This has a delivery time of about 3 months and a cost of £220 ish.

Well, compare and contrast the situation with Rimmer Brothers having a sale on at the moment where a complete off side front wing for my Rover is £30! I don't actually need one but then 30 years ago there could have been wings freely available at cheap prices for Triumphs and how many people bought them??

So, I have bought a wing and it's now up in my loft. I'll probably never need it but it won't lose value either.

Arch repair on order

Last obvious bit to order sorted - thanks to Lloyd Reed who has organised remanufacture of panels I ahve now placed an order for an off side wheel arch repair panel.

The wing is kinked out a bit and the wheel arch which had had a repair is split so this should certainly do the trick.

Not pictured is a fixing kit for the electric fan which arrived this week.

I think the next step will be to replace the sump which I don't think is actually damaged but has always leaked from around the sump plug area so a £20 replacement seems a worthwhile gamble. I'll see about then having the one I take off checked over and maybe repaired.

Such a small thing

I took the radiator off PMW today so that I can replace it with a new one I aim to get this week.

From the picture you can see the damage which really seems quite small for the consequences that followed.

 I then moved on to removing the diff as we had suffered a whine from it at 2500 RPM and one of my codrivers has kindly offered to get it reconditioned.  It was a bit of a struggle outside in the cold but I managed it. I didn't take a photo of the diff but here is damage to the spare wheel well and the exhaust is hanging low as the "bobbin" has pulled off. I wonder if this is further damage from one of the wild boars or maybe in transit somewhere on and off the back of transporters.

Back home

At last PMW is back home.

With a few £ from the insurance company I can now assess what I need to do to get the car fixed and back on the road.

At the least it needs a radiator and a repair to the offside front wing as can be seen in the photos.

The hole punched inthe radiator as it was pushed back into the pulley is visible here

Panel has been pulled back out by someone

Damage to offside front wing

Things that go bump in the night

Our 10CR was going so well, the car performed absolutely fine all the first morning and, after a lunch in a cafe at Treysa, Germany, we set off on a cunning plan to go “off piste” and visit Colditz. We drove through some epic downpours and lightning storms later on the Autobahns and reached Colditz Castle, which is certainly an impressive site – even from the Lidl car park!

By now it was late afternoon with no time for a visit, so we made our escape towards the Czech border, regaining the route as we actually crossed the border at about 10.30pm. Little did we know what was about to happen and how our adventure would be a very different one from the one we planned.

I was navigating whilst Dave was driving on the road north of Plana in the Czech Republic when I heard and felt a huge “thud”. “What the eff was that?” was my question and the reply was “3 pigs just ran out in front of the car and we hit at least one of them”.

Immediately the ignition light came on so we switched the main beam off and it went back out again. Scanning the volt meter and the temperature gauge, to start with they seemed OK but soon the temparatue gauge started going up. At least all the lights were still working and the car still drove OK.

Now, what would you least like to happen next? Oh yes, the Czech Police waving us down. They didn't speak any English and we certainly didn't speak any Czech but after showing them that we had papers for the car and they had seen our passports they waved us on. They were probably more interested in the trucks that were passing and wanted to stop them instead.

It was at this time, though, that we noticed the steam coming out from under the bonnet. I didn't want to investigate in the presence of the Czech Police, however, so I took over the driving and we drove on a short distance into the next village and pulled up next to a pond. We lifted the bonnet and, by the light of torches, we could see a hole punched in the centre of the radiator where it had been pushed back into the pulley.

So, what to do next? First thing make sure we are safe, so put the emergency triangle out and pull on the hi-viz. Next, remove everything out the boot so I could see if we had any Radweld, to which the answer was no. Maybe we could keep going if we could just stop every few kms and refill the radiator? We tried putting in a bottle full of pond water but it came out from the radiator as fast as we poured it in.

I next made a phone call through to Dale Barker of Club Triumph asking if anyone had a spare radiator, unlikely as it may seem, or any Radweld. Unfortunately not, so we decided to try and get into the next town rather than stay in a small village. We drove on to Plana and just made it into the town square with the car “pinking”. Not good, and any thoughts of trying to limp to Cortina, for example, were clearly off the agenda.

I had hoped that if we could cut the route and get to Cortina then we could have done some panel beating with a lump hammer and, with the help of other Club Triumph members, sourced another radiator or found somewhere to get a repair made.

By now though it was around midnight and I made the decision to call for breakdown assistance under my insurance policy with Peter James and that was only the beginning of a heck of a saga!

Just about there

With the Club Triumph 10 Countries Run fast approaching and me working away from home so much I delegated remaining work on PMW to my local garage, Vicarage Car Company in Barnoldswick, Lancashire.

Having replaced all the springs, shock absorbers and bushes in the rear suspension myself I didn't like the way the car now rolled around at the front even more than it did before. With lots of miles to do including mountain passes in the Alps I wanted to get things right.

So I bit the bullet and bought completely refurbished front struts with new inserts and appropriate fast road springs to match the rears from http://www.chriswitor.com/
Also threw in an order for fast road drag strut plybushes too.

They didn't arrive though until Wednesday of last week which didn't give Vicarage long to fit them after my wife Deana dropped them off. I also asked them to investigate a "bearing" noise, replace some perished fuel pipe and fit an inline fuel filter just before the fuel pump.

All of that was done and the car returned Friday afternoon just before I got home and I then used PMW to go to the Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine area meeting. I must say the ride is vastly improved so I am well pleased with that.

The bearing noise is still there even though the diff oil has been changed but we are just going to have to live with that and drive at a speed when it's not so obvious - or turn the music up!

So, this weekend it's been packing spares, sorting out what tools I want to take and then generally cleaning the car applying Rain X etc.

If anyone wants to follow our 10CR we are car 34 and reports should be on the Club Triumph message diary     http://www.club.triumph.org.uk/events/tencountriesrun/10crmessagediary
(as well as Facebook for my Facebook friends) 

New purchase - Rover 214i

I have gone and bought another car!

Incredibly cheap for such a gorgeous little car. Only one owner before me who bought it using the Rover employee scheme and then cosseted it until he passed away. It's only done 53000 miles and I can only find 3 small blemishes on it.

I know about the head gasket failure syndrome but I am hopeful I will be lucky with this one and it has had it's coolant chnged very regularly through it's life. Also the cam belt was changed less than a thousand miles ago.

Many years ago now I had an early Rover 414Si as a company car and I loved it. I feel the same about this one!

Here's a number of photos for you to feast your eyes on. The last one is with the only modifications I intend to make to it, the Rover alloy wheels.

Original Rover Radio cassette - and it works like everything else on the car

Jack and wheel brace still in original wrapping

With Rover alloy wheels

Plugs,battery and coil

The 10CR is getting closer and I am tidying up PMW, finishing off a service etc.

So today I checked the brake pads and they have plenty of meat on them. Then fitted a set of new plugs I have had for a while and kept the old ones as spares.

Next I thought it would be a good idea to tidy up the battery tray which was showing some surface rust. Ideally I would ahve taken some photos at this stage but forgot so you will have to take my word for it. Anyway, a quick clean up, primer and a couple of coats of Valencia Blue from a rattle can and it is muche better preserved.

Something I have thought about but only now have actioned is the position of the coil. It's mounted to the engine block which doesn't seem optimum to me as heat build up does them no favours so with some careful thought I have remounted it at the rear of the battery tray. Unfortunately the photo is blurred but you should be able to see it here.

I had to re-attach a connection on one of the coild leads anyway as it broke so that would ahve been a possible breakdown in the future, now avoided (touch wood).

Below is a picture of the battery tray with battery and electric fan wiring looking pretty good.

The car actually started as well after all this! A test drive was fine apart from an annoying noise that I can't pin down that might be a bearing but I can't pin down where it is. Soemtimes it's quite loud, sometimes it disappears so I am hoping it will  last 3000 miles on the 10CR!

Special tool!

I now hate wheel cylinder circlips.

What a pain and I realise many people have the knack of fitting them but I certainly don't, they are the creation of the devil as far as I am concerned.

Something that is rather good though is modern technology. A comment from my brother was along the lines of "it would be great if there was a tool but there isn't". An immediate Youtube search for "fitting wheel cylinder circlips" came up with this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhJdQWljw0I

Followed by a search on ebay and I found a company called Mini Mine who sell this tool
http://www.minimine.co.uk/

So, having purchased said tool have I bought one and been successful? You bet!

Following this I plumbed in the brake pipes, refitted the exhaust whcih I had had to remove to give me clearance and got the car back on it's wheels.

All the rear suspension has now been completely refurbished and that's a job well worth doing.

Lubricate it and slip it in!

Back to the refurbishing of the rear suspension on PMW.

Here I have just drilled out the steel tube within one of the trailing arm bushes. Next I used the 1" wood drill to remove the rubber bushes followed by cleaning the inside of the holes and lubricating them with vaseline, as well as the new bushes.

So having applied lubrication it was then simple to slip it in! Of course you need good nuts and technique :-)

With all this done and experience gained so far I used the same techniques as on the nearside to relocate the trailing arm with it's new bushes (jacks, smaller bolts, screw drivers etc) and bolt it all up with new nuts and bolts.

Then the new spring and shock absorber along with new brake pipes.

Now I am getting somewhere. The circlip on the wheel cylinder still isn't on though but then I looked on Youtube for tips and found there is a tool which makes it a doddle. A check on ebay showed me I could buy one for less than £10 from a supplier in Stoke on Trent so that 's what I'll be doing next week.

 I am now left looking forward to next weekend and a special tool!

Show and struggle

A Triumph weekend with Saturday at Woodvale Show in Southport.

First was meeting up with 4 mates from Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine at Darwen Services on the M65

As you can see, I had the top down on UNJ but the weather was typical stuff!

We all made it and set up with a good variety of the models. Eventually the sun came out which meant I needed somewhere to relax.

Then Sunday it was back to PMW.

Although I had made good progress last week I had actually bolted everything back up with the drive shaft below the exhaust! So first I removed the rear section of the exhaust and bolted up the drive shaft to the diff using new nyloc nuts and copper grease on the bolts.

I also took the time to tidy up a number of things whilst there such as the rubber drive shaft boot and got it properly attached.

Next was cleaning up the brake back plate, putting the wheel cylinder in place and then the simple task of putting the circlip on that holds it in place. NO, this was not simple at all and in the end I have put that off until next week.

I did get the offside rear trailing arm bolts out though so more progress made but PMW is still on axle stands under the car port and it will be a while yet before it's back down on the ground and I can see what effect those new springs have had.

A bit one sided

So today 6 hours of work on the 2000. I really must be a slow worker!

Here's my first attempt today to get the first bush in the trailing arm using threaded rod, washers and an old socket. Not succesful again as the bush was distorting but not going in.

So I decided to get up off the floor, bring my workmate bench out onto the drive and get the trailing arm up on that. Then I got the bush back out, cleaned inside of the arm thoroughly and then smeared vaseline all over the bush and inside the hole it has to go in. Nothing like a bit of lubrication! Although no doubt someone will tell me I should have used something else.

This time, using the threaded rod, lubrication and making sure everything was lined up properly I got the result I wanted, the bush pushed home fully in the appropriate hole.

This method worked for the second bush too :-)

Now with the whole assembly on the bench I carried on with other jobs which would be easier now, like greasing the inner universal joint. This was the side with the leaking wheel cylinder so I stripped all the brakes off too, the wheel cylinder and the brake shoes along with all the fittings.

Then the new braided brake hose was fitted to replace the old flexi brake pipe as can be seen below but I will now need two new pipes which broke during dis-assembly :-(

Now I could refit the trailing arm but I put copper grease on the new bolts and nyloc nuts to help keep things from seizing up and to make it easier to take apart again at some distant time in the future (another 46 years?). Again someone will probably tell me I have used the wrong grease; are you reading this Mike C?

The next session was all about lifting the trailing arm up to the shackles and it took some doing, none of which I could take a break from to take photos.

Basically I attached the old shock absorber again to hold the rear of the trailing arm and then used two jacks at the front to get the two bushes lined up with the shackles. Then good old pushing and shoving got the bushes nearly in place.

Techniques learned over the years were used next. These were getting a small screwdriver in through the shackles and the bushes to start to pull them in to place, then using a smaller diameter bolt than the correct one to get them closer again. Finally I used the old bolts to fully locate it all at which point anyone nearby would have heard me almost shouting "You beauty, GET IN".

Once the old bolts were in it was then relatively simple to get the new bolts in and tighten them up with the new nyloc nuts.

So, on now to fitting the new shock absorber which in comparison is a piece of cake and with that in place at maximum drop the new uprated 575lbs spring went in sitting on it's poly +5mm insulator. All of this means one side is well on the way to being complete.