2000 home & UNJ dizzy!

My 2000 is now back home from the garage with diff fitted and an MOT - hurragh!

It does run rather warmer than I would like though so I have only driven it 2 miles during which it seemed smooth and the diff much quieter. There was still some noise which I would consider likely to be from the transmission somewhere - surely not a reconditioned gearbox at some point?

Regarding the hot running though, I did not replace the water pump when I rebuilt the engine and given that it has had a new radiator, a good flush through more than once as well as a new thermostat I have now ordered a new water pump. When that arrives we will see if that helps. It certainly can't do any harm.

Meanwhile, here's a pic of PMW back home with friend in passenger seat.

Today though I have been working on UNJ as it has started running very roughly with alot of hesitation and even struggling to run at all. Now I always think problems are on the ignition side so straight under the bonnet for a good poke around!

I worked on tidying a few bits and pieces up at the same time. The car is losing some coolant from somewhere and there is a small amount of coolant resting on the block in a recess below one of the hoses where it goes onto a transfer pipe. By removing the air filter I could get at it better and I got the hose onto the pipe further and retightened it.

I get the feeling a new pipe wouldn't go amiss though.

Meanwhile, the poor running. Well at one point I had the car running and the air scoop (not visible in the picture) became dislodged, fell against the distributor cap and the car stopped dead. A big clue there! The distributor cap itself felt loose which is not a good thing at all so I removed it for inspection.

Looking inside it must have been moving about as there are marks on the inside of the cap where I reckon the rotor arm has been hitting the side. Not good at all.

I did clean it out but when refitting couldn't really get a good fit when re clipping it. So I found a second hand one, fitted that and fired up the TR7!

After putting everything back I took the car for an 18 mile test run and it is much improved. Now that's a good thing as I plan to use it for next weekend's Club Triumph Border Raiders Run which will be a good 300 miles over 2 days.

I think a new dizzy cap and a rotor arm wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Of TR7s

First appearance on here for BRP in many a long time. Whilst working on UNJ I took the cover off BRP to at least give it an airing.

Earlier in the day though I had driven over in UNJ to S&S Preperations in Bacup to get a new radiator cap (on advice it's possible that the previous one is allowing water to be released under pressure) and also get hold of some fitments for the hood cover.
So I spent a fair bit of time this afternoon replacing any of the studs and fixings that were missing or broken and have to say it was very satisfying.

Astonishingly whilst at S&S we solved the troublesome windscreen washers too! An after market filter was doing such a good job at filtering gunk that it blocked and no water was reaching the washer jets. Removal of said filter and then some adjustments at the end of the day mean it looks like the car has reliable powerful washer jets now as well.

And with that level of progress definitely time to call it a day :-)

Putting off the inevitable

Ever since I have had the TR7 convertible UNJ it has been cosmetically challenged but relatively solid. I have poured money into the 2000 but  spent little in comparison on UNJ.

Well the bodywork is becoming worse as could be expected. I am also not in a position to pay for a full professional restoration right now so it's a case of putting off the inevitable day when serious money has to be spent.

The sills of the car are getting "scabby" but still pretty much solid so before things get worse action was needed. First anything flaking off was removed with a scraper, then the sills wire brushed which helped "key" the surface which was a grey stone chip.

After this masking using tape and newspaper with a bag to cover the whell&tyre.

Finally an entire can of black paint was sprayed on both sides. The previous colour of the stone chip material was grey but I actually did some research and from my original sales brochure I found that the correct colour was shiny black.

So that's what I used and the effect is pretty good. Not only that but it helps preserve the car for a little longer.

Parts arrival & carbs can be good

In this last week whilst I have been away for work two more essentials have been delivered. Here in the picture is the reconditioned diff for PMW (not unwrapped yet) and the off side wheel arch repair panel.

These are tucked away for now as priority is with UNJ because I am using that much sooner than I will be PMW!

At the North Yorkshire Triumph Weekend there is a run out ovver some great roads and whilst the car was OK it did on occasion start to hold back. Comment from a friend following was that the car seemed to be running rich so today I took the air filter assembly off to get to the mixture adjusting nuts under the carbs.
I turned them "up" two flats which should raise the jets up into the carb and weaken the mixture. Followed by reassembly in the best traditions of the reverse of the previous process! Here it is half way way back together.

A run out later didn't seem very conclusive although it certainly wasn't worse so that's not a bad thing. It did die at a junction and wasn't happy at ticking over so I adjusted the slow running speed screws.

I have an electronic ignition kit for the car but never fitted it.  I am now thinking thatit  might not be a bad idea to get round to fitting it. Anyway, the car's reliable enough I think.

Next thing is I should really do something about some of the rust issues before they become a bigger problem. Oh well, always something to do.