Looking for a knob

I have seen this all too often. The overdrive gearknob switch won't stay in place which is a real pain and of course means no overdrive.

I have decided on a completely different alternative. It's possible to fit an alloy gearknob with a toggle switch which is much more robust and retains the ability to easily flick the overdrive on and off whilst holding the gearstick.

I am going with a different approach though which is cheaper and whilst not as hands on as the above option should be fine with how I want to use the 2000, more of a cruiser than a sporting car.

Here is an overdive switch for a TR2 which I have used in the past on a Vitesse I owned. That's not the position for it by the way but was a good place to put it whilst I worked.

 Although it would be good there I want to keep the power outlet for satnavs etc so I looked for options.

I then thought about using the location for the dimmr dwitch on the dashboard as the dashboard lights are rubbish anyway and there's no need to dim them!

Now started another saga where the car decided to fight me.

I pulled the dashboard out and removed the dimmer swicth which wasn't easy but when I fitted the overdrive pull switch it didn't really work well as a solution due to the gap around the switch. During removal of the dimmer swicth though the connectors became disconnected from the back of it so when I wanted to replace it I needed to use a spare I had.

I needed to get a little bit more clearance though and had to disconnect the tripmeter cable from the speedometer. When putting this back I actually found it was broken at the speedo end  but I thought this wouldn't be a problem as I had a spare on the original 2000 speedo. The cable had actually broken with the plastic connections falling inside the speedo so the job became a bigger one.

OK I thought, I'll swap in the whole 2000 speedo but then realised it wouldn't match as it has chrome rings whilst all the other gauges have black rings because they are Pi ones. Then I remembered a brand new TC one I had bought as  a Rimmer Bros clearance item a few years back. That had a black ring and the trip doesn't use a cable as it's a push button through the front of the gauge. I fitted this although it has a top speed of 120mph instead of 140mph but who's kidding anyone the car will ever see 140!.

With the dashboard back in I could return to fitting the overdrive pull switch.

I put it where I had in mind right from the start, where Triumph fitted a pull switch for a rear screen heater. This is fine as I can re-use the hole for a rear screen heater switch which I will need in the future.

So, a bit of drilling and fitting resulted in this.

A Triumph part in a correct location in the car.

Now what I need though is a gearknob for a non overdive 2000, maybe a complete gearlever too but that's for another day.

Working on it

Following advice from the Club Triumph forum I returned to PMW today.

I adjusted the Revotec fan controller down to minimum which meant that it would cut in at 70C. Here's what the temp gauge looked like then. Higher than would be expected which implies the gauge is over-reading.

Then I followed the instructions and turned the controller "up" until it went off. When it came back on the temp gauge looked like this.

That's where it stayed with the electric fan on all the time.

I checked to make sure the fan was blowing the correect way. It's mounted in front of the raadiator and I put some paper/card in front of it and it was nearly pulled into the fan so that's OK.

The temperature gauge stayed at this level all the time I went for a short run with the car but I didn't take it too far as it was struggling to get up a small rise in the road in second gear! The timing appears to be miles out using a timing gun  but when I tried to adjust it to something closer to where it should be the engine died.

Oh, and the overdrive switch on the gearknob came off again.

More things to ponder over.

Not sure about that!

So today I got PMW started as the battery had been on charge.

I then took the car for a run to see if the overheating had been cured but had major problems after less than a mile. When I got the car home one of the heater pipes had come off letting all the coolant out so I had to fix that.

Next run of 8 miles on the test track was sort of OK as the car made it but continues to run with the temperature gauge at 3/4 and the electric fan on permanently. The new water pump hasn't improved things then.

In addition the car didn't run that well either, lacking power at times.

So, I think now it's over to Vicarage Motor Company for some professional help.

Reluctant to start - but that's OK

40 minutes this week on PMW.

All pipework reconnected, time taken to fit new hose clips where needed and refitting the Revotec sender for the elictric fan in line with a photo I took of Matt George's installation which looked that bit neater than mine.

Then refill with coolant and fire up PMW. But it wouldn't as it didn't turn over fast enough. I reckon all the time stood has lowered the charge in the battery which is fair enough especially as it's the one the car came when I bought it so must be a fair few years old now.

Mind you there didn't appear to be any leaks which is a good sign.

So, simply off with the battery and put it on charge for a week whilst I packed all the tools away and moved on to preparing for Club Triumph's Round Britain Reliability Ruun where I will be marshalling at Tebay next Saturday night (October 8th).