Not used to this

I have bought a non overdrive gearlever and today I thought I would clean it up and out of curiosity see how it looked against the overdrive one n the car.

Using a rag and turps the new old stock gearlever cleaned up a treat but I knew there were some parts I would need so I referred to my parts book.  Well everything I needed looked like should be in place on the one already fitted as they didn't seem different where they locate so I decided to partly dismantle things to take a look.

Here's the assembly and yes it looks like everything should be able to be switched over. Well, having come this far I might as well check it out a bit more eh?

So, I undid the bolt at 6 o'clock in ths photo and removed it. Then there's nuts at 3 and 9 o'clock but if I remove them that would still leave studs in place surely so how would the metal cover come off?

Well, only one way to find out so I undid them and out came the studs too. Then the cover lifts off with an "inverted saucer" that holds a spring below it. With those out of the way the gearlever came out and I could compare with the non overdrive gearlever.

They looked exactly the same at the gearbox end so rather than describe the blow by blow of reassembly it was in the tradition of the Haynes manual a reversal of what I had just done and here's the "new" non overdrive gearlever in place.

Before fully replacing all the trim I then took the car for a test run and all is well with gear selection and how great it is to have a proper "knob" to get hold of!

Meanwhile the car ran well for a good 12 miles or so but then started to bog down and struggle again. I think this could easily be more fuel problems as on a light throttle it pulled quite well so next weekend it will be checking the fuel pump again.

Confidence improving

Having identified a problem with debris blocking the fuel pump a number of friends recommended not replacing the plastic inline fuel filter I had used with another one of the same type.

This being on the basis that they can collapse where the fuel pipe clamps up.

So, I followed advice from Colin Wake and fitted a filter from a V6 Vauxhall Vectra which should certainly cope with the fuel flow on a 2 litre carb fed Triumph. Here it is in place on PMW.

Don't be alarmed by the fluid on the bulkhead as I had just spilled some water whilst topping up the washer bottle.

PMW fired up no problem afterwards and having checked for fuel leaks (non found) I took the car on the extended test circuit and all appears well. That's 40 miles now with just a small amount of hesitation at the top end of the rev range and the overdrive working too :-)

Back home I left the car running with the bonnet up so that I could look over the engine. I just found one leak and that wasn't anything to do with the fuel pipes or filter, it was a small weep from a heater pipe fixed by nipping up the clamp.

I think the next job will probably be fitting the non overdrive gearlever and nob so that I can do away with the annoying overdrive version.