It's been round Europe and done lots of other touring events nearly always with the top down whatever the weather. One Club Triumph Welsh tour was particularly bad as I remember it.
There's always been a bad vibration through the steering wheel though at 55ish which I put down to wheel weights always being knocked off by the large brake calipers so wheel balancing is pretty much impossible.
The car has also had a tendency to run pretty well but then start to hesitate or not pull properly. More recently it's also lost coolant although I couldn't find out from where.
So what's the point of this update then? Well I put the car into S&S Preparations over winter for the coolant problem to be identified and fixed as well as them fit an electronic ignition kit I had bought many years ago but never fitted which I hoped would solve the hesitation problem.
In addition I asked Steve to give a general look over the car to make sure I wasn't spending money on a wreck (which I didn't think I was but it's always worth having a professional's view) and give me a list of other work that might need doing.
Well the coolant loss was tracked down quickly as a heater hose perished at the bottom where it entered the bulkhead so I could be excused for not seeing that.
The electronic ignition was fitted but wouldn't work so back to points etc.
I then authorised work on tracking down what the problem was with the "occasional" poor running and hesitation.
Well, first Steve at S&S found sediment in the carb fuel bowls (rather like my 2000 problems) so these were cleaned and an in line fuel filter fitted before the fuel pump (as I had done on my 2000). In addition various fuel hoses were split,deriororated as were the rubber carb mounts which would have contributed to air leaks and said poor running. These were all replaced, the carb mounts being replaced by alloy versions.
All of that didn't cure the misfire/hesitation though so back to the ignition side and onto the analyser which showed one of the cylinders kept "going down". Further investigation found a worn distributor so this was replaced with a good second hand one. Meanwhile the dizzy cap and rotor arm had been worn/scored because of the worn distributor.
In fact I had seen these problems before, back in July last year but hadn't realsied the full implications.
So new dizzy cap, rotor arm, condensor,points, 4 plugs and a plug lead were fitted.
Somehow my thought that fitting an electronic ignition kit might solve the problem looked a little sick by now.
On to other issues diagnosed after a check through the car.
Remember the "wheel imbalance" problem?
Well, the front off side wheel bearing was on it's last legs, the upper and lower steering joints gone and the steering column to bulkhead bush had fallen apart. Oops! Now, should I bother having these replaced? Didn't take long to say yes with such safety critical parts so that's what was done there.
What else? Well, a split steering rack gaitor seemed a minor "whilst you are about it "decision so that was replaced too.
Meanwhile the bushes in the gearbox remote had also all failed and the remote was resting on the rotating propshaft which isn't quite how Triumph intended so all those were replaced too.
We agreed to call a halt at this point with other "advisories" having to wait for another winter when my bank balance may have recovered a bit.
Thankfully though the car was really good to drive when I collected it pulling away under acceleration well, no judder through the steering column and the gear change really tight.
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