Project Manx - Raider's Rally TR7 16V

A bit twitchy

2012-01-15T15:03:00.002Z

UNJ had been a bit "twitchy" for a while now. Lifting off the accelerator I could feel the rear of the car twitch from side to side and sometimes under acceleration too.

I had never got round to fitting the polybushes in the rear trailing arms so now's the time.

It was also a good time to drive over to the workshop with the top down in bright sunlight but with a temperature of just above freezing!

Anyway, onto the lift and start to remove the nearside trailing arm using the tried and trusted method of a spanner wedged on one side whilst using a ratchet and socket on the other.

Then when removed it's quite obvious one of the bushes was completely shot.

I already had some spare trailing arms so with a lick of paint (far from perfect!) and new bushes the nearside one was ready to go back on.
The next two photos show it with the new bushes next to the removed one with the old bushes - quite a contrast! Then it all wentback together with a bit of a struggle but I got there in the end.

And the result?

Well actually the car is even more twitchy than it was before.

Under acceleration and especially when changing gear it really twitches on the offside. I think it's because the nearside is now so well located the offside is really taking a hammering so that's the next step as I ran out of time today.

Oh, and I still drove home topless as the light was fading at about 5PM so if you saw a blue TR7 with the top down between Keighley and Barnoldswick yesterday around that time it was me!

Sitting comfortably

2012-01-02T15:43:00.000Z

After fitting the "new" driver seat to UNJ I found the back flexed quite alot and was certainly not fixed.

So, out it came again and after a partial strip down this is what was found - a broken weld.

So we cleaned it up and here's Bryce welding it back up

And the result

Refitting to the car today and all is well.

Little things that please

2011-12-27T18:48:00.000Z

A series of little things done on the convertible but I am well pleased.

I had a TR8 steering wheel fitted to BRP and as I won't be using it for months now I swapped it over on to UNJ and it's a better driving eperience for it.
I have never been able to get the door/interior lights to work properly on a TR7 and UNJ was no exception but today's the day I cracked it. Thanks to help from people on http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/default.asp as well as a PM on the Club Triumph forum and an email (you kow who you are) I have finally realised how thick I am

Strangely,I thought that two wires both of which had purple in them would/should both be live whereas the one that was black would be the only earth.

Hence I had the black earth wire to the single contact on the lamp and the two purple "live" ones to the other two connections. I was then wondering why there was no power to the purple/white wire

Now I have realised there are two earth wires and only one power I have the lights connected correctly, I have cleaned up the courtesy light switches and guess what - yes, courtesy lights that work.


The correct way to wire the lights up! Purple is power to the single connection, the other two are earths

3. Having done this I then thought about the annoying horns as they are more of a "peep" than a proper loud blast. It's one of those jobs that gets left as there are always more important things to do but today I had some time at looked at the problem.

One of them just wasn't working so up into the loft for a replacement from my stash of hoarded second hand parts and it was replaced in a few minutes. Result is a proper blast from the horns as they should be.

4. Adjusted the washer jets. Yes another small thing but like everything else, small niggly things spoil the experience of driving the car so it's good to get them fixed.

I'll have to return to the driver's seat though as the back isn't as fixed as it should be and then there'll be new bushes in the rear parallel trailing arms so there's more to do yet of course.

Happy for most of the time

2011-12-10T17:50:00.001Z

Returned to UNJ this afternoon with all the nearside interior needing to be fettled and placed back in the car. Here's how it looks at the start of play, the carpets all pulled up, bits of trim missing and the passenger seat is not actually bolted in.

I found it all very satisfying actually. First I put the seat outside of the car and then went about finding and replacing the right screws where they were missing in the rear trim panel and also in the kickpad on the left. Then it was a case of putting the bulkhead sound proofing back on and refitting the original carpet.
The car has had another set of carpets fitted over the originals which are very faded and although the new set are black rather than the correct blue they look pretty good.
I did as a previous owner has done and fitted them on top of the originals so there's 2 layers which in theory gives good soundproofing although I like driving with the top down as much as possible which makes it all a bit academic.

Next I ran a bolt through all the captive nuts in the floor with copper grease on it to try and ease the refitting of the seat and this certainly helped as it went back in quite easily. I also took the opportunity to unbolt the the seat belt from the seat, unravel it and bolt it back on so that it will now fit much better and as intended.

Here's how it all looks and I must say I am very pleased.

So why does the post title say "happy most of the time"?

Well by comparing both seats it's obvious that the driver's seat's reclining mechanism isn't working properly, or even at all. It's in the one position and not firmly in that either so it looks like I need to do a bit of research and probably strip it down to make a repair.

It really is a shame as it's in very good condition otherwise, certainly better than the one that came out.

Keep on going

2011-11-20T15:38:00.001Z

A return to UNJ this time.

I wasn't in the best frame of mind though as I had been away on buysiness to Spain and spent the last two days sipping water as I couldn't face any food. This was all good for weight reduction but not for a day's work on a Triumph when I know they rarely co-operate.

First on the agenda was driving over to Bryce's where he was good enough to help me out again. Priority was getting at a hole I knew was lurking on the nearside bulkhead where it butts up to the back of the inner wheel arch in the engine bay. I had stripped out all the interior for a better view and found two other small areas of rot which were probably caused by water getting in via the first hole and then being held by the carpet.

To get at the bulkhead hole though the windscreen wiper motor needed to come out and then the combined battery tray/wiper motor panel moved out of the way. A combination of drilling the spot welds and then cutting through the horizontal part of it meant it could be bent away to reval the horror below.


Nice grot!

Having done that it was all cleaned up, metal patches made up, welded in (including in the interior) and then suitably treated with sealer and preservative. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well it wasn't.

With a welder available Bryce and I returned to trying to remove an obstinate bolt putting up a hell of a fight on the removal of the driver's seat front, specifically the one at the front near the transmission tunnel. Of course this wasn't in a convenient place either, what a surprise.

Not to be denied, Bryce welded on another bolt which immediately broke off. Another attempt saw a slight bit of movement before it snapped off again. By now there was too much weld getting in the way and we still hadn't won. I have to admire Bryce's determination though, we kept at it.

At this point I commented that the seat was completely shot with a broken back in it as well as the fabric being in bits and the fact that I had a good replacement which was the whole point of the exercise. So, Mr Bolt, fight all you like you are not going to win.

Don't look down for those of a nervous disposition.

Out comes the knife to remove the front quarter of the seat followed by an angle grinder to remove the interior seat metal frame so that we could see the bolt directly for the first time. What I should have taken a photo of was the very large old screwdriver we welded to the bolt next and the large molegrips used on it until that bolt finally gave in.

Sacrificial seat!

By now having fought the car all day it was time to put it back into a drivable state - the sacrificial seat went back in for the 17 mile drive home whilst the wiper motor was bolted back in but I wasn't keen to try the wipers until I had another day to check things over again.

Luckily the wipers weren't needed on the 17 mile drive home as it was a fine dry day going into dusk and then

and then

I remembered how great it is to drive the car with the top down, jacket zipped up, woolly hat on head and heater on full.

Why would anyone not have a Triumph??

Coping mechanisms

2011-11-05T18:16:00.003Z

Couldn't quite get to work on the 2000 engine this week so I changed tack and decided to replace the driver's seat in UNJ with one I bought from ebay.

The original driver's seat showing rip/wear to outer side section - there is something broken inside too!


The much better ebay seat.

So, a good plan then and I set off to remove the original seat only to find I could only get one retaining bolt out! Further attempts would probably result in getting absolutely nowhere and making things worse so I decided to call a halt on this project.

Never fear, next week I hope we can do some welding to the bulkhead in the passenger footwell and it would be a good idea to remove the passenger seat to give clearance room as well as to get a chance to dry the floorpan out! Much more progress with this seat; 3 bolts out and only one being a pig! Same decision made, leave it for another day.

My theory is that I am playing a long game and I know too well that if I let myself get impatient I only make things worse. I can even prove this theory as last week I replaced the viscous fan coupling. Now, when this is done it is easy to think there are only 3 bolts holding the mounting to the front of the block as one is lurking underneath.

Of course, this difficult to see bolt is also the one that is the most difficult to get to when bolting the mountiong back on, so much so that last week I left it off and decided I'd just make sure the others were tight by regular checking.

This week though, after the seat debacles I decided to return to the attack and succeeded with very little effort really. There you go you see, leave a difficult job alone for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes and attitude and "the job's a good un".

Check out next week's adventures to see if the theory works on those seat bolts.

The awkward bolt is the inner one at the bottom of the housing - much more visible in this photo than in real life!

Engine cleaning & fan replacement

2011-10-30T16:06:00.000Z

It took 2 hours to steam clean all the 2000 engine components but at least it's a good base to start from.

Also, the flywheel fits in the lathe so we can machine it down from the current 13kg to a target weight of 8kg thanks to advice from the Club Triumph forum - that's one heck of a reduction and it should make a difference to low speed pick up.

That was yesterday but today whilst doing a check over UNJ back at home I decided to sort something else out. There has been rather a strange noise develop which led me to believe the viscous fan was failing and it certainly did not rotate freely as it should. My plan had been to spend £100+ on an electric fan kit but then I remembered a viscous fan assembly I had removed from a Dolomite Sprint engine.

Best part of an hour later it was swapped over and all appears to be well. Subject to a roadtest that's a good way of earning £100 an hour!

I also rejoined Facebook today (against my better judgement) but here's a photo from my daughter Michelle's page showing me and PMW in the Alps last year which brings back happy memories.

PMW looking great with a tremendous background - not sure about me though!

Stripping on a Friday

2011-10-22T16:03:00.000Z

A racy title but actually 3 1/2 hours of stripping the 2000 engine down.

All very satisfying and it's now stripped right down to it's component parts ready for inspection and cleaning before further work to recondition it.

There should have been plenty of photos but due to a camera malfunction here's just the one that survived.

Here's the cam removed and sat loose on the sump. There's some marking on the lobes which is just about visible in this photo but as I am planning a new cam it's not of any concern.

Friday is Triumph day

2011-10-09T15:54:00.000Z

A day off work and what can you do but spend it with Triumphs and Club Triumph - can't get much better than that.

First off down to ATS Euromaster in Colne to have a new Michelin fitted to the spare for UNJ. At last I have 5 of the same OE type wheels with 5 Michelins fitted. It gave me a chance to sort through some of the wheels and tyres I have and get three of the old tyres scrapped at the same time. Meanwhile ATS stripped and hopefully fixed 2 slow punctures which are down to 30 year old wheels. If this doesn't do it then refurbished wheels will be needed or I think Rimmers still have "new" ones although I doubt they will be cheap.

Next was over to Bryce's to start work on PMW's original engine, here seen on a pallet along with the original non-overdrive gearbox and cylinder head, rockers etc.

It took a while to lift the engine and get it secure on an engine stand but then we got the sump off for inspection. The crank looks pretty good with probably only shells and thrust washers needed. Having said that there was a fair bit of swarf in the oil pump pick up filter and I have decided to do a "proper job" so Bryce and I are going to strip the engine down completely and get it thoroughly clean first off.

Swarf in oil pick up pipe just visible

Bryce is fine with lightening the flywheel as he has a lathe etc available and then we'll get all the bottom end balanced. Enough for today though as I needed to get home ready for leg 3 of Triumph Friday!

It was 10CR video night at the Pendle and Pennine Area meeting so the projector, audio leads etc had to be found then transported down to the Old Stone Trough in UNJ for setting up before everyone arrived. Thanks to Andy Flexney for helping with this at the OST and Jenny of course for giving us the function room and reserving a table for us all to eat before the evening's entertainment began.

Another good night had by all but I was glad it was all over when my head finally hit the pillow!

I had to spend a fair bit of time on Saturday tidying away from the previous day's activity but did find time for one of those rare events, a small quick job that actually was small, quick and satisfying! There should be a gear lever shroud grommet but this was missing in UNJ which was a bit of a niggle. Rattling around in my loft though I found one, dismantled the shroud and fitted the grommett - cracking job!

Helping the country out of recession

2011-10-02T17:02:00.000Z

Or - how to keep buying bits for old cars.

Recently I have ordered a spare tyre for UNJ - A Michelin of course due to be fitted on Friday. While I am there I'll get ATS to switch a couple of the existing tyres onto better TR7 alloys I have in an affort to stop two slow punctures.

I have also recently bought a "new old stock" distibutor for PMW and it certainly does look to be in excellent condition so I am really hoping for no more dizzy moments LOL.
Also I have been buying workshop manuals, service sheets and parts manuals like they are going out of fashion so that I must surely have all the information I need to rebuild the original engine. Thanks Mike Charlton for collecting the latest treasures for me.

Not least, I have just bought from ebay 2 seats for UNJ in the right colour which is not easy to get hold of. The driver's seat in the car is broken and ripped/worn so I plan to swap the new one in and keep the others as spares.

There you go you see, there's me doing my bit to keep the UK going!

Decision made - I think

2011-09-17T16:51:00.003Z

I have thought when I would next use BRP and really it's quite some time. I would have used it for the CT Autotest but work will get in the way of that and there's nothing else on the horizon that "needs" a competition car so I will take it off the road.

I really like all my cars though, I enjoy driving them all although they are very different in the way they feel.

So, having decided to take BRP off the road I aim to get back to PMW, the 2000 saloon. It's currently in storage without a distributor and had various driveline vibration problems when put away too.

The cheapest route is to replace the distributor, fix the propshaft UJs (if they are the problem) and start driving it again. Thing is though, it seems to have a thing for eating distributors.

Meanwhile, I am trying to track down what work was done to the original engine and it seems to include work on the cylinder head including conversion to run on unleaded. For this reason and the fact that it would be good to re-unite the engine with the car I think I am going to rebuild that one, get a sutiable new (?) distributor and refit it.

After which I can move on to solving the driveline problems and fit an electrically heated windscreen I have ordered.

Meanwhile, today having decided to take BRP off the road I have swapped over the strut brace and one or two other bits to UNJ as it might as well have them ready for next month's CT 3 Counties rally.

Where to? UNJ

2011-09-04T16:25:00.005Z

Whilst pondering my next move I have returned to UNJ.

Although it drives well it's always had a fair bit of "pinking" so this afternoon I got round to checking out the timing.

It's supposed to be 10btdc but when I checked it was off the marker! Must have been about 14+.

Adjusting isn't so easy due to the amazingly difficult to get at bolts that hold the distributor in but with some perseverance all came good and I reset it to 8degrees btdc eventually (not standard due to lower octane fuel nowadays) and it certainly has improved matters greatly.

Then I moved on to trying to fix the non cancelling indicators but wasn't so succesful - ho hum, another day maybe.

Meanwhile, with the other cars I continue to ponder although it could be the 2000 that gets attention first as I am starting to miss it!

Here's video of us on the Little Devils in BRP where it's certainly possible to hear the engine rattling away!

Where next??

2011-08-29T07:21:00.002Z

BRP has been running really well and has plenty of go about it.

Unfortunatley it's also been burning oil on the inlet manifold and rattling alot.

I checked the cam cover and found a bolt missing which has allowed oil to seep past it onto the inlet manifold so that is probably sorted.

I then noticed though, a missing bolt holding the exhaust manifold on! Not good and after looking for another one and being unsuccessful I decided to make sure the others were not loose. The result was stripping a helicoil out - not good at all. So that means taking the head off again for this reason alone.

Then what about that rattle? Bryce and Harvey, my brother who were over for a family do and had a listen and they don't think it's the cam, could be the jack shaft or could be a little end.

Whatever, I think it's time to stop fannying about. Once and for all I think I need to rebuild an engine right from the start, after all I have enough spares to select the best bits from and then build from there. Whilst the engine is out the engine bay can also be cleaned up and some seam welding done.

The thing is though, should it be an engine for BRP or the original engine for the 2000 that I/we build first?

If the 2000 is worked on first that can be ready for road use winter of 2012 and then work on BRP for it to be used in 2013/2014. After all I am not going rallying in a big way anymore and if I select the right road/social events the convertible and the 2000 will do just fine.

Much to ponder over.

After the Little Devils!

2011-08-21T14:56:00.004Z

Well, we didn't cover ourselves in glory on this one coming 15th out of 15! It still means I am in a clear 4th place in the Club Triumph Driver Challenge though and as my aim is to be in the top 5 I am pleased enough with that.

The car was fine and very quick really but needs setting up or a service. It also rattles a fair bit and is burning oil off the exhaust manifold/down pipes so really needs some fettling.

This weekend though all I have done with it is get it up on ramps and hose all the muck and bullets off the underside. Next weekend I'll start the service and investigations although it might be wise to go round and touch up the paintwork where necessary first at the earliest opportunity.

Meanwhile, UNJ is at the front of the queue for use and will be the car Mrs R and I use in the next challenge round, the Club Triumph 3 Counties Rally in October.

Speedfair and prep for the Little Devils

2011-08-06T17:55:00.003Z

Well, the Speedfair rally was really good actually.

10th out of 17 on day 1, ok 15th out of 20 on day 2 wasn't so good but our day one performance put us into the "Shoot out".

This was a bit of a surprise and given that we had a 4 to 5 hour drive home in some ways wasn't all that welcome!

The format though was that the top 12 cars from day 1 (and that included us!) took another run through the test and the top 6 would then run again. OK, let's have some fun we thought and set our fastest time of 92.3 seconds whcih amazingly got us through again.

Now the top 6 were to be narrowed down to the top 4 and of course we wanted to see how well we could do and we really attacked the test but right at the end we drifted off slightly onto some gravel and our time was 94.3 seconds - oh well, time to go home.

Great fun all the same and I'll post up the in car footage soon.

Today though I worked on BRP with a mind for the Little Devils next weekend. This is an all together rougher event which has included farm tracks in the past so with this in mind 2hours workl this afternoon resulted in the sumpguard back on.

More to do but so little time - what will next weekend bring I wonder?

Speedfair Rally day 1

2011-07-30T17:31:00.002Z

Started the day by retorquing the cylinder head in the hotel car park.

Then over to Knockhill for signing on and scrutineering - thankfully no problems.

Four tests today and the main decision to be made was whether to stay in 1st or try and go for 2nd gear! On the first test I decided early on I'd grab second as soon as I could and hold on to it all the way round which I did but the car "bogged down" too easily - 101 seconds was our time.

Next run I stayed in first and rev'd the engine up to to 6000 (ouch!) and came in with a time of 96 seconds.

After that it was first gear near enough the whole time - sorry BRP!

But at the end of day 1 we are in 10th out of 17 so not too shabby.

Speedfair Rally 2011 - getting there

2011-07-29T20:04:00.002Z

Writing this from the bar of my hotel in Dunfermline with BRP parked outside looking rather damn good actually.

The drive up at a steady 70 mph where possible was uneventful and it kept it at 3500 rpm which is no bad thing given the reconditioned head that is fitted.

Tomorrow morning I'll retorque the head in the hotel car park before we go to Knockhill for scrutineering and 4 tests against the clock.

Meanwhile, BRP is certainly very very noisy on a long journey! Since I stripped out all the sound deadening and carpets etc I have not driven it any distance other than competitively so now I know I couldn't use it in it's present form for a RBRR or the 10CR.

Something that helps make up for it though is all the admiring looks from people on the roads - a guy at a filling station really liked it and at one point a whole taxi full were looking at us and smiling.

BRP on the road again

2011-07-19T19:13:00.004Z

Back from holiday and my first trip out in BRP.

Just about 10 miles and it seems fine so far but by eck it's noisy with no interior trim etc! It also feels very different to the soft top as it so much more rigid and firm on the road.

Power seems good but I am trying to look after the head by keeping the revs down for a while. I will have to look into the fact it keeps stalling as soon as it comes to a halt though.

Speedfair Rally in 10 days and not much time to check things over.

A record for the Raider fleet!

2011-07-02T14:39:00.002Z

As of today I have 3 Triumphs with MOTs, all insured and all taxed - WOW!

There are different degrees of "readiness" though.

UNJ - taxed, MOT and insured, radiator and dipstick tube replaced - completely roadworthy. In fact I was in UNJ at last night's Pendle and Pennine meeting. Probaly in use later today for a run out in the sun.

BRP - taxed on line today, MOT and insured, rear brakes freed off by the garage who did the MOT. Needs a good once over and a sump guard made up ready for the Speedfair rally and the Little Devils in August.

PMW - taxed, with MOT and insurance. Also with transmiaaion vibrations, without a distributor and under a dust cover! So not so ready to roll with this one.

Back to BRP!

2011-06-18T15:30:00.006Z

I have just been invited to take part in the Speedfair Rally at Scottish Classic Speedfair, Knockhill July 30th and 31st so this is another incentive to get back to BRP.

2 weeks after that though I am aiming to enter the Little Devils so it's a busy time ahead.

I had intended to get BRP entered for it's MOT this week but the wiper stalk simply broke, here it is removed from the car today and looking very sorry for itself as you can see.In amongst my second hand spares though was a replacement from an early TR7 but that was held in by one bolt and two rivets rather than 3 bolts as on BRP. So I carefully placed the column switches in my vice supported underneath by a block of wood and drilled out the rivets.
That all worked out well but the bolts from BRP had nothing to grip on in the replacement switch (where the rivets had been) so off came the steering wheel in order for me to fit two small thin screws through the mounting holes and into clips which has done the job very nicely. The fixings are visible below, one bolt at the base of the stalk and two black screw heads further in above and below.
Re-assemble everything and it all works!

Next was a problem with the front near side headlamp not coming on when on main beam. I had a suspicion it was down to my naff wiring and sure enough a scotch lock was the problem where I was taking feed off so as to be available for the Cibie driving lamps when fitted.

I decided to remove the scotch lock, break into the wire and fit bullet connectors which then went into a rubber insulated connector and has solved that one too.

I really must get the heater working too which I think is a cable connector come adrift but that will mean removing the centre console to get at which is more than I can do today. The heater is important as I will need some demisting at different times of the year after all.

I could do with adjusting the rear brakes as well but with time running short I might put it in for MOT and get the garage to adjust them.

Another thing to note is that the car runs OK as regards tick over etc but there's a fair bit of knock from the top end which I suspect is camshaft related. Not entirely happy about that but it was an unkown when I had the head reconditioned so I have no problems with Dale, I took the gamble. I'll see how it goes and decide what, if anything, to do about it later.

IAE update and on!

2011-06-10T07:38:00.003Z

Completed the International AutoEcosse in UNJ which was very enjoyable ineed. Finished 10th out of 23 CT crews on the tests which again I am very pleased with. Also very happy that Mrs R joined me on this one and is already signed up to do next year's.

The car will need a reconditioned radiator as it was leaking but managed to hold out until we got home. We had the hood down all weekend by the way apart from about 30 minutes even though it was cold and blustery all weekend.

Here's video evidence of us on the test at Kames courtesy of Steve Thompson

I am now in joint 5th place in the CT Driver Challenge which is where I would like to be by year end!

As I said over the weekend, I had become so focussed on the Manx that I had forgotten how enjoyable Club Triumph events were so it's good to be out competing again.

I haven't forgotten the Manx though and the next event is both another round of the CT Driver Challenge and a significant step back to the plan for the Manx rally. I am intending to enter the "Little Devils" in BRP in August. This event is as close to a stage rally as you can get without it being one or without needing a competition licence. It's also the first event Sarah and I did together.

Not only that but the last time BRP was out was on the Roskirk Stage rally in 2009 so I am really looking forward to it.

Problem is, I came to start the car and check things over prior to taking it for MOT and the headlight dip/main beam stalk broke! A bit of work needed then :-/

Better and better

2011-05-29T07:51:00.002Z

More work on UNJ and it's getting very satisfying now.

The car has been running fine but a hint of the misfire had returned, little things like faltering on the overrun, needing third gear at 30mph and 4th at 50mph. Then there was a fair amount of "pinking" if accelerating and putting the engine under a bit of load.

"It's always the ignition side" is my favourite saying to guide me under these circumstances but just on the off chance I checked the carb balance just in case one pair of cylinders were not getting the same fuelling as the other which would also cause the above. No, using the special tool of a length of fuel pipe stuck in my ear and then into the carbs in succession all was well there.

So, over to the ignition side.

With the engine warm and at tickover (which is also high at about 1200rpm) I pulled the plug leads off one by one using my special insulated grips and number 2 was making no contribution at all! Then testing with a spare plug showed no spark from this plug lead so I inspected it further and found the connector at the distributor cap end broken.

I didn't have a spare lead but managed to fix this with an end from an old lead. At the same time I put a small amount of grease on the distributor cam and lubricated it, along with cleaning up the dizzy cap.

The car performed much better on the next test run with much reduced pinking and no hesitation present so hopefully I have made a permanent cure. It's pretty good how well the car ran before though considering the poor/non existant input from number 2 cylinder.

This also gave me the chance to adjust the tickover speed and I was able to reduce it now to 850rpm but it does seem very reluctant to keep returning to this. Moving the loation of the throttle return spring helped as did oiling of the linkages. More use might help and the car is certaily going to get it with the International AutoEcosse next weekend.

Plunged in!

2011-05-25T20:40:00.003Z

I know why the reversing lights were on all the time - the "plunger" in the reversing light wasn't working. You can see why in the photo where a replacement I got from S&S has the plunger tip standing much more proud than the original. I think the original wasn't releasing properly and despite WD40 it didn't improve followed by one of the wires breaking off anyway.

Fitting the replacement one didn't take too long even if it was fiddly and now the reversing lights come on when they are supposed to and only then.

Next I replaced the top hose which was decidedly dodgy (although in time honoured fashion I'll be keeping it as a spare).

With those all done I drove the car with the top down for 20 miles and it was a real treat. The car handles well and is surprisingly quick actually, although there is the occasional hesitation from it which could probably be cured by a check of points gap and timing etc. Thing is though, with only just over a week to the AutoEcosse maybe I should leave well alone and just get some more miles on the car.

Core plug fix

2011-05-22T20:00:00.003Z

Not very easy to see here but this is the remains of the weeping core plug - not very much left. I had had quite a problem getting a replacement as all the suppliers had this item as "no longer available" but it seemed ridiculous for a £1 component to be the cause of such grief.

Bryce decided to buy a ouple of boxes of assorted core plugs as they will always come in handy so we felt confident we would be able to sort this one out.

Like may occasions, however, it didn't work out as straight forward as expected. The old core plug decided to make a fight of it, so much so that we took the bonnet off (!) to get at the core it. It was then much more simple to get in and tap it out.

It was then that we found the core plug required is a very odd size indeed and wasn't in ether the metric or imperial assorted core plugs Bryce had bought! Much hunting round and head scratching came up with an answer which was to thread the inlet manifold, screw into that an adaptor with loctite applied and screw into that a "sump plug" for want of a better word. Job sorted after which it was just a case of refitting the bonnet etc.

The solution can be seen in the photo below.

Once again a job that should have taken 40 minutes actually took much longer, 2 1/2 hours in fact!

Ticking them off

2011-05-07T17:42:00.004Z

I drove UNJ for the first time in 2 years last night - to the May Pendle and Pennine meeting. The car was pretty good and seems very different to the other Triumphs I have driven, more of a modern car for one thing and also a quiet cruising car with the top down in the sun - lovely!

I am now making a "snag" list of course and the picture here shows the first thing on it. At the front of the inlet manifold which is also the casting for the thermostat housing there is a small core plug which is "weeping". This will have to be fixed before I take the car any distance and certainly before the 2 day "AutoEcosse"!

Then after that there were some niggle really.

The reversing lights didn't work as I found out when I got home in the dark.
The fuel gauge still wasn't working although the low fuel light flickered on the way home (I had only put 10 litres in for now)
The indicators don't cancel and there's a squeak from the steering column shroud on turning corners sometimes. I think these may be related with something not quite right in the assembly.
The instrument light for the temperature gauge wasn't working.
The choke warning light stays on all the time.

So this afternoon I set about these smaller niggles. Crawling under the car and swapping the connections on the tank sender unit didn't cure the fuel gauge problem.

Next thing then was to remove the fuel gauge itself and replace it with one from a spare instrument panel I have. Success! It's very satisfying when you cure something.

Whilst the instrument panel was apart I also cleaned it all and replaced one of the bulbs so all the instrument lights now work too.

So that's items 2 and 4 sorted.

I think I have sorted out item 5 too with the sensor for the choke cable removed and repositioned.

What about the non functioning reversing lights? Well I first checked to see if there was power to them by putting the live feed to the side lights instead and they lit up so power was getting through. OK, must be a duff bulb and actually 2 duff bulbs one either side so I removed the bulb holder from the offside and found no bulb in there at all! Same story nearside. Fitting a pair of bulbs I had in my spares cured the "problem".

That's probably the easiest fix I have ever had to do.

The core plug and the non cancelling indicators will have to wait for a little while but not a bad effort overall.

Don't like that much!

2011-05-02T15:38:00.003Z

Gave UNJ a quick wash today and realised there was then water in the passenger footwell.

Investigation found two causes

The foam "seal" where the heater pipes go through into the engine bay is perished and allowing a trickle of water to get in. This may or may not be too difficult to sort out but I have nightmares about removing TR7 heaters so I don't want to think about that too much.
There's a flipping big hole under the battery tray where the bulkead meets the inner wing - chewing gum won't fix it! That's going to need some proper work with cutting out the battery tray, fabricating new metal patches and then welding them in followed by seam sealer and painting. Flipping 'eck !!!

The plan for now though is to try and only use the car in the hot dry summer we are sure to get and then fix this during the winter months - now who can I ask to help me with that one I wonder?

Difficult no more

2011-05-01T17:29:00.004Z

Thanks to Bryce again two of us on the job sorted out the suspension.

So now the polybushes are in on the upper links (spare lower links being worked on for later installation), new uprated springs in and KYB shocks fitted.

Road fund licence bought this morning on line so we are nearly there with UNJ.

Meanwhile, PMW is in summer storage and the dizzy loaned by Radders removed to hand over to him on the AutoEcosse.

Being difficult

2011-04-30T09:44:00.005Z

Being difficult - that's what the rear suspension is being. Here is how far away the bush is on one of the trailing arms and it's not easy at the moment to see how I can persuade it to go where I want it to!

There's a few tricks left yet though so I will not be defeated.

UNJ has an MOT - hurragh!

2011-04-28T19:33:00.002Z

Yes, MOT passed today! Only one or two minor things which the MOT station sorted.

So, on to taxing the car for May 1st on line and taking it to the May Pendle and Pennine meeting. I'll fit new rear springs, shock absorbers and polybushes this weekend as well as checking the fuel sender whilst I'm under there as it permanently reads empty.

Alos in the plan is taking the 2000 over to summer storage so we have one less car at Raider Towers!

Sealing, rebuilding and shuffling

2011-04-25T16:20:00.003Z

I left off last week saying the plan was to seal the block paving at the front of our house if the weather was good enough.

Well it was and here's the frontage swept clean and Club Triumph cones out to keep vehicles off whilst the task is completed. All our Triumphs were under the carport as they wouldn't be going anywhere and our everyday cars relocated on a neighbour's drive - thanks Andrew.

It certainly was a full day's job on Friday. After sweeping the blocks I was then down on my hands and knees scrubbing away (no jokes about being an old scrubber please!) at any bird mess and also a couple of oil deposits left by Triumphs.

Then Deana swept again just in front of me as I put the sealant on with a roller. The first coat took a long time, a good 2 1/2 hours and then we had to wait 3 hours before putting the second coat on. We both had plenty of aches and pains after that!

Moving on though, I continued on Saturday polybushing the front suspension on the convertible and fitting the uprated struts. Getting the front anti-roll bar on though was not a one man job so I waited for Bryce's help on Sunday to complete that bit.

Finally today straight out there finishing off with refitting the front brakes (no time for the upgrade which will have to wait) and finishing off all the front supsension until finally the car was back on it's own four wheels.

A quick reshuffle of the cars means BRP is right at the back (but certainly not forgotten) and UNJ is now further up the drive and nearer the road!

A little bit of tidying was called for then and here is a sight TR7 owners hope for - removing a trim panel at the base of the windscreen and finding the metal below it is in fact sound thank goodness.

I had removed it as I feared the worst because water is getting into the front nearside footwell.This can't be the reason though so further investigation will be needed.

First though I'll book the car in for MOT on Thursday and see where I go from there. I notice Jason Chinn is booking his 2.5Pi in for MOT on Thurssday too so let's hope we both have good luck.

Like the sign says!

2011-04-17T21:00:00.003Z

Mind you, it's not that easy to see the sign but it says "Triumph parking only - all others will be crushed".

Well that's the entire Triumph fleet parked up under my carport so all's well then.

They'll stay there for now until I have sealed the block paving we have had done, ideally next weekend if the weather is OK. Good job it's a 4 day weekend though as there's plenty to do on the DHC just visible third in line.

Over to UNJ

2011-04-16T16:47:00.004Z

As can be seen here, attention is now switched to UNJ.

A "new" strut with uprated spring and insert ready for the nearside along with polybushes on the anti rollbar.

The track arm is now with Bryce for the ball joint to be pressed out and a new one fitted whilst there will also be a new polybush for the inner end where it meets the subframe.

After it's all bolted back together I'll take the car for MOT and if there is time then I'll be replacing the rear springs, shock absorbers and polybushing it all.

The car has to be ready for the International AutoEcosse and I only have 4 more weekends to work on it - gulp!

The HCR and PMW

2011-04-10T18:29:00.008Z

Pictures from car 21, Martin Randle/Sarah Johnson Triumph 2000 PMW 400H. The one above is quite atmospheric with Triumphs parked just as light fades at Widdop Reservoir (photo of sign below!)

Next photo Fewston reservoir near Harrogate on the A59.

Obviously evidence of another county through the night.

Here's getting to the half way halt at Telford! Ho ho Dale, start in Lancashire, finish near Ipswich via Telford! Oh on the sign below on the right is Sarah, not that you can see much of her! She was modelling Dale's glasses he had left on PMW right back in Kelbrook at the start.

Into the second half and a bonus point for Powis Castle.

Followed by another bonus point at a castle I had never heard of but the "courting couples" in the castle car park at 3.30 in the morning must have been really pleased with 29 Triumphs turning up and taking photos!!

And finally back at base having completed the HCR and now with a fresh MOT as well - sounds all very good doesn't it, well read on then.

To give a less upbeat view here's a clue from a post I made on the CT forum

"A big big thanks to everyone who helped us (Car 21, Randle and Johnson) on the HCR.

Due to two shagged distributors our event was going nowhere but then, and here's the roll call, the following all played their part in getting us to the start.

Dale and Andy Flexney (identified that the dizzys were well and truly shagged and started trying to build one good one out of two), Steve Thompson who brought along a Delco dizzzy and manfully worked to get it to work and then Radders who donated a Lucas 25D6 which Dave Aspinall worked on and along with Tim Bancroft who's car we needed to jump start PMW (as well as providing critical components - that's Tim, not his car!).)

Not forgetting Ellis who sorted out our rally plate when I was all for throwing things as far as I possibly could - thanks Sarah for taking me off to one side to eat something and calm down

Anyway, thanks to all these mates we got to the start, completed both gymkhanas and made it all the way round (not without a few other issues mind).

For anyone who doesn't understand why they should join this club - if they read this and still don't understand they'll never get it!"

The other "issues" were the nuts (yes both of them) working loose off the bottom of a rear shock absorber which resulted in a now familiar banging from the rear and very twitchy handling. I took the shock absorber off completely at the finish until we could get back to Sarah's where her husband Berkely had spare bushes and nuts so we could refit it. There was also a growing transmission rumble/vibration probably propshaft related and Berkeley also spotted differential mounting problems too.

Ho hum - all good stuff isn't it?

Isn't it???

Back from hols and back to PMW!

2011-03-26T20:37:00.002Z

Back from holiday at 1.45 this morning but with only a week to go to the HCR I felt the need to work on PMW anyway.

So, a spanner check on the ball joint and inner track arm bush proved fine and a "feel" of the front wheels seems OK for wheel bearing play too.

Then managed to bolt up the exhaust to a bracket from the gearbox now I understand what it's there for!

Finally wired up the nearside full beams via a relay too so I am pleased with that.

Not so pleasing are modern petrol stations, or more accurately, mini supermarkets that happen to have fuel pumps attached! I just needed a side light bulb, not much to ask for but both local garages didn't stock any (or any sizable amount of motoring stuff at all). Solution for now was to rob one from one of the TR7s for PMW and I'll replace it during the week hopefully.

Doesn't get much better - a sad insight

2011-03-09T16:17:00.002Z

A sad insight into the mind of a travelling sales manager!

Driving down the A34 with fuel getting a little low and also some email needing to get sent somewhere.

Cruise control at 72MPH gives 59+ mpg and 60 at one point.

Meanwhile the Tom Tom with extra "points of interest" loaded solves my 2 needs - off at a services to a Shell fuel station (where I an get air miles with my fill up) and right next to it is a McDonalds from where I am posting this using their wifi!

Now back to work.

Alot of time for what was achieved?

2011-03-06T14:44:00.002Z

Well I made the Pendle and Pennine meeting as I was able with Jon's assistance to bolt the track arm back on with it's new ball joint and polybush.

Then Saturday first I painted cure rust on the inside of repair panels made for the front lower wings and on other areas of surface rust under the front end.

Then onto wiring relays in for the main beam. I followed a suggestion I had read to use links from the original connections to the headlamps to supply the feed to the relay and then back again. That means putting a link wire in for the earth and for the dip beam too.

It does mean quite a few wires though and took far longer than I expected to wire up just the offside. Then the lights wouldn't work - oh good!! It took me ages to work out I had put the wires the wrong way round at the relay. Once that was fixed it was all fine thank goodness.

Next was wiring up the second relay but I ran out of connectors to finish it all so that's still to be done with little time left really before the HCR as I am away on holiday soon as well as attending the Club Triumph dinner.

Remember the cure rust applied earlier? At the end of the day I sprayed Dinitrol all over it and into the rear of the front panel and inside of the wings so with a bit of luck that will help preserve the car.

Finally today I have done a little bit of painting and touching up all the various bits of rust spots and stone chips - again it's all about preservation of the car rather than being a question of show condition!

Will I make the Pendle & Pennine Meeting?

2011-02-26T19:17:00.002Z

The ball joint has been pressed out and new one fitted by Bryce with apparently no problems. I'll be picking it up tomorrow but I still keep working on a Triumph every weekend if I can.

I had thought about putting some time in on UNJ but then thought about wiring up the relays on PMW so that the headlight switch doesn't burn out on the HCR.

So that's what today's efforts were about - maybe an hour's work and then just do a bit on UNJ I thought.

I had wired up a new fuse box to feed the relays but the source I had chosen to feed this was from the starter motor connections - the wrong one of course so there was no power. Getting at these connections is not the easiest thing in the world but I did manage to swap the wiring over and at last had power to the fuse box.

At the same time though, I carefully made sure the main battery cable to the starter motor was secured away from the steering column (which it wasn't before) and then cable tied my power feed cables for the fuse box safely out of the way too.

Next was mounting a relay and supplying it with power from the now working fusebox and supplying it with an earth lead which I paced on the earth side of the offside horn.

Now, for the rest of wiring - it is possible to hack into the wiring loom and link power from the light switch to the relay and then abck from there to the loom where it was broked into so as to supply the lights. Someone on the 2000 register forum suggested something different though and although he seems a bit of a lone voice on this one I agree with him. Why not connect into the connector at the lamps to supply the feeds atc and then put the supply back again - that way there's no hacking into the loom and it could be put back standard with no harm done.

So, off with the grill to get at the back of the headlamps and disconnect the wiring. OK this looks do-able but I also then notice that there's some rust proofing needed in this area too!

Hmm - enough for today though I think.

Best part of 3 hours work and not even one relay wired up. Nothing done on UNJ either of course.

So, will I make the Pendle and Pennine meeting? Well I will but points are at stake and I'll sacrifice 2 if I don't go in a Triumph and as it stands none of them are on the road!

I need to just put the wires back on the offside headlamps even if I don't get a relay wired up for Friday night and I need to get that track arm back on. All of this should be achievable but then again?

ZOO Spartans!

2011-02-22T20:02:00.003Z

A trip down memory lane today.

As it happens I was working in Loughborough this afternoon and that's where I went to University from 1978 to 1980.

A favourite chipshop for us students was the "300 Spartans" but because of the font we always called it the "Zoo Spartans". Well at the end of the day I needed to eat something before travelling to Stoke so I had to see if it was still there didn't I?

And itwas! The fish chips and peas eaten in my car were a real nostalgia trip and then, and then, whilst driving away I had Tom Robinson on the car stereo - great stuff!

There you go http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22119474368

If any of you guys from Elvin Richards Hall back then happen to be reading this I am sure you will smile too.

Bushing on

2011-02-19T17:36:00.003Z

Sorry about the title!

Here's the traditional way of helping on the process of removing a bush from suspension components; in this case the inner bush from the front nearside track control arm on the 2000.The assembly has been removed so that the ball joint can be replaced. As always PMW reminded me that it is a 42 year old car and doesn't like being messed about with! There were certainly times during this afternoon's activity that I was close to saying enough!

Given that I have persevered though I hope to get someone with a press to remove the old ball joint and the remains of the burnt rubber bush too - Bryce, are you reading this?

What a shock!

2011-02-12T20:45:00.005Z

Yes, quite a shock to see BRP out from under the car port! It has moved under it's own steam so I can get PMW in to place for work on those rear shock absorbersThe next shock of course, as seen last week was the rear offside shock absorber snapped off and waving in the wind. At least it wasn't too difficult to remove this one.

Here's the "new" shock absorbers. Actually they are a pair of used but good Spax given to me some time ago and destined for the convertible - that will get new KYBs in good time. Menahwile, only one of them had an adjuster that worked - ho hum, better than what was there before!

I had to open out the washers to fit these but other than that the fitting went just fine.Here's the proof, one fitted to replace the snapped offside one. The nearside was in one piece but absorbing it was not!

Whilst at it I adjusted up the rear brakes, greased the handbrake cables and then took PMW for a run round the "test track" - much better but that ball joint is next week's task.

Fire up BRP!

2011-02-05T17:28:00.003Z

Yes, here are pictures of a full engine bay with an engine that runs!
Last week was "the click of death" and as I said I needed to check the earthleads and starter motor connections. Well I cleaned the starter motor connections and then moved on to an earth lead next to the battery.

This seemed a bit small though and then I noticed the large earth lead dangling in the engine bay - ah ha! That was quickly bolted on to the engine and BRP fired up after a few sessions of turning over.

Success but by 'eck there was alot of smoke and quite a bit of a rattle.

The smoke and the rattle died away and then thanks to Kevin who checked the carbs and timing BRP actually ran relatively smoothly on tickover at about 1000RPM. Then it was time for a quick run down our street and all was well, the clutch hadn't even stuck.

Thanks Kevin for sticking with it for the last year!

Now though I still have to make a decision as to which car to use on the HCR on April 2nd/3rd. There's only 4 weekends I can work on cars before then really and BRP needs an MOT and taxing along with what might be called "recommissioning". Allied to this with a reconditioned cylinder head that needs looking after for the first few hundred miles makes me wonder.

Meanwhile, PMW has an MOT, is taxed and has now proved reliable (if not without a few difficulties!). This car needs a pair of rear shock absorbers (already have a spare pair of Spax and just bought all the bushes), a ball joint (bought this week but I bet the job will be a pig) and relays for the headlights (all the gear bought, just needs doing).

There is a lingering concern about a "rumble" that might be propshaft or driveshaft UJ issues but then again all those suspension problems can't have helped driveline smoothness!

I think I'll be fitting the Spax next weekend to PMW and see how we go from there but it's looking to me that PMW will be the car for the HCR.

Not a surprise!

2011-01-30T12:25:00.004Z

It's not a surprise the 2000 was making a "clonk" on the run back from the Essex Winter Rally - see below!
Yes, that's a completely snapped shock absorber on the offside rear. PMW hasn't seen anything like the kind of use it's getting now in a long long time and bits are starting to complain!

So I'll be using the Rimmer Bros vouchers I got at Christmas to buy a pair of rear shock absorbers and a ball joint for the front.

Meanwhile, BRP is closer to running but not yet there - we are getting first a very slow engine turnover (but at least with no nasty noises) and then only the dreaded click of death! Further investigation of earth leads and starter motor connections next week.

Soon though, if it's not running I'll be switching the focus on to PMW and making that ready for the HCR.

A Standard TR7 Sprint

2011-01-24T17:52:00.004Z

Standard - that's what I am aiming for after previous experience! Well, as standard in the engine department as a 16valve TR7 can be anyway.

So here's the standard camshaft sprocket - the vernier one is in the boot!

Having a day off work gave me the chance to carry on with the build and the picture below is at a very good place in proceedings; putting oil in.

What it can't show though, is that I had got on well with bolting up the front engine cover only to have that sinking feeling I get when I think thoughts like "I think there's a couple of gaskets missing".

Yes, there was so it had to come off again! Still, it was worthwhile as the sump gasket had been moved out of place where it joins the front engine cover so I was able to get that fixed as well.

After all that and putting the oil in I fitted the radiator and filled that with coolant too. Along with the alternator and fan belt back on it's looking close to an effort to start it this weekend.

Just the exhaust manifold to go on and then it's finger's crossed - wish me luck!

HCR & BRP

2011-01-22T17:56:00.003Z

I have posted the entry off for the Historic Counties today and am certainly looking forward to it.

My co-driver will be Sarah and the car is BRP so it will be great to get the three of us back together again.

Which leads me on to BRP - not running but slowly coming back together. Thanks Kevin for coming over this afternoon and three hours work resulted in not alot to write up but a long way forward. The timing chain is on, new tensioner fitted and the standard camshaft sprocket used (need to fit the second bolt!).

Not only that but we made sure the jackshaft was in the right spot for the dizzy cap to be pointing at number 1.

Then with the engine front cover fitted we turned the engine over by hand and no horrible noises were heard and neither did the engine jam up in any way.

Looking hopeful then. If BRP isn't running though and all hunky dory by mid Feb I'll abandon the plan to use it for the HCR and switch focus back to PMW and use that. It will need TLC before another outing though but mid Feb to end March should give me enough time.

Talking of PMW, here's photos courtesy of Mike Banks of us competing last weekend

PMW & the CT Essex Winter rally

2011-01-17T08:08:00.003Z

Collected PMW from my brothers' on Saturday.

Malcolm and Harvey had fitted the "new" distributor as well as the new speedo cable - thanks chaps! They did advise me though that there was a dodgy ball joint and that it would be wise to turn round and go home.

So obviously I headed south!

Being cautious down the M1 and then A1 I arrived in Potters Bar OK and had a lovely meal with Ellis Stokes, his wife Ann and another CT member, Keith Compton-Bishop.

Sunday saw us head off for the 12 car rally and on the 1 hour run up to the start a vibration began to develop - could be propshaft or driveshaft UJ(s). So, bearing in mind the dodgy balljoint a steady run was in order.

After plotting section one we set off and obeserved as best we could with a "waving speedo" the average speed tie breaker. It's clear why Ellis is one of the best navigators in the club - solving a circular herringbone in itself shows that.

There were some enjoyable roads on the route but I was very conscious of car preservation on quite a few rough surfaces where the tarmac had broken up.

The result of our efforts though was third overall, which I am very happy with and is pretty much down to Ellis - thanks mate.

Then back to drop Ellis off when more clonks started to be heard . These were not helped by an awful pothole on the M25 just east of the M11 junction which I couldn't/didn't avoid and the car dropped into with a right clonk and a twitch from the rear.

All that remained then was a 60 mph steady drive home up the A1. I remember quite a noise from the rear of the car near Blythe which sounded like something broke (!) and the car became very twitchy. Arrived home at 9PM after all that though but with at least a ball joint needing replacement and some investigation/rectification of various vobrations and "clonks" to be done.

Finishing as I mean to go on

2010-12-31T14:02:00.003Z

After the philosophy of the last blog entry here's my update on working on Triumphs - again!

Yes, back to BRP and bolting everything back together again. There we are - cylinder head on and the front cover on temporarilywith the front pulley whilst I set it to TDC.

Then, following the works manual the front cover comes off to check that the jackshaft is in the right place. It's not possible to see here but there's a scribed line on the jackshaft sprocket that is at 9 o'clock but should be at 3 0'clock so just 180 out then. Setting it right meant though that the rotor arm is pointing at number 4 not number 1 - ho hum, if I remember rightly now come to think of it we did move the distributor back in April to get the car running. More of this kind of stuff to come!

Still, for now I contented myself with bolting the inlet manifold on and getting back into the swing of things. Not sure when I'll get back to the task though as there's Pendle and Pennine "Not the Xmas meal" coming up followed by the Essex Winter rally in the 2000. Kevin, if you are reading this I will probably be giving you a ring in a couple of weeks to see if you fancy helping out again!

Meanwhile, having mentioned the 2000 Bryce and I collected the original engine for it from Craig along with the manual non overdrive gearbox. It would need cleaning, some investigation and some bearing shells but these earlier "flat top" piston 2000 engines have slightly more power according to Chris Witor (the 2000 guru) and it would be nice one day to restore the original engine back into the car - just not anytime soon!!

I have bought a good secondhand distributor though from him, suitable for the later 2000 engine fitted and without the wear of the one that's in it - just a question of dropping it off with my brothers and seeing if we can get it fitted and the car running as reliably as I would like.

Round and round

2010-12-31T09:15:00.002Z

Now and again I start reflecting on all this Triumph business. This is usually when one of the cars is acting up or when I have some time out of the usual routine to think - both have happened recently!

This week we also took my wife's Peugeot in to the main dealers for a recall which was no big deal but I couldn't help but notice they had for sale a 53 plate Mazda MX5 £4995. Just downthe road from us there's another one at £3800 ish complete with very smart hardtop.

Now, if I sold all my Triumphs and their spares I could buy an MX5 and enjoy reliable fun motoring for years without having to spend at least 2 hours every weekend working on a car under my carport (as I will be again later today).

Sounds good to me - all those roadtrips just enjoying the driving.

But then - what about the part Club Triumph plays in my life. Sure I wouldn't have to own a Triumph to be a member but how much of an "enthusiast" would I be if I had sold all the cars I owned? Not much!

It would also be the end of entering the Club Triumph driving events which quite rightly must be done in a Triumph car - I can't see myself coming to terms with that.

What about the historic rallying? Did Tony Pond drive a Maxda MX5? That answers that one then.

So it's back to "I just need to do this to the 2000, rebuild BRP and fit the group 4 brakes followed by upgrading the suspension and brakes on UNJ before sorting out the misfire". Not much there really (!) after which I will experience trouble free driving in 3 Triumphs - oh yeah!

In all seriousness though, in normal driving a TR7 convertible is perfectly capable of modern motoring and is far more striking than any MX5 so I have made the right decision again - haven't I?

Brian Hanrahan - a real memory

2010-12-20T12:43:00.003Z

Sad to hear that Brian Hanrahan, BBC correspondent has died at the young age of 61.

His reporting from the Falklands War in 1982 will always be a strong memory for me.

Santa Rally & back to BRP

2010-12-18T18:33:00.003Z

I completed my first competitive event last Sunday for nearly 2 years as a driver - the Bedford Car Club "Santa" 12 car rally.

It was good to have my daughter Rebecca alongside and she did really well for a complete novice (and she doesn't seem to have been put off).

We did it in PMW as it's the only Triumph I have available for use and it was absolutely fine until the return back up the M1 when it started losing power. This got worse and worse and although I checked a few things over at a service area I couldn't sort it out.

Thankfully we got back to my sister's in Derbyshire just before 1Am but I still couldn't get to the bottom of the problem with the car the next day. I eventually returned home by train and left PMW for my brothers to have a look at.

Thanks Malcolm and Harvey for checking it over in the freezing cold - it seems there is so much wear in the distributor that it allowed the timing to go miles out. Now it's back where it should be the car runs fine again but the question is "will it happen again?" Sourcing a replacement distributor may be on the cards.

Meanwhile, I always try and do some work on a Triumph each weekend to keep on top of things. If you are not making progress then you are going backwards! So, small progress as it was, I torqued up the cylinder head on BRP.

Alternator fixed at last

2010-12-11T18:25:00.004Z

Finally got a new alternator on - an A127 with 55AMP output instead of the original 15ACR with 35 amps. Much better! The indicators actually flash now evenwhen the headlights and heater are on.

I have also done as advised and fitted an extra thick brown wire from the spare feed on the alternator direct to the positive terminal on the battery as can be seen in the picture which will help with the charging as well.

Next was fitting a fuse box for the headlamp relays butI ran out of time and also found the washers had packed up working! I'll sort that tomorrow before getting all the kit for the 12 car rally in the car and setting off for Milton Keynes.

My competition career restarts after nearly 2 years!

Not quite finished then!

2010-12-04T20:30:00.002Z

I intended sorting out some relays for the headlights on PMW today but ....

Yes, the nearside wheel bearing had too much play in it when I checked it today so I had to adjust that first.

Then I noticed the speedo cable hanging a long way under the car; in fact it had been rubbing on the road surface. I spent alot of time on this rerouting it inside the car and cable tieing it up. It's much better now but not perfect by any means. What I need really is a large heated workshop to sort this kind of thing out!

I made it to the Pendle and Pennine meeting last night and was well pleased how much better the car is running - checking and adjusting the points was well worth while.

And the relays? Well, it was so cold under the carport I called it a day!

More 2000 tinkering

2010-11-29T16:22:00.002Z

I have had a day off work today and after tidying up the garage didsome more tinkering.

I had drawn up a list of things to look at/do.

Remove radiator fan to aid warm up and release a bit of BHP. Had a look at doing this and it would have meant removing the radiator! Not done.
The car hadn't been running that well; difficult to start and coughing, spitting, holding back. I think I have learned this is usually on the ignition side and I had bought a new coil from Chris Witor (the man re 2000s) but somehow knew there were 3 knocking around and thought this wasn't fitted. I checked and it was so I chucked the oldest second hand one.
Thought I'd check the points gap for the reasons in point 2 - the points had closed up so I adjusted them to 15 thou and the car started and ran much better.
Thought about adjusting the timing by ear but left this for another day as it's flippin cold and the light was going. Anyway, having adjusted the points I want to see how it runs on the road.
Wire in relays for the headlamps - still on the list for this weekend.
Fitting a 2000TC speedo I got in the Rimmers sale as it should match up better with the overdrive and diff. Looking at it though there weren't exactly the same connections so I put that to one side.
Change the alternator or put in an extra wire to the battery. Currently (no pun!) taking advice from the 2000 Register forum on this one.
Checked there was an earth lead from the block to the negative terminal on the battery - there is!
Checked the wheel nuts were tight after replacing the discs and the fact that there's still a wheel wobble.
Check wheel bearing play - see number 9. Not done this yet; something for Saturday.

That's enough - or is it?

2010-11-27T15:42:00.005Z

Got a replacement speedo cable with the right connection - here it is next to the one that came off. I think it's clear it's much longer! This makes alot of sense as to why the original stopped working etc - it was going through too tight a bends etc to stretch to fit.

Replacing it with the new one was straightforward enough but I could do with the correct grommet - I will "make up" a gap around the grommet and the cable with some "dum dum" paste but the correct one would be a much snugger fit.

Anyway, with it all fitted I now have a speedo that works again so that should be enough on this car as I want to turn attention to BRP which should be the main priority apart from ----

There is still a judder through the steering wheel, sometimes on braking, sometimes not - hmmm.

Also, I am aiming to do a 12 car rally which will be at night so I am thinking about wiring in relays to the headlights which would need to be done next week as its only 2 weeks from now!

I might take the fan off as well to help the car warm up and release a little power - there's not much chance of a heatwave anytime soon!

Returning to the battle

2010-11-20T17:04:00.005Z

But the battle was so much easier having been through it last week.

Not easy, but manageable using all the techniques I learned last week - 2 hours instead of 3 this time.

Emboldened by this I decided to move on to replacing the speedo cable, having ordered a new one. Hmmm- not so good, the new one doesn't have the same fixing at the gearbox end as the current one!
Whilst fiddling around with the bit in the gearbox/overdrive the cable fits into to see if there was something I was missing it came out and gear oil started to run out the gearbox - oh good!!!

Thankfully it went back in and with a tap I got it flush and replaced the original speedo cable to hold it all in place.

Meanwhile, the exhaust had been rattling and still being a glutton for punishment I decided to sort this out. No problem really, just tightened the brass nuts up at the manifold which had worked loose after the few miles the car had done since fitting the exhaust.

Then put the car back down on the ground, tighten the wheel nuts and fire it up for a test run of the brakes and exhaust (the speedo cable can wait a bit longer) but no, the battery was too low!!

The battery is now on charge overnight so I can then try again tomorrow - the place under the carport is needed for Mrs R's car

Worth checking

2010-11-14T13:25:00.003Z

Remember the note to check the bolt?

Here it isNot in at all! Certainly worth checking - now safely tightened up.

A road test has proved much reduce brake judder even with only the one side done so far. Next week I'll complete the job.

Meanwhile, the speedo stopped working on the way back from Italy and I wondered if it was the speedo cable. I also didn't like the way the cable was routed through a ripped carpet. Having consulted on the CT forum we concluded the car is fitted with a J type overdrive (from the photo below of the speedo cable fixing to the gearbox).The consensus of opinion is that the cable is at much too acute an angle which is also the case in the interior. It looks like a non overdrive speedo cable has been re-used and because it is too short it is not fitting correctly, so resulting in failure of the speedometer to work.

I have ordered a correct J type speedo cable for about £15 so that can go on the list of jobs too.

Braking my heart!

2010-11-13T19:18:00.004Z

I am trying to work through my 3 Triumphs in a logical way.

Get the 2000 sorted with a few glitches done to make it OK to drive but no uprating.
Get BRP's engine rebuilt and running, fit the Group 4 brakes so I can get it's historic rally car papers, wire in the Brantz rally computer (last year's Xmas present!) and then use it for competitive events.
Transfer the surplus brakes from BRP to the convertible, fit new polybushes and the uprated suspension I already have, cure the misfire and get it on the road with an MOT before summer runs out!

Not much there then! It's only a few things on the 2000 really providing I am not tempted to upgrade so today I worked on PMW.

A classic example of the few simple jobs was what I tackled first; the washers kept failing as one of the electrical connectors to the pump kept falling off. Simple, crimp it up and then job sorted. Oh no it wasn't, I had to work through all the tubes and jets too with an airline so that even with the pump fixed there was water to clean the screen with.

And that was just the start.

The brakes have always juddered so today was the day to fit the new discs and pads I had bought. Nothing out of the way here, standard bits, not uprated or anything so I thought 3 hours should cover this.

OK so faffing about with the washers slowed things down a bit but as I have done this kind of job before how hard could it be?

Here we go.

First thing after jacking the car up, setting it on axle stands and removing the front wheels was to remove the off side brake caliper. I always do one side at a time so that there's something to refer to as well as the Haynes manual.

Pulling the old pads out was fine and they went into the hubcap along with the pins and shims etc. The caliper itself is held on by two bolts, just like the TR7s I am used to.

Persuading them to undo though was no easy task and I had to resort to a long bar with some more pipe on the end of that - plenty of leverage eventually worked. I now remembered that the car has had a long time in storage with no maintenance which was now becoming apparent as bolts refused to give in easily!

Anyway, next up having tied the caliper out the way with cable ties was to remove the hub which went OK actually so back on track. Here's the hub in my vice with wood in the jaws to protect the studs. Those bolts didn't come out that easily but defeated they were and then the new disc fitted with new bolts so OK, looking good.At this point though I was beginning to think that maybe I wouldn't do both sides today unless everything suddenly became much easier.

It didn't!!

Putting the hub back on the stub axle was OK no problem, it was when it came to refitting the caliper that things got a tad difficult.

Brake disc shields are the work of the devil. I have always taken them off my "competition" cars to help with cooling but was happy to leave them on this standard car. Well I wasn't happy when the shield made it very difficult to locate the caliper bolts so after much struggle I bent the shield mountings away - now we're flying.

No, putting the pads in then became a nightmare with the inner getting jammed so I unbolted the caliper again (!), cleaned up the channel for the pads some more, refitted it loosely and made sure the cylinders were pushed back in flush.

Now the pads went in and I could bolt the caliper back on. I had tried to bolt the shield back on by adapting it slightly but it was having none of it so I decided to take it off completely. Would it come off? What do you think?

A hacksaw cutting it into two halves persuaded it though - *** note to self, check the front bolt to the steering arm is tight***

Definitely time to call it a day and just do the one side. But then the steering lock won't release and I can't get the wheel back on Aaarghhh!!!

Having put all the tools away I came back to it and eventually got that released, refitted the front wheels and finally got it down on the ground again.

So that's 3 hours work to change one side's disc and pads. Next week the nearside!

Driving again

2010-11-06T21:47:00.004Z

Yes, at last - after 18 months Raider's on the Road again, wearing different clothes again - oops, that's a song lyric. I wonder if anyone will comment on the original on the Club Triumph forum?

Anyway, back to the point. Yes, I collected the 2000 yesterday and have to say it was all a bit of a shock.

I didn't actually enjoy the experience as I thought I would. 18 months without drivng meant I was a bit wary of myself and then the car I chose to use is 1969 technology meaning getting the choke right is a bit of an art and keeping the car running at junctions etc until warmed up was something I could have done without.

Still, I made it home and then to the Pendle and Pennine meeting where that kind gent, Mike Helm acted in the interests of road safety - see the pics below!
Today though I drove over 250 miles - a round trip to see my mum as I couldn't get to her birthday last weekend and then to a bonfire party my daughter invited me too.

The more I drove the better it got and certainly on the way to Derbyshire the drive through Chatsworth, Bealey village, and Ashover was very very good - PMW sounds great and flicking in and out of overdrive was great too.

A few things need doing to the car though

I must fit the discs I have so that I can stop the brake judder.
The electrical connection on the windscreen washer pump needs fixing so that they work!
It really must get washed and cleaned.
The car doesn't pull as cleanly as it should - investigation of carb set up needed here.
It definitely needs a larger alternator as with anything electrical in use the volts drop (I have two good second hand ones off TR7s so I'll swap one over)

Screen seals

2010-10-30T12:18:00.003Z

Replaced the rear screen seal today with Bryce's help as it was very perished - the car will be outside over winter soon and needs to be watertight.

Then we moved to the front screen but on inspection this looks quite good so we left it.

Thing is though, to view the seal we had to remove a stainless trim and it's not at all easy to see how to get it back on! I'll be seeking advice there.

A couple of other small jobs completed - the overdrive gearknob switch cap which means it isn't all taped up with insulating tape thank goodness.

Also tried to remove the aerial - Trouble is, it is snapped off and could easily cause someone to gash their hand. Given that there is a big chance it will be me I'd like to remove it (the aerial, not the hand). I am not worried about replacing it as I don't generally listen to music in my Triumphs - there's the sport exhaust for listening to.

Thing is - how is it removed? I can't see to get to the bottom of it as it sits under the wing but is encased by the inner wing/wheelarch panel and there's no other access I can see.

Anyone done this before?

On Friday I'll be going over by bus and train to collect PMW and drive it home - hurrah!

I've been here before!

2010-10-25T16:50:00.005Z

I returned to the attack today! Having a day off work gave me the opportunity to make more progress and I approached things in a steady calm way' Hopefully, this will pay dividends later.

Whilst the head was off the car I remembered that the heater had not worked for some time so I backflushed that whilstI had the chance.

Then carefully cleaned up the block, blew through the waterways as much as possible with an airline, cleaned off the surfaces and generally did everything I could to give myself a good chance of it going right this time!

The cylinder head was all nice and shiny as it came from Dale's and finally I lifted it onto the block as you can see here with the cylinder head bolts and nuts etc in place. I couldn't torque it down as my torque wrench is over with PMW but it's good to see the engine looking more like an engine again.
Another bonus is that with the cylinder head off the bench and a bit of time put aside for tidying my work area in the garage actually looks clean and tidy for the first time in many months, well, by my standards anyway!

Sump 1 Head 0

2010-10-23T16:25:00.002Z

I couldn't get access to the 2000 this week but I am doing my best to put in a couple of hours or so every weekend on the cars.

So this week it was back to BRP. My thoughts were that as I had just about got the sump back on I would finish that off and then fit the cylinder head.

There would have been a nice photo then as well with the engine looking more like a full engine again.

Oh well, it took alot more time than expected to get the sump all bolted back up. The main culprit was the bottom engine mount which fits across the bottom of the sump and onto the subframe. This had been the cause of my bloody hand (literally) of a few weeks back now.

There wasn't the problem of wrestling with it all this time though, it was just a very slow process. Whilst I was in the vicinity I changed the oil filter too so all the oil has been changed as well as the filter, hopefully making sure there are no metal bits in the engine oilways as a result.

In the end, 3 hours of work was quite satisfying as the sump is back in place and bolted up.

Next week I plan to change the screen rubbers in the 2000 as they are very perished which is not a good thing for a car about to be used over winter.

A thing of beauty

2010-10-17T12:42:00.007Z

Attention switches to PMW this week as I have received my driving licence which is valid from November 5th, only 18 days from now and PMW is the only one of my cars taxed and tested.
There are a few jobs need doing though ideally before then and number one on the priority list is an exhaust as it was "blowing" and also knocking against the floor of the car on my birthday trip.

Having thought about it I bought a Chris Witor full sports stainless steel exhaust and today set about fitting it.Here it is fresh out of it's packaging and next to the old exhaust on the workshop floor.

The old exhaust was very thin in places and a number of the mounting points where either mssing or completely shot - whereas the new one is a thing of beauty!

It was a generally straight forward job although there were a couple of delays whilst Bryce and I worked out how it fitted at the rear - was it over or under the nearside drive shaft? The answer is under but it took some time working that one out.

Here it is in the picture below fitted showing the spectacular rear exhaust box and tail pipe.

It's not just the looks that are a thing of beauty though, oh no, the sound is just wonderful to behold. It certainly put a big grin on my face and I can't wait to drive the car on the road - first stop the November Pendle and Pennine meeting.

Proof of progress

2010-10-02T16:09:00.003Z

Just visible at the front is the sump gasket - now there'll be no more progress for a while as I switch attention to PMW ready for me driving again!!

Sweat and blood but no tears (yet!)

2010-09-18T16:38:00.004Z

I left off saying I needed to remove the sump - this is why. It may not be obvious in the picture below if you don't know the insides of engines but at the bottom is the front part of the sump sans gasket, which is not a good thing.

So, how to go about removing the sump? The picture below is the front of the engine just being lifted as can be seen on the right as it starts to clear an engine mounting (trust me on this one!).

I had to get under the car, undo all the sump bolts, loosen the engine mounting nut on the offside to allow the engine to move up and remove the engine mounting under the engine completely in the end.

With a trolley jack under the front of the gearbox it was then possible to lift the engine and ......

wrestle the sump off - as can be seen here. Also just visible in the first photo is the spring from the chain tensioner - it's much more visible on the one below along with a bit of sump gasket. Neither of these would be good to have circulating in the engine so I am glad to have gone to the trouble of removing the sump. It has now had a good clean, along with the mating surfaces for the new gasket.

There was certainly plenty of sweat and toil in all this but the blood? See picture below

Back to BRP

2010-09-06T16:55:00.004Z

It's been a long, long time since I have worked on BRP but today was the day I started again. It's difficult to remember how all this came about so best to start from where I am now!

Above is the block of the engine in situ and having rotated the crank a few times the cylinder bores are fine with no scoring or any horrible scraping noises!

I need to get the sump off though as the sump gasket has broken in all this malarkey so first I drained the oil out using my suction device which works very well.
Ideally I want to try and get the sump off with the engine in situ so next was under the car (propped up on axle stands of course) and remove the sump-guard (see next two pictures). It's certainly seen some action but the bolts were a tad too long I'd say!

I think I'll try not to put this home made sumpguard back on - I have diagrams for the works cars so I'll see if I can have one made complete with bracketry and fit that instead.

Back to the point though, I took this off to see about removing the sump but I realised I didn't have a sump gasket yet anyway so left this until I do as I don't want a sump kicking around and foreign debris getting in the engine (well, no more than it is now!)
Not time to pack up yet as I could turn my attention to the top end. The photo above is the cylinder head that came off with the alleged group2 cam but there had been piston to valve contact so I removed it and asked Dale of Moordale Motors to recondition a spare one I had for me.

Well that proved to be a pig of a job with plugs seizing in it as well as studs etc. In the end Dale replaced one spark plug thread, 1 exhaust manifold fixing thread insert, 2 core plugs, cleaned all the threads out, recut and lapped in the valves, replaced a cam bucket, skimmed it and set the valve clearances. All of this with a standard cam which I am happy with as I just want to get to a reliable car with about 140BHP.

The new core plugs and the new spark plug thread are visible in the picture below - the head looks nice and clean, there was even the smell of the machining when I opened up the wrapping today!

Final work today was swapping the rear water transfer housing over to the recon head and then carefully stowing away the old head with a label of what it was and that it would need reconditioning (I'll only forget when I come to it again as I lose track of all the spares and where they came from, what condition they are in etc).

I suppose next will be seeing if I can get the sump off - if not then it means the engine out which is not something I look forward to.

But - work will stop on BRP in October while I get PMW fettled as this is the only Triumph I'll have available to drive immediately on my return to driving on bonfire night!

Clearing the decks

2010-09-05T12:20:00.003Z

Back from my 50th birthday bash to the Alps and it's time to clear the decks. Much time was spent getting ready and then there's still a panic when loading a car before such a trip so "stuff" gets thrown into the garage - here's what it looks like; definitely a need to get things straight.

In the meantime, BRP looks like it hasn't been touched for years, not months as the photos below show. Time for a good wash and clean up before assessing what's needed next.

50-3000-Mk2-26.5-1

2010-08-22T18:11:00.003Z

The title is all about my

50 th birthday bash

3000 miles in my

Mk2 2000 which did

26.5 MPG

and used1 litre of oil

Not a bad record for the car I reckon - and it's only 10 years younger than me! Joining me on this trip in the 2000 were Bryce and Michelle who also enjoyed the experience (or are too polite to say otherwise!)
The photo above is early morning at Dover waiting for the 4.05AM ferry. After dozing for a while I set about applying the black tape to the headlights to correct the beam. Of course, that's when we were called to the ferry and I had left the keys in the boot lock - a couple of minutes of sheer panic then!
We stopped off in Bastogne en route to the Nurburgring where we met up with Theo and friends for a nights camping and BBQ - PMW is visible parked in front of the shops.
All set up at the campsite in Torbole, Lake Garda. You wouldn't believe from this picture that we had arrived after torrential rain on the Autostrada and then put the tents up in the rain followed by a couple of thunderstorms!
A picture here of Paul Darbyshire's Stag - Paul and Ian Heeley joined us for a couple of days and this was taken up in the Dolomites. Tremendous scenery, great driving country only spoiled by very slow local drivers - next time I'll go any time other than August.

Mind you this is the day also that I left my camera on the bootlid of the 2000 but thanks to Paul's flashing of lights we pulled up in time to save it. Then Bryce had to go and look for the car keys as he had dropped them whilst being exhorted to climb a large slope for a photo opportunity!

Oh, and I lost my private mobile phone. I did later have a conversation with an Italian chap who found it but I told him to keep it - it was only a very cheap pay as you go with very little money on it. He may get a few interesting phone calls from Club Triumph friends though!

Finally - a picture of cobbled streets in a very pretty little town called Glorenza very near to the Swiss border but still in Italy. Actually very near to the start of the Stelvio pass too but that one will have to wait another year.

Fettling and tinkering

2010-07-24T20:34:00.006Z

Much fettling and tinkering today on PMW. First off, the repeater lamp on the driver's side was missing a lens but thanks to Mike W I was able to fit a new one which was a very nice easy way to start the day's proceedings.
Then I moved on to emptying the boot completely to get at the rusty boot floor in the spare wheel well (actually this was after getting a new spare tyre this morning). Thankfully it was all surface rust so I gave it a wire brushing followed by blue smoothrite and you'll see the result further down the page (along with the new spare tyre).

The spare wheel well wasn't the only place with some rust issues though. Under the rear seat there were a couple of areas - this one was metal wleded in from the outside in the past but not treated in any way! So it got a covering of dynatrol and other places not seen in this photo also got the blue smoothrite treatment.
Whilst all the paint was drying out though I switched attention to a service and a chance to use this bit of kit for the first time. This is a syphon pump thingy which sucks the oil up through the dipstick pipe and it works really well, as long as you don't believe the instructions that it only takes one lot of pumping!

Also changed the plugs, cleaned and painted the battery tray as well as fashioning a rubber insulation for the battery fastener from an old inner tube ( it came too close to the battery terminals for my liking).

At the same time my thoughts are turning to the trip to Italy and carrying spare fuel just in case. I was really pleased to remember a spare fuel can which is very shallow and fits in under the boot "floor boarding".
This final picture shows the spare wheel back in with the fresh blue smoothrite visible below it. At the same time I have started packing spares which will all sit below the boot floor boarding still leaving the carpeted boot available for tents, sleeping bags, luggage and tools. What great cars these 2000s are!

One last thing, I have refitted the original licence plate which is very faded but somehow I felt the black and white plates were actually too "new" for the look of the car. I might change my mind on that one yet though.

PMW's MOT

2010-07-23T09:18:00.005Z

So, we have an MOT now! Just headlight adjustment, a new flasher relay and rear wheel bearing adjustment needed.
I have ordered replacement wheelbearings tho as I want to be sure of them on a trip to the Alps!

Here's the car back home by the way.

PMW looking good

2010-07-17T15:23:00.004Z

A day of cracking progress! Here's a picture first though of the new steering rack gaiter and track rod end fitted to the off side front last week (same near side).
Then on to today - I had the old tyres from the 2000 wheels removed and scrapped, my good new Michelin 185/70R13s removed from the TR7 alloys and fitted to the 2000 wheels so now we have good quality rubber for our trip and the MOT man should be happy.

Meanwhile, Bryce continued with the bodywork and here you can see the offside front wing having been repaired, "made to shape" and primered up.

Followed by DA sanding including some quick repairs to a couple of dents in the driver's door - Bryce at work here whilst I was fighting the rear brakes. Eventually, a new set of brake shoes were fitted and the brake drums back on.

Painted near side front wing. We could have gone for £130 worth of paint and really gone to town but opted for 4 aerosols at £9 each! The colour match is pretty good though as can be seen here and two cans will have done what we need for the two wings and the driver's door. Other offending bits will get attention whilst the paint holds out!

And finally at the end of the day a struggle to get a seat bolt in but then we could stand back and look at the result of our efforts. Really great to see the car back together, the bodywork much improved, decent tyres on and the wheels back on with the original wheel trims.

Let's see what the MOT man thinks!

Further progress on PMW

2010-07-10T20:30:00.004Z

A good days work today.

Bryce has done some great work with the front wings and wheel arches - now made to shape and sprayed in primer.

At the same time I have replaced the steering rack gaiters and the track rod ends as well as checking gearbox and rear axle oil levels.

Next week we want to have paintwork done as well as rear brake shoes replaced and adjusted with any other service items we can manage.

Then it's off to see what the MOT man thinks

What might have been

2010-07-08T18:39:00.001Z

Ho hum - the Manx is on right now.

Looking at my planning we would have arrived on the Isle of Man yesterday with the full service crew, spares, car etc etc

Today would have been for scrutineering and doing some of the recce for the pacenotes.

Tomorrow is when we would have started on day 1 and all the planning etc paid off.

Sod it.

I'll be there in 6 years time now, all being well, reading the pace notes in BRP for Sarah

A nice steady run with CT support is something to look forward to

Progress on PMW

2010-07-03T19:53:00.005Z

Bryce and I have had a good day on the 2000 having got really stuck in.

The 220 turbo seats are in after Bryce made some alloy brackets which have worked out really well.

All the metalwork is now done too. There is no intention of restoring the car to showroom condition or anything like it - just solid and presentable providing the car is structurally sound.

So, both front wings now have metal repairs where they join the front panel/valence under the bumper, the offside wing has a metal repair to the wheelarch and we (Bryce actually) have also repaired a rear coil spring mounting.

Next will be some filling and painting with (lookaway now purists) a rattle can or two to make it look presentable and cover any other bare metal as there are quite a few scrapes on the car. Paint is for protection here, not for show. The car is in incredibly good condition though and I am very pleased with how sound it is.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures from today but I'll try and put that right next week.

I'll need to replace 2 track rod ends and a steering rack boot followed by completing a service and getting an MOT as soon asw e can so that Bryce can get some miles on it before we head off for the Alps in 6 weels time (gulp).

Taking stock of the fleet

2010-06-26T19:33:00.003Z

I have been on holiday for the last week and read a very entertaining book by Alan Clarke (the ex Tory cabinet minister now sadly no longer with us). He had some great things to say and was cerdtainly a driver rather than a polisher! He also had quite a large fleet of cars and described their puposes in his life.

So, I thought I would give a quick review of my much smaller fleet.

BRP - TR716V tarmac rally car. Aimed to be a historic rally car in the style of the early works cars but with the budget of a "clubman". Currently without a cylinder head after some rather unfortunate problems!

Never fear, Dale Barker of Moordale Motors has refurbished a cylinder head for me and this is now with another great friend of mine, Paul Darbyshire who arranged it's collection to save me the carriage costs. Fine fellows both of them.

The plan now is to refit the cylinder head and get the car running again.

Then, at last I will fit the fabled "group 4 brakes" and obtain the MSA Historic rally Car papers for it.

Estimated time for all this to be done? End of year - early Feb 2011 as work will be stopped now whilst other more pressing tasks are dealt with.

But, first - fitting the Group 4 brakes will allow the current uprated front brakes to be donated to ------

UNJ - TR7 convertible. I have driven this car for a week (!) before my health issues stopped play. With the amazing weather of this last week I really wish I could have been driving the car topless - one day, one day. But, in the meantime it's without it's front suspension waiting for me to finish BRP, fit uprated struts and the donated discs & calipers from BRP.

ETA to be driving this car? May 2011 (sob,sob).

PMW - 2000 Mk2 saloon. This is a car with a mission - to take 3 of us to Lake Garda in August to celbrate my 50th birthday. Currently needing bodywork repairs, painting, a full service and 2 front seats - oh, and it doesn't have an MOT.

Guess this must be the priority then!

2000 progress?

2010-05-31T17:31:00.004Z

Transferring attention to the 2000, bodywork is the next area for work. The rear bumper was simply taped over here as it looked better than rusty holes! Well I am not ready to spend money on bumpers and I rather like the bumperless look anyway so first task was to remove it.

It's held on at the rear of the car by 2 bolts and on the rear wings by 2 further bolts, all into captive nuts which wouldn't co-operate! In the picture I have peeled away what's left of the tissue thin bumper and you can see the "captive nut". Bryce and I simply cut the bolt head off though both sides and removed the bumper - there's a fair old weight in it.

Then to the front of the car which proved to be much easier and was off much quicker. Here you can see the wheel arch repair needed and the rusty "D" section at the front lower corner of the front wing where it meets the front panel. The nearside is much the same but because the car was hemmed in by sheet metal and other vehicles in it's storage we couldn't start the body repairs.

I do like the bumperless front end though which will look pretty good when it's repaired and painted.

So, moving on I have bought 2 Rover 220 Coupe Turbo seats which I have been reliably informed fit the 2000 without too much hassle. I wanted the extra safety that comes with head restraints and there's height adjustability as well as lumbar support - the colour can be changed later.

Here we are trying to work out how it's all going to come together, the seats defintely don't just bolt in! We decided to remove the Rover rails so we could bolt the Triumph rails on which obviously have the correct holes to be bolted to the car floor.

Here the Rover rails have been ground off and the molegrips are holding a seat bracket whilst we remove a large "rivet" that once held the bracket to the rails.

With all that done we could re-drill the rear brackets and bolt the Triumph rails to the seat and the jobs pretty much done.

No it isn't! When we tried to fit the seats we found the mounting distance across the seats is different to the distance across the car floor - 420mm v 380mm. Oh dear, I am slightly miffed, or words to that effect.

So, Rover 220 seats do not just bolt in - more work needed

Mayhem and destruction

2010-05-29T16:44:00.003Z

Next step in the Sprint engine saga was to get the front cover off which didn't take too long. This is because I am getting used to it by now and also I used my new air impact wrench.

For those of you familiar with the Sprint engine you will probably recognise the duplex timing chain running down to the cranckshaft sprocket and back up to the jackshaft sprocket - what is not normal is the "half-moon" tab lock washer jammed in down there!

Having removed that carefully I went looking for the missing camshaft sprocket bolt - which should also be at the top of the engine. By lying headfirst into the engine bay upside down (!) whilst using the excellent combined torch and magnetic probe (also used as a radio mike!!) given to me by Paul Darbyshire I spotted the missing bolt and removed it.

If you look very carefully you can see it in the pic below sitting on the front level of the sump - definitely not where it's supposed to be!!

Heads, pistons, damage?

2010-05-23T09:13:00.003Z

Got the head off yesterday and there is a small amount of damage to the top of number 3 piston.

There is also a similar matching damage on the cylinder head. All of this seems to be caused by a small alloy washer that somehow got into there.

Meanwhile, there are fewer "clean" threads on number 1 plughole than on all the others which implies to me that there have been fewer actually "biting" - hence the plug being blown out some time ago!

Good job I have a head being reconditioned I think.

I still need tog et the front off the engine to find the missing sprocket bolt and half moon locking tab - hopefully, they are not in the sump.

A familiar road

2010-05-18T18:15:00.005Z

The picture tells it all - rocker cover off, inlet manifold off, radiator out. Tonight I started the process of removing the cylinder head to carry out further investigations.But - I did have a great North Yorkshire Triumph Weekend with some super friends

Picture proof

2010-05-02T10:59:00.002Z

A couple of pictures today of the situation.

The sprocket is not held onto the end of the camshaft and the absence of the two bolts and half-moon retainer clip is obvious.

BRP - oh dear!

2010-04-25T18:07:00.003Z

After the HCR had finished today Dale came over to my house to see what he thought of BRP.

If you remember we got BRP running but there was a hell of a racket from it - a rattle or knocking noise.

Well this time it didn't even start but there was a horrible noise. Whipping off the rocker cover we could see the bolts had come out of the camshaft sprocket and the retaining half moon washer thingy had gone as well! I don't flipping believe this.

Turning the engine over by hand it locked up at a definite place in the cycle so that's not good.

Most likely is piston to valve contact due to the sprocket falling off etc etc. Advice from Dale is to remove the cylinder head and with a bit of luck there will be no damage to the pistons and block but the head will almost certainly have bent valves.

OK - so I brought a spare cylinder head from my garage (as you do) which we agreed looked to be in good condition and really only needs a bit of cleaning and a light skim (with a bit of luck).

So, stuff the special cam etc etc I decided there and then to ask Dale to recondition this head for me to completely standard spec while I get the old head off. It's a good thing I don't need the car in a hurry.

Don't PMW look good!

2010-04-23T16:46:00.003Z

Here's a picture of PMW in it's winter storage whilst I work on it. Those facilities don't belong to me by the way!
It struck me though that in this picture the 2000 looks very very good - well it's not quite as good as that as the next picture will show!
It aslo struck me that this picture looks like the works PIs being prepared for the World Cup Rally in 1970 but no, there's not the same skill and money being thrown at it either.

So, what have I been doing? Well, fitting the front inertia reel seat belts actually which went quite smoothly. The original mountings are a long way back though so if I had fitted the inertia reels themselves in this position they would have been in the middle of the rear door entrance to the seats! A bracket supplied moved them forward though so they are now in a tolerable position and everything works correctly with no twists in the belts etc - must be a first for me to do something to an acceptable standard.

I also tried to fit a spare set of alloy "minilite" wheels I had as well, only to find that the PCD is different to every Triumph I have come across before. I'll need another cunning plan now.

Meanwhile, here's the otherless flattering picture

BRP runs - BUT!!!!!!!

2010-04-10T18:42:00.004Z

First of all, thanks Kevin for coming round yet again to give me a hand with BRP.

Also, thanks Dale for your help over the phone (MOTL).

Just before Kevin arrived I checked there was fuel in the carb float chambers - three was and it was all clean.

Then I pondered on everything a while followed by fitting the battery and turning the car over. At least this time it backfired through the exhaust which seemed a step forward.

When Kevin arrived we went through all the checks we could think of - at tdc cam alignment marks in line, rotor arm pointing at number 1 etc.

Likely cause number 1

But then there was no spark at the plugs so looking in the dizzy cap we noticed one of the posts had been scored badly by the rotor arm- aha! Faulty replacement rotor arm must be the cause especially when I remembered that the electronic ignition module had been damaged and two wires worn through.

So, replacement old Lucas second hand rotor arm fitted and we gave it a go. No joy although we were now happy about the spark at the plug leads.

Likely cause number 2

Back to fuel - but then spraying Easy Start made no difference and if it had been fuel this would have sorted it, at least for a short time.

Likely cause number 3

Checked the static timing, then found it should be at 14 btdc not 10, adjusted it and still no go.

Likely cause number 4

Now it's time to call a friend - Dale of Moordale Motors. We discussed everything we had done so far and even held the phone over the engine while we tried to start it. Dale immediately said it was a timing problem and that we were well out. He then came up with a really good one - check the points aren't opening after the cam lobe and not before it.

So we did and he was right you know! Further advice over the phone and we moved the dizzy one tooth so we could get it set up right - job done surely. Err - no.

Likely cause number 5

The car sort of now ran on a couple of cylinders and we were scratching our heads. I said to Kevin "what else could make the timing so far out?" He being more mechanically minded than me listened, thought about it and said "let's check the dizzy".

Doing this the rotor arm was now pointing in a different place when at tdc - aha, eureka! Of course, change the plug leads in the dizzy cap to new positions and Bob's your uncle. And you know what, - it worked, BRP fired up!

But what's that horrible loud rattle?

Problem 6

Sorting the rattle out - my theory was I hadn't tightened the timing chain guides up and they were slapping against the chain. Or maybe there was a horrible problem with the jackshaft.

Then again, it could be in the cylinder head so we whipped the rocker cover off.

Aha- one of the cam shaft sprocket bolts had come out (gulp) and the sprocket was very very loose. No wonder there was a horrible rattle. One longer bolt found and fitted as a test and we fire it up again in all confidence that all will be well.

The rattle's still there!

What more can be thrown at us?

Time now to give a little time to pass methinks before returning to this one. The positive thing is that the car now runs, on the negative side there's a horrible loud rattle/knocking and the camshaft sprocket bolt that was in place is now probably in the sump!

Even when it's easy, it's not!

2010-04-02T16:59:00.005Z

First day in 2010 working on the 2000 getting it ready for the Alps.

I decided to take a photo of it in the big shed it's living with under wraps along with lots of vintage buses and Green Godesses but the camera's batteries were flat! Good start that was.

OK then, move on to replacing the non existant steering column bush which was pretty straight forward in the main, especially after Bryce pointed out I needed to remove the steering clamp bolt entirely rather than just loosen it. What a plonker ! That's me, not Bryce.

Putting it back, mind you wasn't easy either. There are 4 x 7/16ths small bolts to hold the column in under the dash, 2 at right angles either side of the column up under the dashboard. Unless you have done this that probably won't make sense but I can tell you that they need to go back in in the right order. If they don't then it takes a long time and the swearing level increases exponentally.

When it was all done though the steering column was secure, rather than slopping about all over the place.

With that accomplished it was on to fitting inertia reel seat belts. I had bought a full set as I try to be big on safety.

Well, Triumph had put rear set belt mountings in already during manufacture even if they didn't actually fit them themselves. So, a piece of cake was obviously on the cards.

No, removing the bolts for the lower mountings that go through to the rear wheel arches was far from easy. 40+ years of underseal, grime etc were reluctant to let go but eventually they did - no stopping on this job even if it takes a very long time!

End of play though saw the rear seat belts fitted and working so all in all, not bad at all.

Oh, and the car started OK too and ran quite happily in that smooth straight 6 way so a good day after all.

A tale of 2 TR7s

2010-03-27T18:37:00.003Z

Non starting BRP.

Fitted new points and condensor, squirted some fresh petrol down the carbs and put the rest in the petrol tank.

Also swapped over the coil from the convertible which I know works fine just in case.

Turned the key and ...... no go still, although it did give me a little encouragement.

Whilst I had the coil swapped I put BRP's on UNJ and that started straight away just as it always does so both coils will start UNJ and neither of them make a difference to the non starting BRP - it's not the coil then!!

State of play with BRP is now the battery on charge again while I think some more.

UNJ - I returned it's coil back to keep things sweet on the TR7 that will run!

I had also purchased (along with the bits for BRP) a hose that goes from the air filter to the top of the exhaust manifold

I fitted that but whilst doing so it's necessary to remove one of the thermostat housing bolts and that's when I noticed what appeared to be plain water in the housing. These cars need a good antifreeze mixture all the time for the inhibitors in them to make sure the alloy in the head doesn't silt up and cause overheating mayhem.

A few minutes had the bottom hose off the radiator and lots of sludgy brown water out of it - next a topping up of water/antifreeze mixture to put things right. Must get some more antifreeze.

I think next though will be a switch of attention over to the 2000 - time to start preparing it for the trip to the Alps.

Still not what I wanted!

2010-03-20T20:35:00.003Z

For the technically minded - here's the engine at tdc and showing the lobes of the camshaft "up and away" from number one inlet valves meaning that they are fully closed. At the same time the rotor arm (which can't be seen) is pointing at number one plug lead in the distributor cap.

This all is correct for the plug leads being set up correctly with the right firing order.

The timing has been set statically at 10 degress BTDC which is the standard setting and the cam timing marks are in line with the standard position (co-incidentally after timing the cam in with the protractor). This is where it was before all the work on the timing chain etc and the car ran well other than the large amount of rattling going on!

So, all in all, the engine should run - it's back where it was but with a new timing chain and tensioner but it certainly just does not want to know.

Thinking caps on and maybe some new points, fresh fuel and some East Start next I reckon.

Not what I wanted

2010-03-13T16:25:00.004Z

Well, I put everything back together today, quietly and slowly so as to surprise BRP!

Finally when it was all back in place, the big moment came - turn the key and ....... no joy.

The engine sounds like it's firing but not at the right place so there's probably something wrong with the timing - oh good! I thought I'd try swapping plug leads around but having pulled the number 1 it came apart as can be seen in the photo.

Time to call a day I decided, after all, I can't drive until November at the earliest!

Another go

2010-02-27T14:26:00.003Z

Slowly progressing on the cam timing front.

Kevin came along again this morning and first we secured the camshaft sprocket to the camshaft with 2 new longer cap head bolts as only one of the originals was long enough to bite! So that was one bit of security dealt with.

Then I reset the pointer with a longer bit of wire and we rotated the engine a few times manually and did a few checks. Yes, the protractor was moving - goodness knows how but it was.

So, off it came and we cut a larger hole in the centre and glued it to the crankshaft pulley so there was no chance it could move with the pulley bolt.

At last we were able to get some consistent results so that we then adjusted to cam timing to 108 degrees after top dead centre which is where it should be (about!).

Having done this it seems the cam is a 275 degree duration which is very unusual, certainly i can't find a Triumphtune or a Piper cam of this duration and the calculated max lift should be at 112 degrees, not the 108 we have set it at.

Hmmm - I think this could be where we put it all back together and see how the car runs!

A protracted affair

2010-02-12T15:26:00.004Z

Sorry about the pun in the title but it is getting like that! Thanks to help from Carl Shalespeare I am moving on very slowly, it's all about timing you know

Sorry about that one too!

Anyway, Carl has been helping me out with long distance advice and he even went so far as to post me a laminated timing wheel/protractor that I could use with the standard pulley bolt.

Once it arrived I thought - "I could do that" so went on to scan my Piper Cams protractor, laminate it and then carefully scribe out a hole in the centre to the exact size of the cranckshaft pulley bolt. Then with a few packing washers behind it, it can be bolted into place as seen in the photo.

Kevin will be along in the morning with a dial gauge that will reach the inlet buckets and we'll swing into action. It's a good thing I know so many kind people or I would be lost.

After I got this into place I moved on to looking at fitting the Brantz Rally Tripmeter I had at Christmas. If anyone at work is reading this by the way, I have taken a day off!

Siiting in the co-driver's seat (something I will need to be getting used to) and looking straight ahead I felt the right location was on the glovebox door as in Theo Boonen's car and as can be seen here as a trial.

What it also meant though was that the leather strap I fitted to stop the glove box lid coming open when the going gets a bit rough needed relocating to the left. Sounds easy enough and it is but did take a fair bit of time as the trim above the lid where the electric fire extinguisher control box is needed removing to get at the back of the fixing.

The Welsh flag by the way is Sarah's as she is very proud of her ancestry and quite right too.

Then it was a case of fixing the Brantz which I did by virtue of long countersunk black screws which really match well the car and the Brantz. To ensure the Brantz is vertical I needed some spacers and having thought about this I came up with what I hope is a very neat solution.

I cut some spacers (longer at the bottom than at the top) from black flexible fuel pipe which nicely helps locate the Brantz. The fuel pipe makes the spacers the right colour (a good thing) but also give some cushioning which I think must be a benefit.

More time needed to plumb it in but here's a picture of the installation and it's looking good, very businesslike and functional - just how I like it.

4 more hours

2010-01-30T18:59:00.004Z

Almost like the crowd cheering "4 more years" for a new President but in this case, it's me in my head, saying 4 more hours, 4 more hours.

In my case though, it takes so much longer than I know a skilled mechanic could do things. A case in point can be illustrated by the picture above whcih does show the front timing cover back on the engine but this took way too long to do.

The good thing, however, is that I can now take things steady and when things aren't right I take the time to find out what the problem is rather than just "banging it on". When I tried to fit the front cover, no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to close up and it seemed to "pivot" on a high spot.

So, I took it off several times and then spotted I had fitted one of the chain guides wrong. But to remove it and fit it correctly the tensioner had to come off again as well, then it was necessary to check the alignment of the jackshaft sprocket which I did and had to ease the chain away whilst I rotated it to the correct place.

Doing all of that and then putting it back correctly took at least an hour but that has saved a great deal of grief. The front cover still wouldn't go on though and I spent more time lieing over the engine bay with my head where the radiator should be trying to work out what the problem was. Found it though - I had fitted a bolt which shouldn't have been there!

After that it just was just a case of bolting everything back up - and remembering that the reason 2 of the bolts seemed too long was because the alternator bracketry had to be there and I had forgotten grrrr!!!!

There's also time for philosphy - like "why do many of the bolts which prove to be the most difficult have to be at full stretch for me?" Then there's a time for courage - I had removed the clutch slave cylinder to hold the ring gear and jam the engine whilst removing the crankshaft pulley bolt. It didn't help of course (!) but now the slave cylinder needed to go back on and it wouldn't co-operate when I ws lieing safely to the side of the car (at full stretch again of course). No, the only solution was to crawl under the car which is suspended on axle stands and just get on with it whilst ignoring the fact that if anything went wrong the whole car would crush me. It was good to be back "out from under" when that was done.

Finally, with all that done you can see in the pic below my attempt to establish TDC using a dial gauge on the top of an extension down number 1 plug hole.

Looks pretty good, almost like I now what I am doing but I have to say that I was not at all confident I was doing things right here so decided to remember " the right time to say enough for the day".

I will return to this next weekend.

Group 4 brakes again! + 2000 stuff

2010-01-23T16:22:00.005Z

At last the machining is done - I had just about forgotten about this.

As a reminder, here is one of the group 4 AP discs fitted on it's bell to a strut complete with the extra long studs and a machined AP racing caliper - all the kit for the homologated "group 4" brakes.

Before diving into all this though, I'll finish the engine stuff on BRP. I need to now time the cam in, re-assemble it all and then fire it up which sounds easier than I fear it will be. This is all outside my comfort zone and if it goes wrong then I won't be happy (or competing in the Ilkley rally either).

Today though, I just put the brake stuff away and turned attention to the 2000.

With all the bits bought last week I pottered about a bit and made sure it's more ready for it's roadtrip into winter storage.

I fitted the boot seal simply as it was there and easy enough (makes a big difference to how the bott lid closes and should keep it watertight) but then moved on to replacing the rotor arm with the new one (the old one will be kept as a spare). The car wouldn't fire up initally so I checked and the new rotor arm hadn't seated properly but once this was done the car ran just fine.

Then on to replacing the outer headlight units which was straightforward enough and what a difference they make!

Just a few bits

2010-01-18T17:41:00.003Z

The 2000 doesn't need much you know, a few service items and a bit of tarting up that's all.

So how come I have just ordered £xxxs worth of bits then?

Well it's like this.

On the Alpine 50th birthday bash my daughter Michelle will be coming along which is great but that just made me even more aware of safety issues - I suppose that comes from being a dad. Anyway, the 2000 hasn't got any rear seat belts so that needs putting right. Come to think of it, the front ones are the original static type and aren't that great at engaging so I had my doubts about their reliability too.

Rimmer Brothers have this sale on you see, so why miss this opportunity? Result a full set of front and rear inertia reel seat belts on order.

Then there's the fact that Bryce will be driving the car over to it's winter storage in the next week or two and bearing in mind it has a second hand rotor arm in it (after the breakdown senario when I bought the car) it only seemed right I bought a new replacement (this time from Chris Witor).

Of course, if you do that then to save postage I thought I'd get a few other ignition bits and pieces (it's always the ignition side you know that lets a car down. ) So I ordered a coil, points, condensor and distributor cap -oh and the boot lid weather seal (nothing to do with ignition but whilst I am about it and it's only a few £).

Meanwhile, all but one of the headlights are gone so I ordered 2 outer halogen ones (I already have bulbs so saved a bit there) and Craig has promised me a couple of the inner ones.

There you go then, safety, looking after people, and saving some money results in a rather large bill

Not the Xmas meal

2010-01-09T20:49:00.003Z

I don't want to say too much here as I have written an article for Club Torque and I feel that is where all should be revealed!

But a quick comment or two

That was probably the best night I have had at a Pendle and Pennine meeting and I would like to thank all my friends on the night for a great atmosphere and fun, as well as Jenny and the staff at the old Stone Trough.

2011's "Not the Xmas meal" will have a lot of living up to do"

The virtues of patience

2010-01-06T19:08:00.003Z

Did a bit more - in fact nearly another 2 hours and didn't seem to get that far.

Basically I got the pistons at TDC and got the cylinder head fully torqued down with the camshaft and rocker arms. How the heck did that take 2 hours?

It's always satisfying to see things going back together though and this gave me an opportunity to retorque the cylinder head whcih is always a good thing on these engines. The cylinder head nuts in the centre of the rocker shaft had to be done of course, but I still retorqued the cylinder head bolts which hadn't been touched and it was surprising that a couple of them "nipped" up.

Next step is to get the new timing chain and tenisioner on as well as fit the camshaft vernier sprocket after which I'll pause whilst I get my head round "timing in the cam" and will probably need Bryce's help on this anyway.

Know when to stop

2010-01-05T18:45:00.004Z

Know when to stop - that's what I have been trying to learn for years now. I have done some more work on BRP which generally went very well but it's important to stop and put tools away etc before things start to go wrong, usually when my concentration starts to waver a bit!

First off I have done the dreaded shimming which actually doesn't seem to be too bad. I had quite a few shims but not quite enough of the right sizes of course, in fact I had plenty for if the gaps had been too much but not enough for how they were (too tight).

It's all done now though so we'll see what it's like when I fire her up.

Having done that though I moved on to removing the timing chain, tensioner and crankshaft sprocket which you can see here in the pics with the puller attached and nearly off.

Having replaced that it was then back to the top of the engine to refit the camshaft and rocker assembly. Getting this in was a bit if a fiddle and it was now that I realised I should stop - my concentration was falling and impatience growing! This was especially the case when I knocked shims off the top of the exhaust valves so once it was back on and lightly tightened down I called it a day.

Voyage of discovery

2010-01-02T16:44:00.003Z

First the 2000.

Some more time spent today means I at least know where I am with the headlights.

When I started they wouldn't work on dip or main but 2 out of 4 would work on headlamp flash.

Cleaning connections at the lamps and the earths brought back full beam on 3 out of 4 (near side inner clearly gone).

After advice on the Club Triumph forum I cleaned the contacts at the light switch and the main./dip - checked for current and found power going into the switch and back out again to the dip/main switch which also works fine. Back to the lamps and there's power at the connections for dip beam so really it's down to 3 sealed beams gone (2 outer on dip and one inner on main).

As I have bought the car for a continental trip which will involve overnight drving I'll look at halogen conversions.

Then back on to BRP - here the plan is to re-shim the valve clearances, replace the crankshaft sprocket, the timing chain and tensioner followed by timing the cam in. Then it all goes back together with no problems whatsover with less rattles, more reliability and more power - yeah right!

Anyway, thanks to assistance from Bryce the other day and a new whirly gun we got the crankshaft bolt off which had been very very reluctant to let go. Actually, what also probably helped was a product got for me by Burnerboy - "shock and unlock" which we sprayed on ( it is a combination of WD40 and a freezing agent).

Today though, after working on the 2000 I removed the front timing chain cover of BRP, the rocker shaft and the camshaft so that I can get on to actually shimming the valve clearances and be ready to procede with the timing chain shennanigans. Well it wasn't as easy as that sentence makes it sound but perseverance and patience won through in the end.

Here though I think I may have found 2 sources of all the rattles. Part of the timing chain tensioner (the bit that's on a piston with something looking like a wedgeshaped hammer head) actually fell out when I removed the front cover. Now this might just be because tension had been released but, looking at this component, there are a number of areas where gouges/wear have been made in the metal of it which doesn't seem right to me - could this have just been rattling around inside the front cover instead of doing it's job?

Then at the camshaft end the sprocket is held away from the camshaf during removal by the use of a "slave" nut. When it all goes back together this slave nut isn't needed and should be removed - only I still found it in pace but with the internal thread completely stripped so it has probably been rattling around for months at the front end of the camshaft sprocket!

All of this is no doubt down to my incompetence and there's plenty more where that came from!

I decided a couple of hours was enough so called it a day as I think that being patient might just help me do a better job and I am not in a huge rush anyway.

Poking about

2010-01-01T11:49:00.003Z

I have spent a bit of time "poking about" the 2000 and am rather pleased with the results. Although the photos don't do it justice the boot spare wheel well is solid (surface rust and wet though), underneath the rear seat it's also solid with a little surface rust and the interior generally is in good condition with everything in place but needing a good clean.

So, what needs doing first?

When we brought the car home, apart from the breakdown due to a dodgy rotor arm, the plan was to take it straight into winter storage but by the time we got back it was dropping dark and the offside indicator as well as the headlights weren't working. It wasn't sensible to drive it in the dark like this so the car is at my house and these are the priorities to sort out.

After that there are one or two grommets to seal the floor, a boot seal to stop water getting in and a steering column lower bush (where it goes through the bulkead). There are some repair panels for the front wings needed too and a thorough service/check over.

I suppose a new rotor arm and a maybe a distributor cap wouldn't go amiss sooner rather than leter too!

Latest addition

2009-12-30T18:22:00.003Z

What's this then, a Triumph 2000 on the Rally TR7 blog?

Well I have purchsed this car with a particular mission in mind - going to the Alps and back 3 or 4 up in August next year (this trip is to replace the Manx rally which was my 50th birthday ambition).

The car has a very sweeet sounding engine, a fine overdrive gearbox that comes in and out very nicely and the diff has been changed to a 3.7 (this should make it a fine long distance car). The sills have been replaced, the car is structurally very sound and the interior is very good but needs a thorough clean first of all.

The plan is to give it a good clean, get everything working (like the headlamps, indicators etc), tidy up the bodywork and give it a very quick paint job, a very thorough service and then go into covered storage under a dustsheet over winter.

Ah - now I understand!

2009-12-29T16:12:00.002Z

I don't mind admitting that I can be a bit slow on the uptake but eventually I get there.

No matter how many times I read manuals and looked at diagrams I just couldn't "get" this shimming thing so I decided to experiment with one of the spare cylinder heads I have. Terribly boring for those who know what's what but I followed the workshop manual and removed the rocker shaft assembly and the camshaft. Then it was blindingly obvious what these "shims" are - little discs of steel that sit on top of the valve stems so depending on how thick they are (could be very thick like me!) they affect the valve clearances.

Also the famous "buckets" now mean something to me - one is visible having been removed to the right of the head, next to the ratchet. This sits on top of the inlet valve stem with a "shim" in it.

Apologies to all those out there who know what they are doing but you must have come to know how mechanically challenged I am by now! Well, I know a bit more now so it's on to proper shimming shortly (but this will be delayed by a trip out tomorrow which is also Triumph related).

Off with a head to get to the prize

2009-12-04T14:17:00.004Z

In order to source another component for the timing chain job I have had to remove the cylinder head from one of my spare engines. With that is a pair of carbs seen here which I am putting to one side for possible future refurbishment and use.

The important thing here is that the inlet manifold is not the same as the 8 valve engine as the carbs are further apart so keeping a Sprint inlet manifold is always worthwhile. Added to this the afficionados amongst you will have spotted that the carbs are 2" SUs which are very sought after - with a well sorted angine these can give nearly as much power as a pair of 45DCOes but cost much less (certainly in my case!).

It is possible in the future that the convertible will get a Sprint engine with the carbs from BRP whilst BRP gets thse 2 inchers.

Meanwhile, though, here's what I have liberated as a result of this effort - a vernier timing sprocket (fanfare!!)

The slots with bolts to secure them mean that some fine tuning can be had when it's all put together with the new timing chain gear so I can get the most out of that group 2 cam and the car will then fly

In my garage

2009-11-29T17:05:00.004Z

Got sorted - brought down an 80s "midi" hi-fi system form the loft and installed it in the garage. With the correct lead I can plug in my MP3 player so that I can have good music through a decent system whilst working on Triumph bits & pieces - good stuff!!

I then found out it has a karaoke option where it's possible to plug in a microphone and sing along

Here's the view Meanwhile, down the other end of the garage there's this view of (junk x) spares I have accumulatedThat's 2 Sprint engines, a Sprint overdrive gearbox, 2 "Pony" 4x4 gearboxes and a 1500 FWD short engine (not all visdible).

I sometimes wonder why I can't get a car in my garage

Moving on to timing

2009-11-27T17:06:00.003Z

After some discussion with a CT Sprint guru (you know who you are CS) I have bought a new timing chain kit and a crankshaft sprocket.

This will all go together with a vernier cam sprocket I have and then the cam will be timed in to the spec for a Triumph Tune "Sprint" cam along with all the valve clearances being shimmed up correctly.

The aim of all this is to improve reliability whilst upping performance. All very brave for a man of my limited talents.

Today has seen me remove the radiator, alternator and lots and lots of bolts on the front timing cover which is all well and good until I came up on the cranks shaft pulley nut and washer.

Of course, the engine rotates when you try to undo it so I waited for Bryce to pop over and we had a go at removing it with me locking the engine via a big screwdriver in the ring gear and him wielding a large bar and socket.

No dice so we stopped before we broke something!

Next up is Bryce bringing over an air wrench so that we can "shock" the nut loose.