Back home

At last PMW is back home.

With a few £ from the insurance company I can now assess what I need to do to get the car fixed and back on the road.

At the least it needs a radiator and a repair to the offside front wing as can be seen in the photos.

The hole punched inthe radiator as it was pushed back into the pulley is visible here

Panel has been pulled back out by someone

Damage to offside front wing

Things that go bump in the night

Our 10CR was going so well, the car performed absolutely fine all the first morning and, after a lunch in a cafe at Treysa, Germany, we set off on a cunning plan to go “off piste” and visit Colditz. We drove through some epic downpours and lightning storms later on the Autobahns and reached Colditz Castle, which is certainly an impressive site – even from the Lidl car park!

By now it was late afternoon with no time for a visit, so we made our escape towards the Czech border, regaining the route as we actually crossed the border at about 10.30pm. Little did we know what was about to happen and how our adventure would be a very different one from the one we planned.

I was navigating whilst Dave was driving on the road north of Plana in the Czech Republic when I heard and felt a huge “thud”. “What the eff was that?” was my question and the reply was “3 pigs just ran out in front of the car and we hit at least one of them”.

Immediately the ignition light came on so we switched the main beam off and it went back out again. Scanning the volt meter and the temperature gauge, to start with they seemed OK but soon the temparatue gauge started going up. At least all the lights were still working and the car still drove OK.

Now, what would you least like to happen next? Oh yes, the Czech Police waving us down. They didn't speak any English and we certainly didn't speak any Czech but after showing them that we had papers for the car and they had seen our passports they waved us on. They were probably more interested in the trucks that were passing and wanted to stop them instead.

It was at this time, though, that we noticed the steam coming out from under the bonnet. I didn't want to investigate in the presence of the Czech Police, however, so I took over the driving and we drove on a short distance into the next village and pulled up next to a pond. We lifted the bonnet and, by the light of torches, we could see a hole punched in the centre of the radiator where it had been pushed back into the pulley.

So, what to do next? First thing make sure we are safe, so put the emergency triangle out and pull on the hi-viz. Next, remove everything out the boot so I could see if we had any Radweld, to which the answer was no. Maybe we could keep going if we could just stop every few kms and refill the radiator? We tried putting in a bottle full of pond water but it came out from the radiator as fast as we poured it in.

I next made a phone call through to Dale Barker of Club Triumph asking if anyone had a spare radiator, unlikely as it may seem, or any Radweld. Unfortunately not, so we decided to try and get into the next town rather than stay in a small village. We drove on to Plana and just made it into the town square with the car “pinking”. Not good, and any thoughts of trying to limp to Cortina, for example, were clearly off the agenda.

I had hoped that if we could cut the route and get to Cortina then we could have done some panel beating with a lump hammer and, with the help of other Club Triumph members, sourced another radiator or found somewhere to get a repair made.

By now though it was around midnight and I made the decision to call for breakdown assistance under my insurance policy with Peter James and that was only the beginning of a heck of a saga!

Just about there

With the Club Triumph 10 Countries Run fast approaching and me working away from home so much I delegated remaining work on PMW to my local garage, Vicarage Car Company in Barnoldswick, Lancashire.

Having replaced all the springs, shock absorbers and bushes in the rear suspension myself I didn't like the way the car now rolled around at the front even more than it did before. With lots of miles to do including mountain passes in the Alps I wanted to get things right.

So I bit the bullet and bought completely refurbished front struts with new inserts and appropriate fast road springs to match the rears from http://www.chriswitor.com/
Also threw in an order for fast road drag strut plybushes too.

They didn't arrive though until Wednesday of last week which didn't give Vicarage long to fit them after my wife Deana dropped them off. I also asked them to investigate a "bearing" noise, replace some perished fuel pipe and fit an inline fuel filter just before the fuel pump.

All of that was done and the car returned Friday afternoon just before I got home and I then used PMW to go to the Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine area meeting. I must say the ride is vastly improved so I am well pleased with that.

The bearing noise is still there even though the diff oil has been changed but we are just going to have to live with that and drive at a speed when it's not so obvious - or turn the music up!

So, this weekend it's been packing spares, sorting out what tools I want to take and then generally cleaning the car applying Rain X etc.

If anyone wants to follow our 10CR we are car 34 and reports should be on the Club Triumph message diary     http://www.club.triumph.org.uk/events/tencountriesrun/10crmessagediary
(as well as Facebook for my Facebook friends) 

Plugs,battery and coil

The 10CR is getting closer and I am tidying up PMW, finishing off a service etc.

So today I checked the brake pads and they have plenty of meat on them. Then fitted a set of new plugs I have had for a while and kept the old ones as spares.

Next I thought it would be a good idea to tidy up the battery tray which was showing some surface rust. Ideally I would ahve taken some photos at this stage but forgot so you will have to take my word for it. Anyway, a quick clean up, primer and a couple of coats of Valencia Blue from a rattle can and it is muche better preserved.

Something I have thought about but only now have actioned is the position of the coil. It's mounted to the engine block which doesn't seem optimum to me as heat build up does them no favours so with some careful thought I have remounted it at the rear of the battery tray. Unfortunately the photo is blurred but you should be able to see it here.

I had to re-attach a connection on one of the coild leads anyway as it broke so that would ahve been a possible breakdown in the future, now avoided (touch wood).

Below is a picture of the battery tray with battery and electric fan wiring looking pretty good.

The car actually started as well after all this! A test drive was fine apart from an annoying noise that I can't pin down that might be a bearing but I can't pin down where it is. Soemtimes it's quite loud, sometimes it disappears so I am hoping it will  last 3000 miles on the 10CR!

Lubricate it and slip it in!

Back to the refurbishing of the rear suspension on PMW.

Here I have just drilled out the steel tube within one of the trailing arm bushes. Next I used the 1" wood drill to remove the rubber bushes followed by cleaning the inside of the holes and lubricating them with vaseline, as well as the new bushes.

So having applied lubrication it was then simple to slip it in! Of course you need good nuts and technique :-)

With all this done and experience gained so far I used the same techniques as on the nearside to relocate the trailing arm with it's new bushes (jacks, smaller bolts, screw drivers etc) and bolt it all up with new nuts and bolts.

Then the new spring and shock absorber along with new brake pipes.

Now I am getting somewhere. The circlip on the wheel cylinder still isn't on though but then I looked on Youtube for tips and found there is a tool which makes it a doddle. A check on ebay showed me I could buy one for less than £10 from a supplier in Stoke on Trent so that 's what I'll be doing next week.

 I am now left looking forward to next weekend and a special tool!

10CR Prep

Having got PMW into a position where it seems to want to play ball I am now moving on to general preparation for Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run.

This weekend it's based around a good service for the car. Obviously it has already had an oil change and filter, new electronic ignition, new plug leads and I have new plugs for it too so I am well on the way to completeing a service for it.

So this weekend I got the car up on axle stands and checked the front wheel bearings were OK (seems they are) and the front brakes are fine too. Oil levels were low in the gearbox and rear axle though which is not good news so I topped those up. Whilst doing this I ran out of gear oil so I have ordered another 5 litres classic GL4 EP90 along with 2 litres of DOT 4 brake and clutch fluid, 5 litres of antifreeze and classic SF spec 20/50 engine oil so that should sort me out not just for topping up but also for spare fluids to take on the 10CR.

Here's PMW up on axle stands for those checks plus I could see that I think there is no more clutch fluid leaking from the slave cylinder so that's a relief.

This also gave me the chance to spray Dinitrol corrosion protection all under the car floor, wings, front valence etc which might not look the prettiest thing in the world but preservation is the most important thing here.

I was also able to take a look at the rear suspension as can be seen in the photo here and I will be replacing the rear springs, shock absorbers, suspension bushes and all associated nuts & bolts etc.

I have not done this before on a 2000 so it will no doubt be a learning curve but those are the original springs from 1969 whilst the shock absorbers are sone second hand ones someone gave me and recently one of them leaked. Doing about 3000 miles in September 3 up would be quite a test for them, hence the decision to replace.

Once that is done I will move on to the front suspension.

Over to someone else!

PMW is now with the Vicarage Motor Company in Barnoldswick for them to work on.

I have saved up a bit of dosh plus the proceeds from the sale of the Rover SD1 and other bits and pieces on ebay means I can actually pay someone else to work on one of my cars.

So it should come back with the propshaft sorted, new mounting bushes for the diff and maybe they can take a look at it's running issues too.

Mind you when it was towed away it really made me wince listening to the propshaft banging away - apologies to anyone on Skipton Road, Barnoldswick stuck behind a 2000 being towed very very slowly!

Not only that mind you but I have splashed out on what are apparently the bees knees (would have used another expression which I will leave you to guess at) of rotor arms - the "red ones" from the Distributor Doctor http://www.distributordoctor.com/red-rotor-arms.html

That's plural by the way as in two, not that I have twin distributors on the car but I decided to make damned sure this component is sorted once and for all.

It's all very important because a year from now I will be using the car on Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run.

Upgrading v originality

Always a dilemma but I fitted a MK2 PI dashboard today and it's just "plug and play".

Actually I only gain a rev counter but it looks more upmarket and I think I'll have to fit the clock in the centre of the dash but I have the panel for that too.

And of course I am keeping the original dashboard so I can always return the car to how it came out the factory.

All in all though, I am planning to use the 2000 on Clyub Triumph's 10 Countries run next year and I think this is a more pleasing dashboard to look at - plus keeping an eye on the revs won't do any harm.

PI dashboard fitted today and everything works

Original interior from 2003 looks alot better today with different seats, steering wheel and dashboard

MOtivation

Away from the car front I have been taking part in Movember in support of men's health, in particular prostate cancer.

Here's my attempt at a moustache which I rather like - don't tell SWMBO, but I may well keep it.

If you would like to know more and maybe make a donation here's the link
http://uk.movember.com/mospace/

Meanwhile, I haven't been completely away from tinkering with Triumphs.

I have over the last two weeks finally managed to get all the lights working as they should on UNJ - even the headlamps pop up when "flashed". Getting the switch panel back in to the dash with everything working and intact took some doing but has been achieved.

I have entered Club Triumph's 10CR and UNJ will be the car I use so it will get more attention from March on and will eb the one I use when I return to driving so that hopefully it will be reliable on the event itself.

Once more into the breach

Been a full week again at work so not at maximum enthusiasm level this week.

Then having to rely on buses and trains doesn't help. 2 hours for a journey that would take 45 minutes tops in a car is not funny.

Anyway, with Bryce's help PMW was moved into a place where the engine can be removed as seen in the photo.

I am going for the method in the official workshop manual which is dropping the front supsension and pulling the engine and gearbox out from under the front of the car on it's subframe.

That should make mating the engine and gearbox up much easier and I can swap bits over from one engine to another while it's out the car too.

All went OK removing bits in the engine bay - carbs etc and disconnecting the starter motor, clutch slave cylinder. Thanks to Andy Pearce and Tim Bancroft for giving me advice on how to remove the overdrive gearknob which is obvious when you know how. With that off and the gear lever shroud removed as well I needed to lift the car; disconnect the speedo and overdive cables/wiring before then unbolting the propshaft.

After that it's onto dropping the front suspension.

To be honest though, I ran out of motivation at that point and I think a break for a week or two wouldn't go amiss.In December I'll return to the attack and no doubt it won't take long for the engine and box to be out.

I am looking forward to the arrival of the next Club Torque though so I can get my entry in for 2013's 10 Countries Run. Mind you, I'll be using UNJ (the TR7 DHC) so that will need an MOT and taxing in March/April whcioh will probably mean a stop to work on PMW.

A bit of a race really to see what I can get done to PMW before March.