After the Little Devils!

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 Rally 2011 - getting there

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

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.

Fire up BRP!

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.

HCR & BRP

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

Finishing as I mean to go on

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.

Santa Rally & back to BRP

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.

I've been here before!

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

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.

Proof of progress

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!!

Back to BRP

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!

Taking stock of the fleet

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!

Mayhem and destruction

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?

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

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

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!

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.

BRP runs - BUT!!!!!!!

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!

A tale of 2 TR7s

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.

Not what I wanted

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!