A bit one sided

So today 6 hours of work on the 2000. I really must be a slow worker!

Here's my first attempt today to get the first bush in the trailing arm using threaded rod, washers and an old socket. Not succesful again as the bush was distorting but not going in.

So I decided to get up off the floor, bring my workmate bench out onto the drive and get the trailing arm up on that. Then I got the bush back out, cleaned inside of the arm thoroughly and then smeared vaseline all over the bush and inside the hole it has to go in. Nothing like a bit of lubrication! Although no doubt someone will tell me I should have used something else.

This time, using the threaded rod, lubrication and making sure everything was lined up properly I got the result I wanted, the bush pushed home fully in the appropriate hole.

This method worked for the second bush too :-)

Now with the whole assembly on the bench I carried on with other jobs which would be easier now, like greasing the inner universal joint. This was the side with the leaking wheel cylinder so I stripped all the brakes off too, the wheel cylinder and the brake shoes along with all the fittings.

Then the new braided brake hose was fitted to replace the old flexi brake pipe as can be seen below but I will now need two new pipes which broke during dis-assembly :-(

Now I could refit the trailing arm but I put copper grease on the new bolts and nyloc nuts to help keep things from seizing up and to make it easier to take apart again at some distant time in the future (another 46 years?). Again someone will probably tell me I have used the wrong grease; are you reading this Mike C?

The next session was all about lifting the trailing arm up to the shackles and it took some doing, none of which I could take a break from to take photos.

Basically I attached the old shock absorber again to hold the rear of the trailing arm and then used two jacks at the front to get the two bushes lined up with the shackles. Then good old pushing and shoving got the bushes nearly in place.

Techniques learned over the years were used next. These were getting a small screwdriver in through the shackles and the bushes to start to pull them in to place, then using a smaller diameter bolt than the correct one to get them closer again. Finally I used the old bolts to fully locate it all at which point anyone nearby would have heard me almost shouting "You beauty, GET IN".

Once the old bolts were in it was then relatively simple to get the new bolts in and tighten them up with the new nyloc nuts.

So, on now to fitting the new shock absorber which in comparison is a piece of cake and with that in place at maximum drop the new uprated 575lbs spring went in sitting on it's poly +5mm insulator. All of this means one side is well on the way to being complete.

UNJ's back, no stopping PMW!

UNJ passed it's MOT last month and had a new water pump fitted so with June now here I have taxed it again.

Unfortunately it wouldn't start yesterday due to a flat battery and I didn't have time until today to fix it but now the car is running just fine again. I took if for a run on the "test track" and then washed and cleaned it as I may well be using it tomorrow and certainly intend using it for  a show later this month.

Meanwhile, there literally is no stopping PMW. I was on my way to the Pendle and Pennine meeting last night in PMW when I found the brake pedal going straight to the floor! Thankfully the handbrake stopped the car from going onto the main road and I got it back under our car port.

So today investigations found that the rear near side wheel cylinder has failed and allowed all the brake fluid to escape as can be seen in the photos as it is on the tyre and then inside the brake drum on the shoes. Having cleaned it all up now I need a replacement wheel cylinder which I will then fit along with a set of  new brake shoes I have in stock.

PMW brake hoses

So another 3 hours on PMW.

First I have never fitted the air cleaner assembly with the back on as the air filters were too deep. Well I took another look and that's not actually true, it just needed more determination so now the assembly is as it should be, with the back on it and fitted up to the carbs.

Then I moved on to the heater hoses and the radiator hoses and refitted them. I used some new hoses here and there but one wouldn't fit without a kink in it so I kept the old one on instead.

Good to fill the radiator up with water as you hear the various noises the system makes as it refills, another sign of the car coming alive again. I prefer not to put antifreeze in straight away as you never know if there could yet be a problem so why risk wasting costly antifreeze?

My point was proven as water poured out from a hose hidden away under the heater hoses near the bulkhead. I had missed this one and it is rotten/split so will need a new one.

Moving on then to another area. I had bought months (years?) ago new braided brake hoses so I went to fit these to the front. The old one at the front nearside was a pig to get off but after the usual old tricks I was successful and refitted the new one. Thing is though, because I had dropped the suspension to change the engine I couldn't remember how it all  fixed to a plate and the coppper brake pipe that goes to the union inside the engine bay.

I even went to the trouble of taking photos so I could ask on the Club Triumph forum for guidance but in the end didn't need to as I worked it out - see the photo below.

Somewhat unexpected

So, to the nearside today on the brake dancing front.

Actually this went very very well. Both calipers came over quite happily as did both discs and hubs. I then bled the uprated brakes on UNJ and all was looking rosy.

So, on the wheels and give it a little test.

But then came the unexpected bit. Both cars have 13" alloy wheels on with UNJ having it's OE standard wheels but they fouled the Volvo calipers. That was quite a surprise so I had to swap over the black "minilites" and put the standard wheels on BRP.

I think UNJ looks pretty good though with the minilites so I am happy enough at the end of it all. Oh, and the brakes work (but not on BRP so that has a notice in it to remind me it only has a hanbrake).

Here's UNJ with the minilites

Brake dancing

I have a number of brake set ups on/for my TR7s and always seem to be in tranisition to where I want to end up - two steps forward and one step back, or is it the other way round?

Well, with no driving to be done for 50 weeks now seemed a good time to make some more moves.

Here's the standard disc set up on UNJ which doesn't look too bad until you see the comparison with --

the uprated BMW/Volvo combo I have on BRP

 

Apart from the surface rust of course, the major differences are the much bigger dimensions of both the vented disc and the 4 pot calipers giving much improved fade resistance.

I had hoped originally that this set up would be fine for historic rallying but it was not to be. "Proper Group 4" brakes were necessary and so these were purchased and the necessary machining done etc. I have never actually fitted them though due to the interruption to my rallying plans but they are going on to BRP at some point as I still aim to compete in stage rallying co-driving in the car.

My plan now though, was to fit the BMW/Volvo combo to UNJ and so uprate that car's brakes from standard and ideally fit the Group 4 brakes to BRP. If I actually did the last bit though they would then be on a car that is unlikely to turn a wheel in anger for maybe 2 or 3 years which wouldn't do them any good.

So, still going down this route I removed the offside brakes from UNJ and BRP and whilst I was at it put all three set ups next to each other as a comparison - see below

I then trial fitted the Group 4 brakes on BRP and they do look the business

It was good to make sure all the bolt holes lined up - that was quite a relief! As I said though, it wasn't my intention to leave the Group 4 brakes on so I packed the disc and caliper away into their packaging and back into storage for the day when they finally do get fitted.

What was actually accomplished was the offside BMW/Volvo combo removed from BRP and fitted to UNJ and the standard set up fitted temporarialy to BRP so that it can still roll (but not brake!).

Alot of work but as always, getting closer to the end result.

The nearside will be the next job.

Sealing, rebuilding and shuffling

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.

Returning to the battle

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

Braking my heart!

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

1. Get the 2000 sorted with a few glitches done to make it OK to drive but no uprating.
2. 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.
3. 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!