Bushes and valves

When PMW got it's MOT there was an advisory that there was some play in the steering rack bushes. As I wanted to move on to sorting out the jammed heater valve which meant ordering a new one it made sense to order some new polybushes for the steering rack from Chris Witor and combine the postage.

Fitting the bushes was surprisingly easy given my usual experience that the rule of 3 applies!

So, with that done I moved on to the seized heater valve which was not so easy. I had to drill out the centre of the valve which took quite some time, slowly going up in drill bit size.

Valve at top left with canble tie behind it. Protection from polythene bag for expected water loss!

So, next I inserted a bolt in to the centre of the valve in the hole drilled and by using washers and an old spanner as a "puller" I was able to remove it.

Next picture shows old and new valves

Finally I inserted the new valve and that should have been that, apart from the fact that I need an actuating lever to amke it all work as it should but it was possible for now to put the valve in place to have it on permanent "hot".

OK, test run time and

1. There was still no heat from the heater!
2. The valve popped out spilling hot water into the footwell and over my left foot"

I flushed out the heater matrix as there was plenty of water int he footwell so some more wouldn't do any harm and cleaned the inlet manifoild water outer outlwt but still no joy.

That's enough for this week whilst I ponder my next move.

Meanwhile, the car is running well, the overdrive works and the clutch works so some progress is being made.

Twitch ye not!

The week after the last post I did indeed return to the offside rear and, if anything, the bushes that side were even worse. By now of course I knew what was what so it didn't take too long to replace and I can report UNJ now behaves much more like it should.

This is all just as well because I have entered Club Triumph's Historic Counties Run with the car so I am focussing work on UNJ as much as I can. This weekend I fitted halogen headlamps which should have been easy enough apart from the nearside one refused to work on main beam.

I got my digital analyser out and there was power to the connection under the bonnet so I then suspected a dodgy brand new bulb. I reconneceted the old seal beam but that didn't work either. So, after a little thought I checked and there was power at the headlamp if  I used another earthing point. All I needed then was to do some work on the connections under the bonnet and all was well.

In addition I have now ordered some Ring Xenon bulbs so that should certainly make a huge difference over the original sealed beams whiich will be well worthwhile on an overnight event like the HCR as well as on the 2013 10CR I plan to take part in with the car.

I also intended to fit two fused relays but I seem to have lost one of them - grrr!

Leaving my cars aside for a moment though I also found time last week to help Bryce collect a new car he has bought. It seems driving my Toledo round Europe in 2007 left a deep impression so he has now bought an early 2 door white Toledo for himself. I have contributed a Sprint engine and overdrive gearbox, a pair of 2" SUs, 4 tyres and an exhaust manifold. He then went and bought a donor Dolomite Sprint too. The plan is to build a standard looking Toledo with Sprint running gear which he is planning to use on club events including the 2013 10CR - looks like a 2 car team then.

Finally, PMW has not been forgotten with more debate and advice sought on the engine rebuild. This week I also collected a heated front windscreen for the car and this is now safely stored on it's back seat. This will be installed in due course along with the brand new screen rubber I bought a couple of years ago. Ideally I would like PMW available for transporting me to my marshalling posts on the RBRR in October but we'll have to see if that deadline is made.

A bit twitchy

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!

Difficult no more

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

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.

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.

Over to UNJ

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!