More light work

So after curing UNJ's light issues (hopefully) time to move on to PMW.

I had replaced the outer dip/main beam headlight sealed beams with halogen conversions some time ago and wired them up with relays etc. I had also relayed the inner main beams too although had left the sealed beams in place to save some money.

Today was the day to fix that. Having bought replacements from Chris Witor it's only a 30 minute job to sort out so off with the grille and swap in the offside one first. Now why won't it work I thought as it refused to light up as did the outer one on main beam - hmm.

Probably a bad earth I thought but cleaning things up didn't make a difference.

OK, systematic approach now and out with the digital tester. Power at the relay but not at the lights so what's going on? I next checked all the connections but there was no power all the way back to "out" of the the relay.

Off side now back in place - old sealed beam on the floor. Electric fan visible in centre.

Doh! A blown fuse, it's always the way it seems, when I try to do things the right way I might as well ahve gone straight to the simple thing first. So I replaced the fuse but then there still wasn't power to the headlight on main beam. Probably due to the wire being disconnected!!  Eventually with everything reconnected it all worked.

Fitting up the nearside didn't take anything like as long and all worked as it should. This is all very important for when we use PMW on Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run in September - a long overnight drive in the middle of the night in the Czech Republic and Croatia will be better with decent lights.

Proof it all works - now PMW has the lights of an 80s car!

Switching to light

Take the panel apart and then take the switch apart!

 For a change I have worked on UNJ today. During a venture sur le continent in 2013 the rear lights on the car stopped working, something helpfully pointed out by the French Police.

I have fixed this a couple of times by taking the light switch apart and using switch cleaner on it but the problem  keeps coming back.

So, thanks to a Christmas present of Rimmer Brothers vouchers I bought a new switch entirely and fitted it today. Mind you it is a bit fiddly to do and the new switch needed to be taken apart before it would fit the hole in the panel. Then it's just a  case of putting it all back together to find that yes all the lights work as they should - at least for now.

New switch back in and all re-assembled

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.

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.

Little things that please

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

1. 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.
2. 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.