Back to BRP!

I have just been invited to take part in the Speedfair Rally at Scottish Classic Speedfair, Knockhill July 30th and 31st so this is another incentive to get back to BRP.

2 weeks after that though I am aiming to enter the Little Devils so it's a busy time ahead.

I had intended to get BRP entered for it's MOT this week but the wiper stalk simply broke, here it is removed from the car today and looking very sorry for itself as you can see.In amongst my second hand spares though was a replacement from an early TR7 but that was held in by one bolt and two rivets rather than 3 bolts as on BRP. So I carefully placed the column switches in my vice supported underneath by a block of wood and drilled out the rivets.
That all worked out well but the bolts from BRP had nothing to grip on in the replacement switch (where the rivets had been) so off came the steering wheel in order for me to fit two small thin screws through the mounting holes and into clips which has done the job very nicely. The fixings are visible below, one bolt at the base of the stalk and two black screw heads further in above and below.
Re-assemble everything and it all works!

Next was a problem with the front near side headlamp not coming on when on main beam. I had a suspicion it was down to my naff wiring and sure enough a scotch lock was the problem where I was taking feed off so as to be available for the Cibie driving lamps when fitted.

I decided to remove the scotch lock, break into the wire and fit bullet connectors which then went into a rubber insulated connector and has solved that one too.

I really must get the heater working too which I think is a cable connector come adrift but that will mean removing the centre console to get at which is more than I can do today. The heater is important as I will need some demisting at different times of the year after all.

I could do with adjusting the rear brakes as well but with time running short I might put it in for MOT and get the garage to adjust them.

Another thing to note is that the car runs OK as regards tick over etc but there's a fair bit of knock from the top end which I suspect is camshaft related. Not entirely happy about that but it was an unkown when I had the head reconditioned so I have no problems with Dale, I took the gamble. I'll see how it goes and decide what, if anything, to do about it later.

IAE update and on!

Completed the International AutoEcosse in UNJ which was very enjoyable ineed. Finished 10th out of 23 CT crews on the tests which again I am very pleased with. Also very happy that Mrs R joined me on this one and is already signed up to do next year's.

The car will need a reconditioned radiator as it was leaking but managed to hold out until we got home. We had the hood down all weekend by the way apart from about 30 minutes even though it was cold and blustery all weekend.

Here's video evidence of us on the test at Kames courtesy of Steve Thompson

I am now in joint 5th place in the CT Driver Challenge which is where I would like to be by year end!

As I said over the weekend, I had become so focussed on the Manx that I had forgotten how enjoyable Club Triumph events were so it's good to be out competing again.

I haven't forgotten the Manx though and the next event is both another round of the CT Driver Challenge and a significant step back to the plan for the Manx rally. I am intending to enter the "Little Devils" in BRP in August. This event is as close to a stage rally as you can get without it being one or without needing a competition licence. It's also the first event Sarah and I did together.

Not only that but the last time BRP was out was on the Roskirk Stage rally in 2009 so I am really looking forward to it.

Problem is, I came to start the car and check things over prior to taking it for MOT and the headlight dip/main beam stalk broke! A bit of work needed then :-/

Better and better

More work on UNJ and it's getting very satisfying now.

The car has been running fine but a hint of the misfire had returned, little things like faltering on the overrun, needing third gear at 30mph and 4th at 50mph. Then there was a fair amount of "pinking" if accelerating and putting the engine under a bit of load.

"It's always the ignition side" is my favourite saying to guide me under these circumstances but just on the off chance I checked the carb balance just in case one pair of cylinders were not getting the same fuelling as the other which would also cause the above. No, using the special tool of a length of fuel pipe stuck in my ear and then into the carbs in succession all was well there.

So, over to the ignition side.

With the engine warm and at tickover (which is also high at about 1200rpm) I pulled the plug leads off one by one using my special insulated grips and number 2 was making no contribution at all! Then testing with a spare plug showed no spark from this plug lead so I inspected it further and found the connector at the distributor cap end broken.

I didn't have a spare lead but managed to fix this with an end from an old lead. At the same time I put a small amount of grease on the distributor cam and lubricated it, along with cleaning up the dizzy cap.

The car performed much better on the next test run with much reduced pinking and no hesitation present so hopefully I have made a permanent cure. It's pretty good how well the car ran before though considering the poor/non existant input from number 2 cylinder.

This also gave me the chance to adjust the tickover speed and I was able to reduce it now to 850rpm but it does seem very reluctant to keep returning to this. Moving the loation of the throttle return spring helped as did oiling of the linkages. More use might help and the car is certaily going to get it with the International AutoEcosse next weekend.

Plunged in!

I know why the reversing lights were on all the time - the "plunger" in the reversing light wasn't working. You can see why in the photo where a replacement I got from S&S has the plunger tip standing much more proud than the original. I think the original wasn't releasing properly and despite WD40 it didn't improve followed by one of the wires breaking off anyway.

Fitting the replacement one didn't take too long even if it was fiddly and now the reversing lights come on when they are supposed to and only then.

Next I replaced the top hose which was decidedly dodgy (although in time honoured fashion I'll be keeping it as a spare).

With those all done I drove the car with the top down for 20 miles and it was a real treat. The car handles well and is surprisingly quick actually, although there is the occasional hesitation from it which could probably be cured by a check of points gap and timing etc. Thing is though, with only just over a week to the AutoEcosse maybe I should leave well alone and just get some more miles on the car.

Core plug fix

Not very easy to see here but this is the remains of the weeping core plug - not very much left. I had had quite a problem getting a replacement as all the suppliers had this item as "no longer available" but it seemed ridiculous for a £1 component to be the cause of such grief.

Bryce decided to buy a ouple of boxes of assorted core plugs as they will always come in handy so we felt confident we would be able to sort this one out.


Like may occasions, however, it didn't work out as straight forward as expected. The old core plug decided to make a fight of it, so much so that we took the bonnet off (!) to get at the core it. It was then much more simple to get in and tap it out.

It was then that we found the core plug required is a very odd size indeed and wasn't in ether the metric or imperial assorted core plugs Bryce had bought! Much hunting round and head scratching came up with an answer which was to thread the inlet manifold, screw into that an adaptor with loctite applied and screw into that a "sump plug" for want of a better word. Job sorted after which it was just a case of refitting the bonnet etc.

The solution can be seen in the photo below.

Once again a job that should have taken 40 minutes actually took much longer, 2 1/2 hours in fact!

Ticking them off

I drove UNJ for the first time in 2 years last night - to the May Pendle and Pennine meeting. The car was pretty good and seems very different to the other Triumphs I have driven, more of a modern car for one thing and also a quiet cruising car with the top down in the sun - lovely!

I am now making a "snag" list of course and the picture here shows the first thing on it. At the front of the inlet manifold which is also the casting for the thermostat housing there is a small core plug which is "weeping". This will have to be fixed before I take the car any distance and certainly before the 2 day "AutoEcosse"!

Then after that there were some niggle really.

1. The reversing lights didn't work as I found out when I got home in the dark.
2. The fuel gauge still wasn't working although the low fuel light flickered on the way home (I had only put 10 litres in for now)
3. The indicators don't cancel and there's a squeak from the steering column shroud on turning corners sometimes. I think these may be related with something not quite right in the assembly.
4. The instrument light for the temperature gauge wasn't working.
5. The choke warning light stays on all the time.
   

So this afternoon I set about these smaller niggles. Crawling under the car and swapping the connections on the tank sender unit didn't cure the fuel gauge problem.

Next thing then was to remove the fuel gauge itself and replace it with one from a spare instrument panel I have. Success! It's very satisfying when you cure something.

Whilst the instrument panel was apart I also cleaned it all and replaced one of the bulbs so all the instrument lights now work too.

So that's items 2 and 4 sorted.

I think I have sorted out item 5 too with the sensor for the choke cable removed and repositioned.

What about the non functioning reversing lights? Well I first checked to see if there was power to them by putting the live feed to the side lights instead and they lit up so power was getting through. OK, must be a duff bulb and actually 2 duff bulbs one either side so I removed the bulb holder from the offside and found no bulb in there at all! Same story nearside. Fitting a pair of bulbs I had in my spares cured the "problem".

That's probably the easiest fix I have ever had to do.

The core plug and the non cancelling indicators will have to wait for a little while but not a bad effort overall.

Don't like that much!

Gave UNJ a quick wash today and realised there was then water in the passenger footwell.

Investigation found two causes

1. The foam "seal" where the heater pipes go through into the engine bay is perished and allowing a trickle of water to get in. This may or may not be too difficult to sort out but I have nightmares about removing TR7 heaters so I don't want to think about that too much.
2. There's a flipping big hole under the battery tray where the bulkead meets the inner wing - chewing gum won't fix it! That's going to need some proper work with cutting out the battery tray, fabricating new metal patches and then welding them in followed by seam sealer and painting. Flipping 'eck !!!

The plan for now though is to try and only use the car in the hot dry summer we are sure to get and then fix this during the winter months - now who can I ask to help me with that one I wonder?