A lovely big pair

Here we have a lovely pair of 1 3/4" Stromberg carburettors from a TR4. Dazzer reckons this is the way to go tuning a 2000 so I have taken his advice and bought this pair; they are in good condition and less than £40 delivered from ebay.

That's a pretty good buy I reckon - certainly cheaper than 3 DCOE Webers!

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.

Once more into the breach

Been a full week again at work so not at maximum enthusiasm level this week.

Then having to rely on buses and trains doesn't help. 2 hours for a journey that would take 45 minutes tops in a car is not funny.

Anyway, with Bryce's help PMW was moved into a place where the engine can be removed as seen in the photo.

I am going for the method in the official workshop manual which is dropping the front supsension and pulling the engine and gearbox out from under the front of the car on it's subframe.

That should make mating the engine and gearbox up much easier and I can swap bits over from one engine to another while it's out the car too.

All went OK removing bits in the engine bay - carbs etc and disconnecting the starter motor, clutch slave cylinder. Thanks to Andy Pearce and Tim Bancroft for giving me advice on how to remove the overdrive gearknob which is obvious when you know how. With that off and the gear lever shroud removed as well I needed to lift the car; disconnect the speedo and overdive cables/wiring before then unbolting the propshaft.

After that it's onto dropping the front suspension.

To be honest though, I ran out of motivation at that point and I think a break for a week or two wouldn't go amiss.In December I'll return to the attack and no doubt it won't take long for the engine and box to be out.

I am looking forward to the arrival of the next Club Torque though so I can get my entry in for 2013's 10 Countries Run. Mind you, I'll be using UNJ (the TR7 DHC) so that will need an MOT and taxing in March/April whcioh will probably mean a stop to work on PMW.

A bit of a race really to see what I can get done to PMW before March.

Engine built up

After today's work on the engine there is very little left to do other than fit and swap ancillaries over - oh and get it running of course! Easy then.

This is where I started today. The front timing chain cover needed cleaning and the oil seal replaced with a "heavy duty" leather one I had bought rather than the standard rubber type.

Once that was done it was just a case of fitting it whilst making sure the timing chain tensioner was kept in the right place, which is yet another thing I hope I have done right.

I had painted the rocker cover but actually preferred the scratched one fitted to PMW so got hold of that and at least made some attempt at cleaning it before fitting.

I would then have done the last job listed in the original workshop manual and fitted the distributor pedestal with it's shim gasket. Unfortunately, that little gasket has gone AWOL so I'll leave that until I find more bits needed which I am.bound to do once we start fitting the engine to the car. At that point I'll order the gasket with the other bits like hoses etc.

So, calling it a day this is what a built up 2000 engine looks like.

The best and worst of it

One of the best things about TR7s are the ace cool pop up headlamps.

Unfortunately, they are also one of the worst things on the car as they are so temperamental and having them work as they should in all the ways they should is a TR7 owner's dream.

On UNJ they have always come up and gone down as well as actually lit up properly. They have even worked when "flashed" but only when the sidelights are on.

This isn't ideal as normally during the day people don't/didn't drive with side lights on; they just drove with lights off and then "flashed" when needed. Well, this couldn't happen with UNJ because the pods wouldn't come up although the tarmac below the front of the car would be lit up by the flashed headlamps!

Running on sidelights as modern cars now run with driving lights was sort of OK but I was terrified of not remembering to turn the lights off and coming back to a flat battery.

So, today was the day to sort things out.

Luckily I not only have a Haynes manual but also an original Triumph workshop manual which clearly showed the location of the prime suspect I had identified, the headlamp flash relay. OK, relatively easy to pull this off and disconnect. Then I replaced it with one from BRP wich has the lamps bolted up all the time anyway so doesn't need a relay.

Made no difference, hmm.

Could be the "Pertronix" component? Swapped one over from BRP and still no difference.

Hmmm.

OK, let's look at a wiring diagram. "Why does this relay not have the right coloured wires going to it?" I wondered. Carefully checking I found another relay did have the correct wires.

Great, some-one else had been here before and put the relays in the wrong location!

Grrr rather tham hmmm this time.

Now I swapped the correct relay over and still no difference.

OK - clean all the contacts with switch cleaner and surely that would do it - NO!!!

Then I looked at the wiring diagram some more and thought "There's clearly no power getting to the relay when the lights are switched off and yet the diagram shows it going through the main light switch". Right then, main light switch next.

So I took the light switch out of the panel, carefully took it apart and cleaned the contacts up with a combination of emery cloth and switch cleaner again. It worked - OH YES!!!

Yes, it even worked under all possible combinations including flashing the lights complete with the pods rising (and going back down!) without the sidelights on.

Then just a simple case or reassembly of the switch panel which of course wasn't simple at all but was finally achieved.

Now, will those pop up headlamps keep working as they should?

What can I say?

I forgot to take my camera so I can't show any evidence but progress continues.

Since the last update I have been building up the engine, new cam followers in, dizzy drive and getting the cylinder head studs fitted.

Unfortunately one cylinder head stud was missing and I couldn't easily get one from the current engine in PMW (in fact they were very stubborn and it looked like I would need to liberate the cylinder head as well).

This called a halt whilst I ordered a new stud and there's no sense in doing that along with post and packing for one stud. Thinking on this, I therefore ordered something I know I will need/want at some point for the car and that was an electric fan kit.

Progress was also held up by me missing a weekend working on PMW so that I could marshall on the Round Britain at Tebay which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Yesterday, I returned to the build though and with the new stud was able to fit the cylinder head. Carefull torqueing up followed of course. Next the rocker gear whilst making sure the push rods were correctly in place and all of a sudden the engine really does look like an engine again.

It was at this point though that I again had doubts. I have been using a combination of a Haynes manual for a Vitesse/GT6 (same engine in essence) and an original Triumph workshop manual for a MK1 2000. Usng the Haynes manual I had fitted the camshaft and crankshaft sprockets with alignment marks in them funnily enough aligned!

The Triumph manual though told me to not have the sprockets fitted and set the tappets for cylinders 1 to 5 at 10 thou with no 6 at 40 thou. This was all with the tdc marker on the flywheel 45 degrees before the tdc marker on the back plate.

Confused? I being a thickie certainly was. Of course, this can't be done with the engine in the car as the marks are covered by the gearbox bellhousing.

Anyway, it then goes on to say line up the tdc marks and have the number 6 cylinder valves in a particular position and at this point the cam shaft and crankshaft will be in perfect relationship with each other - that is, correct cam timing.

Well, I removed the sprockets and timing chain (again) followed all this process and then spent ages agonising over whether I had the cam in the right place. Finally deciding yes the sprockets then went back on but the camshaft sprocket would only fit reversed from how it had been when I had fit it before using the Hayned manual.

So, either it was out before or it's out now - or maybe it's still not right!

At least I have followed the Triumph procedure though and the dizzy drive looks to be pointing in the right place (although it was before!). With that I called it a day.

Half and half

Continuing to make progress on the 2000's engine but on a steady basis.

Here's the bottom half fully built up (less front timing chain and cover) on the engine stand.

Looking good I think and now it's on the stand it feels like it's more of an engine again rather than just a collection of parts.

The sump is now back on but I can't put the new timing chain on until the head is refitted with all the valves and rocker gear etc so it can be timed in correctly.

I removed all the valves one by one, cleaned them up and then refitted with new valve springs. I had been told some work had been done on the head but as I am not really that clever I can't be sure! The valves all look very good though and some may even be new.

Here's a picture of "half and half" - half the valve springs replaced and half still to go.

It took ages to do the first one getting the colletts in but by the end I felt I could do another head!

OK - so close of business, all cam followers in, all valve springs replaced.

Next time cylinder head fitted, rocker gear and push rods fitted - that's the aim.