Interior change on PMW

I have not been happy with the look of the Rover "Tomcat" seats I had fitted to the 2000; great for support and safety but really didn't go with the looks of the car.

So a couple of weeks ago I cleaned up a complete set of cloth seats from a later car which had head restraints so offered greater safety and were more in keeping but I wasn't quite sure about the colour. The original interior was tan but these seats are brown although nicely faded!

Below are two pictures so you can judge for yourself but actually I think it all looks just fine. The first picture shows one of the Rover seats still in and the second the view with all the seats now fitted.

Nothing for weeks and then two posts in an afternoon!

So, with the North Yorkshire Triumph Weekend behind me its time for other car related stuff to happen.

After all, it's a good antidote to work!

I have found myself contemplating selling my Rover SD1 in order to buy another classic that shouldn't need alot of work, how good would it be to just have a car I could turn the key on and take out?

Still, while I ponder that and the fact that I have no spare cash what to do?

I know, I have bought stuff for the 2000 which I haven't fitted yet. So, why not have a go at a job described as marginally less painfull than sticking pins in your eyeballs? The doorseal on the N/S/F was completely shot so I bought a replacement seal some time ago and spent a happy (not) 2 1/2 hours yesterday fitting it.

I know Triumph didn't make huge amounts of money back in the day but if they had worked at my level of competence the losses would have been huge! Oh well, managed it in the end with the help of WD40 and lots of patience.

Then today I had another bit of inspiration. I had fitted a pair of Rover seats as I didn't like the safety implications of whip lash with low back original seats. Over time though I wasn't completely satisfied as they looked out of place so I bought a full set of later 2000 seats in cloth trim with headrests.

Things is though they are brown rather than tan so I wasn't sure how they would look. Can't be as bad as the grey Rover seats though. I got them out from the loft and gave them a good clean and actually as they have faded over the years they look OK in the car. Got the rear seat in this weekend and the fronts will go in next weekend.

30 minutes in and learning!

That's more like it

Coming up nicely - the cloth seats ready to go in the car

North Yorks Triumph Weekend

A couple of weekends ago I attended the North Yorkshire Triumph weekend again at Runswick Bay - the weather was amazing and combined with excellent company it was certainly a great weekend.

Now that's what I call great weather

The weather was that good I left the hood down overnight - here's the view from my tent early morning

7 & 2000

With the clutch problem on the 2000 I decided to walk away from it for a while but I need a car for the North Yorkshire Triumph Weekend coming up soon.

Also Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine area are organising a 2 day tour on August 2nd and 3rd  called the Border Raiders (you can probably tell who is on the organising team LOL). Deana will join me on this event if we use the TR7 so it's UNJ's turn again.

After last year's European run I have pretty much sorted everything so I put it in for it's MOT last Friday. It needed some work doing on the brakes due to brake imbalance across the axles which I asked the Vicarage Car Company to do for me and with that it passed.

What I hadn't got round to doing was fit an electric fan after the second viscous coupling I have had on the car failed so driving it for any distance was still a nervous experience.

Anyway I used UNJ to go to the Pendle and Pennine meeting Friday night which was fine as it's only 2 miles away but then later we went on a 10 mile run driven in an enthusiastic manner. I began to wonder whether this was wise in a car rhat had just passed it's MOT having not been on the road for 7 months and without a fan fitted!

It was fine really and I have now fitted and wired in an electric fan. I always find it satisfying when having fitted it the fan cuts in just when you would want it to and cuts off again after a sensible time. Then with a bit of general tidying UNJ is back ready to put some more miles on it - I hope I don't have problems again like last year on the NYTW.

Meanwhile, over the weekend I have spotted a stain under the 2000 suspiciously close to the clutch slave cylinder and sure enough, there's no clutch fluid in the master cylinder. Looks like a new slave sylinder wouldn't go amiss and then I can see if the 2000's clutch problems are solved.

Outside the Old Stone Trough having done 2 miles after it's MOT

The photoshoot on our run out


 

Engine's great, clutch not so!

An update on PMW.

After 100 miles I have changed the oil and filter, retorqued the head and set the tappets.

The rebuilt engine sounds lovely.

I do have another problem though, it's getting more and more difficult to select gears.When I do have gears the car can stall even with the clutch depressed - in this situation in first for example the car will continue to move slowly forward and then stall.

Similarly, I can have a problem getting reverse when the engine is running.

I have tried a number of things such as making sure all the pipework is tight and also bleeding the clutch hydraulic system but it's not helping.

It has been suggested to me that if the push rod and clutch link arm(not sure if that's the right term) are 90 degrees or less in relation to each other that indicates that it's very likely the taper pin has broken.

Judge for yourself!

Woo-hoo!!

I collected PMW from storage today and drove to the Vicarage Motor Company in Barnoldswick for MOT. That was a tad nerve wracking as obviously the car hadn't been on the road since 2011.

Positives were that the brakes worked (!) and so did the overdrive even if the gear knob switch kept popping off as expected.

Not so good was  a vibration at 50MPH and the steering felt rather "loose" which didn't inspire confidence.

Anyway, made it to Barnoldswick and left it with my favourite classic friendly garage (as you can see they know about classics as that's an MGB downstairs and Reliant Scimitar upstairs). They found a few problems but fixed them for me - a flexi brake pipe was leaking, one of the headlamp bulbs had dis-assembled itself and so not surprisingly the aim was out.

No water in the washer bottle (what a pillock!) and the steering rack was "insecure" - that'll be why the steering felt a bit dodgy then. Again, even more of a pillock for not checking everything over.

Advisory that the front propshaft UJ needs relacement which would certainly explain the  vibration.

All in all though a very good result and here's the photo to prove it (even though I can't load it the right way up :-).

Should I? Yeah might as well, I know I want to!

No, not buying another car!

Spent a good day today on the 2000.

Alot of tidying up and finishing off really. Trouble is most of the finishing off isn't really finished!

I have taken loads of stuff, spares etc out of the car and brought home.This included a brand new heated front screen which I will fit in the summer rather than before getting the car back on the road - I may do this at a Pendle and Pennine meeting in the Old STone TRough car park.

Drove the car about in the mill yard and it seems fine - all freed off etc.

Thanks to Bryce had heat shrink put on the wires for the overdrive in the gearstick - unfortunately I can't seem to get the loom far enough down the stick for the switch to stay on top of the gearknob. Don't need that for the MOT tho!

Wired up the electric fan and got a headlamp working that had decided to be awkward.

Then ran the car for a few minutes and when the temparature got up hot water was escaping past the radiator cap and being pumped into the expansion bottle before escaping from there! And the electric fan didn't cut in either.

I have an MOT booked for Monday though and it's a 17 mile trip but I really want the car back at home. Now I have to decide what to do - well right now my plan is to drive it to the MOT station and just take a couple of 5 litre bottles of water to top up the radiator if needed.

After the MOT I can sort out these problems one by one on my drive rather than have a 34 mile trip every time I want to work on the car.