What did you do with/to your Triumph today?

[CAR]

I still don't know what will be going to Brittany, (or should I say Bretagne?) Hopefully a blue Triumph but it might be another blue 6-cylinder made in Coventry!

Cheers,
Mike.

Defeatest!
Only joking Mike, if all else fails we have the estate as a backup for the pi.

I spent an hour or so bolting the Stag servo and rebuilt m/c into the pi last night. I then added the new front brake line and 3way splitter, and connected both front lines to it. Trying to workout what to diconnect first whilst trying not to lose too much fluid is a challenge. I should have just drained it first.
Will try and put the new rear brakeline front section in tonight, I am doing the swap to dual circuit via the joint under the car midway along the gearbox, as recommended in the Register Service Notes. I'm not incorporating the PDWA (or whatever it's called) warning light as in the Stag setup.
Then it's a full bleed, once I have made a cap to use on the m/c with the Eezibleed from a spare m/c cap.

Colin.

[Rob B]

All I am getting to do at the moment is stare at the big blank space in the driveway where my car should be........ sob........

[Charles H]

Put the car back together last week with new gearbox mount, balanced propshaft after I rebuilt it, rebuilt quill shaft and recon diff. All really smooth now so I thrashed the nuts off it on a night rally last night with Dave Davis (he with the LHD PI being rebuilt in my garage) as nav. He has never navigated before and we came 6th out of 9! Result!
I am now broke but smiling a lot! Next event, the Ilkley Jubilee on April 11th with Jonathan Hancox navigating!
To sort out the PI next then!

[Mike Stevens]

Defeatest!

Well, maybe. I wasn't planning to do anything to the PI this morning, but we awoke to a very aromatic smell (like filler going off), to find a pool of petrol under the PI boot in the garage! This PI has the drain tap under the 'agglerometer' (I never could speel) and the tap was leaking at about 1 drip/second! So, a big welding clamp was put on the pipe from tank to filter to no avail, so I had to remove the filter assembly from the body bracket, remove the outlet union (the inlet is very tight) and hook the filter assembly over a plastic bucket. It now seems to be higher than the petrol in the half full tank so it's stopped dripping. Or was when I eventually came to work.

Now, if that had happened on an upper deck on a ferry overnight and 12 gallons of petrol drained onto a car below - well it doesn't really bare thinking about!

I'm interested about your swap to dual circuit brakes and I shall look forward to hearing how it comes out. The Stag obviously has that and the PDWA (Pressure Differential Warning Actuator) which to be honest is a right pain 'cos if you bleed the brakes with some gusto it will activate and then have to be reset to put the light out.

Ho hum. More to fix! Still, the new rear gearbox mount came yesterday.

Cheers,
Mike.

[CAR]

Oh dear, I was only joking when I passed that comment Mike.
I too have the agglerometer with a drain tap, and I was planning on changing the fuel filter before Easter. Perhaps I will leave that drain tap well alone for now.... another one of your 'ask me how I know' sayings for the future!

I have however bought a new alternator for the pi today.
When we bought the car, the battery on it just looked too small, and the car turned over quite slowly (IMHO). The voltmeter read a lot lower than the estate, but a check with a meter showed it to be charging OK. A new larger battery was purchased and fitted.
On the way home from Stoneleigh, it was reading even lower than usual, perhaps 11.25v.
Mr Chatterton suggested an alternator upgrade, and I thought a relayed power supply for the pump would be a good idea. Phoning around today, I managed to secure a Stag 18ACR (LRA102 or 232) one from my local motor factors for a very reasonable £37 (It had been there gathering dust for a long time evidently). Complete with fan and pulley, it should be a relatively easy swap, and I will clean and reconnect all the main earths and feed to starter motor at the same time. If I can find a large (9.5mm?) female crimp lug I will put a secondary cable from the alternator , direct to the battery while I'm at it.

Colin

[kevinw]

So, there I am, all smug with the low milage and cossetted car needing nothing doing prior to the trip to Brittany and Scotland, other than an oil change and the airfilters changing. And maybe the mixture checking and the carbs balancing, but just trivial little jobs.

Another run up the A32 to Alton today on an errand for Ted Taylor to collect some stuff for WCR40 as we have a committee meeting this weekend. My favourite road, but frustrated with traffic on the outward journey. Clear all the way back, so a bit "spirited".

All of a sudden, there's this ominous smell of hot antifreeze. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge, no worries there. Get home, open the bonnet and everything is wet. Not soaked, but just wet. So, I did what I usually do in such circumstances and had a cup of tea. Inevitably, the water pump has decided to give up its mortal toil and go to join the choir invisible. It is no more; it is an ex-water pump. Water is driping out of the front, so it looks like a seal that has gone. Luckily, plenty in stock with Chirs Witor and it looks an easy enough job to do.

Kevin

[CAR]

I'm saying nothing, I seem to have jinxed Mike already!

Colin.

[kevinw]

I have however bought a new alternator for the pi today.
When we bought the car, the battery on it just looked too small, and the car turned over quite slowly (IMHO). The voltmeter read a lot lower than the estate, but a check with a meter showed it to be charging OK. A new larger battery was purchased and fitted.
On the way home from Stoneleigh, it was reading even lower than usual, perhaps 11.25v.
Mr Chatterton suggested an alternator upgrade, and I thought a relayed power supply for the pump would be a good idea. Phoning around today, I managed to secure a Stag 18ACR (LRA102 or 232) one from my local motor factors for a very reasonable £37 (It had been there gathering dust for a long time evidently). Complete with fan and pulley, it should be a relatively easy swap, and I will clean and reconnect all the main earths and feed to starter motor at the same time. If I can find a large (9.5mm?) female crimp lug I will put a secondary cable from the alternator , direct to the battery while I'm at it.

Colin

Vehicle Wiring Products have 9mm crimps (female space) for a few pennies. Both my Triumphs have got 18ACR alternators, both generic, unbranded. Running a decent gauge wire to the fuel pump on the TR made a huge difference and sorted out all sorts of other odd electrical problems. I've got a Bosch pump though and they require more power than the Lucas original, so decent cable and minimising voltage drop really helps.

Kevin

[sorbs]

Washed it!!!

I spent a strangely theraputic couple of hours the other night removing the door cards and waxoyling the metalwork. I've been meaning to do this for a few years and recently noticed a few scabs of rust appearing on the driver's door skin. Sure enough, there was a fair bit of surface rust inside the door. Caught it just in time!

Lubed the door locks and window mechs too. Exciting eh?

[Mike Stevens]

Well, today (so far) has been a better day. I extracted the filter assembly from the old PI and also the fuel line tap that I got from CW many years ago. (I don't think he lists them now - shame.). The old PI (actually 1973 so newer!) doesn't have the tap underneath and a shallower lower bowl, so this was used together with a new filter (Crossland 522 when you want one Colin). It came with 2 new sealing rings and 2 'O' rings. Great. Having put a large weldimg clamp on the pipe, the pipe was now distorted, so I cut that bit out and re-connected it with the tap from the old PI. There wasn't much more lost fuel - honest!

So, now we have a new filter, no leaking drain tap (no drain tap at all) and a tap to turn off the fuel supply! After a quick bleed (the larger hex-head on the top of the filter) we were running again.

I took the drain tap apart and I can't say I was impressed. It's a brass slide with an offset hole in it. On top of the slide is a large lump of rubber with a small hole in it. With the slide pushed one way, the holes are in line, the other way, the rubber seals off the hole in the slide. The rubber was breaking up which might be caused by modern fuels. If you can get a different lower bowl, or block the tap fitting up, then I think that would be a good idea. Of course, it's all live with petrol, so do it with the tank empty!

I also fitted the new gearbox mount which raised the gearbox enough that there is over 1/4" between the exhaust and gearbox cross member. Better than it's ever been! Hopefully, the drive angle into the prop will be better too. I've not tried it yet as it's been peeing down today. I don't want to get the PI wet just yet! No chance tomorrow, so Sunday will be the day of test.

Wiring. You can get an alternator connector kit, with all the terminals. I think Canley Classics sell them. That extra wire direct from alternator to battery makes quite a difference. I also fitted a negative wire too which also helped - if you've got 40A output, it is all going through the clamp arrangement otherwise. The pump relay mod works well as I too have a Bosch pump. With the engine off, it put the volts on the pump up by over 1.5V. Having got battery live down in the boot (using 10mm cable and a 50A fuse in the engine bay) I've also put in a relay for the rear screen heater.

As I think I said at Stoneleigh, I've also put one behind the dash as an ignition controlled relay. I did some measurements, and I found the ignition switch was dropping ~0.3V with just the PI pump running. With everything else going through it , it would be even worse. Remember that the dash voltmeter reads the voltage in the dash wiring (not on the battery), and especially with a PI, there is a lot of current flowing and I don't think the wires are thick enough. Before I did all these mods, the voltmeter was reading quite low and if I put the blower and wipers on, it dropped right down to under 11V. Now it sits nearer 13V with engine running, but I've not tried it with blower etc on. It certainly is much better.

Good luck with the water pump Kevin, and I'm sorry if I've jinxed you! My neighbour (who used to run his own garage business) reckons that all he takes with him these days is a replacement water pump! And tools of course!

Cheers,
Mike.