Messing About With Cars - Mike Bishop

New Year, New Shed

2011-12-24T20:57:00.002Z

Due some new incoming tenants at one of the farms where I store my fleet, I found myself moving to a different shed this week. Although only just accross the farmyard, due to the recent heavy rain we had, it was little short of a bog. Thankfully the weather was kind for the move!

However, what a result with the new shed. Although larger, I had always shared the previous shed with other people. We all got on fine and I never had any problems with them, however had to carefully plan and co-ordinate any vehicle movements in and out to fit in with the others.

The new shed is a lot smaller but I have it all to myself! It has the added benefits of power, water, lights and the massive bonus of a 2 post car lift!

I had six cars to move and a fair quantity of spares, but with three cars not running, one of which also had no steering, it took most of the day. The Sprint did good service towing the box trailer. To my surprise, amongst other things, I moved 21 big saloon doors - I never realised I had collected so many. Something to sort through and clear out very soon I think - any takers?

After a bit of shuffling then a bit more re-shuffling, I decided where everything should be parked and called it a day.

No doubt things will change around as time progresses but it will do for now. As this will be my last post before Christmas, Season's Greetings and best wishes to all my friends and followers, may the New Year bring you everything that you hope for!

Modern Elec-trickery!

2011-12-12T23:15:00.000Z

Much to my annoyance, the Honda S2000 (my everyday modern) let me down last week, failing to restart after a short visit to the local Wickes branch. The engine turned over but would not fire. Due to the lack of "green key" warning light on the dash, I suspected the problem lay with the immobiliser. Having sent home for spare keys/blipper and tried disconnecting/reconnecting the battery, both to no avail, I threw the towel in and was unceremoniously recovered home.

A browse on the S2000 forums soon brought up a few threads on the subject. They suggested that the fault was a sticky relay in the immobiliser unit, caused by internal overheating. The prescribed fix was to belt the box hard with a rubber hammer! With nothing to lose, I located the box, hit it hard, blipped the key and to my amazement the car started! Unfortunately the advice that followed was to replace the box as it would most likely do it again!

A call to the Honda Dealer enlightened me to the fact that the alarm/immobiliser boxes were not "factory fitted", but retro fitted to the cars at the dealerships when new to upgrade the factory Cat 2 system to a Cat 1. Unfortunately again, they were supplied/fitted by an alarm company themselves rather than Honda and therefore parts were not available from the dealerships. I did find out the name of the manufacturer though, a Google search bringing up contact details quickly.

A subsequent chat with a very helpful gentleman in the Technical Dept, suggested that the overheating was most likely to have originated from the fuel pump cut-off circuits in the immobiliser box - due to increased current draw from an ageing fuel pump. He suggested that the best way to safeguard this was to bypass the circuit and told me how.

Armed with the knowledge, I defeated the security screws and removed the circuit board from it's case. The overheating on the internal loom plug was clearly visible.

Further investigation identified one of the loom socket soldered joints on the back of the board as looking suspect. The information I had been given confirmed this as one of the fuel pump connections!

A quick dab with the soldering iron sorted this, but disconnection of the loom plug from its socket proved that it was where the overheating had originated (apologies for bad pic, the corresponding pin was blackened and it plastic shrouding melted).

This highlighted the need to bypass the circuit. Easily done by following the cables back and re-bridging the original loom where it had been cut during fitment. Hopefully there will now be no further overheating and the car's security remains uncompromised as the car's original factory fit Cat 2 immoblisiation system still cuts out the fuel pump in a different way.

This time around the power of the Internet has saved me a small fortune as without the information gleaned, I would have had no choice but to get a complete new alarm/immobiliser unit fitted. Happy days!

Preparation and Participation

2011-11-27T21:14:00.001Z

Thinking it would be an easy hit to sort out the suspension, a month or two ago I bought a car set of 1" lowered 175lb springs from Rimmers. However when fitted, the rear end sat too low compared to the front. I'm not sure why - maybe the Koni's had a different height spring platform to a standard shock - I don't know, it's the only bit I forgot to compare! So anyway with a known datum to hand I looked in my stash and found a pair of 175lb standard height rear springs and sent the Rimmers rears back! When first fitted, the car looked and drove well - nicely lower without being excessive, sitting level at the back empty/slightly lower when loaded.

However 6 months down the line the car started grounding out regularly on the back of the front subframe/exhaust on uneven country lanes. My thoughts are that the Rimmers new front springs are not the best quality and have settled to a lower ride height.

With a Chelmsford Motor Club 12 Car rally approaching, I had to do something about it before I wrecked the car! This week I pondered a little then made up some experimental spacer rings out of 18mm ply.

I cable tied them to the bottom of each front spring.

Once fitted back on the shock absorber, it had the effect of raising the spring platform.

This seemed to work pretty well on Friday's rally - I think I only scraped the exhaust clamp twice! However the front damping felt very "crashy" which makes me think that I have bashed the damper valves in one or both front Koni's on one of the many occasions previously when the excessively low suspension bottomed out. So I think the Konis will have to be sent them off for overhaul. At least with the rears having already been done, I'll know all is good.

On the rally itself with 15 fails/33 minutes the coveted 1st place eluded somewhat, but we had a good time out and given that this was only Steve's second time out, were pleased to finish the event! The biggest problem was the time it took to plot each part of the route - which meant we were playing catch up all the way around and had to cut A to B direct between several time controls to avoid maximum penalties. We compounded the losses by taking the (wrong) decision to follow a tulip diagram "on the hoof" to save time but blew it with a missed turn, costing us a good 10-15 minutes trying to find where we were on the map again! We were pleased tosubsequently make up enough time though to get back on course for the last couple of sections!

Looking forwards to the next one!

Progressing More Little Jobs

2011-11-08T17:00:00.001Z

As the Delado Rally was postponed last Sunday, I found myself with some spare time on my hands so spent some of it in the garage.

With the Herald out of the lockup but with nowhere to go, I spent an hour with it up on the ramps just giving it a health check. I was pleased to find that all was still in pretty good shape but discovered the rear leaf spring mounts on top of the diff had come pretty loose. That would explain the knocking noise from the rear over bumpy ground! A bit of exercise with the spanner soon sorted that out, then it was back to the lock up again!

Next turn on the ramps was for the Sprint. I had a squeaky top mount on the drivers side front spring/shock assembly. I already knew the reason why - too many metal spacer washers around the bushes. The original setup had two bushes with two washers on each. For some reason the Koni setup only has two washers and two shaped bushes - but I only realised that after I had refitted the first to the car when the Konis were installed some time ago.

Next was a quick check of the gearbox to see if the leak previously fixed was still ok - it was, however it was evident that there was a fair oil leak from the engine itself. A good wipedown left me none the wiser so the next step was to run the engine. Once warm with the revs up, a quick look underneath confirmed the source - the oil pump. On the Sprint, this is mounted on the outside of the block and seemed to be leaking from the plug behind sits the pressure relief valve.

Whilst I was scrutinising it, I noticed that the split pin holding the plug in looked a little strange. With a bright torch and a pair of glasses, it actually looked broken. So with a bit of fiddling, I pulled it out to find it was in a pretty poor way - one leg broken the other badly deformed and not far away from breaking itself.

Having owned the car so long, I'm sure the pin was original but I managed to fit a far more substantial one back in. If the old pin had broken whilst driving, the results could have been catestrophic for the engine.

Not Out To Play Tomorrow

2011-11-05T22:10:00.005Z

Gutted - just finished a 12 hr shift, rushed home then spent the best part of an hour trying to get a stubborn Herald out of the lockup in readiness for a Delado Rally Sprint tomorrow - then came home, read my emails and found it had been cancelled!

The damn car is consistently difficult to coax into life if left for over a week. Well this time it had been over a month, the symptom is that of a flat battery, however battery swaps had made no difference, nor had swapping the starter motor or cleaning the earths. The batteries charge up pretty quick too, so I suspect it may be down to a voltage drop in the wiring.

The rally has been rescheduled for the following weekend but not good for me as I'm out playing on the CT South Coast Rally then.

Double gutted really as I had originally planned to take the family on the Club Triumph Netherlands Night Rally in Holland this weekend but had to work yesterday. Oh well, can't do them all :-(

One Car Fixed, One To Go

2011-10-30T14:10:00.002Z

I took the propshaft off the Sprint yesterday and confirmed the wear in the rear UJ. The old UJ was a bit stubborn to remove due to layers of old paint and rust, but eventually it gave in and came apart. The wear was visibly obvious.

No wonder it felt a little rough, no clonking in the drivetrain now!

Just the road tax to buy now (that hurts as most of the other Triumphs I have are tax free).

With the Sprint fixed, I turned my attention to the Stag's water leak - on the CT 3 Counties Rally it developed a drip from the bottom hose. Once home I tightened the jubilee clip up only to find it made the leak worse.

Close inspection today confirmed my fears that it was not the hose that was leaking but the solder ring where the hose neck goes into the radiator side tank. Not impressed as not only is this a brand new "supergill" uprated rad that was only fitted just before the 10CR, but it was actually the warranty replacement for another identical rad that developed a weep from the side tank soldered joint just after the previous 10CR.

Well out of warranty now I suspect :-(

A Little Time Spent Fixing Things

2011-10-24T21:26:00.000+01:00

Took a break from domestic drainage and concreting today to start sorting out some outstanding jobs on the cars.

The Stag and the Sprint were both poorly - the Sprint with it's gearbox oil leak and the Stag had sprung a minor water leak following the CT 3 Counties Rally.

I decided to start with the Sprint. I was 99% certain that the gearbox oil leak was from the solonoid, I had ordered new o-rings and a copper sealing washer in readiness. With the car up on stands, I removed the gearbox crossmember and ran the car to confirm. Using a pair of grips on the body, the solonoid came undone without drama. With new o-rings and copper washer fitted, the leak was cured!

Unfortunately whilst I was reclining under the car, I noticed the propshaft rear UJ to be on it's last legs - a job for another day!

10CR -The Epic Trip - Final Chapter

2011-10-19T22:30:00.002+01:00

Sun out, roof down


The other touring guests at our B and B

Sunday start, then off on long motorway section

Off the motorway only to find the next village centre closed due to roadworks - satnav detour via farm tracks!

The streets are so clean!

Out into the countryside, not another Triumph in sight!

Co-driver Darren enjoying the sweeping roads

Another spotless town

Still no Triumphs in sight!

Control Stop at Pirmasens, Germany - met with members of the Geramn Triumph Club, interesting Spitfire Hardtop

Torrential rain, but managed to keep the roof down

Back in the dry again

Near Spa - not sure how, but that Land Rover managed to jump the blocks!

At last, another Triumph!

Sunday's final stop - the fabulous hotel at Rolduc, Netherlands

Everyone getting ready for a well earned beer!

Monday at Calais - so where is that ferry? . . . . .

. . . . . delayed due to stormy weather

3 hours wait? Time for a nap - doesn't he look peaceful!

On the boat at last - decided to eat our way accross The Channel

Back home - another hour's delay before docking at Dover due to weather restrictions - not the best end to an awsome trip - should have taken the train!

A New Toy For The Garage

2011-10-16T08:02:00.002+01:00

A local friend had a nice little 240v Boxford Lathe in his shed. I had asked him for first refusal should he ever decide to sell it. Good to his word it has come my way!

With the help of a few friends and with the lathe part dismantled it was soon out of the shed and onto a trailer. After a few minutes drive, we were back home, it didn't take long to have it re-assembled in my garage.

Now all I have to do is read up on how to set the bed up level and in line again, then its ready to roll!

10CR -The Epic Trip - Day 3 - Mainly Italy

2011-10-10T22:09:00.004+01:00


Day 3 Start - Passo De Lavaze


Nice road - shame about the coach!

Now why don't my hanging baskets look like that?

The beautiful Dolomites

Up the Pordoi Pass

At the top

The twisty way down

Italian motorway - big mistake

Mmmn I've been waiting for this!

Big Phil with fuel pump issues on Jaufenpass

To Timmelsjoch - yes that is the road going up at 45 deg ahead !

Fellow CT crews at Timmelsjoch top

Over 2500m up

Saturday night stop D'R Lowen Guesthouse, Aitrach, Germany

A well earned dessert for Colin aka Scrapman!

10CR -The Epic Trip - Days 1 & 2

2011-10-05T21:54:00.005+01:00

Thursday morning - Drivers Briefing

On the ferry

1st Control - Steenvorde Services

Typical French Road!

Up the hills and into the cloud

Early hours of Friday morning - the "sleep stop" - not quite the French graveyard of 2009 but had it's own unique alarm call - no one realised the car park was at the end of am airport runway until 5am when all the planes started taking off!

First views of Swiss dawn

Pretty innit!

First views of what we came for - 20 Alpine Passes over 2 days

At the top of the Furka Pass we met up with a few friends

Up above the cloud line again

. . . but it didn't spoil the view

I really don't fancy driving on the right here - I hope we don't meet a bus!

Yes that is the road ahead up on those stilts!

The St Gotthard Pass with the fantastic cobbled "Old" nestling under the "New"

The Old or New? Silly question!

Where else do you get to see roads like this!

Which way now?

Delays due to a fuel pump failure then a faulty spare (grateful thanks to Nigel Gair for stopping and lending me his own spare) lead us to decide to skip the Stelvio and pass through the Italian apple orchards

Our final resting place for friday night - Hotel Alla Rocca, Varena, Italy.

Sprint MOT Success But Not Without Issues

2011-09-28T19:16:00.000+01:00

With the hope of doing the CT Autosolo this Sunday, I managed to book the Sprint in for an MOT today on my one and only day off this week. This had expired over a month previously along with the tax, whilst I had been concetrating on sorting out the Stag for the 10CR.

Having checked all the usual stuff and found all to be well, I jacked up the car and jetwashed the underneath. This was plastered in gearbox oil. This dated back to my return journey from the Little Devils Rally in Lancashire when the gearbox sprung a leak for reasons unknown and expunged most of its contents. The first I knew was when the overdrive stopped working not too far from home. The following day I filled it back up again, she had been parked in the garage ever since and not lost a drop!

At the MOT whilst up on the ramp, two fresh oil leaks became apparent, the gearbox was pumping oil out from around the overdrive solonoid at an alarming rate, and the engine oil pump was covered in oil again also. So no long distance travelling until both of those are fixed.

The MOT went well, with a pass being granted but also an advisory for some play in the steering rack. I had already suspected that so it was no surprise. I have a new rack in the shed so it looks like it is time to get it out. With the rack off the car, it should be easy to drop the oil pump and renew the o-rings at the same time.

Oh well, I'll add them to the jobs list!

Well We Made It!

2011-09-20T22:12:00.001+01:00

Two weeks on and I'm happy to report that the Stag started, finished and survived the Club Triumph 10 Countries Run 2011! I'm much relieved as I was not confident of reaching Dover!

The day before the trip was highly stressful with too much to do in to little time. With co-driver Darren now with me, we doubled up the workload to progress more swiftly. He set about the contingency arrangements (wheel and tyre swaps on the S2000) whilst I changed the radiator and hoses on the Stag.

I had bought a "supergill" uprated radiator for the car and fitted it for the 2009 10CR. With the 30 deg heat up the Spanish mountains, I was pleased that I had! However a few months later, the rad developed a weep from one of its seams so was sent back under warranty. The replacement had been sitting wrapped up in the garage ever since, but with a planned 20 mountain passes to traverse I wanted it in the car.

Once completed, it was time for the decisive test run. A 30 mile round trip at speed uo and down the A12 left the o/s/r drum hot to touch again but the wheel, hub-nut and backplate stayed cool, cementing the decision to take the Stag. However all was not well with the car spluttering to a halt part way through the run. The electric fuel pump had stopped with corrosion/burning on the points. Rectification at the side of the road was made harder due to my incompetance in not packing all the tools!

Once back at home, the fuel pump points were cleaned properly and the toolboxes emptied and reunited with all their missing tools. This alone took an hour. In the meantime, Darren did a sterling job of polishing the car. With number plates re-aligned and rally plates fitted, eventually it was time to finish up, clean up, pack the bags and head for the B and B. Unfortunately this took longer than expected (should have done it sooner) and by the time we arrived we had missed dinner - doh!

The following morning it was off to the Plough, near Enfield for the start. More about the trip in the next post!

Not Where I Wanted to be Today

2011-09-06T23:11:00.000+01:00

In the garage, on the ramp with no brakes and no wheels - with the 10CR less than 48hrs away - not good. Todays jobs were to finish reassembly of the brakes, buy four new tyres, change engine oil and filter, road test car and keep fingers crossed.

I chose Khumo Solus KH17 for the tyres. I was rather pleased when the guy threw in a free wheel alignment to seal the deal! Time will tell if I made a good choice or not.

With oil, brakes and wheels back on car, it was time for a test drive. Bugger, o/s/r brake drum still getting hot. Back into the garage for yet another strip down with nothing untoward found inside the drum again. Time to look at the hydraulics.

I removed all the brake pipes including the flexible one for inspection. Everything seemed to blow through clear with the airline however the flared end on the metal pipe had a bit of a burr restricting the hole. A quick session with the file and that was sorted. The wheel cylinder was inspected and ok then everything put back together.

The subsequent test drive showed that things have vastly improved, however the o/s/r drum is still binding slightly and running warmer than the other. Decision time tomorrow as to whether the Stag will go to Europe or not will be based upon a thrash up and down the A12. we'll see how hot the drum gets then.

It Wasn't Supposed To Be This Way

2011-09-05T22:58:00.001+01:00

At the end of the weld-a-thon, it took me a couple of hours to tidy up the garage. This bucket contained all the underseal, soundproofing, chopped off bits of rusty bodywork and a month's worth of floor sweepings. It weighed nearly 6kg!

Susbequently when fitting the new driveshafts, I noticed the o/s rear brake shoes were worn a lot more than the n/s set. A trip to work and back then highlighted that the brakes were binding on the o/s hence explaining the wear. A strip down did not find anything obviously amis apart from a stiff handbrake lever pivot.

With the 10CR looming and new shoes required, a quick phone around suppliers resulted in the local motor factor promising stock by mid morning. Later on in the day I collected a box of new shoes and went home to fit them.

The Stag like the big saloons have a self adjusting mechanism that does not come with new shoes so had to be swapped from the old ones. I thought I was going daft, I kept fitting them in the wrong orientation and couldn't work out why. Eventually I tumbled the leading edges on the pair of shoes I was fiddling with were in the opposite orientation to the originals. Grabbing the other new pair out of the box I was horrified to see that they had an opposite orientation too. They would have fitted onto the car perfectly, just with the leading edges in the rearwards direction, not the forwards. The linings had been bonded on incorrectly during manufacture. So if you come accross brake shoes by "LPR", check this before fitting!

After finding another set fairly locally on Ebay, I was disappointed to learn that they were a re-seller and the shoes not stocked rather ordered in from a supplier once purchased by the consumer. In desparation I drove over to the shed where the spares Stag resides and managed to eventually remove a very rusted on brake drum. To my delight there was an almost new pair of shoes in there. These were swiftly removed and the other side was attacked. Imagine my surprise when taking the wheel off I found the brake drum was missing. Unfortunately the shoes had rusted to the point where the linings had lifted and were curling away from the metal.

With no other current options, the good pair have been fitted to the car tonight, thankfully then look to be fairly evenly worn when compared to the ones remaining on the n/s.

To round off the day properly, I had a phone call from the proprietor of the German hotel I had booked for the 10CR, ringing to tell me that the en-suite was out of order and may not be repaired in time for my arrival - doh!

Success At Last - Now the Work Begins!

2011-09-02T23:32:00.001+01:00

Up early again this morning, managed not to get distracted online and got straight down to work.

I was surprised and concerned that last nights paint was still very tacky. No putting the carpets back in yet.

Nearside crossmember inner strengthener replaced and section welded onto bottom, completing the repairs started yesterday. Repair sections and welds re-oxided and seam sealed. (forgot to take pics but will update later!).

Carpets, seatbelt and drivers seat all refitted, the paint inside the car touch dry after two hours in the sun. Amazingly the same paint underneath was still tacky so out came the halogen heater to help progress things along!

MOT made just about on time but not before I almost lost a wheel due to my haste and incompetance (I had forgotten to tighten the wheelnuts up!). With paint almost dried the kind MOT tester gave me the pass that I had hoped for - yahoo! A couple of advisories were added - the o/s/r wheel bearing felt a little rough (although had no play) and one of the tyres was down to the markers. Neither being an issue - I had already ordered and recieved new hubs and driveshafts and had decided that 4 new tyres would be in order before turning up at the test centre.

Back at home, having celebrated with beer and fish 'n chips, a good hour was spent tidying and cleaning up the mess in left in the garage, then with a couple of hours to go before bed I decided to fit the new shafts.

Obviously the new shaft is the lower one and quite impressive they are too. Mind you, costing an arm and a leg as they did, just as well they are! They are the GKN uprated type with Rilsan coated greasable splines and and stronger, larger UJs with integral thrust washers fitted at the inner end. Fitting took about an hour and they will be test run on the way to work tomorrow.

As work will involve a 12hr shift, no garage time tomorrow, so I will take the road book, atlases and satnav to review the route, then on Monday the work really begins when I start working down the 10CR prep list of jobs!

It's Been a Good Day

2011-09-01T22:16:00.004+01:00

Finally at last managed to confirm a navigator - Darren my trusty regular has juggled his work commitments and stepped into the breech!

With MOT looming tomorrow and having had an evening away from the garage last night to go to the local Club Triumph meet, it was to be a 14 hour shift on the car for me today.

Front wing lower section welded back into place. Slightly annoyed there as I was being so careful not to build up too much heat and burn the paint above the trim line where it would show, but lost concentration at the last bit and cooked it!

Small infill section welded in and ground down completing the welding on this side of the car!

Seam sealer applied.

Whilst sealer going off, re-jiggled car supports to get at grotty section on chassis rail on other side. What a mess!

Looking better after 30 mins grinding. Gotta to plan this repair very carefully as some of it will have to be undone again when I replace this side crossmember some time in the future.

Stonechipped offside floorpan then fabricated repair sections for nearside crossmember whist stonechip cured. Last job of the day - offside floorpan over painted - looking good, sunglasses required now. Paint used was tractor enamel from the local agricultural supplier, a 50:50 mix of "Howard Rotavator" Orange and "Case Tractor" Red being a close enough match to the colour of the car!

A Lucky Escape and A Bit More To Do

2011-08-30T09:51:00.000+01:00

I started cleaning the rest of the floorpan with an assortment of wire twist brushes purchased from Toolstation. The disc shaped one worked fine but was not quite aggressive enough to get in the pitted areas. I swapped over to the twist cup brush, made by Sliverline. On the initial sweep it tore through the paint, underseal and rust. However after about 30 seconds the vibrations increased massively then the cup launched itself off the angle grinder and disappeared into the depths of the garage, luckily missing me in the process. It had broken the body of the angle grinder.

Thinking I had not done it up tight, I fitted it to a new grinder and spun it up cautiously in a bucket. Within 30 secs it flew off again, this time taking the grinder head with it. Luckily this time the screws had vibrated loose and nothing was broken. Closer inspection revealed the speed rating of the brush to be only 8500 rpm. With most angle grinders running at 10-11000 rpm, it does not seem fit for purpose, I have two, they will be going back!

With a bit of ingenuity I managed to lift the car whilst still on the ramp in order to reposition the supporting block under the main chassis rail. I needed to get to the section adjacent to the crossmember as with it removed, there was evidence of rust jacking between the layers. A skinny disc on the air cut off tool soon had the offending layer removed, revealing the corrosion beneath. This part is double skinned for strength and moisture had obviously got between the layers.

Assuming both layers to be rotten, I had planned to cut everthing out and weld in some 3mm plate. Unfortunately I could not find the plate, but luckily the oxide seemed to be mostly from the outer section with the inner one retaining its strength. As I do have some 2mm plate, I will treat and repaint the inner section and weld the 2mm steel over the top.

The End in Sight?

2011-08-28T22:33:00.001+01:00

More bashing with a hammer then welding today saw the part that had started this whole saga off, (the front crossmember) fitted in its place. There is a little more welding required on the bottom of the mail chassis rail, however the car is currently supported up on the lift at that point so will have to wait.

Although it looks holey, I have decided to leave the inner sill section as is (the pink bit!). I have already cut out and replaced the bottom, whilst that was off I was able to look inside and that the corrosion was not endemic, just limited to pinholes, so it was cleaned and treated inside and out and the pinholes opened up to stronger metal with a drill. This should enable air to get in and water to drain out hopefully! Once all the other work is done, a good dose of cavity wax will hopefully protect.

Running out of bits to weld now, it was the turn of the lower section for attention. This I had found to be not attached on the bottom flange due to rust, so I had cut it off to ascertain it's condition and to see what horrors lurked beneath.

With the rotton section cut off and a new piece welded in, it's a good fit with all the rest of the repairs on the car now!

Painting and seam sealing tomorrow!

The Stag Weld-a-thon Continues

2011-08-26T13:21:00.001+01:00

With the floorpan edge to inner sill repairs completed, I turned my attention to the mess that had been hidden behind a very thick coat of rubber underseal inside the front arch. With the underseal stripped back this is what greeted me.

A couple of days of grinding, snipping and repair panel making resulted in this.

And then the finished result prior to grinding.

Apart from a minor moment of panic when some welding sparks ignited the waxoyl inside the sill, I'm pretty pleased with the result!

My Weekend Oop Norf!

2011-08-24T22:39:00.001+01:00

With the Little Devils Rally looming, I loaded the Sprint up with the spares, the tools and the mother-in-law and headed oop norf. As I hate the M6 with a vengeance we took the M11, A14 and then the scenic route up to the first stop, Bolton. Very pleasant it was too with little traffic and plenty of sunshine.

The only incident on route was a very near miss with a rather large and very slow traction engine which happened to be just around a blind corner that I was belting around. Wow, was I pleased with the uprated brakes which really saved the day!

With the mother-in-law safely dropped off at Bolton, I continued my journey up to Morecombe, Lancs for my final destination as a guest of my navigator Darren. The day was rounded off with beer and curry - bliss!

On the Saturday with no prep to do on the Sprint, after mooching around for a bit the need to get dirty hands took over so we went out Darren's garage to see what could be done. He had previously mentioned that he had a bit of trouble with his Subaru, which having been parked up outside for over a year, would not move due to stuck brakes.

With a lot of cursing, levering and bashing with a large hammer, we eventually had the car rolling on all four wheels, a combination of sticky caliper pistons and pads rusted to discs being the root of the troubles. With the car running, a quick back and forwards test on the drive was to be followed by a blat up and down the bypass, however oil started pouring from under the car. The trail on the ground can be clearly seen in the picture below.

With the car jacked back up and the underpan removed, the leak appeared to be coming from the oil filter. With the filter removed and on the bench, I was astonished to discover that Morecombe Bay salt air had rusted it through! I have never come accross that before!

Prep For the Little Devils Rally

2011-08-11T21:47:00.002+01:00

Not much to do to the car other than routine checks but as the event is basically a multi venue autotest, some of which is in farm yards and on farm tracks, I decided the newly rebuilt Koni's had to go back on. With the 60 profile tyres, the car looked too high on the springing so I bought a set of uprated 175lb 1" lowered spring set from Rimmers.

Fitting the fronts were without issue, but I was not looking forward to doing the rears as last time I had to unbolt the axle track control arms to allow it to drop sufficiently to get the shocks out - it took ages to re-align and bolt it all up again afterwards.

With the car supported on axle stands under the sills, I removed 3 out of the 4 top bolts on one of the shocks then loosened the 4th. I then removed the bottom eye fixing bolt and dropped the axle to free the shock from inside the trailing arm. As expected, I ran up against the same problem of not being able to drop the axle enough to clear the bottom of the shock.

After a bit of thought, I used a second trolley jack to raise the axle as high as possible on the opposite side to that I was working on, then used a scaffold pole on the other side to drop the radius arm sufficiently to swing the bottom of the shock out. Once clear with the last remaining top bolt out the shock fell clear - happy days!

My trusty Spitfire spring compressor soon had old springs and shocks apart then remated with the new.

When back on the ground and settled, the car looked pretty good, if slightly lower at the rear. However when the boot was fully loaded, it sat too low. A test drive soon proved that I had also set the rear shocks too hard giving a rather uncomfortable ride. I had set the fronts to 1/4 turn away from the hardest setting but the rears to max! So it was off with the rears again, readjusting them to 1/2 turn off max and back to the standard height springs. This proved to be much better, a little softer and now slightly higher at the back when compared to the front. When loaded hopefully the car will level out. On the road the back did seem to be more lively than before so maybe there is scope for softening up the damping a little more, but for this weekend it will do!

The pics below in order show the car on the standard springs, next fitted with 1" lowered (loaded), then finally with 1" lower on the fronts with standard at the rear.

Not So Rusty Bottom

2011-08-07T20:01:00.001+01:00

A few more pics of progress:

Middle crossmember and floorpan edge ready for welding.

Rear floor edge ready for welding


Patches fabricated and sprayed with "weld through" primer.

New patches welded in place

Clean up of the crossmember remnants

Rusty Bottom

2011-08-06T14:17:00.004+01:00

A week or so ago, I booked the Stag in for MOT, only to notice whilst doing my pre-checks that the drivers side front crossmember was looking decidedly cracked and crusty. I then recalled my conversation with the tester last year when we both looked at said crossmember and commented that it would need attention before MOT 2011. I can't complain really as it had been roughly patched before I took ownership of the car over 20 years ago so hasn't lasted too badly!

With a other dodgy looking bits nearby, I decided to strip the whole offside floorpan of underseal to see what was underneath. I also cut off the bottom of the front wing to improve access and see what horrors lay underneath.

Once attacked with a twist brush in the angle grinder, a few other places turned out to be a bit mothy!

The crossmember turned out to be a hideous mess of rusty original cobbled together with rustypatch upon rusty patch, the worst thing to have to repair!

Below is the remains of the old crossmember, now removed with the new one - what it should have looked like, adjacent!

Next job - make up some repair sections.

Herald Back On The Road

2011-08-05T13:42:00.002+01:00

The Herald is mended! With the offending driveshaft off the car and on the bench, I commenced stripdown. The remains of the UJ came out of the driveshaft yoke and flange fairly easily, but I decided that the flange was bruised beyond recovery. As there also seemed to be a bit of play in the wheel bearings I decided to investigate further.

With the assistance of a proper Churchill style rear hub puller I soon had the flange off, a quick trip to a friend with a press had the driveshaft out of the bearing housing. Sadly as expected the inner needle roller had worn through the case hardening on the shaft rendering it scrap.

A good rummage in the shed turned out several spare Spitfire driveshafts so I picked out the one with the least bearing movement, pulled the flange off and swapped the backplates. With the flange off the hub, it was easy to drift out the wheel studs and fit the Land Rover Freelander uprated ones I had bought previously. Not wanting to have an odd wheel/hub, I popped the flange off the other side too and changed the studs.

I only realised my glaring schoolboy error when attempting to refit the overhauled shaft/hub to the car. My prop has large output flanges, I had managed to pick a shaft with a small flange - doh! Worse still all of my other spare shafts all had small flanges too. After a bit of head scratching, I dug out a propshaft with knackered UJ's and robbed the flange off that.

Job done!

Delado

2011-08-02T10:12:00.002+01:00

With the first Delado Rallysprint of the year that I could compete in looming, I took some time away from my perforated Stag to do some prep work on the Herald. Nothing more than a quick clean up and once over on the brake, suspension, engine etc was really required but with a bit of spare time on my hands I decided to do the tappets as they had been a little noisy for some time.

A quick one over with a feeler gauge showed the clearances to be massively wide - no wonder the noise! On a roll, I spent some more time swapping the points and condenser for a Land Rover ignition module and re-routing and tidying up some loose wiring under the bonnet.

All done and ready to setup the timing before a test drive I jumped in and she stubbornly refused to start. Suspecting the module, I swapped back to points but no difference. After a lot more head scratching, out came the feeler gauges again to check the plugs, amazingly they too had massively wide gaps.

It was only then that I noticed my faux-pas. In the early morning in the gloomy depths of my toolbox I had managed to pick up the metric set of feelers rather than imperial and happily adjusted all the tappets to 0.10mm (4 thou) instead of 10 thou - doh! I must get myself a pair of garage specs!

Back on with the electronic module with everything adjusted correctly, the car ran and drove very nicely, so I was looking forwards to the rally on Sunday.

On the Sunday morning I was up bright and early, and soon driving off to the venue at Elmswood Farm, Burnham in the sunshine. Upon arrival it was nice to catch up with all the friendly regulars there, as well as a few new faces. With 14 persons competing, an excellent technical stage of over a mile long, and a BBQ for lunch, it was going to be a good day.

It was not long before the day claimed it's first casualty - CV joint failure on a very quick Corsa. Sadly on my second run out I was next. At low speed half way round a very tight double hairpin there was a sudden lound crunch and lots of banging noises from the rear end. I pulled off the circuit and ground to a halt, getting out to find the offside rear wheel at a very strange angle. My driveshaft had snapped at the UJ.

Thinking my day was over, I glumly trudged back to the paddock. Imagine my delight when a fellow competitor and friend generously offered me to continue the day sharing his recently prepared Toyota MR2. What a fun drive that turned out to be. Massive thanks Andrew! On top of that, another friend lent his van a trailer to enable me to get the stricken Herald back home, you are a real gent Ray!

Sadly there was disappointment for others too, by the end of the day there had been 7 retirements due to mechanical failures on a wide variety of cars.

The day however for me really showed,that like Club Triumph, what a great club Delado is and what a fantastic bunch of people are part of it. Awesome - thanks to all of you!

Back at home I soon had the car up on stands and the offending shaft off. Catestrophic failure of the UJ. Assuming I can extract the remains, it does look repairable though. We'll see!

Catching Up On Things

2011-07-29T10:54:00.003+01:00

Had some welcome surprises in the post recently. At long last the new rotating parts for the Herald race engine turned up from Maynard Engineering. I was expecting them last August, however it has been a long and drawn out affair. So I am now in possession of a hardened/balanced crank, a lightened/balanced flywheel - both modified to take larger flywheel bolts, clutch to match and a set of balanced rods. I now need to decide if I need to replace the pistons and if so what with.

In the same week, a pair of Dolomite Sprint rear Koni's that I had sent away for overhaul last January also turned up. The delay was apparantly due to unavailability of Koni valves! With the Devils Own Rally fast approaching I need to source a matched set of uprated springs asap.

Now things have settled down at home, I have been able to sneak out to the garage from time to time and catch up on left over jobs out there.

On the Sprint, i have been gradually stripping, de-rusting and repainting the inside of the boot floor and spare wheel well over a period of a month. All done now.

Once the boot had been repacked, I took the car out for a drive only to find vague steering and a lot of up and down play in the steering wheel. It turned out that the bush where the column passes through the bulkhead had disintegrated (see arrow)

A nice new polybush replacement from Mr Witor and all was well again.

The Stag passenger seat base had been sitting in the hallway part dismantled for several months. I had removed the cover to fit a new foam, only to tear the now very brittle internal strip of material that pulls the cover into shape.

Whilst tidying out a drawer, I came accross an old fabric coin sack, perfect for replacing the offending strip.

With a combination of fabric glue and dodgy sewing, it was soon in place and worked a treat. The base now looks good again and is much more comfortable!

The Project Finished At Last!

2011-06-08T22:52:00.002+01:00

Not cars this time, but worthy of a mention as it has kept me out of the garage for so long!

Following two and a half years graft and a lot of dosh spent, my loft conversion is finally complete. When I first bought my house it had an "illegal" room in the roof. The easiest was to appease the council at the time was to declare it non-habitable and for storage only. Well as the first photo shows, that's the way it was for over a decade, hoarding all my NOS spares and a load of old junk!

I had to buy a new shed and build a new garage to empty it all out into! Although the weight up there now is a fraction of what was up there before (large boxes of clutches, ball joints and bearings etc. are heavy!), the architect made me double up every timber under the floor and accross the roof.

A random ebay session netted me the chance bargain purchase of a 2.5m by 3m Velux window balcony system - necessitating a large hole in the roof.

A mid project change of plan added an en-suite to the room (and eight months to the duration!)

Having gutted the ground and first floors of the house to accomodate two new staircases, there is a fair bit of tidying left to do, but in the loft the finished result has more than exceeded my expectations.

Just in time as the biggest project that I have ever taken on in my life now beckons . . . . . . .

More Belated Updates!

2011-05-20T20:32:00.002+01:00

It's been a manic few weeks - busy at work and busy at home as the loft conversion draws to a conclusion. Thankfully by next week it will hopefully be all done and I can escape back out into the garage again!

However I have managed to keep the car work ticking over, first of all getting the Herald through the MOT, then the Spitfire. The new brakes on the Herald are superb, I can now lock up the wheels for the first time in my ownership! I just need to get the performance and handling up to scratch now.

I'm embarassed to admit that I only drove 127 miles in the Spitfire since the last MOT. This was solely due to the fact that the diff nose oil seal leaked so bad that most of the contents would end up in the drip tray after parking the car overnight.

I knew that I had a good spare diff somewhere, but foolishly forgot to mark it, so when I found one it was a case of try it and see. I made the mistake of not removing the spring studs before attempting to drop everything out so the job took twice as long as it could have but one in, the diff didn't seem too bad so I'll run it for a while and see how it turns out.

Next task will be to finish fitting the new foam to the Stag's passenger seat, then it too will be ready for summer motoring!

This Weekend I Have Been Working Mainly On The Herald . . . .

2011-05-02T21:24:00.001+01:00

...... Well I wish that were true, as I have spent a fair bit of time working on the house and garden too! However, a lot of progress has indeed been made on the Herald front!

From this

To this

With all the rust taken care of, the suspension and hub was re-assembled. I was unsure if there was a potential problem with my Canley Classics Caterham uprights, as on full articulation the lower securing nut touched the housing.

It's possible that once loaded up on the car that full articualtion may never be achieved but as a precaution I fitted a small spacer beneath the nut.

Re-assembly was straghtforward as all the bits had been previously sandblasted, powdercoated, overhauled or painted as appropriate.

After a bleed through of the hydraulics, it was off the ramp and up the road for a test run. For the first time in my ownership I found myself able to lock up the front wheels! A bit of air remained in the system though, causing the first push of the pedal to be a little soft, so back into the garage again.

While I was at it I decided to have a quick look inside the drums - just as well I did. One side was fine, but on the other side not only was the drum rusted solidly to the hub, but when it finally gave up and let go I found that the cylinder keeper plates were missing, the top spring had become detatched and the front shoe unevenly worn down to the rivets!

So with new shoes required and none in stock, there was nothing more to be done except clean up the backplates and drums and give them a good coating of POR-15.

Belated Updates and More Work On The Herald

2011-04-24T22:30:00.000+01:00

Belated news indeed, I had intended to scribe about our participation in Club Triumph's HCR Scatter Rally. However that was several weeks ago now so I'll keep it brief.

We took the Sprint and travelled up to stay with navigator Darren on the Friday night, to make Saturday less stressful and tiring. Good move! We visited friends at the Pendle & Pennine local area meet before having a good nights sleep.

On the Saturday, we had a nice lie in followed by a delicious big lunch courtesy of Darren's parents and then it was back to Barnoldswick for the start of the rally.

The event started with an autotest. I was gutted to have put in a competitive time only to be told I'd clipped a dreaded cone!

With the autotest completed it was heads down to plot the route. We flew off to South Yorkshire, then back into Lancs, around Manchester and through Cheshire. We then dropped down into Derbyshire and Staffodshire before crossing into Shropshire with the half way stop at Telford.

We then pressed on into Wales before deciding that our preferred route down to Monmouth and then East would take us too long. So we doubled back, skirted Birmingham and headed east along the A14, dipping into Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire en route. Finally we hit Cambridgeshire, clipped Essex before passing into Suffolk and on to the finish at Woodbridge for another autotest!

Our final placing was 13 out of 30, not bad as we initially got off to a slow start. The only problem experienced with the car was the failure of the overdrive switch - swiftly replaced with a spare en route!

On the Herald front, things again have been slow, with too many other things to do and rust scraping being my least favourite job! However I have been doing it bit by bit and today made good progress with the bulkhead, chassis and suspension turret now around 80% done.

Gotta get my finger out - the start of the rally season is imminent!

Another One Leaves the Fold

2011-03-27T21:22:00.000+01:00

Today was the day to say goodbye to Gertie, the trusty Mk1 2000 saloon that successfully carried us around the 2006 Round Britan Reliabilty Run.

As the above photo shows, she was a bit rough around the edges when we aquired her, although she would almost certainly have ended up at the breakers if we had walked away. She also proved to be terribly unreliable in the 6 weeks prior to the event, in one week managing to conk out three times and miss two MOT appointments. The unreliabilty was so bad that I didn't dare drive to the 3rd MOT appointment, so trailered the car there much to the tester's amusement. She did pass though!

In the end though, our worries were unfounded - she covered the 2000 miles in 52 hours without so much as missing a beat, and then went on to do another 6000 odd miles in daily use over the next couple of years before rust in the sills caused her to be laid up again.

The above picture shows Gertie with your's truly at John-O-Groats.

She is now in the hands of fellow Triumph enthusiast Andy Dann who will hopefully give her the TLC she needs to see the road again.

Messing About With Moderns Just For a Change

2011-03-18T19:52:00.001Z

Ivi's TT was due for a service, so I booked it in with a local VW Audi Independant service centre. Having been promised a courtesy car, I glumly observed the lady in front of me swap her Golf keys for those for an old Polo. My were duly swapped for another Audi keyring with the comment "its the silver one over the back".

Much to my surprise when I walked out and blipped the key, a shiny silver TT winked it's lights at me. I was delighted to spot the Quattro badge and a pair of exhausts at the back signifying it was either another 3.2L V6 like Ivi's or a 225hp turbo! The turbo it was, and rather fun too!

It was interesting to compare this 6 speed manual to Ivi's 250hp DSG. Predictably the 225 had lots of punch but couldn't match the 250 for smoothness and torque, although it did feel a little more nimble on the corners. But the biggest bit missing for me was that lovely V6 growl! Surprisingly, fuel consumption was about the same according to the trip computer.

With the TT out of the way, I turned my attention to the S2000. Having had an unrepairable puncture in one of the rear winter tyres I was running on a "temporary" summer tyre on one side of the axle and a winter tyre on the other side. Since this time, the back end started to become seriously lively on wet and slippery roads.

I had always been convinced that the previous owner had thumped a kerb some time in the past as not only did the n/s rear wheel have a nasty scrape in it but visually it appeared to be pointing at a different angle to the other one! So it was off to another local garage for a 4 wheel alignment check.

My suspiscions were confirmed, with almost every reading front & back being out of tolerance, and the n/s rear by far the worst. although we had a good look underneath with nothing looking worn or bent, I was a bit disappointed when the n/s rear failed to come back into tolerance on the toe-in with maximum adjustment. Luckily it ended up only a fraction out and the driving of the car has now been transformed. I think that I'll be picking up some suspension arms etc. up from Ebay to be swapped around at leisure.

With red showing "out of tolerance" and green showing "in" the sheet on the left shows the setup before adjustment and the right shows after.

Club Triumph Annual Dinner and Awards Night

2011-03-14T08:12:00.001Z

Just back from another great weekend away with like minded friends. The Club Triumph annual dinner and awards night was held at the Hilton at Milton Keynes.

With plenty of time in hand, we took the scenic route cross country avoiding the M25 and M1 motorways. In the Sprint with sunroof open, we enjoyed the sunshine as we went.

As usual the evening was an absolute riot, it was great to meet up with so many good friends from all over the country, drink beer and talk cars!

One of the main purposes of the night was to present a cheque for the money raised on the Round Britain Reliabilty Run last year to representitives from our chosen charity MIND. Everyone was delighted when the amount raised was revealed to be over £50,000!

The other purpose of the night as the title implies was to present the awards for the various Club competitions held throughout the year. No trophys received by me this year but I did get to present one! For the last two years, my local club area Essex scored the highest points in the area competition table, but there had been no area prize available. So this year we decided to provide our own and presented it to our dear leader Mike Helm!

Regular readers of my blog may recognise the "trophy" - it was the broken crank from the Herald engine lovingly polished and mounted onto a bit of fence post (well done Colin!). It still lives on!

Nacht van het Oosten 2011 (AKA the Chinese Rally)

2011-03-10T23:16:00.002Z

Last weekend saw Ivi and I join up with good friends Colin and Michelle and drive accross to The Netherlands for our biennial pilgramage to take part in the Dutch Night Rally.

With the Herald temporarily rolling, I was able to get the Sprint into the garage to give it a good checking and carry out some preparation.

Nothing majorly untoward cropped up but I did find that the alternator adjustment bolt had dropped off and gone awol and finally spotted what had been knocking/graunching over bumpy roads since the RBRR. A failed shock absorber had been letting the suspension on the left side rear compress to the point where the handbrake cable clamp block was wearing itself away on the exhaust!

As proved on the RBRR, the speedo and odometer were both wildly inaccurate, so the last job was to fit a Brantz rally distance meter sensor to allow me to "borrow" the unit from the Herald. As the rally roadbook comprised of tulip diagrams at pre-defined mileage intervals, this was crucial!

I opted for the speedo cable sensor, coincidentally the installed speedo cable had broken the week before, so a new one was butchered to fit the sensor. The butchering involved identifying where on the cable to fit the sensor (I opted for on top of the bellhousing as space was limited behind the dash), removing the inner drive cable and cutting a 10mm from the outer sheath at the pre-determined postion. Then the centre of the sensor was filed out to fit the inner cable, the whole lot re-assembled together and clamped with jubilee clips prior to fitting back on the car.

Cabling was straightforward, a bracket was made for the Brantz then the installation was complete.

So, back to the Night Rally. For all previous events we had travelled both ways on the Eurotunnel, but this time had decided to try the night ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. Having done the sums and taken into account the drastically reduced mileage and fuel costs, this way was not much dearer. It also had the advantage of a good night's sleep Friday night, followed by a leisurely 2.5h journey to the start. We took the opportunity to upgrade to a comfort class cabin, complete with double bed (wayhay!) and complimentary mini-bar!

Suitably refreshed, early Saturday morning we disembarked at The Hook and started our journey east. However only 10 mins up the road, Colin pulled over onto the hard shoulder suddenly - a stone had shattered his toughened windscreen.

With no possibilty to continue this way, we called the breakdown service and piled into a nearby cafe for breakfast (this one noted for next time!). Unsurprisingly the breakdown assistance were unable to source a screen for a Triumph 2.5PI so it looked like the only option was back home on a transporter. However after a few calls to the UK, we got a number for Roger (one of the Dutch organisers) who put us in touch with fellow enthusiast Bert.

Now Bert not only had a spare windscreen but also lived just 30mins drive away. So we roared off in the Sprint, met up with Bert (who turned out to have over 20 PI's), collected the screen and returned to await the assistance of the breakdown service to fit the screen. Some hours later, after a lot of palava the screen was duly fitted just in time to drive to the start, partake in the unusual Chinese Buffet and start the rally.

As usual, in addition to the plentiful Triumphs on show were various other meticulously prepared classics,including a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, and a Jaguar XJS!

All in all a great weekend with some great people, can't wait until the next one!

4 Wheels a Rollin' Again!

2011-03-01T21:09:00.002Z

. . . . . but not stopping!

The nearside front brake and suspension overhaul on the Herald is complete - well almost. Having upgraded to GT6/Vitesse brakes, I could not figure out how to connect the flexi-brake hose to the caliper. I had remembered the short link pipe on the caliper itself but with the flexi connected it rubbed or fouled the suspension whichever way I tried.

A quick Google picture search turned up the important snippet of info that I had forgot - it should have mounted from the front top wishbone bolt, not the rear as I had! Swapping over was not so simple as the front and rear bolts are different lengths to cater for the thickness of the bracket so I had to remove the spring and shock again to swap them over. I will now have to make up a new brake pipe to cross the turret as the original is now a few centimetres too short!

I'm not too bothered for now as I still need to overhaul the other side. This hopefully should not take as long as the nearside did as I have all the new parts all ready and prepared. Just as well as the rally season is looming, however work is on hold this week as I need the lift to do some work on the Sprint!

Seeing Red

2011-02-20T21:59:00.002Z

My Honda S2000 has the slightly rarer spec of red carpets and leather seats , however the rest of the trim including the door cards are black. Having seen a couple of cars with two-tone door cards I had been keeping my eye on Ebay for anything that came up.

Last week I got lucky and after a drive to Milton Keynes picked up a nice set of door cards and a few other goodies off a 21k mile car that had sadly been written off.

Removal of the existing door cards was quick and easy - a couple of screws and a few pop clips, however with the old and the new side by side it became apparant that it wasn't going to be a straight swap as my original cards had extra speakers and storage pockets in them.

Initially I thought that I would have to cut the new trims to fit the speakers however a close inspection on the back revealed that the centre sections were held in by a number of screws. In a short time I had them both removed, much to my relief they were an identical size and shape.

After an easy swap, the old cards were refitted onto the car with the new centres. I'm well pleased with the result - one interior totally transformed, just need to think about the centre console now!

Longer, Fatter, Stronger!

2011-02-18T20:03:00.003Z

As the Herald's suspension, hubs and brakes are all in bits at the moment, I thought it would be a good time to uprate the wheel studs.

MSA Scrutineers apparantly like to see visible threads poking out the end of wheelnuts, something that definitely was not the case with the originals.

The general consensus of opinion said that Landrover Freelander studs were the way forward, however when they turned up, I was more than a little surprised how big they were compared to the Triumph ones. So much so that I was concerned that they would not fit.

However a quick trial fit in the hub and wheel soon proved that they did. So grateful thanks to those on the Club Triumph forum who were brave enough to experiment and post that they were ok.

The size difference was even more obvious once fitted to the hub, however there was no problem fitting the hub tightly to a wheel. The biggest challenge will be to work out a way of fitting them to the rear's without a full stripdown!

Left In The Dark

2011-01-29T20:50:00.001Z

I took the Sprint to the Club Triumph North London Clubnight last week, on the way back home the the headlamps suddenly went out. Although I was belting along at the time, luckily I was on a straight and empty road!

I quickly realised that the problem was limited to when main beam was selected on the column stalk. Dip beam worked ok and main via the flash only, so I was still able to get home.

A quick look under the steering column cowl in the daylight revealed the switch to be at fault. Although the car remains on standard lighting, the rivet holding together the main beam contacts had overheated, melting the plastic around it and losing the tension on the contact spring. This is a common Dolomite fault, the fix to avoid this problem in the first place is to wire in the main beams via a relay to reduce the load on the switch.

Luckily I had a spare switch in stock, an overnight soaking in Coka Cola cleaned up the contacts and a liberal application of vaseline lubed it up again afterwards.

As the cables run down the column inside a metal housing, I decided it would be easiest to remove the column completely to change the switch - a fairly straightforward task. I must wire some relays in a priority!

Proper Broke!

2011-01-22T18:26:00.000Z

I took the crank out the Herald's original engine the other day. As the title says, it's "proper broke" !

Herald Overhaul Back On

2010-12-19T19:50:00.001Z

The correct new Mintex 1144 pads for the Stag turned up, despite the inclement weather and once I'd tidied up the garage and found the retaining pins and shims, were swiftly fitted. Then dad was collared to assist with a bit of quick bleeding, wheels on and job done.

I took advantage of a sunny day and dry road to carry out a quick road test and do a bit of bedding in. Initial impressions are a much firmer pedal operating brakes with significantly more bite, so a good result!

With that Stag mobile again, I could get the Herald back onto the lift to continue the suspension rebuild that was temporarily postponed due to having to transport Father Christmas to the Church bazaar!

As can be seen in the photo, I'd already done a bit of painting on the bulkhead, but the worn suspension and dire brakes remained in situ. Remembering the mud and grotthat I had to remove from the bulkhead on my previous session,I pressure washed the underneath of the car before putting the car in the garage. However I was somewhat annoyed when some of my newly painted area peeled off. This can be seen on the chassis rail between the bulkhead and suspension turret. Others have said that POR15 does not adhere well to clean shiny metal - this would seem to be true.

It didn't take long to get the hub and suspension off again. Now I have started the cleanup and de-rusting prior to finishing off the repainting. As a bit of a break - it is Sunday after all - we took a walk down to the sea wall today. A bit fresh, but rather pretty don't you think?

One Step Forwards, Two Steps Back - Again!

2010-12-08T12:12:00.001Z

The new brake discs for the Stag finally turned up a couple of days ago, so with heater on full blast, it was out into the garage to fit them.

The first thing to strike me was the difference in thickness between the old and the new. The old discs never looked particularly thin or worn, but measured up at 11mm. The new ones by comparison measured up at 14.5mm. Worse still they were stamped up as "minimum thickness 12.5mm" which made the old ones officially scrap (or was that crap!).

It didn't take long to remove each disc/hub assembly, split the old discs off, bolt the new ones on and refit them along with the reconditioned calipers, to the car.

But it all went wrong when it came to fitting the new brake pads - despite what it said on the box, they were the wrong shape and will have to go back! A set of Mintex 1144 is on order now, the brakes had better feel good after all this!

Herald's Race Engine Gets Attention At Last!

2010-12-05T22:38:00.001Z

Still no sign of the Stag's new brake discs this week - bloody snow and couriers! So I turned my attention to the Herald's original race engine. This expired over a year ago when the crank snapped whilst pootling around the M25. With the new crank etc. nearing readiness, I needed to remove the pistons, assess whether a re-bore is necessary and send the pistons away/buy new as appropriate, to enable completion of the balancing process.

With the engine already mounted on a stand, the head was off in no time and the pistons soon out and on the floor!

Interestingly, the top ring on pistons 1 and 4 fell off in two pieces as they came out. I am not sure if the broke upon removal or were already like that. With no sign of bore damage, I suspect the former is more likely - but who knows!

The block itself will need a very good clean out if the metallic particles on the oil pump strainer are anything to go by. Not a pretty sight!

Stag Brakes

2010-12-01T21:18:00.001Z

With the Herald temporarily mobile again, I took the opportunity to pop the Stag into the workshop to change the leaky brake calipers. I had already removed the calipers from the "spares" car, stripped, blasted cleaned and repainted them, finally rebuilding them with new pistons bought from Ebay and seal kits that I had in stock.

However, when I took the n/s wheel off to swap old caliper for new, much to my annoyance I found that the pads from the car had worn unevenly, most likely due to sticky pistons and the disc had been so saturated with brake fluid that it appeared to have baked onto the metal. So that is as far as the job has gone - now awaiting delivery of new discs and Mintex 1144 pads.

Time for Work on The Herald

2010-11-21T12:08:00.002Z

With MOT time approaching, I decided it was time to overhaul and upgrade the front brakes and suspension on the Herald. Earlier this year, I strengthened, blasted and plasti-coated a set of wishbones and purchased a poly bush kit and a set of Canley Classics caterham vertical links. With a set of discs, stainless steel braided hoses and recon calipers added to stock recently, I pretty much have all the bits required.

With all the suspension unbolted and out of the way, I got sidetracked in my usual fashion and decided to tidy up the turret and bulkhead as there was not a lot of paint left on either. The bulkhead itself looked like it had been attacked with a lump hammer in the past, no doubt to get a bit more clearance for the knobbly tyres. I decided to leave it it place but just dress up the lumpy bits with a hammer a dolly to tidy it up, prior to de-rusting and re-painting.

That's all it's going to get this week before I temporarily bolt the original suspension/brakes back on - the local Vicar has requested the services of the car to transport Santa to the Church Bazaar next Sat! Just as well I hadn't stripped the car further!

Decent Equipment Makes Post RBRR Maintenance Easy!

2010-11-14T19:53:00.001Z

I've spent the last couple of weeks continuing to tidy up the garage in small doses, it's looking massive inside now. The new found space has allowed me to move the lift forwards 30cm. Having tried three different cars on it, I found that while the original position was good for the Sprint and just about ok for the Stag, the back of the PI when fully lifted, stuck out the doorway! I can now easily walk around whichever car is in there and open doors both sides without bashing them.

Today I had the Sprint up in the air carrying out some post RBRR maintenance. After the 2200+ miles driven, a bit of wheel wobble had become noticeable. The lift made easy work of getting all four wheels quickly up in the air, the 18v battery operated impact wrench had all 16 nuts and four wheels off in record time. Before, it would have taken 5 minutes or more just to get the whole car jacked up off the ground and chocked safely with axle stands, then longer to spin 16 nuts off by hand!

My wheel balancer is simple but pretty effective, basically comprising a cone sitting on a needle point with a bubble in a circle. When the bubble is central in the circle, balance is good, if it tips one way, weights can be added to level it back up. Greater accuracy can be achieved by dividing the required weight by four and pairing them up at the optimum positions around the rim. It soon became apparant that a balance weight had dropped off one of the front wheels, and one of the rears that had needed no weights originally when the tyre was first fitted, was also 30g out. I must purchase some new weights and stop recycling used ones as losing weights seems to be a re-occurring problem!

Whilst up in the air, I took the opportunity to check the wheel bearing play (ok), squirt some grease in the rears and spray some protective wax underneath where the paint/underseal had become chipped.

No progress on the Stag caliper yet as I'm still waiting for parts. The next task will be to bring the Herald back as the MOT is due next month.

Moving Forward With The Garage Development

2010-11-02T21:00:00.002Z

The new garage has been erected and in use for a while now, but the inside is still a great big mess! One of the reasons for this was the space taken up by my hydraulic car lift, that had been propped up against one wall.

Darren came to visit recently so I took advantage of a second pair of hands to help remove some of the junk and manhandle the lift onto the floor. We then messed around trying to identify the optimal position for it. Due to the method of operation of the lift, the front-back position of the car changes by approx 45cm between fully lowered and fully raised. With the Stag as guinea pig we soon found a happy medium.

I was pleased with the result, the car ending up over 1m from the ground with the garage joists being the limiting factor and more to go on the lift. I plan to sink it into the floor and cover it with chequer plate or similar to enable easy use of a trolley jack in any position I desire.

I can now clear up the left hand side of the garage and make better use of the space freed up by the lift. I have also managed to lose 2 large boxes containing 15" minilites via Ebay this week so have even more space now!

The only annoying thing was with the Stag up in the air, I noticed the inside of the n/s/f wheel was wet. Closer investigation revealed a leaking caliper - doh!

Two Out and Two In!

2010-10-23T14:58:00.005+01:00

First to go was "Choccy" - my tax exempt 1850 Dolomite auto. Although looking rough with flat paint and rotten doors, she was actually in near perfect condition underneath with nice wings/wheelarches. Originally to be my rally car project, my purchase of the Herald a few years rendered her surplus to requirements. Her new home is with good friend and fellow Essex Triumph hoover, Mike Helm.

Next to go was my Honda Accord 2.2 CDTI Estate. This has been a fabulous reliable and economical car. I'm going to miss it's luxury, particularly the sound system which is better than in most premium cars I have experienced, not to mention its load carrying capacity. It's new home is with my friend and rally navigator, Darren.

And the reasons for the clear-out are here - a 41k mile Honda S2000 and an Audi TT 3.2 Quattro. Having sold the MX5 a few months ago, Ivi wanted a replacement car. She saw and liked the Audi but wasn't sure so looked for similar alternatives and found the S2000. I fell in love with it so we bought both!

Although totally different, they are both awesome to drive. The TT is refined, smooth and torquey, the Honda is a real screamer with a power band that comes in at 6000rpm and a redline at 9000rpm.

Happy days!

RBRR 2010 Completed Successfully!

2010-10-10T09:36:00.004+01:00

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/mikebishop

We did it.....But not without a bit of stress, we nearly didn't make the start!

With a car that I thought was pretty much ready, the Thursday before the event and the following Friday morning became frantic. With a short list of remaining "important" jobs to do, myself Colin and Darren spannered away like a well oiled machine.

The last job on the list was to overhaul the clutch hydraulics. Eight years of lay up have resulted in a spongy pedal with too much free play. This was supposed to be a quick job, but having not worked on Dolomites for over a decade, I had forgotten that the tunnel had to come out to get to the slave cylinder. This in turn meant that the parcel shelf had to come out first, itself hampered by lots of extra switches and non standard wiring that was attached!

To make matters worse, the master cylinder had corroded to it's studs making it a mare to remove - but eventually it was all in pieces on the garage floor. Then the panic really set in. The kit I had put to one side for overhauling the master had the wrong size seals in it. Worse still, the spring inside had broken. The kit I had for the slave was NOS and correct but the seal had gone hard! After much frantic head scratching, I concluded that the master cylinder internals were the same as Herald, luckily I had a kit. An old siezed Herald cylinder was sacrificed to the club hammer to donate it's spring! The slave was cleaned and re-built with the original parts and fingers crossed. I'm glad to say it all worked!

So Friday came, we packed the boot in the pouring rain and headed for the start. I was duly dismayed to find the overdrive not working again. A pit stop at North Weald car (thanks for the use of the canopy, lads!) had us jacking up the car and crawling underneath. We must have tugged the loom when putting the gearbox tunnel in as the cable had pulled off the solonoid. A quick fix and we were on out way.....well not quite as the starter motor had packed up and we had to push start the car!

However we made it to The Plough in good time, a first for us. More on the drive aound later!

RBRR 2010 - We're off!

2010-10-01T13:10:00.000+01:00

Yep as the title says,we're off! The car is ready but not without a fight.
The next update will be upon our return!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 21 - Nearly There!

2010-09-28T18:33:00.000+01:00

Been quiet on the updates recently as I didn't want anyone to get bored of reading them. However it's been a busy week!

Mileage to date: 735

I finally managed to get the topcoat sprayed onto the front panel, just before it turned cold and wet. It looks good, although the match isn't quite perfect and I messed up the lower corners on the final pass by laying the paint on too thin and too wet. The runs are too deep to lose by rubbing down, so I will blow them in again in the future.

This enabled the headlamps to be refitted - Cibie light units with Osram Nightbreaker bulbs, a vast improvement on the old sealed beams.

The rear brakes were re-bled and readjusted, giving a much firmer pedal, and fitted Koni shocks having found all the missing parts at last!

The re-cored radiator is now in, we had some further issues with temperature indication, eventually tracing this back to a faulty solid state voltage regulator.
The in-dash voltmeter has been changed for one that indicates a little more accurately than 1V low.

The engine oil and filter were changed, refilling with Millers 20/50 Semi Sport Classic. The old oil had only been in since March and still looked clean after 600 odd miles, however there was a fair amount of crap in the bottom of the oil filter bowl, so it was a change worth while.

I also fitted a solid steering rack mount, however this made the steering tight so I refitted the poly bush version again. Now the steering is a bit floaty, so I'll need to re-visit it Thu. I had thought that the little nylon rack damper pellet was on the driver side, however having now looked at the drawings, it would appear to be on the passenger side. It may be he reason why the steering tightened with a solid clamp on that side, and it may well now be missing, causing the lightness!

The stickers go on tonight for a final fundraising push at work tomorrow. Unfortunatly I have a duff set. I reckon they had been laid face to face together when freshly printed, resulting in colour transfer from one sticker to another. A shame as they now look a bit crap - but they'll have to do.

Jobs left for Thu are:-

Recondition Clutch Hydraulics
Check tracking
Re-check front wheel bearings
Look at rack mount again
Convert solid exhaust mount back to rubber
Change speedo drive gear (speedo reading 10mph low)
Wire up lights through relays
Refit front bumper (poss with spotlights)
Pack spares
Apply Rain-X to screen

It's going to be a busy day!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 20 - More Issues

2010-09-21T20:03:00.002+01:00

Mileage to date: 617

Well the car made it to the Driver's Meeting and back . . . . . under it's own steam!

Due to having to refit the lights and viscous coupling, we departed nearly an hour later than planned and were further delayed when the overdrive started jumping in and out only 15 miles up the road! Suspecting the switch we stopped to change it, only to break the terminal off the cable! With the cable bodged and the switch replaced, we continued but so did the problem. So there was nothing to be done but continue with no overdrive, dropping the cruising speed by a good 10mph!

This highlighted the next problem - the faster we went, the hotter the temperature gauge climbed. When we slowed down it dropped. Another pit stop to check for leaks found the rad cap to be loose, but refitting it properly made little difference. So again nothing more that could be done but drive even slower, arriving at our destination a good hour late!

The following day, I changed the overdrive solonoid and the temperature sender and headed of to the Plough at Enfield for the monthly meet of the Club Triumph North London area. Again we made it there and back, but again not without issues.

The overdrive seemed to work fine, but the replacement sender just indicated hotter than the last! And unfortunately the starter motor developed a fault and stopped working. It seems to be temperature related as it worked fine again when the car had cooled down. Something else to check!

Today, the rad came out and was delivered to Colchester Radiators for re-core. The tyre machine was put away and the garage cleared up. I had a good dig for a spare starter and true to form only managed to find a duff one. Normal service appears to have been resumed!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 19 - First Failure

2010-09-19T08:10:00.000+01:00

This is the state of the car at 0800s today (Sunday morning). It looks a lot better in white primer!
However I don't know if it will be going to the Drivers Meeting.

Yesterday whilst moving around the drive, the engine fan viscous coupling suddenly started making terrible noises. When checked the bearing had developed way to much play. Better to fail now than on the RBRR but annoying nonetheless.

I've exhausted all of mine and Colin's used spares - all no good, I have one more from Mike Helm, waiting to be tried before we go. Fingers crossed.

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 18 - Paintwork Continued

2010-09-18T08:41:00.001+01:00

Miles to date: 262

Work stepped up to frenzy pace yesterday, not only is the RBRR Drivers Meeting looming but I had entered the Sprint for a Chelmsford Motor Club 12 Car Rally the previous night!

Having left the car in a pink and blotchy state the previous evening, I masked everything off and applied several thick coats of grey filler primer. Unfortunately all I had to spray with was a 250ml touch in gun, so it took ages. With no chance to borrow a bigger gun for the top coat until the following day, I blew the headlamp and grille areas over with several coats of white using the small gun so I could refit the headlamp bowls etc to enable me to do the evening rally. I'll mask them off for the final coats!

I'm disappointed that the paint match seems to be poor, however I will invest in some white primer to be applied before the final top coat, we'll see if it makes a difference!

With the painting taken as far as it could, I turned my attention to the tyres. Picking the best set of 4 wheels out of my collection, after an hour of puffing and sweating, the new Yokohama tyres were fitted and balanced. I was quite impressed, two out of the four wheels needed no balance weights at all! We'll see how good my balancing is on the way to the driver's meet! The opportunity was taken to nip up both front wheel bearings which had settled in with a bit too much slack.

And the rally? Well we made it to the start. Darren couldn't nav for this one so Ivi my long suffering girlfriend agreed to step in at the deep end - she had never even done grid references before! Thankfully she could read a map, so with me plotting and her map reading we muddled our way around. Sadly stopping regularly to plot lost us way too much time, with the result that we had to cut several routes just to make the Time Controls in time.

We got all the way around with 17 fails and 26 minutes over time - and did not even come last! But most significantly, it put some more tough mileage on the car and proved the worth of the new brakes and tyres. I have never had a Triumph that stopped so well!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 17 - Paintwork

2010-09-16T22:18:00.003+01:00

Mileage to date: 185

Not so much driving since the last update as the car has been parked in the garage for the last few days as I gradually stripped apart the front end in preparation for re-painting.

The front panel has always had just a poor and thin coat of paint on it - almost certainly from the factory. With so many specs of rust, the only way to sort it was to strip it all off and start again! Swift removal of lights, grille, spoiler and bumper was hampered by rusty and seized bolts so took a couple of days.

Good progress was made today with paint removal and rust treatment completed. I was surprised that only one pinhole appeared - and that was behind the number plate so won't be an issue. I was especially pleased to find the headlamp mouting plates to have only surface rust, as these are common corrosion points. I did notice that neither of them were fully welded into place which explains why the lights had always shook. No plans to re-weld them at this stage as they will be easier to remove completely to access the panelwork behind which is also surface rusty. A coat of wax will suffice for now, until I have more time. If the weather stays ok tomorrow, I hope to complete the filling and re-priming.

The new tyres - 185/60/13 Yokahama A539's turned up a couple of days ago. I'll need to fit them before Sunday as I hope to use the car to get to the driver's meeting. I hope to progress this tomorrow also, although I'll need to move the Sprint first as the tyre changer bolts to the floor under the front of the car!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 16 - Snagging Continues!

2010-09-09T22:30:00.002+01:00

Mileage to date: 143

Starting to shake out a few issues now. The diff murmur seems to be no worse, so hopefully that will be ok. However the replacement overdrive switch stopped working altogether. I gave it a dose of electrical cleaner tonight, followed by some contact lube. The result is a much sharper click and more positive action on the switch. A quick test drive proved it worked, time will tell if it will last!

The nights are closing in now. Because of that, I used the lights for the first time since the MOT. They seemed pretty poor on dip beam, a check when I got home revealed a non-functional o/s dip beam and o/s inner main beam. I had had a feeling that the old sealed beam units were not going to last for long. The outer had blown, but the inner turned out just to be a corroded connection. After a dig around the garage, I turned up a pair of Cibie outers which were swiftly fitted. I'm sure I have a pair of matching inners too, but so far they have eluded me! We'll see what they are like tomorrow night on the way back from work!

Before and after!

Having ordered a set of 185/60/13 Yokohama A539 tyres today, if work is quiet, I hope to start cleaning up the wheels in readiness. Fingers crossed!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 15

2010-09-08T22:26:00.001+01:00

Mileage to date: 106

Having checked all the front suspension and brake system bolts for tightness, the road test commenced. I'm pleased to report that the brakes felt instantly sharper and more progressive, even though it will be a few miles before they are fully bedded in. I may end up changing the front hubs though, as my Sprint has the larger, stronger wheel studs wheras the ones fitted to the brakes are the earlier smaller type. It may be easier just to change the studs - we'll see!

A little more progress today, I finally got around to refitting the freshly painted heater fan. The engine bay is starting to look quite presentable now as I eliminate the rusty bits! Also on the topic of rusty bits, I removed the front bumper and old spotlight brackets, in preparation for repainting the front valance. The bumper was a pig, taking over 2 hours to remove due to stubborn bolts!

Progress will now slow because I'm back at work for a couple of days!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 14 - New Brakes!

2010-09-07T22:22:00.002+01:00

From this -

To this!

I fitted the "Trackerjack" front brake upgrade today. It all went without drama, although one of the copper brake pipes had got crushed in transit, so I replaced as a precaution.

The conversion uses a VW Golf vented disc, drilled to fit the Triumph hub and a Ford Sierra caliper mounted to the Triumph vertical link via a custom made bracket.

It's all on and bled through, I'll double check all the bolts are tight in the daylight tomorrow and look forwards to the test drive!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 13

2010-09-06T21:38:00.003+01:00

Not a great deal achieved today. Having just finished night shift, a good nap was in order and there were a few tasks to be done around the house. With that all out of the way I decided to sort through my stash of Sprint alloy wheels.

For reasons unknown, my car has always had an unmatched set.

Although at a glance they all look the same, two have the GKN logo cast into them, the others have just numbers.

When placed side by side, the GKN ones have a wider silver edging to the spokes and in my opinion look better that the others! So the challenge was on!

Unfortunately I had a lot less of the GKN alloys than the other type,
and most of them were damaged in one way or the other. Even having raided Mike Helm's stash, I could only scrape a total of four suitable for light restoration. Hopefully Colin may have one extra to make up the set.

With my stash out in the open, it became apparent that most of the tyres on them were perished beyond their safe lifespan, so I got the tyre changer out, worked up a sweat and whipped them all off the rims, pending disposal.

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 12 - Snagging Begins

2010-09-05T22:23:00.002+01:00

Now that the Sprint is taxed and MOT'd, my focus is to get as many miles on the clock as possible, over the next few weeks, to try and shake out any faults before the actual event.

Mileage to date: 51

Nothing much to report so far. I gave the car a good clean today, I should have took some photos! All the wheel nuts were checked for tightness, as were the front wheel bearings. The new bearing fitted to the o/s/f needed tightening a little. Fluid levels were checked and found to be ok.

On the way to work tonight, the overdrive jumped out a couple of times. As tapping the switch kicked it back in again, I suspect that is the culprit. I'll add it to the snagging list that I have started. Also included on the list is a bouncy n/s/f shock absorber and the occasional reluctance for the engine revs to drop cleanly when lifting off the accelerator. There is also a slight murmur from the diff, hopefully that will not get any worse!

Next big job - fit the vented front brake conversion.

Next big expenditure - 4 new tyres!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 11 "A Milestone Reached"

2010-09-04T22:00:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was a good day - the Sprint passed it's MOT. However it was not without a bit of drama!

With lots to do, the alarm clock had been set for early and I was out in the garage by 7:30am, with the first job to be done of removing the radiator from the Stag. This was an uprated "Supergill" rad with larger tubes and a thicker core and was just under a year old. Unfortunately it had started weeping from one of the side tank seams so had to be returned to the supplier for repair. Not a difficult job to do - only 4 bolts to remove and 3 hoses to disconnect. I refitted a standard original rad, so it will be interesting to see if the car runs any hotter.

With that job out of the way, it back onto the Sprint. With the MOT pre-booked for 12:00, there was no time to mess around. First job was to adjust the handbrake, to ensure even braking force to each wheel. Next up was to sort out a loose and deformed front subframe mount. This seemed to be due to some over-compressed rubbers allowing the retaining cup to squash against the chassis bolt tube, causing damage to both. Luckily I had some spare rubbers and retaining cups in stock. With the other 3 mounts loosened off, I was able to access the chassis tube to squeeze and file away the deformity.

With this job done and the subframe bolted tightly back in place, all 4 wheels went back on and the axle stands came out! This allowed topping up of the gearbox and diff oils and adjustment of the rear brake proportioning valve. The procedure in the manual was relatively complex, involving assistants and calculations based upon weight of fuel tank, car loading etc. However with no assistant available, a front brake upgrade pending and time running against me, I opted for the "suck it and see method" and set it up by eye.

With all jobs under the car done and time to leave looming, I put a couple of gallons of petrol in the tank, jumped into the car to drive out of the garage, only to find it cranked but wouldn't start - not even a cough. Never mind the fact that it drove itself into said garage a couple of weeks previously! I checked for a spark and found nothing.With panic setting in, and everything looking in place, I robbed the Piranha electronic ignition module from the Spitfire and she fired into life. I must have fried it whilst welding - bugger! No time for niceties now, it was cable tied into place, along with the screenwash bottle. Running seriously late now, still dressed in grubby boilersuit, off to the MOT bay we went.

Arriving 15 mins late at the test station is never a good recipe for scoring Brownie Points with the MOT man, so it was with a glum face that I handed over the keys. It all started to go downhill from there! Despite having previously checked that everything was working, one headlamp did not as did one of the screenwash jets. Thankfully both were quickly sorted. But it was about to get worse.

As the lad drove over the pit he called out "the brake pedal has gone funny". Looking under the car revealed brake fluid pouring down into the pit! Diving under the bonnet, I found a half empty brake master cylinder and brake fluid all over the bulkhead. A loose brake line into the bulkhead distribution block was to blame (or actually I was to blame for not spotting it on the final braking system checks!). A quick nip up with a spanner and a fluid top up thankfully sorted it! After all that, the car still passed - well happy!

So with a tax disc duly purchased (that hurt as most of the fleet is tax exempt), the car is in use locally "on test". I'll need to buy a set of tyres before going further afield, however we made it to work tonight!

Finally, my front brake upgrade kit was delivered, looks mighty good, can't wait to fit it!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 10

2010-09-02T23:05:00.001+01:00

Pretty much a full day's work in the garage today, with just a few stoppages for visitors, lunch etc. but greatly assisted by Colin who turned up to help after work.

Rear hubs re-assembled, rear hub/halfshaft assemblies fitted only to find them with too much end float. A lot of messing around and swapping of packing shims later, the clearance was reduced to an acceptable level. Although we had carefully noted the number and postition of the shims when dismantling, I reckon the thick coat of paint that I had put on the brake backplates had upset the calcs! Ending up with 8 thou less of shims, that seemed believable!

Next the rear brakes were re-assembled, brake master cylinder refitted and all pipes and unions checked. The brake system was then refilled and bled.

The o/s/f wheel bearing was replaced, despite cleaning and regreasing the original and it looking ok, when back on the car it felt lumpy, a new one was fitted from stock.

Finally having collected the bonnet back from the paint supplier, along with a litre of matched cellulose, that was refitted.

With the MOT looming tomorrow, there are still a few jobs outstanding, so it will be touch and go if we will make it - especially as the first job of the day will be to change the radiator in the Stag!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 9

2010-08-30T22:04:00.003+01:00

Not a lot of progress today - and not a lot going to happen over the next couple of days either as I'm back on 12h day shifts for the early part of this week!

However, being Bank Holiday, with work rather quiet today, I was able to sandblast the air filter box which was looking rather the worse for wear.

It cleaned up a treat, and after a couple of coats of paint it looks pretty good I think!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 8

2010-08-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

After an evening of good company and beer, a rather uncomfortable night in a tent on the hardest camping mattress that I have ever laid on, and a scenic drive around Suffolk in the pouring rain in the Stag, I managed a couple of hours in the garage tonight whilst the girls cooked supper and did the ironing!

Nothing major done tonight, just a few more loose ends worked on - The petrol tank filling, breather and outlet pipes were reconnected. The handbrake cable end adjusters which were both seized solid, were freed up and lubricated. But the majority of time was spent pondering on how to improve the broken exhaust hanger situated just in front of the axle.

The exhaust is one of the original Triumph Dolomite Club twin exit sports systems, but has never fitted particularly well. Worse still, the whole system hangs from just two cotton reel type mounts which never lasted long in tension as they were.

After a lot of messing about, I finally managed to get the position right by fitting a solid mount in place of the broken one, that should hopefully work for the MOT. However I think that the only real solution will be a complete redesign and re-manufacture of the way it is mounted.

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 7

2010-08-28T14:50:00.002+01:00

A short day today as were off to Suffolk this afternoon for Don Cook's BBQ mini beer festival. It will be nice to see old friends again.

Up and out to the garage early this morning, I was able to tidy up lots of loose ends today.

I applied sealer to all the new welds both inside and out where I could get to them, then sprayed the area inside the boot with protective wax. Next the petrol tank went back in. Annoyingly whilst hoovering up grinding dust from the bottom of the boot, some loose flakes of paint prompted me to have a little dig with a screwdriver, with a small hole appearing where the spare wheel sits, as a result.

The diff was filled with oil, and various brake pipes adjusted and connected. Odds and sods that I had previously sand blasted were primed and sprayed, including the heater fan. I was only using £3.50 rattle cans from the local paint shop, but am pretty pleased with the result.

The remains of the old under bumper front fog lights were removed, I think I will fit the correct underriders instead of replacing the lights, and the axle stands moved from under the sills to back under the axle tube. This will allow me to do the last bit (hopefully!) of pre MOT welding to the bottom of the sill, just in front of the n/s/r jacking point.

Another good tidy up in the garage will make it much more pleasurable to start work again another day!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 6

2010-08-27T21:03:00.002+01:00

Today's objective completed - rear axle bolted back in place! Nearly forgot one important part - the brake pipe that runs across. The original was covered in underseal and had a bit of surface rust in places, so I made up a new one in kunifer.

The strange object in the photo is the rear brake proportioning valve - the bit that I think caused some of the original trouble with the brakes. It's purpose is to reduce the braking effort of the rear drums but increase it proportionally dependant on increasing weight/load in the back of the car. The Sprint was the only Dolomite to have them, presumably because of their large TR rear drums being a mismatch for the rather puny front discs/calipers! Colin spent some time stripping it down and unsiezing it. I gave it a good clean up and a coat of paint before lubrication and re-assembly. It's now back on the car.

I've also taken the plunge and ordered a set of Jon "trackerjack" Jackson's vented disc brake conversion, hopefully this should sort things once and for all.

Finally just to keep a bit of pressure on, I've booked an MOT for next friday lunchtime - I'd best get a move on then!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 5

2010-08-26T22:23:00.001+01:00

Not a lot acheived today due to an extended power cut that locked me out of the garage (bloomin electric doors!) and a good snooze and early finish due to an impending night shift.

Welding on rear arch completed, welds ground, tidied and painted. Garage floor tidied and swept!

Axle back under car, ready to refit.

Polybushes fitted to trailing and track control arms.

The plan is to refit the axle tomorrow!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 4

2010-08-25T23:10:00.001+01:00

Although today was not as productive as yesterday, due to unplanned visits to the vets and various other interrunptions, I pretty much managed to complete my objective of repairing the rear section of the o/s/r arch.

I started by making a couple of templates for repair patches out of some thin card. Then the holes were cut back to sound metal and the templates / holes fettled to match. Then the new repair sections were cut out of some sheet steel and again fettled to match the hole.

The metal repair patches were then welded in, first the floor repair section then the arch repair section. Still well pleased with the performance of the welder, although the welds were not as neat as the day before as I had failed to clean off all traces of sealer and underseal! A good firewatch was kept too - all the light brown areas that can be seen inside the boot is a thick coating of waxoyl!

Looks neat enough from the other side though, and that's before any grinding. I'll probably paint with POR15 then apply copious amounts of seam sealer to try and ensure it stays watertight.

Finally late on in the day, I got a phone call from Maldon Shotblasting and Powdercoating to say the suspension arms were ready, so I rushed down and collected. Must say I'm impressed with the finish and the service (I hadn't expected them to be done until Friday!). In the interests of durabilty, I've gone for "plasti-coat" rather than standard powder coat, so hopefully it'll last.

Check out their website, the range of colours and finishes is mind boggling. They have even managed to powder coat a flower pot - it's on display in their showroom!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 3

2010-08-24T22:48:00.019+01:00

I'm pleased to report that yesterday's project plan is pretty much complete. The rot in the wheel arch was cut out, cleaned up and painted.

Repair panel made up, I was dreading this a bit as there were some complex curves and folds to replicate but am pleased with result.

I was also a little apprehensive about the welder as it was the first time that I had used it since converting it to Euro Torch spec, following wire feed problems. I needn't have worried, it worked better than ever before in my ownership and I was pretty pleased with the finished weld.

The axle was subjected to a final clean and de-grease, then primed and painted. I'm pleased with the tin of synthetic gloss black that I purchased from the paint shop last week. I hope that I will be as pleased with the matched up white when it is ready.

Next I turned my attentions to the rear section of the wheelarch. During "work planning" day, Colin (bless him!) got carried away with a screwdriver and found a small hole behind the mudflap.

Annoyingly, having removed the petrol tank and dug through the 1cm deep layer of sealer, the hole multiplied and became larger. More work on that tomorrow!

Finally, despite only being ordered lunchtime yesterday, two new rear wheel cylinders turned up from Chic Doig - fantastic service. However when measured, they turned out to be 3/4" bore whereas the ones taken off the car were 5/8". Chic is convinced they are correct, following a bit of research online by Colin, it would seem that different traders are offering varying sizes under the same part number! A bit more research required there I think. If anyone reading this knows the correct rear brake cylinder bore size for a 1976 Dolomite Sprint, then please get in touch!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 2

2010-08-23T22:06:00.002+01:00

A good day's progress in the garage today. Having removed the backplate to drain the oil, I decided to start on the axle seals, of which there were three - one on each side at the end of the axle tube and one behind the pinion flange. The pinion was the one that concerned me as the diff was the type with a collapsable spacer, therefore great care needed to be taken with dismantling and reassembly.

The workshop manual said to mark the nut position in relation to the pinion shaft, then count the number of turns needed to remove, then refit to the exact same position upon reassembly. A Churchill tool was shown locking the pinion flange to enable the nut to be removed. Not having one of these, I improvised by drilling a bit of angle bar and used it in conjunction with a stout tube. It worked a treat!

The seal itself was a pain to remove, having failed with a variety of bars and levers, I had to resort to chiselling it out with a punch, but eventually it gave in and came out. I used a magnet to ensure that any metal fragments that may have broken off were captured. The inner hub seals in the axle tube ends were a lot easier to remove. With all the new seals snugly in place, the pinion flange was refitted and the nut carefully tightened up to the mark. The axle was then prepared for painting.

Then the rain came, so I turned my attentions to the n/s/r wheelarch which had a couple of small holes above the jacking point. A good cleanup made them inevitably larger, so I trimmed back to good metal in readiness for making up a repair plate.

In the meantime, the brake master cylinder was stripped, cleaned, inspected and found to be serviceable. The same was done to the brake rear wheel cylinders which unfortunately both had corrosion in the bores, so two new ones have been ordered and hopefully will arrive in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow's tasks will be to paint the axle, fabricate and weld in the arch repair panel and then probably remove the petrol tank to enable repair of the small hole above the mudflap at the rear of the o/s/r arch.

Another Car Sold!

2010-08-23T08:33:00.000+01:00

Having had Ivi's MX5 advertised locally for several weeks with not so much as even a phone call, within 24h of putting an ad on the Pistonheads website, the car was sold, paid for and driven away by it's new owner - well impressed!

RBRR 2010 Preparation - Update 1

2010-08-21T20:22:00.003+01:00

Following last Saturday's investigative session on the Sprint, the essential work list for an MOT is currently as follows:-

1) Complete overhaul of braking system.
2) Complete overhaul of clutch hydraulics.
3) Renew hub and pinion oil seals on rear axle.
4) Renew o/s/f wheel bearing.
5) Cut out two small areas of rust in n/s/r wheel arch and weld in new metal.
6) Renew broken exhaust rubber mountings.

We also have a "nice to do if there is time" list. That includes:-

1) Cosmetic paintwork.
2) Upgrade headlights.
3) Upgrade horn.
4) Flush rad, change coolant.

There will be more to add for sure!

So far the front discs and calipers have been stripped, cleaned and refitted. Both front wheel bearings were cleaned and regreased, however despite looking ok, the o/s/f one feels lumpy so will be replaced. All 3 brake flexi hoses have been replaced by Goodrich steel braided items. All steel brake lines have been blown through with an airline.

At the rear of the car, the driveshaft/hub assemblies were pulled from the axle - they came out much easier than expected. The hubs were separated from the driveshafts with the help of 10T pressure from a hydraulic bearing separator, a bit of heat on the keyway and a tap with a hammer. The first shaft took off like a missile, knocking down a large lump of railway sleeper that was supposed to catch it! The second one would have done the same if it had not been tied down! All bits now cleaned up and awaiting delivery of the seals. The rear brake proportioning valve will need attention.

I decided that it would be easier to clean up the rest of the axle off the car, removal only entailed unbolting the shock absorbers, trailing arms, track control arms and handbrake cables.

As I have a set of polybushes in stock, I decided to send the trailing arms, track control arms and rear anti-roll bar off to be sandblasted and powdercoated. They should hopefully be done by the end of the week, by which time the oil seals should have arrived.

Finally, I ordered some paint. Although the car is Triumph White, previous experience had showed that a standard mix of paint code 19 came out too creamy, therefore a sample was required for matching. Therein came a problem - there were no loose paint flakes as I had scraped them all off before putting the car in storage so I ended up taking the whole bonnet to the paint supplier!

The Stag makes a good "pick-up" don't you think?!

Stag Steering Sorted

2010-08-19T22:24:00.001+01:00

Found my tracking plate stashed in a dark corner of the garage the day, whilst looking for tools to aid in dismantling the Sprint (which I didn't find, by the way!).

Took the Stag down to a quiet part of the local industrial estate, checked the front wheel alignment and found that following the fitment of the new balljoints and bushes, the toe out was off the scale of the gauge!

Half an hour later, with the alignment set back to neutral, the test drive home confirmed that all the twitchiness had gone and the roadholding had dramatically improved to a level better than every before.

Good result, but still have a rattle from somewhere over uneven surfaces, starting to suspect the rack!

RBRR Preperation Started at Last!

2010-08-18T14:14:00.001+01:00

After lots of bullying from my co-driver, we finally got around to discussing the work that needed to be done to get our intended vehicle, the 1300TC, roadworthy. The conclusion was that there was too much to do and that we had left it too late, so the discussion turned to alternatives.

Most of our two fleets were considered, as well as rough old Acclaim belonging to a friend, that was resplendent in that classic old colour turd brown - swiftly discounted by myself! The conclusion was to recomission my Dolly Sprint, off the road since 2001 due to brake issues!

So with the chosen day Saturday last, we dragged it out of storage, only to promptly run out of petrol in the farm yard - not a good start. We eventually got it got it home, got it in the garage and up in the air and started to make the inevitable jobs list.

More on that another time!

Club Triumph 3 Counties Rally

2010-08-16T23:06:00.001+01:00

With the weather having been rather poor on the preceding few days, it was with some relief when I opened the curtains last Sunday morning - it was the day of the Club Triumph 3 Counties Rally! It was also to be the first proper test drive of the Stag following it's front suspension overhaul.

Navigator Darren had travelled down from Lancashire for the weekend. As usual I had managed to keep him well entertained on the car front, with a full day in the garage on Saturday with Colin & myself, commencing work on our Round Britain Reliability Run Car. Update on this later!

We arrived at the start in good time. I busied myself with a quality control check on the sandwiches whilst Darren got on with plotting the route.With the grub tested satisfactorily and the map all marked up, it was soon time to go. A short while up the road, we came across some fellow competitors in a Spitfire who had suffered half-shaft failure. Bad luck for them, and nothing we could do to help so we pressed on, with Darren giving directions and me shouting out code boards as we passed them.

As the event was untimed, we proceeded at a leisurely pace enjoying the scenery, duly arriving last at the half way point. But no problem, Darren was swifter at plotting the final stages than I was in emptying the sandwich box! We headed off again, was nearly surprised by a flooded section and even passed a few other Triumphs.
Eventually we reached the finish (last again, couldn't really work that one out!) and confidently handed in our answers. A quick tiebreaker quiz followed (I hate tiebreakers!). Then followed the results. Not a bad effort, we were joint 2nd, but were bumped down to 3rd by the tiebreaker!

Congrats to the winners, and big thanks to Ellis & Peter, the organising team. Looking forwards to the winter one! The Stag ran well as usual, however since the suspension overhaul, the steering feelt twitchy, maybe tracking? And annoyingly the rattle that had been prevalent before was still there. More work required I think!

Stag MOT

2010-08-12T22:54:00.001+01:00

Last week was time to take the Stag for it's annual MOT test. I came away with a pass, but unusually also a few "advisories" as well.

Firstly the tester spotted that both bottom ball joints had split rubber boots and a little play. I was actually pleased for this as I had noticed when driving over rough surfaces that there was a rattle from the front steering/suspension. I had suspected the rack, but hopefully that was to be the cause!

Secondly, the screenwash pump failed to work. It would not even squawk when the switch was pressed! A quick look under the bonnet revealed the cause - the earth wire had pulled out of its crimp (most likely when I wiped the inner wings clean just before the MOT - oops!

The third and final advisory was for a plate on the bottom of the main chassis rail that was reaching the end of its useful life. I had actually welded this over a hole as a "temporary" repair a good 12 years ago - again, ooops!

The screenwash pump was an easy fix - touched onto the crimp at the MOT bay to obtail my pass, then re-crimped properly when back at home. Having looked at the front suspension, I decided to completely overhaul the track control arm, so ordered and fitted two new balljoints, two polybushes to the other end and two new anti-roll bar links. The welding will wait for another day!

I'll find out if it's all made any difference on the way to work tomorrow - fingers crossed!

Another One Ready To Go

2010-08-10T21:34:00.003+01:00

Fresh with my success in caravan sales, I turned my attention towards Ivi's MX5. We had decided a few months ago that it was time to find it a new home, but with all the other pressures of work, Triumphs and holidays etc., had done nothing about it until now.

She's owned it about five years and it's been lots of fun, however Ivi is not an classic car fan and she's decided the reg on it is too old for her image!

It's a 1991 Eunos V-Spec model with power steering, leather, electric windows, air con and limited slip differential all as standard. It's rust free and has done about 55000 miles. Advertised at £1895 ono, it's got to be a real bargain for someone!

I spent a whole day valeting the car thoroughly - inside, outside, under the bonnet and underneath. It's true what they say - a car only looks its best twice in each period of ownership - just after you buy it and just before it sells again!

MX5 anyone?

Empty Driveway!

2010-08-09T20:30:00.001+01:00

A chance conversation at the MOT bay, with another customer, led to the swift but timely departure of "Carrie" my classic caravan! With the caravan off the drive, I went off to work for a night shift. When I returned the following morning, as I pulled up outside the house, it struck me that I couldn't remember the last time the drive was actually empty, so a photo had to be taken to capture the moment!

"Carrie" was a 1985 ABI Ace 5 berth caravan. Back in June we were all booked up to go to Glastonbury Music Festival in a 1972 VW Camper. Sadly the engine on the camper terminally and unexpectedly failed two weeks before. Having paid a lot of money for a camper ticket, we were reluctant to camp in a tent, so Ebay was duly visited and "Carrie" became mine!

However with Glastonbury out of the way, I came to the conclusion that caravanning was not a hobby that I intended to pursue so "Carrie" had to go!

A Day of Sucesses

2010-08-06T00:02:00.000+01:00

I've had a very productive day today - this morning the Stag went for it's MOT and came away with a pass. There were a few advisories - wear in both bottom ball joints, the screenwash pump had to be coaxed into life and a pair of "temporary" patches that I had welded onto the chassis legs a good 15 years ago were approaching the end of their useful lives!

In the afternoon, I took the MX5 round to Mike Helm's workshop to change the gearbox. The gearbox in the car worked fine but had noisy bearings. When the original engine fried, I test drove the car that was to be the donor, and as the box seemed ok just swapped engine and box together. However I did the test drive with the roof down and the wind noise drowned out the hiss of the bearings - oops! So the plan was to refit the original gearbox which thankfully I had kept.

The whole job took around 5 hours - significantly quicker than I had expected and was helped along greatly by Mike and his 2 post car lift! Thanks very much Mike!

On the way home it became obvious that the car had been transfomed - I was amazed how quiet and smooth it had become.

Now, what shall I do tomorrow . . . . . . ?

Bye Bye Peugeot

2010-07-27T19:02:00.001+01:00

My campaign to reduce the number of cars that I own made a little bit of progress today, with my old rally car, the Peugeot 205 GTI departing to a new home.

The car had been in storage since I bought the Herald, and whilst it was very quick and a lot of fun, the Herald can't be beaten for smiles per mile of sideways action!

Seven Oaks Motor Club Autosolo

2010-07-26T11:04:00.001+01:00

Whilst booking a holiday a few weeks ago, I was sorry to realise that the dates clashed with the Club Triumph Autosolo, in which I had been looking forward to competing. However whilst updating the calender, I noticed that the 7 Oaks Motor Club were holding one at North Weald Airfield - local to me, on the weekend I was due to fly back. It would have been rude of me not to enter!

So bright and early yesterday morning, with the Herald all packed up and ready to go, off we went. I met up with the usual CT crew upon arrival, who were frantically boiling kettles and swapping wheels! There was a good array of tasty cars from all ages in the paddock, including a mini with a Cosworth turbo engine, a mint Sunbeam Tiger, a rare TVR Tasmin and the usual smattering of immaculate Escorts.

Once signed on, we were given maps of the test courses, I was pleased to see that they looked similar to last year - great flowing tests with a mixture of tight loops and flat chicanes. There were four different tests comprising two courses which were run first in one direction then the other. With three runs at each, the best two times for each test counted towards your final score.

The Herald behaved impeccably out on the course, as usual provided entertainment for all with a lot of sideways action and tyre smoke! Throughout the day, I improved my times on every run, with one exception when I "wrong tested" by missing a cone when the red mist descended over my eyes!

The end result for me was 6th in class and 26th overall (out of around 50 entrants), not bad as the Herald was up against some much more powerful cars. All in all a superb day that was beautifully summarised by the lady in the catering van who said to me "every time you come in, you park up with a massive grin on your face"!

Another Load Of Old Scrap!

2010-05-28T21:59:00.003+01:00

Last summer Ivi cooked the engine on her Mazda MX5 when it overheated on the A14. To this day I don't know what happened for sure, but I suspect the head gasket failed as she was belting down the M6 and she failed to notice the temp gauge going up!

Investigations revealed the compression on a couple of cylinders to be very low, so in the course of looking for a new engine, I came accross a cheap car that had already had a recon engine fitted to it. So it was duly purchased, the engine swapped and the remains put into storage.

The car was quite rotten underneath, so it's fate was sealed. The seats soon found their way into the Herald, and a couple of weeks ago I listed loads of bits on Ebay and started stripping it. By the time I had finished, there was not a lot left on the car, and the money raised from selling the bits had easily exceeded the purchase price - happy days!

A good session of digging around behind my garages produced enough scrap to more than fill it up, resulting in a 1.3 tonne load deposited at the local metal yard a couple of days ago. With the current price of scrap, it was happy days again!

Parking Sensors on a Modern!

2010-05-07T20:10:00.001+01:00

One of the three "modern" cars in the household is a Honda Accord estate. It's a great car that ticks all the boxes, but it's a pig to reverse because the rear vision is appalling!

Having heard a few good opinions about the sub £20 kits available on Ebay, when I spotted one that was metallic dark red - the same as the car, I took the plunge and bought it!

Fitting took around 5 hours (with interruptions) - not because it was complicated, but I spent a fair while deciding where to drill the holes for the sensors and most of the boot trim had to be removed in order to locate the reversing light supply cable. This was further complicated by the fact that the the reversing light is in the tailgate, the cable passing through the top hinge before disappearing under the headlining!

By far the most nerve racking part was attacking the bumper with the hole cutter, lots of measuring and sticking of masking tape preceded! However the final result was more than satisfying with the sensors looking like a factory fit. The audible warning works well, and reversing is now a much more confident affair!

Scrapheap Challenge

2010-04-29T19:11:00.004+01:00

Spent the last couple of days in Colin aka scrapman's back garden with various tools of mass destruction. The purpose of the visit was to dispose of the final remains of various cars we had previously aquired and robbed for bits -that had, according to Colin's lovely wife Michelle "outstayed their welcome"!

We managed to lose four cars in total - a Mk1 2000, a Mk2 PI, a Mk3 Spitfire and the remains of Vinny's metro (aka the TR9!). All were well past economical repair but bits of them have already helped a lot of other cars live on!

Colin and Vinny contemplating diff removal

Triumph 2.5PI cabrio

All loaded up for departure

Final resting place

Second load ready to go

A Good Day At The Races!

2010-04-25T21:17:00.003+01:00

Today saw the first Delado Motor Club rally sprint of 2010. Being quite local, getting up and travelling to the venue at Elmswood Farm, Burnham on Crouch was a fairly relaxed affair, with just a quick detour to the barn to change over to rally wheels/tyres.

Arriving at the farm in good time, I was greeted by a good spread of cars ranging from a Scooby and a couple of Corsa's to some classic Ford Escorts, a couple of Sunbeam Horizons and the ubiquitous bright orange Ford Anglia! It was good to catch up with old friends and familiar faces before the start.

The grass was a little damp from some overnight rain but it was not until the sighting laps that we found out how slippery the circuit actually was. So much so I nearly spun out at a hairpin! The sighting laps also highlighted how hard and bumpy the surface was, so I wound the shocks to a soft setting to try and compensate.

I was due to start in the middle of the field, so was hoping that there would be more grip by the time a few cars had gone around. However as I was waiting for the starter's flag to drop, it started spotting with rain again! I still managed a good clean round without hitting any cones, although the car understeered badly a couple of times - something it had not done before.

Next time out was even wetter, with some seriously slippery parts on the track, my time was slower. However by the third stage the rain had stopped and parts of the circuit were quickly drying out. This made for an unpredictable and interesting drive as some parts were slippery still but others with more grip! The car did lurch around badly though as I pushed harder with the suspension settings proving to be too soft.

After lunch, the sun shone and the final three stages saw some blistering times from all. My re-adjusted suspension was now perfoming a lot better. Unfortunately on stage 4 my rear exhaust box blew off at the joint, causing me a little distraction! Luckily I had prepared for this eventuality, with the box supported by wire at each end it stayed in place allowing me to finish the round.

Stage 5 felt that it went particularly well with the car flowing well around the cones whilst maintaining a good speed. Looking to better that on the final stage, I gave it everything but was slightly concerned about a new knocking/rattling noise that had developed underneath the car. End result was 3 seconds slower than the previous. We all helped pack away the cones as the results were totted up, all in all a successful day getting 3rd in class and 5th position overall.

On the road back towards home, it became quickly apparent that all was not well underneath the car, with the back end squirming around on acceleration and de-acceleration. Nothing seemed loose enough to fall off, so after a very steady drive we arrived back home without incident. Upon jacking up the rear of the car, it was soon obvious what the problem was - the n/s trailing arm bracket had come loose.

Slightly odd as I had replaced the chassis outrigger on that side 18 months ago! With the bolts and bracket removed, the reason was revealed. The lower bolt had wasted due to corrosion, which had also clogged the innermost threads. I had always intended to replace the bolt and had only refitted it as a temporary measure. When I originally tightened it down, the bolt torqued up onto the corroded thread instead of the washer/outrigger. This left a little slack in the bracket which became compounded by a little give in the outrigger where the internal spacer tube was a little shorter than the outrigger itself, allowing it to compress a little more under the extreme loading it got today!

A couple of replacement bolts sorted the issue and the subsequent test drive revealed much crisper handling and an annoying twitchiness that the back end always previously had seems to have been eliminated.

Another success!

Hydraulic Woes and an Old Friend Returns!

2010-04-11T21:46:00.002+01:00

Whilst moving from one storage shed to another a week or so ago, I re-aquainted myself with my long lost Dolomite Sprint. I've owned this car for over 20 years, but it was laid up in 2002 due to a then seemingly incurable brake problem. Although not having time to fully re-commission the car this week, I promised myself it would get a good clean up and service before going back into storage.

The car had been covered in a dustsheet, so was only a little dusty. However the chrome was tarnished and some mould had begun to form on the door trims and vinyl parts of the seats. There was also evidence of a mouse, but thankfully it doesn't seem to have chewed anything important!

A good wash a polish then ensued, followed by a good scrubbing of the interior. With bright sunshine and a breeze, it was a good drying day. Once dry, out came the vinyl sheen - result - nearly as good as new. A new oil filter and a charge of fresh oil finished the task with the car now ready to go back into storage. I hoping to try for a MOT within the next couple of months.

Next I turned my attention to the Herald. This had developed a disappearing clutch pedal during the CT Essex 12 Car Rally back in January. It was time to renew the seals!

A quick look underneath confirmed my suspicions that the slave wasn't going to come off without removing the gearbox tunnel. However it was in a fragile state and I was reluctant to disturb it in case it finally fell apart. After a bit of thought, I decided to cut an access hole in the side. This worked well and the slave was soon off the car and dismantled. The bore was fine, but the seal was knackered. A kit of seals and a good clean up then it was ready to refit.

Next it was the turn of the master cylinder. Again it came off and apart without drama. This time the seals looked ok, but as I had a new set, I replaced them anyway as a precaution.

With everything bolted back on the car, I found I could operate the bleed nipple through the hole in the tunnel whilst pumping the pedal by hand. A few strokes later and all seemed well. However when I pumped the pedal with the bleed nipple shut, I noticed a cloud of vapour rise from under the bonnet. Investigation revealed that the metal pipe between the master and slave cylinders was touching the engine block and had worn through!

Rather than replace the whole pipe, I decided to cut out the damaged section and rejoin it using pipe unions. This was quickly achieved with the use of a flaring tool. With the pipe now in two parts, it was much easier to refit.

Garage Progress

2010-04-06T20:27:00.001+01:00

I've been waiting for a break in the weather to finish off the front of the garage. At long last it seems to have got warmer! The two jobs that were outstanding were to render the front and paint the door. Now I've never done rendering before so did my usual research via google before asking various knowledgeable friends and neighbours and then going ahead with my usual combination of "what Mike thinks best"!

So it was time for the first mix. Starting in the alcove between the two garages (the bit that doesn't show!), I soon found out that what was good in theory was not so good in practice! The bloody render just kept falling off. A call to an "expert" neighbour had him in quick attendance, and much to my surprise, he couldn't get the render to stick either. Eventually he concluded that my sharp sand had too many large pebbles in it and these were dragging the render off the walls as it was trowelled. Some sieved sharp sand later and the results were getting better. Glad I started with the unseeen bit!

As I wasn't confident of getting an even finish accross the full width, I decided to separate the area with wooden battens cut to the intended render depth, and render alternate sections. As I also wanted to leave my brick piers exposed around the doorway, I cut some ply and covered them up.

Two days later, the job is done-whilst it is far from perfect, I'm rather pleased with the result. I'll let it dry for a month or so, then some masonry paint will cover the blemishes nicely I think!

Out From The Old And Into The New

2010-04-05T21:33:00.003+01:00

I had an unwelcome visit from the landlord of one of my storage sheds last month - unwelcome as he brought the news that he had decided to renovate the shed for a buisness let and gave me a month's notice to leave!

I had six cars in there and a small amount of spares. In total there were 30 cars to move belonging to various people. It was going to be a busy month.

In this shed I had the Subaru and PI, both of which start and drive, no probs; the Sprint and the TR7 V8, both which had not run for a several years but were still in one piece; finally the Dolly 1850 and the spares Stag, neither of which were going to run or drive in a hurry. I decided it was to be the difficult ones to move first. Thankfully they both rolled, so were pushed and winched onto the trailer with minimal fuss.

Next was the turn of the Sprint and 7V8. With a fully charged battery, the Sprint fired up almost immediately. That car never ceases to amaze me - it's always been a good starter, this time having not run for 4 years! Unfortunately the clutch was stuck, so I turned my attentions to the 7V8. This too fired up without drama, but again the clutch was stuck - bugger! With a bit of assistance, each car was pushed out of the shed, warmed up fully and started in gear. The TR7 clutch freed off almost immediately, but the Sprint refused to budge. The shed was located half a mile down a concrete track - it took four trips up and down the track before it finally gave in with a bang!

I'd forgotten how well the Sprint drove, the trips up and down the track wetted my appetite again so it was duly delived home and put away in the new garage. I'll be looking at what it needs to go back on the road again over the next couple of weeks

Thankfully after a few frantic phone calls, I found another suitable shed not to far from home. The new shed is actually nicer than the old one, being a lot more spacious and brighter inside. It's also insulated so hopefully the dampness will be minimised over the winter months. I hope that I will be able to use it long term - we'll see!

Dutch Night Rally Surprise

2010-03-26T17:44:00.001Z

Our trip to Holland didn't go quite as expected.

We travelled accross the tunnel Friday morning, stopping in beautiful Gent for lunch. Unfortunately it wasn't quite so beautiful as usual as the whole of the historic centre had turned into a building site for sewer works! After a brief stop we ontinued to our first overnight stop 's-Hertogenbosch (otherwise know as Den Bosch).

Upon arrival at the hotel, we met up with fellow CT members Colin and Michelle. After a quick freshen up, we reconvened in the bar and then went out into town for a very nice meal.

The following morning at breakfast, just as I was halfway through a very large cream cake, Ivi said to me "what's wrong with your face today?" - cheeky mare I thought, and carried on attacking the cake. Then looking worried, she said "it's getting worse, what's going on?" - at which point I started dribbling my cake! I had lost feeling in the left side of my face which had gone droopy.

Fearing a stroke, the receptionist summoned an ambulance and I was duly rushed off to the cleanest, quietest hospital that I had ever set my eyes upon. Having given up a couple of armfuls of blood and run through various other tests, it thankfully turned out not to be a stroke - I had contracted Bell's Palsy - which is basically facial paralysis caused by a mouth or ear infection.

Upon discharge, after a detour via the pharmacy for medicine we headed off to Haaaksbergen (about 1hr 30 mins away) arriving in time for a slap up Chinese meal and the start of the Night Rally.

After a tour of the impressive line up in the car park, it was soon time to be off. It wasn't long before we encountered a problem with the route book in the middle of an industrial estate, spending 20 mins driving around and around with Triumphs and other Classics all doing the same from all directions - chaos! Eventually working out a way around it, we carried on, looking out for rubber stamps, codeboards and regularity controls on the way! With the hard sections behind us, we settled down into the tulips and drove some lovely roads.

After the half way stop though, the excitment of earlier in the day was starting to take its's toll, with my eye starting to get sore and Ivi falling asleep, so 30km from the finish, we cut the route (literally across a field at one point, bloody satnav!)and headed for the end.

Despite everything, it was a great weekend with the Stag performing near faultlessly apart from the lead weights falling off my carefully balanced wheels! Doh, that will teach me not to re-use old weights again in the future!

Feeling A Bit Rough

2010-03-08T23:26:00.000Z

Just returned from the Triumph Spares day at Stoneleigh, near Coventry. This was the place to be if you were searching out that elusive part. I wasn't but along with a few friends cleared a few bits and pieces out of our respective garages in the hope that someone else would save us the trouble of taking them back home again! It was a rather good, if tiring day, with plenty of opportunity to catch up with old friends.

Back at home, the priority of the day was to give the Stag a health check prior to the forthcoming Dutch night rally. First job was an oil and filter change, then balance (or should I say re-balance as I only did them last week) the still wobbly front wheels. With the car jacked up I grabbed the o/s front and thought the bearing felt a little rough, albeit with no play. With a weekend of high speed motoring imminent, I decided to take a look.

Just as well I did, the outer bearing was fine but there was a lump missing from the cage of the inner, and the case hardening had disappeared from the rollers and race of the inner. A sure recipe for an unwelcome breakdown! A new bearing was swiftly fitted from stock, I'll be checking the other side asap I think!

Incontinence Cured

2010-02-23T19:50:00.002Z

I had forgotten what a pain in the arse that Stag inlet manifold removal was! Thinking I would have the leaky gasket replaced in an hour was wishful thinking.

I stuck the front of the car out of the garage door, popped the bottom hose and drained the radiator into a bowl, saving the antifreeze. With the car back in the garage again, off came carbs, airbox, coil, distributor and various pipes and hoses. This was just to get access to the inlet manifold bolts! Then it was out with the bolts, all accessible with a socket, bar the front two - removal of which took longer than the rest all together!

With all bolts out, as I lifted the manifold another couple of litres of antifreeze spilled out the heads, all over my nice clean, dry garage floor and down the inlet ports into the cylinders - doh! Then I remembered that draining the radiator in insufficient without part draining the block as well!

With the manifold off, the obvious distortion of the bottom of the gasket showed up the source of the leak. Two years ago I had assembled them smeared with grease rather than gasket compound, looks like it was insufficient to withstand the Stag's 20psi cooling system.

Not wanting to have to do this job again in a hurry, I had ordered a relatively expensive set of Payen gaskets - they are the best. With a little smear of hylomar around each waterway, back on went the manifold - but disaster, the bolts would not go back in.

This is a common issue with Stag inlet manifold replacement - if the heads have been skimmed, the manifold faces need to be skimmed also to align everything back up, but knowing how much to take off is a bit hit and miss. If the manifold is refitted before the heads are tightened back up then good alignment can usually be attained. As I had done all this when rebuilding the engine previously, I was surprised to have troubles. I tried all sorts of abuse with club-hammers and crowbars but to no avail. I even contemplated enlarging the bolt holes slightly, but decided to sleep on it.

Overnight, the answer came to me - the manifold was sitting too high due to the nice thick high quality gaskets I had purchased! A quick trawl online turned up a set of "thin" gaskets from James Paddock. A dry run on fitment when they arrived proved the theory with all bolt holes lining up without issue. Thankfully during the previous overhaul, I had had all the bolt holes in the heads helicoiled - it was easy to see how a slight misalignment on an original thread could easily cross-thread or strip upon re-assembly.

All done and tested now, hopefully it will remain watertight!

CT Presentation Dinner, Trophies And Lights Fixed!

2010-02-21T22:29:00.000Z

A drive to Milton Keynes yesterday took us to the Club Triumph Annual Presentation Dinner. Always a date to look forward on the calendar, this event brings together Club Members, friends and partners from all over the country (and this time from Europe too!) for a good laugh and a knees up.

Last night turned out to be one of the best club events that I had attended. I was proud to be presented with the Derek Pollock CT Driver's Challenge Trophy again for the 2nd consecutive year. Fellow Essex members also put on a good showing with Mike Helm taking away the Driver's Championship award and Mike Banks the Clubman's Trophy. Essex Area also took the accolade of amassing the highest total of area points in history - over 1100! Last year's Ten Countries Run awards were then presented, our baggage was considerably heavier at checkout, the following morning!

With the presentations done, it was all hands to the bar, the hotel promising to serve all night if required! What a great night, with so many friends together the jokes and tales flowed as freely as the beer! The only disappointment was having to arrive in the Honda as none of the Triumphs were in full working order!

Mike Banks, Wine Waiter!

Some of the Essex Crew!

Upon arrival home, having shook off the morning's woolly head (and the shame of not turning up in a Triumph!), I popped open the bonnet on the PI to try and work out why the lights had failed on Friday's rally. 10 mins with the tester located a faulty fuse. It had not visibly blown, but was a poor quality looking non-OEM replacement. I guess that one of the end caps had lost contact with the fuse link.

The main, dip and spot lights had all been wired up in a hurry via relays and an auxiliary fuse box, prior to the 2008 RBRR. I had never go around to labelling everything up - this greatly hampered fault finding in dark on the rally. Labels have now been applied!

CMC Derek Stone Memorial 12 Car Rally

2010-02-20T09:15:00.000Z

Chelmsford Motor Club run a series of monthly 12 Car Rallies over the winter period. We were hoping to build upon what we we learnt in the previous one and get a reasonable result, however last night it was not to be!

Plan A was to use the Stag, but with the building work on the house coming near to a finish, spare time had been in short supply this week and it remained in bit in the garage. Annoying as I'd hoped to use to for the trip to the CT Annual Dinner this weekend too.

So we used the PI instead. Although still needing a little choke to run properly, the car is useable, therefore no worries there.

This time the start was at Writtle, near Chelmsford. We arrived in good enough time to grab a bit of Pub grub near to the start, signed on, met up with the others and awaited our start time. Two other CT Crews had entered - Mike Helm and Colin Wake in the TR6 and Mike Banks with new nav Mark Rutter in Mike's Spit.

We had entered as Novices again (meaning that we got clues for the whole route at the first time control (TC), unike the others who got everything 15 mins before the start.

We arrived at TC1 in good time but were horrified when asking the marshal for our novices's instructions, he replied "but I only have expert clues here". Now expert clues are somewhat more cryptic and harder to relate to the maps, and only get you to the next TC when you collect the next set! There was nothing to do but give it a go.

After an extended roadside stop, Darren made a good effort plotting us a route for the first section. Off into the countryside we went, soon arriving at TC2, albeit somewhat late. However the next set of clues had us stumped, so we made a best guess of the route based upon the location of TC3 and the various quiet zones and SGW's (mandatory stop and give way) that we had pre-marked on our map. Darren did well again, making good sense of the instructions over the next few sections, but we were losing time working it out on each one.

All this lost time was adding up, soon we were the last car passing through each control. Just to make it worse, main headlight beam suddenely packed up. Whilst I was frantically poking about in the wiring, the course closing car caught us up - we were that late! Desparately needing to make some time back up, we cut some sections short (missing code boards on the way) to get us ahead of the closing car again. By now, the lanes were starting to ice up quite badly again and progress was slowed.

At TC8, we opened the sealed envelope given to us at the start, marked "Open at T.C.8". We were astonished when a full set of novice instructions fell out! We both couldn't stop laughing - what a pair of muppets we felt! The confusion had come about because we were entry number 8, but maybe the envelope could have been labelled a little clearer! Never mind, we had good fun trying!

Final result, we were 11 out of 12 (yes, not last amazingly!), with 11 fails and 33 minutes over time.

Incontinet Stag

2010-02-14T09:14:00.001Z

I've been noticing a bit of dampness in the vee of the engine for a month or two now, but the garage floor had always stayed dry. However more recently a puddle of antifreeze appeared under the car after a good run. I have a collection of minuture torches and mirrors that a dental surgeon would be proud of - it was time to put them to good use.

On the Stag engine, water in the vee can only be due to a few things - leaky water pump, leaky inlet manifold gaskets or a loose hose connection. Initial investigation led me to suspect the water pump as there was a lot of water in it's relief port. Annoying as it was less than a couple of years old! However I still wasn't sure so I ran the engine until really hot, turned it off and poked around with the mirrors again.

Then there it was - I spotted a drip. It was coming from the inlet manifold gasket after all. So new gaskets are on order and hopefully the car will be back on track for the trip to Holland in a few weeks.

A Shocking Repair

2010-02-12T22:17:00.001Z

Colin came back today with more tyres and rims, this time we were refitting the best tyres back onto steel rims for autotesting use etc. I had a few of my own to do also, including swapping one of the tyres on the MX5 as small hole had mysteriously appeared in the sidewall.

I had presumed that it was just a result of kerb contact, but upon removing the tyre this is what I found.

Yes that is a patch on the sidewall. Scary that when I first got the car, that tyre (which was already on it) did 70mph + on many occasions!

A Tyre'ing Afternoon' s Work!

2010-02-12T08:10:00.002Z

Colin aka Scrapman has started his preparations for the Triumph Spares Day at Stonleigh, where we and a few other friends always have a stall to peddle some spare parts! Knowing I have a tyre changing device, he asked if he could bring some wheels over to have the tyres stripped off.

So it was out with the trusty tyre changer, and a few hints and tips later the tyres were flyng off the rims - well some of them anyway! The oldest tyres were hard and inflexible, most of them with tubes in for good measure - they did put up a bit of a flight. Never mind the cold, we soon worked up a sweat!

With the job done, we stood back and surveyed the results - 17 rims and 17 tyres in separate heaps - good result. So back in the car they all went, with more promised for tomorrow!

Alloys wheels anyone? Genuine 60's minilites perhaps? Maybe period Cosmics? Or just common or garden Sprint wheels? All on Spitfire pcd and all up for grabs, message "thescrapman" on the Club Triumph Forum and they could be yours!

An Early Spring Clean!

2010-02-10T23:05:00.000Z

Following a big nag from my friends, I'm pleased to say that I have got a job done today that has been outstanding for a long time - namely clearing out one of my lock-ups. I'd been wanting to do this for some time but due to the enormity of the task, I'd been putting it off!

The main reason for this was the regular kicking of my wallet that the rent had been giving me - at over £12 per week, cost effective it certainly was not. I'd been renting this garage from the local council and subsequent housing association for nearly 20 years. However following previous disposal of the very rotten car I had stored there all this time, all that remained was my stash of engines, gearboxes and a rusty old Herald tub!

This is what greeted us when the door was opened!

In alternating sunshine and snow showers, within a couple of hours it was all loaded up and ready for redistribution elsewhere. The tub and other rusty parts were scrapped, the rest put into temporary storage, pending re-organisation of the barn! Big thanks to Mike Helm and Colin "Scrapman" Wake for pushing me into getting on with this and lending a big hand!

A good pub lunch finished off the day, followed by the most important task - the phone call to the housing association to cancel the rent!

Nearly Caught Out!

2010-02-08T21:41:00.000Z

Three car tax/SORN reminders through the post today - one for the MX5, one for the Dolly 1850 in storage and the other for the PI. A good prompt to dig the PI's paperwork out, only to find the MOT was due to expire tomorrow.

A quick phone call in the morning got me a 5 o'clock appointment and bought me some time to give the car a quick check over. With nothing untoward found, it was off the MOT centre we went.

Much to my relief, I got a pass with just one advisory on a rear tyre that was near the limit on the inner edge - something I already knew about.

No more progress on the running issues though!

Distrubutor Swapped But Still Not Good

2010-02-07T13:06:00.001Z

Moving on from the metering unit, the next part to substitute was the re-mapped distributor. Having run the engine and checked the timing with a strobe to confirm it was still set to 11 deg BTDC, a standard dizzy was then fitted.

The car started up straight away, but once warm still coughed, spat and hesitated without the choke a little out. A good thrash up the road and back showed that the spit back had been significantly reduced, but was still there.

So what now? The car ran without the choke out before, albeit spat a bit when cold. The only other thing that differs now to then are the valve clearances. These are currently set to 20 thou, wheras they were at 16 thou before (due to the non standard cam). There is no excessive tappet noise so I will leave as is for now.

All the signs point to a weak mixture, it has been suggested to me that I may have an air leak so that is what I shall investigate next.

Brakes Fixed But Still Running Rough

2010-02-05T22:17:00.000Z

Pretty much as the title says!

Having dined, I duly adjourned to the garage and found the master cylinder to be empty. Upon checking the braking system for leaks and finding none, I bled the system - lo and behold the pedal was restored! I suspect that the master cylinder is the culprit, it was rebuilt around three years ago and seals don't seem to last for long nowadays.

So the trip to the petrol station was recommenced. The car ran a little smoother than before but still needed the choke out a little and coughed and spat back through the inlets even when up to normal temperature. There did not seem to be so much grunt with this MU by comparison either.

So the next step is to check the timing, adjusting as necessary. If the successive road test still gives a bad result, then it will be a distributor swap, but that's another day!