Nothing Doing this week

Have not had a chance to work on the 6 this week. Couple of things came up. I got a wicked case of poison ivy from clearing a fallen tree this past weekend and just have not felt like working on the car. Hopefully it will clear up a bit by this weekend so that I can get the interior back in, install the new lever shocks and rear diff mounts and then get Kelly to help me bleed the brakes.

Weekend Work

Planning on getting the 6 back together this weekend so I can drive it again. Going to tackle the transmission issue tomorrow morning and then hopefully get the brake master cylinder reinstall and brakes bleed Sunday afternoon. I'll take some pictures and post early next week.

Why don't people use the correct tools on things?

Ok, so I am trying to finish up the few first things on my to-do list on the TR6. I have the brake MC thing figured out and have decided that the booster is ok and will not need rebuilding. The next thing on the list was to change out the transmission fluid and top off the rear differential. One of the issues with Triumphs is that they use square drain and fill bolts. This requires you to use either a 4-point or 8-point socket. Not that big a deal, I just went and bought a set at Sears for around $20. Well, the big problem with the square bolts is as soon as someone tries to take them out with any other sort of tool (Vice-grips, regular wrench, ect) the bolts get a bit rounded off and the 4/8 point sockets will no longer fit. Both bolts on the transmission case have been attacked with some other sort of wrench. The drain plug is not that big a deal because you have plenty of room to work but the fill plug is up over a ridge on the case so you cannot get good leverage with any tool but a socket. This means I now have to pull the transmission tunnel in order to get enough leverage to get the fill plug out. So I have that to look forward to. Luckily I think the fill and drain plugs for the differential are in unmolested shape and should be able to be removed with the 8-point sockets that I have.

In preparation for removing the transmission tunnel, I removed the middle dash support and discovered that a previous owner has ruined a perfectly good original dash support by covering it with a cheap pleather. I had to remove all of this in order to get to the bolts that secure the support. They had applied the pleather covering directly over the bolts. Grrr. Anyway, I am going to try to remove all the adhesive from the support and see if I can clean up the original covering. If not, I think I will clean off everything and paint it in a flat black crinkle finish. Anyways, plan on removing the transmission tunnel sometime this week. After getting that done I'll re-install the brake cylinder and servo and hopefully have it back in drivable condition by late next week.