The Good and the Bad.....

The Bad: I decided to take the TR6 on a short drive before we headed up to the mountains for the weekend. Car was running great, weather was good but cold and the drive was going quite well until I pulled back into my subdivision. That is when the car decided it just wasn't going to let me put it in gear at all. The clutch peddle went to the floor and nothing but grinding noises would come from the transmission when I tried to put it in gear. Luckily I was able to match revs and get it into 2nd gear which allowed me to limp it home. Got home and took a look, no fluid in the clutch master cylinder and a new spot of liquid on the driveway where I had stopped while pulling out to let the car warm up. I have not gotten under the car yet but I am betting the slave cylinder finally went. Figured as much since it looked a bit rough when I replaced the master last year. Got the new slave ordered today along with a rebuild kit for the front right brake caliper and new seat covers! That will give me a little to do in order to spiff the car up for any potential buyers.

Now for the good: The first long road-trip in the new XC70 went great. Car handled the full load well. Cruises very nice on the highway, very comfortable and has enough umpfh with the turbo to make passing easy. Handled remarkable well on the twisties although you can definitely feel the extra weight and higher center of gravity on the car. It was nice to have the AWD for the drive home, roads where a bit slushy from the snow storm Saturday night. Seat are great, much more comfortable than the Lexus and MINI seats. I don't find my self getting as tired driving this car as I did the Lexus, the seating position is just better. All in all a successful shakedown cruise for the new land yacht.

Adventures in Alternators....Pt II

Well I got the new alternator in over the weekend. I figured yesterday evening would be as good a time as any to give installing it a shot. All the mounting hardware match up perfect and all the spacers that came off the old one worked perfect. Everything lined up and bolted up just right. Now the tricky part was making sure I wired it all up right. I guess I got lucky (kind of, had a little help from plenty of TR online forums) because the car started right up and the Ignition light went off, thus showing that the alternator was in fact charging the battery. Victory is mine!!

Finished the alternator off, looked at the clock to realize I still had a bit of the afternoon left to kill. Decided to tackle installing the rear tube shock conversion kit that has been sitting on my workbench for about 6 months. Pretty easy install, conversion brackets mount right up to where the lever shocks where and the new tube shocks went in pretty easy. Had both sides installed in about 45mins and the car back on the ground. Gave the rear end a good shove and what do you know, it didn't bounce. Before switching out the lever shocks the car would bounce up and down about 5 times before stopping!

I plan on giving the TR a little road test this afternoon, I'll report back on the findings tomorrow. Who knows, I may even get a wild hair and actually install the glove box, license plate light, and heater control wire!

Working on the TR6?!?!

Yep, going to be doing some work to the TR6 Friday. Have a day off from work so I figure I will get a bunch of the small stuff that I have been meaning to get to out of the way. Replace the speedo cable, install the glove box, install the new sun visors, install the spare tire mounting kit, install the new heater cable and whatever else I can find in the spare parts bin. I'll take a few pictures and update everyone on the work sometime Friday afternoon.

Staging

Going to be cleaning up the garage in the next few weeks. Hopefully this will let me reorganize my workbench and get a handle on all the random TR6 parts that currently form a nice pile. My wife and I are also installing some new shelving and storage cabinets in our basement. The storage cabinets will give me a place to sort and stage all the parts for the TR6.

Not sure when I am going to get to work on the TR, still may be a few months. It has been running great this summer (minus the broken speedometer, the iffy front brakes and the front carb that eats damper fluid, but hey it is British!). I do plan on changing the oil in the next two weeks. Other than that not much doing in TR6 land.

Dang I'm lazy....(TR6 Update)

A quick update on the TR6. I've been driving it around a few night a week. Engine is running strong and having no problems with the heat. I've been pretty bad about working on it the last few months. Still waiting to find the time to repair the brakes, upgrade the suspension, install some of the interior bits and install the radio. Just been lazy and the hot weather and draw of the pool on the weekends has not made doing any of this work a top priority. I'll get some of it done this summer and fall in preparation for the big transmission swap and re-wiring project this winter.

Weekday work, gearing up for good weather...

Received the new clutch master cylinder yesterday. Ebay seller did a great job getting it to me quick. Also won the auction for the rear tube shock mounts, so that job is added to the list of to-do projects. Hopefully I can get the new clutch MC installed and bleed tonight or tomorrow. Then maybe this weekend I can get the glove box installed along with a few other interior/trim bits and pieces I have not gotten around to yet. Plan on doing the whole front brake job sometime towards the end of the month. That will involve a run to Harbor Freight to find a brake flare tool and then picking up the new calipers and brake line at Autozone. Also going to read up on how to touch up paint. See if I can find somewhere to mix me up paint to match the current color and then do some touch ups on the few bad areas. If that goes well then I may try to re-paint the rear end in the correct flat-black color. I'll go grab a peek at the '73 TR6 down the street to make sure I get the exact color and area to be painted correct.

More Leakage....

Drove the TR6 to work today since it is going to be near 70. Figured I would get some good top down driving in before the nasty weather hits tomorrow and this weekend. Anyway, I drive to lunch and discover that there is some sort of fluid on the new plastic floor mats that I bought (glad I bought them, now I don't have to pull the carpet out again...). First thought is that the brake servo and MC is leaking again. Nope, fluid isn't blue (I used some left over ATE Super Blue brake fluid) so what could it be. Get to looking around and it looks as if my clutch master cylinder may now have a leak, great. I'm not a big fan of rebuilding when I don't know how old the part is or how many times it has been rebuilt. Decided to go with a new MC I picked up off of ebay for about $60. I'll park the car until the new one comes in, install it and then think about rebuilding the one I pull from the car. Keep it around as a spare I guess.

Month by Month Plan

Ok, here is my long term plan for work on the TR6. Trying to keep it to one project a month for time and cost reasons...

March: Front brakes and rear tube shock conversion (both sets of my lever shocks are dead)
April: New steering rack and replace o-rings in carbs
May: Transmission work? Replace tach?
June: Go through all front suspension bushings and check frame mounts
July: Rear brakes
August: Enjoy driving....

I think I will be putting the rewiring off until next winter. Everything works now but is not pretty and I just don't want to take the car off the road when prime driving season is coming up.

Now Motoring Topless......

Pulled the hardtop off the TR6 yesterday. Pretty easy, only took about 10 minutes and the help of my future brother-in-law to help lift it off. Decided to take the 6 for a quick spin with the top off. Tell you what, I really liked the car with the hardtop on but I love the thing with the top off! Everything about the car is just better with the top off. Glad to have a true convertible sitting in the garage again. I had to order a few nuts and bolts to make sure I have everything to mount the soft top sometime this weekend. I think I may also get the chance to tackle the front brakes this weekend. I also may have sourced a cheap transmission, more to come on that later. Right now I am thinking once I get the brakes done I may replace the steering rack (lot of play in the current one) and then convert the rear to tube shocks. I snap some topless pictures of the car this weekend.

On the road again, with the TR6 that is....

Got everything put back together on the TR6 Wednesday night. Drove it around a bit that night and then drove it to work yesterday. Changing out the rear shocks has made a big difference, it tracks and ride a lot smoother now. Brakes are still pulling left, guess that means a trip to an auto parts store and time to upgrade the fronts to 4 piston toyota brakes. Transmission is a little smoother with the new fluid but still grinds a bit. Guess I'll keep my eyes on ebay for a new tranny that is not too far away. Not much planned for the weekend. I may install the glove box and some other little trim bits. It is getting close to the time where I also may pull the hardtop off and install the convertible top. Maybe next weekend. That's it for now.

Wow, work 2 days in a row!

I can't believe it either. I have actually worked on the TR6 two days in a row. Let's see, what did I work on....

Cleaned out and replaced fuel filter (wow was it dirty)
Almost finished bleeding brakes (not done yet but getting there)
Installed Luggage rack (The chrome is a bit dull but the rear deck just looks better with this installed instead of the black blank offs)
Installed new heater control valve (not hooked up to the pull switch yet because I am still waiting on a new control cable)

Plan on getting the seats and everything back in the car tomorrow or Thursday so that I can have it running by the weekend!

Rear Suspension Work Done

Got a bit of a case of cabun fever yesterday and the poison ivy rash has cleared up a good bit. Decided to grab some tools and get going towards putting the TR6 back together. Started off by getting the transmission tunnel back in the car and bolted down. Didn't get the rest of the interior in yet, I want to replace a few more under dash things while I can move around under there. Figure I will install the glovebox and new heater control valve, along with hook up the fresh air hoses that are missing from the drivers side. Got the front right brake bleed, just have the front drivers side left to do.

Moved on to the rear of the car. Installed the rebuilt lever shocks that came with the car. Also went ahead and installed the new poly differential bushings. Differential mounts are all in good shape, good thing too since they are a pain to repair. I did get the car fired up and ran it for a bit since I have not driven it in about a month now. Hoping to get the interior back in this week and be able to drive it around this coming weekend!

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.

Weekend Work

Well, the weekend is almost upon us. Going to do a little work on the TR6 and try to drive it a bit. Plan on trying to give the car a tune up and balance the carbs. It seems to idle a bit high (don't know for sure because the tach tends to sit a 1000 rpm no matter what) and I know it is out of balance. Heading up to Gainesville, GA to visit a car buddy and hoping that he has a bit more experience with carbs than I do.

Heading back out of town next week. This trip takes me to the frozen plains of the mid-west. Flying into Chicago on Monday and then end the trip all the way over in Kansas City, MO. Should be exciting, hope the weather holds up.

TR6 Brake Bleed

Bleed the brakes last night on the TR6 in an attempt to fix the pulling issue. After the work, the car is still pulling a bit to the right but not near as much as it was. Only thing I can figure now is that the caliper on the front right is sticking. Guessing that the pistons have gone a rusted to the caliper much like the fronts in the TR4 did. I am going to put in a few more miles this weekend a see how the brakes hold up. This will determine if I go ahead with the 4 piston upgrade for the front brakes or if I can hold off on that. If I do go ahead with replacing the calipers I may as well replace the steering rack boots (which I have), double check all the front suspension bits, and replace the rear lever shocks (which I have). So driving impressions from this up coming weekend will determine what I do next to the car....

Shipwright's Disease: Stage 1

Ok, place my first bits order with The Roadster Factory. Ordered a bunch of parts that need replacing on the car. Figure this is the first of a few large part orders I will be making. Guess I need to inventory and label the spares that came with the car so I can organize everything when the order comes in.

For those unknowing about Shipwright's Disease see an explanation below....

Shipwright's disease

Goes something like this:

Sailor owns boat.
Boat has burned out light in galley.
Sailor decides to change bulb.
Sailor notices socket is corroded, decides to change socket.
Sailor notices wiring frayed while trying to change socket.
Sailor decides to change wiring.
Sailor notices galley ceiling slats are rotted while changing the wire.
Sailor decides galley ceiling slats need changing.
Sailor notices ...

this goes on and on and on and on and pretty soon, Sailor is undertaking a
major renovation of his boat because of a burned out lightbulb.

Starting work on the TR6

Finally got the 6 up in the air yesterday and poked around. Underbody of the car is in great shape, no rust at all. One of the biggest pluses I found is that all the rear differential mounts are intact (!) so that saves me a few hundred bucks in repair. Front steering rack is going to be added to the project list, needs new boots (which I have) and some serious adjustment (which I need to learn how to do). I was going to bleed the brakes but found that my bleeder will not fit over the master cylinder opening. The master cylinder cap has a hole in the middle of it so I need to order a new one (this has been the source of the mysterious brake fluid spray all over the engine bay when I finish driving). This will allow me to adapt the old cover to my bleeder, all I have to do is drill a hole, add a hose fitting and connect it to the pressure bleeder and I will be good to go. I think there is some back up in the brake system that is causing the car to pull left under braking. When I got the master cylinder cap off it was filled to the brim with fluid, I wicked off some with a paper towel (making sure not to get any on the paint and to completely wash off any I did) leaving the master cylinder about half full. Went for a quick drive (to see if adjusting the rear brakes had helped the pull issue) and when I came back the master cylinder was backed up and completely full again. No idea. Going to empty the whole system and refill it to see it that fixes the problem. Once I have that sorted I will replace the DOT 4 fluid with Silicone DOT 5 fluid so I don't have to worry about small brake fluid leaks eating any of the paint off the body.

Have a parts list worked up and right now it looks like I can come in under budget. First thing is to get the brakes figured out so I can drive her around a bit more and get a feeling as to what else needs fixing. I think I may also go ahead and change all the fluids (Oil, coolant, rear diff and transmission). We'll see if changing the transmission fluid cures any of the grinding in 2nd and 3rd gears.

TR6 Pictures and Snow!

Well the TR6 sits protected in my garage now. I got the insurance switched from the 4a to the 6 yesterday. I have classic car insurance through Hagerty and I could not be more pleased with their service. Rates are great and the website is easy to use. It only took me 5 minutes to switch coverage between cars. Their customer service called me later in the day to confirm and tell me that they had e-mailed and mailed me copied of my insurance card. Only think I had to do extra was send them a photo of the car. I highly suggest them if you have a classic that you want to insure.

Below are some pics of the TR6 as it sits right now. I have all the spares that are with it sitting in a few boxes. I plan on going through them tonight to see what is usable and make a list of what I have. As you can see form the pics the car is in great shape, no rust (gave the underside a much better inspection last night, all clean!) but the interior and the wiring is a bit disheveled. I'll get rolling on the brake fix sometime in the next few weeks. That will let me drive it a bit and start figuring out which project to hop on next. I guess after the brakes I will have to pick a time to take it off the road while I pull the tranny, rewire everything and redo the seats. Anyway, on to the pics (Bonus Pic of my house in the snow late last night at the bottom).

TR6 to do list

I pick the TR6 up tomorrow. Really excited, can't wait to tear into it and get to fixing it up. Just a quick list of what I know I need to do first...

Rebuild front brakes (Plan on converting the front brakes to Toyota 4-piston brakes)
Recover seats
Replace dashboard warning lights (OEM parts are unavailable so I am going to try to adapt the TR4 warning lights to fit)
Remove transmission for rebuild
Design new headliner for Hardtop
Tuneup/balance the carbs

That is all I have off the top of my head. Some pretty big projects in there (transmission) and I am sure I will find a few more to add to the list once I really get in and under the car.