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.

Selling the Triumph??

Some news on the classic car front. I may be selling the Triumph. If you are interested drop me a line! Reason why I would sell it? Well, the classic British Roadster that I always wanted was an Austin Healey Sprite Mk I, commonly known as a "Bugeye" or "Frogeye" Sprite. I have recently found a few for sale around Atlanta that are affordable and figured that this would be as good time as any to make the switch. Depending on how much the Bugeye costs and how much I sell the TR4a for, I may even have enough left over to get the Nissan Patrol I have been trying to get for the past few months. Guess I'll just have to wait and see how it goes! As soon as I know anything I'll update my readers here!

Again, If you would be interested in buying my 1967 Triumph TR4a, drop me a line at clifclavin@gmail.com

Electronics Fixed

I fixed the fuel and temperature gauge this weekend. Both gauges run off a voltage stabilizer that feeds a constant 10v. I knocked the power wire off of the stabilizer when I was painting the passenger footwell. Hooked the hot wire back in and everything was back to normal. That is until I took the TR for a nice long drive and the radio stopped working! Grrr, dang old cars. Anyway, that was an easy fix. The driver side footwell speaker had come a bit loose and grounded out on the body. I took the speaker out for a bit so that I can get it mounted better when I have some time.

Otherwise the TR is running great. I can tell that the carbs (or state of tune of the carbs) don't really like the colder weather. The engine really hums when the ambient temp is over 75 or so but when it is below that there is some performance drop off. If I ever get around to learning how to rebuild and really tune my carbs then I am sure that I can fix this by tuning the car every spring and fall.

That is about it for now. Kel and I have started a morning boot camp workout thing, hope to see if I can drop a few lbs and finally put some work into getting my knee restrengthened. Waiting on the Nissan Patrol guy still as well. Have to kick around prices a bit more. It is a tough call because it is such a rare truck but the price is just a tad to high at the moment. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Lucas strikes back

Well, as it is said about old cars, there is always something.

I got the seats back in and the brake rub fixed on Tuesday. After getting that done, I decided to give the TR its first wash (yes I've had it a year and had not washed it yet). So I took extra care to be careful where I was spraying water and made sure to get it dried off as soon as possible. Once done I stood back and admired how good the car actually looks, even with a 20 year old paint job that has seen much better days. Decided to fire her up and take her for a nice spin. Start her up and don't you know it, the temp gauge and fuel gauge have stopped reading. I figured it could be a bit of moisture shorting something out so I drive a around and bit and decide to check on the gauges the next day. Well they still where not working on Wednesday. The thing I discovered about those two gauges in particular is that they are both hooked to a Voltage stabilizer that delivers a steady 10v to the gauge loop so that they will read. I am guessing I must have done something to this between painting or washing. I will check it out this weekend and hopefully get the gauges back reading normal.

Triumph of the Mountains

I finally got the chance to take the TR on a long road trip this weekend. I made a trek to the N. GA mountains to do a shake down run on the brakes and see how the TR handles some curves. Well, it did quite well. Dare I say that the TR can take corners as fast as my MINI. The brakes did well except for one annoying design fault. In corners, the outside front brake rotor has a habit of pushing the outboard piston back into the caliper, so your first press on the brake after a hard turn tends to head very far to the floor. I was expecting this so I didn't have any pucker moments. IN the turns the car has almost no body roll and the engine pulls great in 2nd gear on exit. The engine did struggle on some of the steeper climbs but I think it did quite well for a 40 year old 105hp lump. Tires held very well though made plenty of noise. The handling was very neutral. Front in turned in lighting fast and the back stayed in line though it would hope and step out a bit when exiting a corner under acceleration, though not enough to warrant any counter steer. I wish the MINI handled this well. I know no why these cars (TR3, 4, and 250) where so popular in the SCCA race scene 40 years ago. Add a little umph under the hood and these things where hard to beat. The TR held up great, better than I did on a day when the air temps where in the high 90's. It even made it through a brief rain storm on the way home. I am just happy that it made it through the trip without a single hicup. Water temp never got near 1/2 on the gauge (thanks to water wetter and a 160 degree t-stat), oil pressure never wavered and the engine just kept humming along. This little trip under very harsh conditions have me very confident that the TR can make nice weekend drives to the mountains when the temps become a bit more bearable to the pilot.

One interesting note, I pulled up behind a sweet looking 1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk. Wow, a very beautiful car done up in glossy black paint and nice shiny chrome. My car was getting waves and gawks for most of the trip but when I pulled behind the Sky Hawk my car disappeared, and for good measure.

Rebuilding the TRs brake calipers

Ok, I spent Saturday afternoon tackling the job of rebuilding the front brake on my TR4A. I used a rebuild kit from Victoria British, it included new pads, anti-squeal shims, rotors, flex hoses, new retainer pins, all new gaskets, and some new mounting hardware for the rotor/hub assembly.

All in all the job was pretty easy and straight forward. A few things to note below.

First off, the rotor assembly on the TR4A is unique. The wheel hub mounts outboard to the brake rotor. So, in order to remove the brake rotors you have to take the hub completely off of the stub axle. Pretty easy job, only really tricky thing is getting the grease cap off the end. After that it is very easy to take the whole assembly off and then detach the rotor from the hub and replace with the new one. This allowed me to examine the wheel bearings and to add a little more grease to them. The picture below shows the stub axle after I have removed the hub assembly.



Here is a picture of the new and old brake rotors. The old rotors are quite glazed and have a lot of rust on them. Hoping the replacements help the braking a bit.



Here is one of the brake calipers after I got it off the car. You can see it is in rough shape. I ended up having to split both of them down to two halves. This allowed me a little more room to clean them up and some clearance to get the brake pistons out to replace the gaskets.



This is where it got tricky. When I tried to remove the old brake pistons only one of them would move freely. Guess this is why my braking performance has been a bit sub-par. The three that where stuck took some persuading with my handy pair of vice grips and a BFH. You can see below just what kind of shape they where in. One of the little nuances about this car is that the OEM brake pistons where made out of chrome-molly, just the kind of stuff that brake fluid loves to eat over time. So, this is what ends up happening to them. I am going to order a new set of Stainless Steel brake pistons this week. Hopefully I can get them in and on the car by next weekend.



So the TR has it's wheels back on but no front brakes on it. As soon as I can get the new pistons in it should only take a few hours to install them in the calipers, get the calipers back on the car and then bleed the whole system. Next thing on the list is to go after the rear brakes and hope they are in better shape than the fronts.

I did find out some interesting info regarding the brakes on the TR. Apparently I can swap on the front brake from an early 80's Toyota Truck to upgrade the system from a 2 piston set up to a 4 piston system. The only modifications that you have to do to the system is buy new mounting bolts and fab up a custom flex line (metric threads on one end and SAE threads on the other). The write up I read about doing this had a test that showed a 30 or so foot improvement in stopping distance from 40mph. So that has been added to the end of the to do list of the TR.

That's all for now. I am in the Mid-west this week (MO, KS, NE, IO, fun fun fun...) so I should have another car review depending on what Avis gives me this time.

Front Brakes are here

Ordered the front brake rebuild kit from Victoria British last week. It showed up today, guess that gives me something to do this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing how the car stops with all new hardware up front. Figure I will take the rear drums apart to inspect them while I am working on the fronts. This should give me a better idea of when I will need to learn how to work on drum brakes.

Still no oil dripped from the oil pan with the new gasket in place! (Yes there is oil in the car). Since the new gasket has helped so much I am rethinking replacing the gasket on the rear differential. I can drain the oil I just put in it to reuse and then replace the gasket and stop the seeping and dripping.

I also cleaned up the top a bit last night. I drove the TR to work today because the high temp is going to stay at 80 or below. I had never cleaned the rear window and I alway thought it was just fogged up real bad as plastic windows do. I got to cleaning it and it has cleared up very nicely. If it wasn't for the few rips in the top it wouldn't need replacing. As it is I am hoping that I can squeeze maybe another year or so out of the top and replace it when (or if) I get the car painted.

That is it for now. I am sure I'll have a new car review next week while in New York, guess it depends on what Avis gives me.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hope everyone has a nice 3 day weekend coming up. I know with the temperatures going to be in the upper 80's all weekend hear in Atlanta I'll be spending some time by the pool.

Installed an emergency bonnet release on the TR yesterday. TR bonnet release cables have a bad habit of breaking when you least expect it. When that happens you have a heck of a time getting the hood open. It usually involves drilling a hole in the passenger footwell or using a broom stick from underneath the car. The emergency release installed nicely and will keep me from getting in this mess.

Next few projects in line on the car:
1. I need to get a new tachometer cable, tach needle bounces around, doesn't read and does some other crazy stuff. I already have a replacement tach but also want to get a new cable.
2. Need to change the oil and when I do that I plan on changing the oil pan gasket. Hopefully this will stop a few of the bottom end leaks on the engine.
3. I am going to pull the seats and try to free up the seat sliders. Drivers seat will only move forward a bit and the passenger seat is frozen in place. With the seats in the car, I can't get enough leverage to get them to move and I don't want to soak the sliders in WD-40 while in the car. Pretty easy to remove, I think there are only 4 bolts per seat.
4. Brakes, I hope to order all the stuff to do the front brakes in the next month or so.

Triumph Returns

I got the TR fixed last night and was able to take advantage of some nice weather and drive it to work today. Repaired the broken radiator hose, hit all the lube points with the grease gun, changed the rear differential oil and gave everything a good once over. Car is running great! Last few things I need to do before doing the brakes this summer; I need to change the transmission oil (but I have to figure out a way to get new fluid in the fill hole that is on the side of the transmission case), change the fuel filter and change the oil and oil pan gasket. After that it will be on to replacing the brakes.

MOTD 5

Got back from MOTD 5 as well as some business related traveling early last week. Kel and I had a great time. Wish that the weather up in NC had been better on Saturday but you can't have everything be perfect. Got a good number of clean runs on the Dragon through out the weekend. Kel and I did a bit of hiking in Joyce Kilmer and plan on doing a bit longer hike next year. All in all a very relaxing week. Much needed considering that I am in a stretch of only being home for 3 out of 16 days. But, if I am not traveling I'm not making money.

Plan on getting a bunch of work done on the cars this weekend (Triumph, Lexus, and the MINI). The idea is to finish the brake work on Kelly's Lexus, rotate the tires on the MINI (fronts are a bit used from the last weekend), and to finish the repairs (radiator hose) to the TR and do some other work (grease whole chassis, wash the car, change the transmission fluid, and change the rear dif fluid. I bought a suction pump to drain the rear dif.)

I'll out up an update after the weekend and may have a new car review depending on what I get on my trip to Virginia