Out and About at Easter

Have been busy with the TR7 over Easter. Put a fair few miles on it, firstly used it for work most of the week, then good Friday we recce'd for our annual treasure hunt, getting in 92 miles. Saturday drove to the lock up, firstly to address the spare prop shaft I replaced on the Gold TR7 after HCR, this had slight vibration and I thought might need turning by 90 degree increments to cure, but still slighty out of balance whichever way I turn it.
Then did some work on Gills car prior to MOT, fitted replacement starter as the solonoid was a little dodgy, checked all the usual MOT items, slight leak on brake pipe so fixed and re-bled, then took some photos for the Insurance agreed value cover.
Sunday was spent on a little polishing and cleaning of the Gold one, then to a fellow Norfolk area members house to try out the new dome type gazebo, followed by a very nice barb-b-q.
Easter Monday was the TR Register Wensum Group run, around 30 cars from TR Reg, Stag Owners, CT, and TSSC met at Norwich for a run in the sun to Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, a nice relaxed run of around 65 miles, had a coffee stop on the way at Schole Inn, near Diss, then a stop at the Queens Head in Dennington for a refreshing Aspells cider, then on by way of Framlingham and Wickham Market to Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, TR Reg had obtained free entry to the site and a good parking area away from other cars. Spent a couple of hours there, looked at the Anglo Saxon burial sites, whilst some walked to the Deben River.
Then had a great meal at The Wilford Bridge Inn near Sutton followed by a quick run home.
Let the good weather continue.

Ready for MOT

TR4's and 5, popular colour is red.

At the Schole Inn.

More Triumphs at Schole Inn.

Line up at Sutton Hoo.

HCR and Drive it Day

HCR 2011

Mixed feelings on the HCR this year, we had a lovely relaxed run up to the Od Stone Trough, lovely sunny day, avoided the A1 until Newark, then came off at Wetherby and went through Blubberhouses and Skipton. No car problems on the way.

In the Car park at Old Stone Trough.

The first half went ok, great driving roads looking for the first 3 reservoirs, then a drag down motorways to Derbyshire, then more great roads through Derbyshire and Staffordshire, though we struggled to find the reservoir at Buxton, we had a sat nav we had borrowed but should have learnt how to use it before we set off!! We hit a large Hare in Derbyshire which smashed the nearside driving lamp.

Problems with the propshaft started coming down the M6 from Stafford and just got worse along the M54 into Wales restricting speed to 50ish in the hope it would not break.

We managed the 2 castles in Powys before turning for Telford hoping for a steady drive through Gloucestershire/Oxfordshire/Bucks/Beds then to Essex and Suffolk.

Not the best route, it was really slow going, with delays at Telford where Network Rail had shut crossings and the diversion signs where all over the place, at one point we returned to the same shut crossing.

We where then held up for a while whilst an abnormal load was taken across a bridge near Evesham.

In Oxfordshire we saw our only sighting of another Triumph since last seeing Martin Randle at a Castle in Powys, a red Stag, looking for a border sign like ourselves.

It was getting light by the time we made Buckinghamshire, and sun was up by Bedfordshire so we had lost loads of time and at 9 we still had 98 miles to go. Down the A14 the propshaft was vibrating like crazy so we again slowed down, Gill making the call to say we would not get there untill 11am. It was suspected by whoever took the call that most would be gone from the finish by then so we just diverted into Norfolk and home which was about 30 miles nearer, a decision we should not have taken as we later learnt there where other late finishers and we could have made it although we would have lost a few points!

My only critisism of the event is that the mandatory Powys visit was just a bit too far from the finish to allow recovery if anyone has any problems and was probably more suited to those with big 6 cylinder cruisers, but then I guess other smaller engined 4 cylinder cars finished. Will do the event again though and hope for no problems.

Drive it Day

I had organised a route through Norfolk for Drive It Day, 65 miles of nice country roads, some Tulip maps so no one would get lost, we had a promise of 10 cars from CT and maybe 5 from TR Reg, but only 5 cars turned up which was dissapointing, especially as a lot of time goes into organising this type of event. Those that made it enjoyed a nice sunny day, some spirited driving saw the route to Sandringham covered quite quickly so we adjourned to the Feathers at Dersingham for Lunch and a pint. We then returned to Sandringham, a large number of classics where seen on the day, Fakenham Car Club had about 20 cars outside Sandringham House, we spotted a large group of Jaguar owners having a posh picnic at Great Massingham, and various other smaller groups along the way.

Outside Sandringham House gates.

Sandringham House Grounds

Pre HCR prep

Not much to do to the car prior to HCR, did a quick oil change today, and with an MOT due also changed trackrod ends, these had a little bit of wear, which I am sure would have failed.
Having the 4 post lift made these jobs an absolute doddle.
Looks like nice weather for the drive to Kelbrook, via York for dinner with family.

Part 3 of the Axle Dilemma

On Friday I received a set of halfshafts with the bearings fitted from S and S Preperations in an attempt to cure the problem with excess endfloat on my axle. They had been pre-fitted to an axle at their premises at my request to ensure there was no problems with bearings and collars which are now a different supplier to original items. First look when I received them was that all bearings and collars look and measure identical as previously supplied items, but a closer look at halfshafts shows some difference in wheel hub and in the machined surface where bearing and collar sits so this may be the problem. Also they have been able to get the circlip into its groove.

I am sending my originals back to S and S for checking, I suspect there is a difference in the shoulder the bearing is pressed down onto. I watched the axle reconditioner press a new set of bearings and collars onto the half shafts, which used around 2 tons initially, rising to 4 tons when nearly down, before rising rapidly to around 10 tons which we took to mean the bearing was fully home on shoulder. However we could not fit circlip as retaining groove was hidden under collar and when half shafts re-fitted to car I still had massive endfloat.So not the fault of the axle reconditioner, apologies to them.

Original Halfshaft on left, newly supplied Halfshaft on right, note difference in wheel hub and different profile of machined surface.

Halfshaft being fitted - after fitting to my axle this has cured the end play problems,

at last it is driveable.

I also had my Minilite replicas back from the platers on Friday, I work with the co-owner of Aerocoat, at St Olaves, near Lowestoft so got very good mates rates for this.

New tyres where obtained from Anglian Triumph Services. Apparently 185/70 13's are now hard to come by and instead of the Kumo's I wanted Dave found me some Enduros, which seem like good value with a decent tread pattern.

The original alloy centre caps where behond repair, they are very badly dented, so I searched the net and found a set of four, plus Triumph stickers, and 16 wheel nuts at Specialist Car Products at a very good price.
I put a fair amount of miles in on the new wheels at the weekend and the ride is much smoother now, and does not seem to have comprised handling. They are also far better in the wet than the Avons which where hopeless. Hopefully removing the harshness which the Avons, combined with uprated suspension and hard bushes caused will help my back which is still not fully cured after my disc operation.

New tyres and wheels fitted, they dont quite fill the arches like the

MGF wheels did but I do like the look of them.

Electric Kenlowe Fan Thermostat

As my Kenlowe fan controller with the horrible probe that sits in the radiator hose had gone haywire recently, I searched around and found a single speed, electronic controller by Kenlowe where the probe is fastened direct to the rad. Purchased over the net, this was fitted at the weekend. I already had the wiring in place via a relay, including a over ride switch and a light to tell me when operating, the new unit comes with a wired in relay so it was just a matter of removing the old relay and controller and re-wiring.

Old Kenlowe Thermostat controller. Wish the car still looked like this!

New unit with built in relay fitted, also has fuse fitted to fan feed.

Over ride switch and fan light just under radio on centre console.

New temperature probe on surface of rad, white staining and rust on rad is evidence of leaking top rad hose where the in-hose probe went. Once fitted engine was run up and temp set by a small adjuster on body of Electronic controller. That was Saturdays job.

Sundays job was to help fit a 4 post lift into a friends barn.

I picked the lift up from work for £25, a bargain, this was surplus as part of my job in clearing space for a new Lotus production line. It is a Laycock 4 post lift, a hydraulic ram operates wire ropes in each leg, thus lifting all 4 corners together. It came disassembled, so we spent a couple of hours working out how to put it together. It will be wired up this week, there is 3 phase in the barn so lucky there. Will be a usefull asset when finished. First job will be the donuts on the barn owners early Lotus Elan, part of the deal is I wont be charged for the space.

Another job this week was to drop in my KN Miniator wheels to the platers. The low profile Avons on my MGF wheels are past their best and much too solid and harsh, so will put some standard tyres on the smaller Miniators, hopefully giving my poor old back a better ride.

Miniator prior to plating.

Trust No One Part 2

So half shafts are off the car, managed to grab this not very good photo of one before they where taken away. Clearly shows how the bearing and spacer are either not pressed on enough, or they have moved, bearings and oil seal should be tight against plate, I cant see how its moved as they need 2 tons of force to press on. Perhaps they had a first day apprentice on the job. No further progress as they have not received new bearings, so another week of the road.

Trust no one!!!

To say I am p---d off is an understatement. My tales of woe go on! As has been recorded here on my blog I had my axle reconditioned before Christmas by a transmission expert, highly recommended by a few Norfolk people with classics, the re-conditioning included crown wheel and pinion, diff bearings, pinion bearing, and wheel bearings on the halfshafts.

When I re-fitted the complete axle to the car, it seemed OK, and although not totally quiet, the horrible whine had gone.

It has got noticeably noisier as the weeks have gone by, last Friday I noticed that on the straight, reasonably quiet, but on a long sweeping bend there tends to be a noise from either side, suggesting wheel bearing problem.

So further investigation was needed.

I jacked up the rear wheels, and noticed a good 1/4" play on the rear wheels, both sides, I could physically pull the wheel in and out by this much which explains the noise.

I took the wheel off, and pulled out the halfshafts to find the bearing retainer collars ULC2350 are fitted the wrong way round, they have a groove round them for the circlip ULC2362 which is not fitted to either halfshaft, the circlip should lock onto a groove on halfshaft to keep collar and bearing in place. This means that eventually the collar and bearing could work loose and move down the shaft, they have!! Either that or the collar was not pressed on far enough in the first place.

Picture showing bearing retainer collar wrong way round, no lip showing on collar, the groove on halfshaft for circlip obscured by retaining collar which has moved.

Diagram clearly showing Circlip ULC2362 and Retaining Collar ULC2350, along with Bearing and Oil Seal. Not totally clear, as I did it wrong in the past, but soon realized, however the experts had the parts as I supplied them wheel bearings, which where a complete kit and they should have seen the circlip when they took off old bearings.

This is how it should be, with lip in retaining collar and circlip ready to be driven down and to lock in position with groove on halfshaft.

Needless to say I have had a few arguments with a less than apologetic supplier. They had the cheek to say take the axle off and bring it in. Now I have them coming to house to remove the half shafts, take away and replace bearings, then return to re-fit! They wont be getting a coffee!

On top of this problem the Kenlowe Fan Thermostatic control unit has now gone bonkers, fan comes on at low temperature and stays on, or works intermittently, even with manual override switch. Fan is Ok when wired to battery. It is the type with the capillary tube into rad hose which I have never liked, I have never got a good seal with this on both my sevens so was going to change anyway. I may try the thermostatic controller with the sensor tube that straps to rad.