Tinkering with the Triumph

[Father Ted]

I think I will order new anti-roll bar bushes as well.

In fact I ordered a complete anti-roll bar overhaul kit...



Actually, once cleaned up a bit the bushes didn't look so bad. Took the anti-roll bar off, which is a lot easier than on the Zodiac. Only took a few minutes.



The anti-roll bar off the car and one of the old bushes.


One of the links, which as it turns out are more in need of replacing than the bushes, as they are both loose and wobbly. Unfortunately the studs supplied in the overhaul kit are too short. These screw into the ends of the anti-roll bar and the link bushes are fitted on them. As it happens the old ones were fine once I had cleaned them up, so no problem.



Before I put it all back together I scraped the underseal and rust off everything and gave the anti-roll bar a lick of paint.

[Father Ted]

More tinkering today...



First of all sprayed the heater box with Smoothrite. Looks OK but I had to leave the garage door open for ventilation, and as it was very windy some dust etc has got into the wet paint. Hopefully when the paint has fully hardened I can flat it back. Also it does look VERY shiny. Maybe I should have used satin finish rather than gloss.

ALSO, my mate down the road (Triumph Stag & several 50s & 60s motorcycles) warned me that spraying with Smoothrite clogs up your spraygun.
He was right.

The second picture is the wiper motor which I was about to re-fit when I realised that it would be the only part on the bulkhead that hasn't been replaced or stripped and repainted.

Someone had attempted to improve it by painting some silver paint on just the bits that they could get a brush to without taking it off the car, so it looked terrible.



Cleaned up the bare metal with wire wool and white spirit. Does anyone else think that "Steel Wool Hank" sound like a Country & Western singer? Actually I didn't use this coarse stuff. We are almost in Surrey, you know, nothing coarse allowed here, so I used fine grade.



Painted the black bit with an acrylic aerosol I bought at "Wheels Day" last week, and the job's a good 'un.

[Father Ted]

Yay! I have started re-fitting bits.

[Father Ted]

Re-fitted some more bits today, and pulled the engine bay wiring back from inside the car. Most of it comes through the bulkhead on the nearside, and has a big wiring grommet. I carefully pushed & pulled the loom through the hole, and then threaded it all through the new big grommet that I had bought. It was a tight fit and reminded me a bit of childbirth, (but maybe not quite so yucky or emotional!)



I photographed everything when I took it apart and this is proving to be very useful when putting it all back together. How did we manage before digital cameras and laptops?



The loom had been hacked here to add an in-line fuse (15A). Not sure what this is for but I think it is something to do with the alternator conversion. Anyhow I have tidied it up with the proper non-adhesive vehicle wiring loom tape.

And finally, a reminder of why you should not mix alcohol and the internet...

I've got the horn!
A pair of horns to be precise. After partaking of a few tinctures late last week, presumably in celebration of the Royal Wedding I went on-line and noticed that a Triumph parts supplier had a special offer on pairs of two-tone horns, as fitted to most Triumphs.

So I clicked "buy now", and then forgot all about it until the postman knocked on the door today...

And delivered this pair of plastic copies of the metal items that should be fitted to my car.

[Father Ted]

Replaced the windscreen washer tubing.



£1.50 for 2.44 metres, just enough for 2 cars! Bargain!

[Father Ted]

Lots more tinkering this weekend.



Re-fitted brake master cylinder, and new brake pipe, coil, solenoid, cables etc. Put heater back together with new valve and re-fitted it - only managed to scratch it once.

[Father Ted]

I had hoped to have the car back on the road this weekend but Mrs Ted kept finding other things for me to do...



Anyhow, nearly finished now.

I also bought 2 new tyres as the rear ones were both almost down to the wear bars on the outside and looked very old as the rubber had little cracks. I think the weird rear suspension on the Herald may have something to do with the wear being more on the outside of the tyres, but I will put the new tyres on the front and see what happens to the rear tyres now.

[Father Ted]

Almost everything back together now...

Just need to put the wheels back on, and re-fit the seats and maybe I will be enjoying a topless classic summer.

[Father Ted]

As for the underbonet work Ted, absolutely TOP! Anything you still feel you need to do or?

Yeah - the rest of the car...

Anyhow, today I was determined to get the car back on the road, not least because the (dubious) MoT runs out on Friday so I want to get it sorted by then.

I wanted to adjust the handbrake, as I thought it could be better and according to the workshop manual it can be adjusted just behind the lever.

So, I pulled back the rubber gaiter on the handbrake lever - and there was another perished one underneath!


Removed the rotten rubber and discovered that you cannot access the handbrake adjuster without removing the cardboard cover over the gearbox, which I am sure would disintegrate if I tried to remove it. (I know I am going to have to replace this one day - but not now...)

So I got under the car and found that the a**hole who undersealed the car, and probably fitted the new handbrake gaiter, had also undersealed all the handbrake linkages! Cleaned and greased everything and was able to adjust the handbrake at the rear wheels.

Put the seats back in, connected the battery and I wish I could say it started it first time - but it didn't. However it would have done had I not forgotten to connect one of the low tension leads to the coil. Had to clean a couple of dodgy electrical connections to get all the lights working and then it was time to test the brakes, before looning around the local streets to see if everything still worked.

Some photos of the whole car for Aaron:

Should probably have put the hub caps and wheel trims back on, but it looks quote sporty without them.

Starts first time every time now, and the brakes feel good. Clutch still needs bleeding though, which is a real pain as access is really difficult unless I remove the cardboard gearbox cover thingy.

[Father Ted]

New thermostat housing arrived yesterday, so I fitted that (very carefully!) and also the new air filter that I ordered at the same time.

And guess what? The old air filter was not the right one for the car, it is much smaller.



And the bolts that hold it to the carb had the wrong thread. Whoever worked on this car before really was a bodger.

Took lots of photos for TSSC insurance valuation then took the car for a spin, booked MoT (which expires tomorrow, and was dodgy to say the least) and then checked that the new thermostat housing was OK - which it was - BUT.....



AAAARRGGHH! Noooooooooooo! Clutch fluid had leaked on to my new paintwork! The clutch had been a bit spongey, so I thought it just needed bleeding.

So I had a look, cursing myself for being a cheapskate and re-furbishing an unknown autojumble part rather than buying a new master cylinder and found that it was not leaking.



See - no leak :?. With the help of a mirror it became apparent that the fluid had somehow overflowed from the top of the master cylinder. But how?

AND, I STILL have the small water leak from the front of the engine :grr: :grr: I have replaced every hose, pipe, gasket and seal on the cooling system of this fecking car and it still fecking leaks. Does anyone know if there is hidden core plug on the front of the engine?

I am really p***ed off with this car, or if I am honest, with myself for buying it. Every time I think I have fixed something I find more problems, mostly caused by past bodges.

Mrs Ted hates the car, and the amount of time I spend on it (and she doesn't know how much money I have spent on it.

If it passes the MoT tomorrow, I will repaint the bit where the clutch fluid leaked, and then sell the little fecker. If it fails on anything serious I would like to put it out of its misery, but will probably stick it in the garage and forget about it for a year.

And last week I paid to insure it for the next year......!

[Father Ted]

So, the good news. The Herald passed its MoT.

So I celebrated by driving to Croydon and bought this:



to cheer myself up, and to repaint this:



Had a chat with the MoT tester and he thinks that it must have been caused by a sticking slave cylinder, so it looks like I will have to take off the cardboard gearbox tunnel thingy - and buy yet another new part.

But that can wait - the summer's here and the time is right for Racing in the Street...

....or pootling around in a 40 year old convertible.

[Father Ted]

Been cruising the mean streets of Sutton & Cheam today, and the clutch is fine. Maybe it was just a bit sticky due to lack of use.

And I realised that the occasional brake squeal was coming from the NS front, not the back. Had a quick look and noticed that the OS has anti-squeal shims fitted, but the NS doesn't, which probably means that some a**hole has replaced the pads on just one side, although they all look fairly new.

[Father Ted]

Made a start on re-painting the area where the clutch fluid leaked/overflowed.



Removed clutch master cylinder, accelerator & speedo cables, washer bottle & tube.



I am so glad I bought a flexible clutch fluid pipe, because it means I could move the master cylinder out of the way without bleeding the clutch. Shame I couldn't do the same with the brakes. I didn't want to remove the master cylinder for 3 reasons:

1. I don't want to risk spilling hydraulic fluid on the paint again when I have finished.

2. The brakes feel really good at the moment - good "pedal" if you know what I mean.

3. I can't be ar5ed.



So I disconnected brake master from the pedal, but left the hydraulic pipe in situ, and raised it on a block of wood. The white spots on the left of it are also where brake/clutch fluid has removed the topcoat. I must have done this too but I don't know how as I thought I was being so careful.



Carefully rubbed down with 600 grade wet & dry, masked and primed. They new touch-up gun is a bit temperamental, needed a bit of fine adjustment, but worked OK once I had got the hang of it.

In other news, I got my insurance valuation from the TSSC, and it was actually £750 MORE than my estimate!

Which was nice...

[Father Ted]

This arrived today, bought on eBay for a stupid amount of money because it is rare and everyone wanted it.

Bit disappointed to be honest. I wanted it because the vanity mirror on mine is broken behind the plastic. On this one the vanity mirror has just been stuck over where the original one used to be and is also cracked, The seller didn't mention this and it didn't show in the photos in the eBay advert. Still, it has the end brackets which are missing on mine so hopefully the visors won't keep falling down. I need to swap the rear view mirrors too, as my original is better.

2017 edit: That takes us to the end of July 2011. Will continue soon...

[Father Ted]

2017 edit: Continuing now in January 2012.

New year, new tinkering thread.

Having done quite a lot of work on the engine bay last year I thought I would tidy up the interior this year. I started on the dash top, painting the metal heater vents etc. and replacing the poppers so I could attach the tonneau cover properly.





However, leaving the car in the integral garage last night made me realise that changing O rings in the carb had not got rid of the smell of petrol that I mentioned a few weeks ago in the Technical Section. I woke up with the aroma of unleaded wafting through the house!



To say Mrs Ted was not best pleased would be something of an undertstatement. Car was hastily banished outside, and doors left open to ventilate the house, and I resolved to strip and rebuild the carb with the new gaskets and float what I have bought...

However before I could do that I had to take Mrs Ted & stroppy teenage daughter to Croydon to go clothes shopping. Not a completely wasted trip, as I dumped them at the shopping mall and took myself to Machine Mart.

When I got home I realised that the garage still smelled very strongly of petrol despite the car being outside and I eventually realised that an old bit of carpet that had been under the car was damp with Tesco's unleaded.

Further investigation revealed this.



Fuel pipe under the car had an old perished bit of rubber joining 2 sections - and I think I know why. When I had a new chassis outrigger welded in about a year ago the fuel and brake pipes would have been removed and re-fitted as they go through the outrigger. It seems that they cut the fuel pipe and re-connected it with an ancient piece of rubber pipe that they found in the workshop bin.



Anyhow, at the NEC show I had purchased a "Herald 13/60 Fuel Pipe Kit" which turns out to be 4 random offcuts of copper pipe and 3 random lengths of flexible fuel pipe, which bear no relation to what is on the car. So I used one of the flexible sections and cut a length of the copper pipe to size using the Dremel I got for Christmas.



Guess what I bought at Machine Mart this morning?


So I still had some tinkering time left and "Sounds of the 70s" was on the radio so I didn't want to leave the garage. I decided to sort out the brake squeal from the near side front.

For some reason the OS pads had anti-squeal shims but the NS didn't.

I bought new anti-squeal shims a while ago but had not got round to fitting them. They also came with nice new pins and clips, all of which are now fitted to both sides. It does rather look as of someone has re-furbished just one caliper though, as the OS has new seals and the NS doesn't. I hate it when people do things like that. I always do such things in pairs. 



Thought I would grease the wheel bearings while I was about it, but I soon realised that there was no way I could get one of the cap thingies off without destroying it so I will buy a new pair before I do that.