Tinkering with the Triumph

[Father Ted]

Before you replace the trim stick some plastic sheet over the inside of the door and it will stop the damp distorting your nice new doortrim.

Thanks Harvey - good advice.

The old door card had thin foam rubber ("scrim foam", apparently) between the card and the vinyl which had turned to dust. I couldn't buy any locally but bought this stuff from a hobby/craft store which is the same thickness, and seems less likely to retain water if it does get wet.

[Father Ted]

Just to prove that I do pay attention to the good advice given on here...



Plastic that was wrapped round our IKEA sofa when it was delivered, and I kept because "it might come in useful". For once I was right!



And I had half a tin of varnish left over from the front door.

A dead Zodiac makes a useful workbench for this type of thing.

[Father Ted]

Stapled the vinyl back on.



Refitted panel to door...



Job done.

Doesn't look any different - but I WILL KNOW that it is OK now!

[Father Ted]

The cooling system on the Herald has been bothering me lately. Problem wasn't cooling but lack of heater in the recent cold weather.

Anyway, having spent hours checking everything I posted on the TSSC forum and it soon became apparent that I had the wrong thermostat fitted (74 deg C), rather than standard 82 deg C, which in this weather meant that things were just not getting hot enough.

So I have bought a new thermostat and while I was about it I decided to sort out the very, very small water leak that has been annoying me for ages.

I had thought that the leak might be from a core plug at the front of the block, which would be a real pain to change as it would mean removing the radiator, water pump assembly, crank pulley, timing chain cover & tensioner, timing chain sprockets etc, and then jacking up the engine and removing the engine mounts to remove the plate over the front of the block, in order to get to the core plug.



Anyway, having got as far as removing the odd water pump assembly it seems that the water may have been dripping from the join between water pump housing and cylinder head, and the state of the gasket would seem to confirm this.



The gasket was made of really thin paper and new replacement looked equally feeble, so I made my own out of proper thick gasket paper, using the new flimsy one as a template.



Have also painted the strange dangly water pump housing assembly thing.

[Father Ted]

Put all the water pump assembly back on the car, and fitted new 82 deg stat.

New thermostat gasket split before I had even left the house. Luckily I bought 2, so fitted the second and drove round the block. Second gasket was leaking. These were super high performance ones from Moss Europe. Cheap Chinese cr@p. Fitted the old gasket and housing, and the new hose clip had stripped its threads. So a trip to Halfords for a new hose clip.

And the heater still doesn't work.

Then I noticed that the outlet from the fuel pump was leaking AGAIN. No matter how many new olives I fit it will not seal. Eventually realised that the "Triumph Herald" fuel line kit I bought at the NEC is supplied with thinner pipe than the original so the olives never grip the pipe properly. More cr@p new parts :evil:. So used some of the old pipe and new hose to get everything connected.

All ready to go for a spin as it was actually not freezing cold or raining, I noticed a strong petrolly smell. Petrol was pouring out of the carburettor.

I am not a happy bunny.

[Father Ted]

Also the heater, try what we talked about at Wheels Day, a good strong flow is what you need. As ever, in life

I have tried EVERYTHING with the heater. Some good advice from the technical help on the TSSC forum, but the conclusion is that the matrix must be partially blocked.

I did clean it out last year, and loads of crud came out. I assumed that as water was flowing it was OK but apparently that could mean that just 3 or 4 of the many pipes are clear.

[Father Ted]

....petrolly smell. Petrol was pouring out of the carburettor.

New needle valve fitted. Also tried to fit new float but it was yet another cr@p quality new part, and did not fit properly, so I cleaned, tested and re-fitted the old one.



Just need to find time to put it back on the car.

[Father Ted]

Fitted carb on car.

It leaked.

Replaced O ring. No leak.

Adjusted idling and got in car to take it for test drive. It rained.

Anyhow, to stop the muck getting in the carb again I have bought an in-line filter. Most people seem to fit these between the fuel pump & the carb, but I have also seen them fitted before the pump.

Does it matter where I fit it?

Which is best?

[Father Ted]

These bonnet stays and springs were all covered in underseal which was peeling off so I stripped them and painted them with the little HVLP gun I bought at an autojumble.



Seemed OK to begin with but this morning when doing the topcoats the spray was intermittent and sometimes no paint was coming out at all. After much adjusting with no improvement I removed the little filter and the gun worked much better!

[Father Ted]

The good news is that the Herald passed its MoT today.

Bad news is that it has an advisory on both front wheel bearings.

Does anyone on here have experience of changing Herald front wheel bearings?

Does it require a press to extract the old ones or fit the new ones?

[Father Ted]

It's been a long time since I did any tinkering...

So, today I decided to fit the temp/fuel gauge that I bought last year on eBay for a fiver, to replace the one on the car which had peeling paint and a scabby chrome ring.



Labelled all the wires and bulbs because I am a Ted of little brain suffering from Bordeline Old Git Syndrome (BOGS).



Needn't have bothered. Somebody had marked the terminals on the old one with the wiring colours.



All done, and the temp & fuel gauges read the same as the old ones.



When I painted the bulkhead a couple of years ago, for some reason I didn't do these bits that the doors bolt on to (are they still called A posts on a car with a chassis?). Like the bulkhead they had been covered in underseal, which always makes me suspicious of what it is covering.



So today I had a go at cleaning off the underseal. I was pleasantly surprised to find it comes off really easily with white spirit, and there is good paint underneath.





Hope I have enough Valencia blue paint to do both sides.

More soon...........

[Father Ted]

Did a little tinkering a couple of weeks ago, and today was the first dry day since that I have been able to take the car out.

After a road test I can report that gearboxes work better, and diffs are much quieter if they actually have oil in them.

2017 Edit: This was the last post from 2013.

[Father Ted]

2017 edit: This section of the blog started in March 2014.

Regular readers will remember that last Autumn I stripped the horrible underseal off the "A" posts with a view to painting them the same colour as the rest of the car.



It has been too cold to paint until today, so I took the opportunity to push the Zodiac out of the garage and get the Herald in.



Top tip! Did you know that a double duvet cover is exactly the right size to fit over a Herald/Vitesse bonnet to mask it when painting other bits of the car?



All masked up.



Will let you see the final result later...

[Father Ted]

Primer coats done...

[Father Ted]

All done!

Before...



And after...