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Bfg

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  1. ^ clearly not a lot of knee room under the dashboard or in the back seat.
  2. c.1960 © nigelfishersbriggblog.blogspot.com There's no original buff or green registration document in the box file which came with the Daimler, but MOT certificates date back to 1988. The car was then being MOT'd and I suspect owned by Smith Parkinson (Motors) Ltd., Market Place, Brigg, fomerly South Humberside, now (since 2000) North Lincolnshire. The garage has gone, taken over by one firm after another and may now be new housing. I've just written to a Blog website on the town of Brigg, by Nigel Fisher, in reply to someone spotting in 2008 a van in the town bearing Smith Parkinson number plates and back window sticker . . . . ...many years later I've come across Nigel Fisher's Brigg Blog, in searching for Smith-Parkinson (Motors) Ltd. The reason for my internet search is that I've recently bought a Daimler 250 that I'm guessing by old MOT certificates might have been owned by that garage. I'm basing this upon those records - showing the car barely moved between 1988 and August 2000 (just 580 miles), and between May 1993 and August 1996 she only travelled 3 miles. The car was originally silver but is now painted black. The car's carpets are red and the leather seats in their ox-blood-red are still in good shape. I wonder if anybody remembers the car, perhaps has a photo or two, &/or can tell me about the owner. I have no paperwork older than 1988. The car's registration is NFW 842F. The MOT inspector was Mr P.Gash. Thank you for helping me fill in a little of this beautiful car's history. Nigel Fisher, whose has the blog on Brigg had written in June 2008 ; "Just followed a van down Barnard Avenue with Smith-Parkinson numberplates and a Smith-Parkinson sticker in the back window. As the years mount since the firm closed its premises in the Market Place, such a sight will become rarer and rarer. I never bought a car from their showrooms, not being a lover of Fords, but did use their servicing department a lot and always found them very helpful and courteous. Now, of course, the old 'Smith Parky' building, famous for its metal roof, has been done up in style by Grimley Smith Associates. When they come to dish out best building awards, this one must be a front-runner. " The refernece to the distinctive building's metal roof may be linked to the Smith family having been owners of a successful metal working business. "Older Brigg Blog followers may recall decades ago when Smith & Sons traded as ironmongers in the Market Place. The premises were near where Ladbroke's is today. The extensive range of items provided by Smith's included metal manhole covers. A survivor (one of those manhole cover) can still be seen today on Market Lane - literally a stone's throw from the place that supplied it, possibly to Brigg Urban District Council. The Smith & Sons lettering is still readable on that cover despite being open to the elements for many years and close to the later Smith Parkinson garage, which became Grimley-Smith's offices and now house the HQ of Brown & Co. In April 2022 Nigel wrote ; "A company which is very well-known in Brigg town centre is relocating its local office to the North Bank of the Humber. From tomorrow (Monday, April 4) there will be a regional Brown & Co 'hub' for North Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, based on an enterprise park in North Ferriby, not far from the Humber Bridge. The retail/estate agency premises in the Market Place, with upper floor office suite and parking, have been marketed to let due to relocation. This building was occupied by the Smith Parkinson garage and car sales business for decades, its showroom being on the ground floor. These premises later became G.S.A. House - a base for the Grimley-Smith company - winning the Brigg Town Civic Award for building refurbishment in 2008. The same annual accolade went to Brown & Co for 2016 after it moved to 6 Market Place and further alterations were forthcoming. The Town Council said at the time that the frontage greatly enhanced the area, and that the design had been very skillfully executed." ^ 1994 - In the top window "Escort - It's got what it takes" ..sounds like - a right thieving little ......... !
  3. Wot No Rain ! ? I was late arriving at 'Classic Vehicles @ Chappel' so missed many of the visitors and their cars. but for a first run out in the Daimler - I thoroughly enjoyed the across countryside drive. Playing with this Daimler's (rather nice but perhaps too closely spaced) gearbox and overdrive, feeling the car's ride and its handling, the sounds of its twin exhaust V8 (she sounds like an American muscle car of three times her cubes !), and taking in the feel and aroma of the car's interior. That 16" steering wheel is big ! ..but it actually feels really nice and solid, and on the open road the steering is precise. In part, this run was (with windows half open) to dry her out, becasuse the windscreen seal leaks and she had puddles inside. I've taken all the floor carpets out and their thick layer of underfelt too - so I was pleasantly surprised that there was not more noise through the bare floors (..an exhaust pipe runs under each side). ^ She certainly doesn't look too bad in these photos, but in truth the car was covered in road spray and muddy splashes after driving up from Brighton in the rain on Friday and then flooded roads. Looking back to the first photo, driver's view over the bonnet, you can see the paintwork is in need of wax polish ! Still I think she looks great as a daily driver in the sunshine and a wonderful compliment to the MG Saloon. I'd previously imagined the Jaguar-Daimler was a very much bigger car than the MG. A beauitiful Ford estate close-by a very neat Viva. The cafe wasn't cheap but I used them in hoping of supporting the museum. I sat down in this carriage with my coffee and then a modern train came into the station. It was quite a weird reality in a nice sort of Harry Potter way. I hadn't realised this station was still in everyday service, I thought it to be a museum. Then back to Fox's marina where my old boat is ..and a bucket and sponge just a wash and not yet polished, but looking quite respectable already. I had been considering a colour change, another dark colour, but to be honest the black is growing on me. It's just a sod to keep looking clean. Did you know.. Daimler's fluted radiator grille is styled after the exposed radiator cooling loop tubes of the very first Daimler automobile carriages. ^ just one of the photos I took for the agreed-value insurance. ^ while at Earls Colne I took advantage of the open space and the pleasant background sounds of steam locos to adjust the carburettor linkages and to lower the tick-over. As i suspected the choke cable wasn't slack enough (by 3/8" ! ) and the throttle rods need lubrication. I've dropped the idle speed from 11-1200 rpm to 600rpm, but I need to adjust the rods as their present geometry almost goes over-centre. I look forward to tidying this engine bay up. BTW the earlier Daimler 2-1/2 (the heavy bumper model) used a single air filter placed centrally over the top of the twin carbs with two trumpets facing forward. The twin air filters of the 250 (seen here) allow easier access to the SU carbettors. The twin air filters appear to give the customer more for his money ..but again the most likely the change was to eliminate (from cost & weight) several cast aluminium air pipes, a number of connecting rubber sleeves and brackets from the twin carburettors to a single air filter. This is a really good example of value enginnering The view Rover V8 drivers would see
  4. Any idea what (more moderate) mods were commercially available, back in the day ? I then wondering if many Sp250's were raced, so I looked on the internet and found this site < https://www.racing-sp250.co.uk/ > I haven't browsed it yet but even a quick glance tells me that there's a lot of good stuff on there. Pete
  5. Courtesy of ; The Daimler Company, Coventry, England and subsequently Jag-Lovers.org . . .
  6. Thanks MC.., I haven't checked but I suspect the scuttle vent mechanicals on this car are more likely akin to those of the Triumph TR3 or it predecessor ! ie., a dashboard lever pushing a bent bit of wire up against an over centre spring. I have thoughts to become a WD40 shareholder, to strip out the leather and the timber interior.. and to dunk the rest in a big pot of the stuff. The car came with a 1961 'Scientific magazine' workshop manual for the Jaguar so I have some homework to get on with. I used to have an S-type. Very nice and highly under-rated car Pete
  7. The seller, now the prior-owner, very kindly brought the car 140 miles up from Brighton this morning. I would attach a photo but I don't know how to get it off my phone, Trying to email it to myself just got 'authentication failed'. Anyways up., we met at this town's railway station in the rain (below) and he tells me that she drove well and without any issue aside from steaming up windows as he came into town. The gentleman perhaps didn't realise how the scuttle's ventilation flap needs to be open to get a half decent air flow through the car, and anyway that vent doesn't open from within. It's seized to the point where it requires manually pulling up from the outside. Similarly the heater / demist controls cables are seized, the choke lever barely works and the throttle sticks. The car simply hasn't been used *. * Prior to this 150 mile drive from Brighton to my home, she'd moved just 110 miles since 2017 ! For the owner to bring her around the M25, through the Dartford tunnel, and then up the A12, in the rain and through roadworks in traffic showed incredible faith in the car, was incredibly reckless, &/or was incredibly brave.? Whichever it was - he and the car both were pretty incredibe ! I'm very impressed the wipers continued to work for three hours or so. Well done Mr Lucas. An MOT certifcate from 1988 records 86,758 miles. Subsequent MOT's certificates and then DVLA records suggest she's barely been used each year, and point to the current odometer reading of 88,792 miles as being genuine. Prior to my buying her - just 1,874 miles over the past 35 years. He said he'd cruised up a steady 55 - 60mph, as and where traffic allowed, the low fuel warning light had just come on as he approached town, and that he'd put £30 of fuel in the car before he left. I don't know how much was in the tank before he topped it up because £30 equates to 19.35 ltrs = 4.26 gallons. 140 miles divided by 4.26 = 33.8 mpg. I would like to believe 🙏 but honestly I don't think so. 25 - 28mpg would have been good according to road test reports. I went from the railway station to Morrison's supermarket for fuel and to buy what i hoped would be a decent cloth for the windows and some glass cleaner. They really didn't help much when barely moving along in the town traffic shuffle. The windscreen demist fan is non-effective on its first speed, and noisy on its second and still doesn't clear much than the bottom 1" of glass just above the driver's side dashboard vent. With the scuttle vent pulled open from the outside and all the windows cracked open, things were just a little better at 30mph but still visibility was dangerously hampered when turning. That then will have to be one of my first jobs, along with freeing up the slightly sticky throttle pedal or linkages. These V8 normally tick over at 600rpm but its presently double that. I wonder if its been set fast to read a better oil pressure on the gauge.? Caveat emptor ! She's presently parked outside in light but continuous rain ..with the floor carpets removed because the window seals leak. Having also removed the underfelt, I've sponged out puddles from the footwells and the boot. The underfelt is not drip drying ..they're each hung up by one corner and literally trickling with water. I did enjoy driving her home. She's comfortable, smooth and powerful in a most elegant steam-liner sort of way, with V8 oomph rather than an when-on-cam rush. The (manual) gearbox is good but I think I'll be on the lookout for a different axle ratio. Living in Suffolk I'll have little need for gearing better suited to climbing Himalayan mountain passes. As she is, even between 25 & 30mph she pulls cleanly in-overdrive-top to easily keep up with the flow of traffic. I think she'll excel in Grace, Pace and Space ..even more so than the Jaguar.
  8. Jaguars from all eras do tend to have something rather special about them. But fashion-tax isn't one of those things. No, a genuine Autoshiter appreciates those car's virtues but doesn't need to prove him or her-self with a snarling key fob slung face upright onto the bar. We prefer the less ostentatious (..a very big word for this time of day !) and are even prepared to sacrifice hours, upon hours of kneeling before said beast cleaning its chromed wire wheels. Similarly we don't need a motor which is twice the size of the next mans, we're very happy with something a little more modest ..wihich offers better access. In the good old days, before decent rust proofing and stainless steel exhaust systems, LED lighting and Sat nav's - it was often said that Bank robbers preferred Jaguars as their get-away cars, while others suggested a better class of jeweller prefer the somewhat more nimble Daimler. Whether this was true or not - I'm too young to know ..but there is surely an element of truth in it. And certainly our finest constabulary did use the Daimler SP250 with its 2.5ltr V8 engine to combat very naughty motorist of the day. In truth, during the 1960's there weren't many production cars that could top 125mph, to keep up with a Triumph T120 or Triton cafe-racer motorcycles. Irony upon irony, is that the Daimler's 2 1⁄2 ltr short-stroke V8 140bhp hemi, produced between 1959 & 1969, was designed by Edward Turner. This being the very same most capable & talented Edward Turner - who was resonsible for the Triumph parallel twin motorcycle engine ..apparently It takes one to catch one. Oddly, Turner is best remembered as being a Triumph Motorcycle designer, and yet Daimler was owned by Triumph's competitor.. BSA. as it happens, corporate politics, inflated egos and bad tempers had senior Engineers and even Heads of Division move from one company to another and then back again, as if children on a merry-go-round. Sir Bernard Docker, Chairman of the BSA group, who had done so much to build Daimler's post war status, had fallen out-of-favour with the aristocratic classes, and In 1956 BSA's committee voted he be replaced by Jack Sangster. Jack was first & foremost a motorcycle man, and under his leadership the BSA and Ariel motorcycle division grew stronger than ever, but the Daimler brand had shrunk to, in 1959–1960, represent just 15% of BSA group's turnover. Their management were open to negotiation when Jaguar needed factory space and machine shop facilities to expand their own production. And so Jaguar bought 'Daimler' in May 1960. Amongst other very worthwhile divisions, along with it came the Sp250 and Edward Turner's potent little V8 engine. Where am I going with all this ? Well, I've just bought an old & rather scruffy Daimler V8. No, it's not the fibreglass-bodied droop-nosed SP250 (aka Dart ) gentleman's sports car, but it does utilise the very same power plant. The title of this forum topic 'Grace, Pace and Space' gives a clue. Launched late in 1962 - the Daimler 2 1⁄2 saloon car was an up-market but less sporty Mk.II Jaguar. The marketing of Daimler was aimed at the sporting gentleman, whereas Jaguar's racing heritage and popular press was more appealing to many a closet maverick. Daimler's dealers had called for a new mid-range, more fashionable model to replace the Daimler Conquest, and so Jaguar obliged by dropping the exceptionally smooth V8 2 1⁄2 ltr into their new Mk.II rolling body-shell. For Jaguar who were always keen to increase production numbers for sake of reducing unit cost - the Daimler was easy. Aside from the Daimler engine, along with a twin exhaust system and automatic gearbox, the car was simply a MK.2 Jaguar ..badge engineered with the scrolled D. The quality of wood veneer, leather and carpets was always best for the Daimler and its standard specification included most things that were optional on its cheaper sibling. Beautifully opalescent paint finishes, for example, were very much more Daimler than Jaguar. The Daimler (automatic) was road tested to 112 mph, whereas the Jaguar 2.4 couldn't quite manage the ton. Even today, that isn't something Jaguar enthusiasts boast about, but even back in the day - very few (contemporary) road tests of the 2.4 were granted.! Later on, this engine recieved the straight-port head off the xk150 3.4 litre, which boosted its performance to 133bhp ..so close to that of the Daimler V8. The Daimler engine was never uprated. Edward Turner's 2 1⁄2 litre V8 (note ; always referred to as the 2 1⁄2 litre, rather than Jaguar's rather vulgar decimalisation of 2-point-4, 3-point-4, or 3-point-8 ) is a short-block engine with 90 degree cylinder banks. Its block is in cast iron (which is very stable) and the cylinder heads (interchangeable / not handed) are cast alumnium (much lighter than iron). The two rocker covers and volumous sump are likewise in alumnium. The broad V8 layout is both good for balancing vibration and it has a low centre of gravity. The space inbetween the two cylinder heads accomdates the single camshaft, the twin SU carburettors and their twisty inlet manifold (again in alumnium), the distributor and the dynamo (later cars have an alternator). The exhaust manifolds simply drop down either outside of the block. Being a short stroke engine (76mm bore x 70mm stroke) the engine isn't overly wide, and with its short length it's compact and relatively lightweight. Access for maintenance is then easier than with jaguar's straight six. The Jaguar straight six, which I personally see as being one of the most beautiful engines ever designed, is long, tall and heavy. It's not as smooth (vibration) as the V8, and capacity-for-capacity is not so powerful nor as torquey. And the weight distribution of the straight six cars is (detrimentally) further forward. That forwardness also makes removing its sump awkward, as the front suspension subframe has to be dropped first. Btw the Jaguars, by necessity, have stiffer front suspension springs than the Daimler, and although each have anti-roll-bars the Daimler offers the more compliant ride. The brakes on the Jaguar and Daimler are the same - disc on all four wheels, which are excellent. The Jaguar 2.4 has an inch shorter stroke than its big brothers, and so is less tall and lighter than them (so has slightly better-balanced handling). But the bottom line is that ; the V8 small saloon is a different creature to the macho beast. As an alpha-male I'm attracted to the Jaguar but as an engineer ..despite loving the look of that double-overhead camshaft Jag engine, I prefer the Daimler. And as a driver I prefer a car which handles better and has a smooth power curve, over a car that offers grunt. Everyone to their own huh ! By 1967 Jaguar were facing increasingly keen competition, Leyland incorporated Triumph and Rover (each highly regarded brands) and, along with amalgamated production resources, their bean counters were getting good at streamlining and improved value. The P6 and the Triumph 2500 (with PI in the pipeline), along with various other competitors were sleeker looking than Jaguar-Daimler's heavy bumpers cars, and their interiors were fashionable and easier to maintain. To top it all there was a Rover V8 in the pipeline. Jaguar responded by face-lifting its small saloon models in line with their flagship models, the S-type and the Mk.10. Although usually only attributed to cost cutting - this was equally an exercise in revised styling and weight savings. The slim bumers are a fraction the weight of the old heavy ones, and even the change to Ambla upholstery and less sound deadening offered useful weight savings. Even the tool-box changed from steel to plastic. The XJ6 was under development but until that was ready - Jaguar had a reputation to maintain. So when the Rover P6 was introduced with the 3.5 litre V8 engine, the face lifted 3.4 Jaguar was still quicker ..and it was advertised at a 15% lower manufacturer's-recommended-price (which corresponded to further savings in purchase tax). The new slimmer models under the Jaguar brand were of course named the 240 and the 340. The latter is arguably the best of the Mk.II jaguars although many classic car enthusiasts still prefer the look of the heavy bumper cars. The Daimler was likewise lightened in both looks and bumper weight, and rebadged as the 250. Leather seats however remained standard, as did the two spot lights under the headlamps (replaced by 'horn-grilles' on the Jags). The timber veneer remained a better quality, likewise their carpets and sound insulation. As before, several items which were standard on the Daimler were optional extras on the Jaguar. Each had the option of wire wheels, but I believe the Daimlers were always chrome plated rather than painted. With this model change also came the (lower cost) option of a manual gearbox on the Daimler V8. It's the same unit as used on the Jaguar 2.4 , and likewise came with the option of an overdrive (on top gear only). Just 750 manual cars were built, 700 of those with the overdrive. Final diff ratios were altered to suit. Total production of both the Daimler 2 1⁄2 and the 250 was 17,880. Production of the latter continued until July 1969 when superceded by the Sovereign. Btw., even the Triumph Mk.II 2·5 PI produced 124 bhp(DIN) @5500rpm ..but being lighter it was just as quick as the Daimler V8. On January 11th 1968 .. this car was first registered. . . .... I'm sure the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that this particular 250 is not an automatic. Even after the Jaguars 240 and 340 were introduced with slim and lighter-weight bumpers and Ambla seat coverings, the Daimler retained leather. Small but significant, the twin exhaust pipes and badging of the V8. Although much scruffier than she appears in these photos - that equated to her being affordable. Otherwise she seems pretty solid including the crows feet. The jacking points were replaced by a Leicestershire Jaguar-specalist just a couple of years ago, sills are solid, tyres are good, exhaust is stainless, odometer mileage is c. 88,700 which is backed up by the last 25 years of MOT's, and she drives well. I think, because the Lincolnshire registration doesn't inspire anything better, I'll name her 'Midnight' I got her home today and am looking forward to tinkering. Pete
  9. A little maintenance and a little fiddling with an idea. Starting off ; Katie's oval air filters have been on the car for who-knows-how-long - certainly they were on the car when I bought her. They appeared to be pretty clear and I hadn't realised how dirty they were, within the folds, until compared with new air filters. Of course, super-fine dust particles and spores are somewhat difficult to see. Are Katie's old filters 10% constricted (clogged up) or 20, 30 or 40% ?? I really don't know. And then again - is each filter equally dirty (part blocked) and so constricting air flow to both carbs ..or has one more clogged than the other, thereby starving two cyclinders of air ? Do the original-type paper-air-filters have a huge margin of clogging before they effect performance &/or economy or is the air flow constricted even from new ..and swapping to something like K&N is a really good investment ? I guess I could have configured some sort of air flow test but, without having new ones to compare results with, I had no datum. So the easiest thing to do is to buy new, hoping they have been made to a similar standard as the originals. I bought these off ebay, and tbh they were pretty cheap. Only when I got them did I realise they looked different. the folded paper element is inside an outer sleeve. Hey ho, it's part glued in place and so tearing it off might have left an ugly mess. Never mind as long as those sleeves don't constrict air flow too much, I'm sure they'll be fine. Now for a bit of play . . . Ram Pipes .. The long & short of well designed Ram Pipes is that the air flow into the carburettor is smoother and, without the bow waves of hard edges, less restricted. This means more air-fuel mix is drawn into the combustion chamber at a faster rate. That faster rate adds a little inertia behind the air-fuel mix flow which rams more into the cylinder before the inlet valve slams closed and the compression stroke commences. More air fuel mix in the cylinder = more powerful bang. The illustration (below) suggests we may be talking about plus or minus five or six percent. ^ I'd found this extract from a book on the internet ages ago. I'd like to recognise the author for their illustrations and for providing food for thought, but alas I do not have the source. Thank you whomever. ..nb. I've subsequently heard that it was in a book dedicated to tuning an MGA. In short from the above page I surmise ; hard corners into a carburettor tend to restrict air flow. I reason this is because they are somewhat like the bow wave of a flat fronted lorry which seriously effects the air around and alongside it. Two lorries travelling alongside each other would displace the air flow from inbetween them. The space inbetween being an analogy for the carburettor air intake. Apparently the author has discovered or is presenting the case that very sharp corners (lorry front corners or at carburettor intakes) cuts the air flow cleanly, which effects the adjacent air flow less than slightly rounded corner - where the air tries to flow around the corner but it is too sharp and so ‘bow waves out’. This effectively lessens the inside diameter, and therefore the cross-section, of the carburettor intake. The author concludes ; Rounded corners less than R.1/8” on a carburettor intake can be detrimental (too big a bow wave). And cone shaped ram pipes might create more back pressure (a wedge of air will meet resistance in a rigid tube) than any benefit it offers. Apparently also long ram pipes offer little or no advantage over even very short ones. The real benefit comes from having a beaded edge of more than 1/8” radius. The air filter has a hard edged hole clamped to the carburettor flange. At best this would equate to somewhere better example 1 and 2 in the above chart. However accurate sizing and alignment is imperative to not making the situation even worse. The gasket may or may not be a good fit but almost certainly any protrusion into the air flow, or recess from a smooth joint will again be detrimental because of additional turbulence. The challenge then was how to give the air filter a rolled edge. ^ a potential solution lay in a pair of cheap ebay ram pipes and a fat o-ring. In the second photo, I've further rounded and polished the inside corner of the die-cast ram pipe and reshaped the flange-side of its hole to better fit and align with the carburettor flange. The alignment of the ram pipe to the carburettor orifice was 2mm out on one side, which if fitted like that would have made this mod' worse than doing nothing ! It's still not perfect but then nor was the hole in the air filter. Now of course the question is how to fit it.? The hole in the air filter was approximate to the throat of the carburettor, but I wanted the ram pipe to fit inside it, so I aligned the bolt holes, then marked and cut the air filter's mounting plate. Naturally I didn't want any metal filings inside the air filter and so I used snips ..and even then I very carefully accounted for every last shard of metal cut. ^ With the ram pipe fitted into the air filter, the challenge then was to accurately position the fat o-ring right on the round edge of the ram pipe, inside the air filter. I proposed to do this with a second o-ring (seen in second photo) behind the large diameter one. These would be inserted through the orifice and bonded in place with silicon sealer. ^ with goop applied to the outside of the ram pipe, and to the inside of the o-rings, it all went together fine. As you see I bolted the ram pipe and filter together to hold them as I fitted the o-rings and then while that sealant cured. I now have an air filter with a rolled edge ram pipe of 4mm radius fitted inside it. It will of course be bolted onto the carburettor as one. Now just to tidy things up . . . ^ Small piece of mesh from B&Q cost almost £10 and it's ferrous steel so after I cut and shaped It I had to paint it. Aluminium would have been easier but I took what was available. Warning ; cutting this mesh is like handling barb wire. It has very sharp prongs and springs back to cut your hands and wrists. After cutting, and before wrapping it around the filter, I ran back and forth along each edge with a metal file to dull those barbs off. Then, after pre-forming the tighter radiused wrapped shape with my fingers - I folded out (with long nose pliers) two 90-degree clamping flanges, and doubled those back down again for stiffness. Wrapped around the filter and with the flanges = the uncut length of the mesh is as bought (ie., 50cm) ^ The flanges are screwed together and wired. Admittedly it's crude (..as I didn't have any small set screws and nuts to hand) but it's effective and out-of-sight (on the filter's underside) when fitted to the car. ^ The old and the new If the theory illustrated is correct ; the standard air filter's hard edges contribute to a 0.3% to 6.7% loss in air-fuel mixture flow into the combustion chamber compared to a bare carburettor. My short ram pipe with a o-ring rolled edge of more than 3mm radius is very similar to # 8 of the illustrations ..which is said to improve air-fuel flow (compared to a bare carburettor) by 5.2%. So an afternoon of pottering + £10 for a pair of ram pipes + £4 for the o-rings might improve air-fuel mixture flow into the combustion chamber by anything between 5% and 12%. That seems like good value to me. New air filters were due anyway, and although tarting those up with wire mesh was an extravagance - it is a pretty one Bidding you a good evening, Pete
  10. Hi y'all, I've not been around for a while but am still alive n' kicking. Being somewhat burnt-out with working on projects - I've hardly used Katie , but for the monthly club meetings throughout the summer, and have likewise done no more work on her, even though she's far from right yet. I've moved home (x3 times in less than three years) and now enjoy a nice little apartment in Kesgrave, Ipswich ..with central heating (..oooh, aagh ! ) ..and a garage ( ..yippee ) which although 'standard sized' is suplemented by a small but private garden where half my poly-tunnel now serves as decent sized (8ft x 10ft) garden shed to help keep the garage reasonably clear of clutter. From this ^ to this ^^ = Happier winter days I've painted the ceiling white ( it was just plasterboard before) and fitted an LED strip lamp. I may add another, but for the time being it's better than just the single bulb. Nice to have lighting ..and . . . ^ this is just a mock up but the apartment is upstairs and in its hallway is a radiator ..opposite the internal door to the garage. So.. the plastic sheet diverts warmth from said radiator into the garage. Naturally, heat rises which in turn is under the floor in the apartment. And so now I'm back to tinkering. More about that later, save to say that I'm also just about to try leather TR6 seats in Katie. ^ ..courtesy of Martin Gerrard Hill of the TR Register. Thank you Martin. If I can get the runners to fit further back in the car then these may be more comfortable (for me) than the MX5 seats I've been using. Naturally I'll advise how I get on in due course. Pete
  11. For the man who really doesn't have everything, and so needs a little more luggage space to carry it . . . Built-in 1968, this left-hand-drive Jaguar E-Type 4.2 series-1 roadster has been stretched by four and a half inches during a major restoration carried out by CMC. The reversing light hides the removable hitch mechanism when the trailer is not in use “With nine inches more wheelbase, the 2+2 was too long to be beautiful, but the four and a half inches added to the Kaizen E-type could make the car even more beautiful than the original Series I edition.” – Paul Branstad, Owner i guess if you need to ask, like me you cannot afford it
  12. More piccies of aircraft and my visit to the Shuttleworth collection < here > Pete
  13. This past weekend Katie and I popped across to Old Walden Aerodrome, Biggleswade, SG18 9DT, for the Shuttleworth Collection's 'Around the World 2023' Air Show. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the Shuttleworth collection specialises in early aviation / pre-second-world-war ..so the pioneering days and also air racing and passenger aircraft of the 1920's and 30's that helped develop flying from the bicycle shed to international travel. The biplanes of the first-world-war are of course very much part of this era. Although rare, the collection is not unique in this specialty, but rather because most are maintained in airworthy condition and are frequently flown (wind and weather permitting) off the grass field. Of course some of the aircraft are unique because they are original, and others are because they are accurate replicas. I happened to have lived quite near Old Warden when I was teenager, riding motorcycles and learning how to handle my mum's Mini Clubman or Simca 1000, but that is some 50 years ago now and both I and the museum's collection have grown larger since. The museum used to be in a couple of small hangers and an engineering shed, now it has five hangers plus one of those sheds and the engineering workshop. The other shed is now a good sized cafe. On Saturday afternoon the original car park and cafe were busy with what appeared to be the good natured Motor-Guzzi (motorcycles) V-twin owners club's visit ..perhaps fifty to eighty bikes having come along ? ^ There was also a gaggle of half a dozen very beautiful Gordon Keeble's accompanied by a TVR and an exquisite Bristol 403. Otherwise of note was a very tidy Volvo Amazon (H-reg), a very appropriate Bentley 3ltr, a rather too clean Morgan plus-8, and a fantastically restored Suzuki 'kettle' GT750 (late 1970's triple cylinder water cooled motorcycle) and a stunning Ariel Square four (motorcycle). . . ^ Oh and did I say.. there also a rather purposeful looking TR4A here too. On the Sunday there was another TR but I didn't see it in person. it may have been a 4, a 4A or 5. There was also an early Mazda Mx5 and an interesting Morgan plus 4 with a 2.5ltr pinto engine, and twin webbers, said to be developing about 170bhp at its rear wheels. Nice chap to talk with and very informative about the different aircraft. ^ Within minutes an interesting fly-in visitor was ready for departure. Note the motors and undercarriage are on a lower wing. Long live tail dragging bi-planes ! ^ and a (Ruski ?) visitor along with an RAF chipmonk were doing some circuits. ^ just sitting there waiting for someone to jump straight in were a couple of biplanes including this Tiger Moth and also an Avro C19 Anson (built ; 1935-52) And that was all in 15 minutes before I'd stepped into the museum to pay my money. ^ Inside the museum was better than I might have hoped for. The exhibits were in airy skylight lit hangers and on the ground close enough to touch. These being hangers rather than static displays of the more typical museum hall - the aircraft have of course to have room to be moved in and out. And those aircraft moved outside for flying or ground display leaves more room inside to stand back and actually see the aircraft. I love Duxford museum, but it has so many aircraft, all tucked in between each other with others hanging above, that it's somewhat cluttered ..a totally different to what I found here. ^ up close and in personal space with the truly gorgeous de Havilland DH88 Comet. This is one of the three aircraft ordered in February 1934 ..to be ready on 20th October that same year to race from Mildenhall, England, to Melbourne, Australia. The first of the three was first flown by de Havilland's on 8th September and received its airworthy certificate the following month. The certificates for the other two were issued on the 12th October. This very Comet 'Grosvenor House' (entered by AO Edwards the manager of that hotel) was winner of the speed prize covering the course in 70 hours 54 minutes. Outstanding ! After evaluation trials by the RAF (and several accidents) it was sold as scrap. Fortunately it was bought and restored by an enthusiast F.Tasker and the Essex Aero club at Gravesend. Then, in 1937 it achieved fourth place in the England to Damascus Air Race ..and the same year set a new record for the out-and-back time to the Cape. It also set a new record from England to New Zealand ..and back, in just 10 days, 21 hours, 22 minutes. Bearing in mind there was no GPS in those days, these are incredible feats of ground crew logistics, navigation between fuel stops, as well as reliability, endurance and air speed. This aircraft was all but abandoned then, at Gravesend, until it was restored for hanging-from-the roof-beams static display at the 1951 festival of Great Britain in 1951. It was given to the Shuttleworth collection in 1965 and a program of restoration to flying condition begun. After almost half a decade she flew again on Sunday 17th May 1987. Based at Hatfield until its closure in 1994 'Grosvenor House' returned to Old Warden where the airfield was too short for safe operations. That was lengthened in 1999. After suspension damage in 2002 the design was found to be faulty for certain conditions. Certificate of approval was granted for modifications to that suspension / structure, and since test flights on 1st august 2014 she become a regular and somewhat spectacular performer at these air shows. ^ 'Grosvenor House' was in the museum one day, and then on the next is up flying alongside a guest.. the polished aluminium 'silver Spitfire' (Mk.IV I think - 1943) which having seen extensive active service, has (in 2019) flown 22,138nm around the world "taking in some of the most famous landmarks on the planet from the Grand Canyon in the west to the snow-capped peak of Mount Fuji in the east". It was promoting the ‘Best of British’ worldwide & showcasing the nation’s heritage in engineering excellence. In the photo's background is a little white racer c.1936. it's the Percival Mew Gull owned by the collection, which won the 1937 Folkestone Trophy at 210mph, and then re-engined and with various other mods won the 1936 King's Cup at 236 mph. Again re-engined and with radio and long range fuel tanks fitted - it then broke the record for the out-and-home to the Cape in February 1939. Taking just 4 days, 10 hours, 16 minutes to do so was 'not bad' for there and back in a pre-war aircraft, including fuel stops and navigating yourself to sometimes isolated air strips. That record held for over 70 years. After being hidden in France throughout the 2nd WW, she was refurbished in time to win the 1955 King's cup ..again 'not bad' for a racing aircraft which was even then almost 20 years old. ^ I make no apologies for my photography using an old Panasonic Lumix camera, when the Comet was 'giving it some' in a flypast. Naturally I took others, in which I managed much better composition, but then the aircraft was further away or heading towards from us. I guess I took about a thousand photos over the day and a half I was at Old Warden, but I'll refrain from boring you with a whole lot of nerdy background histories. After my lunch I'll post a selection of photos for those who enjoy such things. In the meantime I'll leave you with these two, to illustrate the variety and beauty, of seeing these museum exhibits in their own element ..the engineering prowess of the restorers, and the bravery of pilots who really do use them . . . Pete
  14. Thanks, that's one I didn't know.. The young tree is in the castle ground's quarry (well sheltered from the sometimes cool sea breeze but at the right time of day a delightful sun trap). Not far from a picnic table ..so one might reasonable assume a discarded stone from someone's lazy Sunday afternoon.
  15. Does that say Flymo lawnmowers ? ...................
  16. I've not driven Katie for a couple of weeks now, due to general despondency & cold wet weather, floods, my own health and my working afternoons on my boat, but this Sunday afternoon I pulled her out for a drive across to Rendlesham forest and over to my local castle at Orford. She's not running well, seemingly running too rich with these carburettors, but I'll address that in due course. The weather was a beautiful mid-May day with blue skies and that's something we both needed to be out in. . . ^ did I mention floods ? This one was particularly muddy and I guess only about 6" deep ...although it felt much deeper than that as we went through it. ^ The faces of this castle's keep look very 'blobby' now that they've spent a cool £-million (which even then I'm led to understand ran over budget) to render over the coralline red crag stone < more about that here > in order to prevent it from further crumbling away. It's odd that a castle built 1165 on the order of Henry II should all of a sudden be crumbling but for sake of popular reasoning let's blame that on global warming - as it seems to be responsible for everything else. It's noteworthy at nearby Framlingham castle too that the limestone stone carved coat-of-arms above its gatehouse has suddenly and badly eroded in the past 80 years (photographs over this period showing its loss of definition are indisputable), so it's a good thing that the English Heritage and other such organisations are working to preserve our country's heritage. I enjoyed good conversation with the English Heritage staff regarding details of the castle's design and construction, before walking down to the quay, via the very pleasant 'Jolly Sailor' for a quick and rather good a half a pint of ale. . . ^ Orford, Suffolk - once a small but busy sea port, sheltered by the ness (..the shingle beach) is now some 5-miles from the sea. That is but a reflection of how things that may seem timeless have in fact changed ever so slowly through the centuries. Even before this, the shingle moved by the action of the sea's waves ad tides, long ago formed a bar across the river Alde, and that diverted it's flow down the coast across marsh land to Orford. The mouth of the River Alde has long since been completely cut off from the sea and it's name changed to the River Ore. Orford's name (which was cloned after the doomsday book) was I guess was derived from the rust coloured sand ..the iron ore in that red crag, and the shallow ford across to the ness. What is now Quay Street, Orford used to (just 150 years ago) be called Bridge Street. As you might gather from the above photo the River Ore is wide and so for very many years a ferry has served the purpose of conveying animals and foot passengers across. ^ springtime with luminosity through the leaves and bulbs of seed (nut ?) or flower yet to reveal itself. Even the pines were in flower. ^ Orford castle still has the quarry from which that red crag of the castle walls was hewn. There's an incredible timeline if you were to think about it, not least perhaps because this is a particularly rare to Britain and ancient rock ..the remains of a causeway to Belgium & Holland. I opted for a slightly different return route through the forest (avoiding the flooded roads) and driving directly into the setting sun made for some wonderful glimpses of light through the trees. A pleasant afternoon out in a TR Pete
  17. Katie seems to be afflicted with annoying (to me !) little issues, one after another. . . ^ the spring coming out from under the gear-lever cap was one of them.. The car still driveable like this but with a very floppy gear change. I removed the rear cup screw and just loosened the pin going through across-wise and was able to wind it back in using a pair of long nosed pliers and a screwdriver (to hold the bottom end of the spring up ..so it could turn clockwise without snagging). I hadn't touched it, when I had the gearbox cover off to adjust the solenoid relay's lever, so I can't explain why it happened, just that it did. ^ this was another.. The high-tension lead between the coil and the distributor cap (aka the 'king lead') has a slit in it, or more correctly several close together although just the once was cut down to this lead's silicon core. I spotted it a week ago, when I had the spark plugs out to clean them, which I needed to do to assess their colour in accordance to the carburettors' adjustment. This in turn followed comments that Katie smelt like a TR6 - when I turned up into our local group's breakfast meet several weeks ago (ie., Rich suggested - it was running rich). This in turn was subsequent to fitting the reconditioned carburettors. so I'd borrowed a flow meter and tried to balance the SU carbs. At the time I just taped it up, but now I replaced the lead for a new one (with copper wire core). Last Thursday when I went down to the East Saxon group's club meeting, the car appeared to be running pretty awfully ..but then it was also p***ing down with rain, and I had the roof on. That's 23 miles for me, so it's the furthest I've driven the TR with a roof on (either the fabric one or Katie 's fibreglass Surrey top). With unfamiliar noise levels it was difficult for me to assess anything much regarding carburettor tuning. On the way back from the meeting the roads were wet but the rain had cleared. Nevertheless some of the finest brains in Essex had decided to close the A12 again, whereby all traffic is diverted into the north of Colchester, around it, and then out the north-east side of the city to Ardleigh, Manningtree to cross the River Stour, before cutting up to the south side of Ipswich. Of course I live on the north side of Ipswich, Suffolk.! It was only another 8 miles added to the journey (a third as far again !) but it takes another 20 minutes more because of the nature of those country roads. I was not in the most relaxed of moods, in part because this diversion has happened to me half a dozen or more times too many ..over the past two years of going to this group's meeting, but also because I happened to be the last to leave the pub. I'd lost the car keys. I eventually found them wedged behind a radiator, next to the seat where I'd original taken my coat off. Hey ho., Pete's a plonker. And then, just because Essex is such a nice an d welcoming place.. the assigned diversion route had a mobile police speed-trap. I was one of a stream of cars driving along at 34mph (when checked on the gps) through a sleepy country village. Of course the next village has a 40mph speed limit ..and all the houses otherwise along that stretch of road cope with a 60mph. But here where it 30mph we ought to have been watching our speedometers rather than the wet and dark road and any pedestrians who might be dancing along from puddle to puddle at 11:30pm on a cold and miserable night. Perhaps Britain's finest think it lessens traffic noise, with the car in 3rd gear.? Anyway, bottom line is that again I couldn't sensibly assess the carburettor's tune during that drive. As it happens last week I'd decided to try Katie with a new set of plugs. I'd not changed them in the two years since I bought the car and as I was trying to assess the carb's tune I thought it easier to start with bright steel. The plugs fitted were NGK BP6HS and as she's always been just a little sooty, I opted to try a set of BP5HS. Without changing anything else driving across to and back from Hedingham again yesterday, and following the rough running on Thursday evening, I wasn't expecting any improvement, but a new set of plugs following a 65mile round trip ought to give me a much clearer idea of what was going on. . . The car was frustratingly lumpy driving across there, but the weather was nice and the driving across country pretty easy. However.., after an enjoyable day there I headed back, again in no rush. Just a few miles later the engine cut out completely. The place that happened was soon after a sharp left handed corner, up an incline through a cutting between fields. With no more that 50 foot visibility in either direction it wasn't a comfortable place to stop and absolutely no grass verge to get off the road. If I'd tried to roll back down the hill, then I'd be rolling down to that blind hard left-hander corner. It's at times like this you're glad you've fitted hazard warning lights and LED bulbs. Open the bonnet, again a useful thing that it's bright red, and there's fuel in the pump, fuel in the in-line filter inbetween that and the carbs, and no fuel flooded out anywhere. There's also no oil nor water all over the place or under the car. Electrics then, the HT leads and low tension leads on the coil all appear to be fine, unclip the cap and there appears to be no spark happening at the points. Power to the ignition, if I remember correctly comes from the ignition switch. I try to twist under the dash to have a look, but I don't want to be sitting there with my legs out in the road for very long. I can't see anything wrong but I try the car and she starts. Let's get out of this cutting and off the side of a hill. Of course as I pull away a car comes right up behind. The instruments check OK except of the ammeter which is now reading off the scale - over charging. I can't do much about it in that situation, so not wanting to melt wiring nor boil the battery I put the headlamps on and then also the heater's fan blower to burn off some of the current. With a car up your jacksie it's not terribly easy to find somewhere to pull off, and in any case there were only small private driveways to be had. a mile later I spot a turning into a field on the other side of the road, hastily indicate and finally get to pull off the main road. Big, deep water filled pot holes don't make it a smooth landing. Open the bonnet, check the dynamo's wiring connections, tucked in behind the exhaust down-pipe's heat shield. Naturally they are hot but no signs of looseness nor melted insulation. I feel the battery leads for excess heat. Nope they feel fine. Next I've got a piece of carpet out and am kneeling next to the driver's foot-well, trying to see if anything is amiss with the connections on the back of the ammeter. I'm glad to be carrying an LED lamp, even though the evening is light there's not a lot of light behind a dashboard (..aside from the red glow of the oil warning and ammeter warning light bulbs). Nothing seems astray, nor any sign or smells of melted insulation. 30 miles to go, 5:30 in the evening, I decide to carry on back with the headlamps and heater's fan blowing as required to try and save the battery. Keeping the engine revs down as low as I can, I head off and the ammeter is still reading high, but at least it's not off the scale. Things settle down at 40mph in top gear and overdrive and I turn the headlamps off. after another couple of miles I turn the fan blower off and the ammeter settles back down to reading its normal 5amp charge. It's then fine all the way home even when pushed to 3500rpm. Today . . ^ Number 1 plug is sotty, #3 a little too sotty still but just starting to turn brown, #4 plug a little less sotty still and turning brown. Oh yeah.. #2 light soot around the steel threaded rim but otherwise pretty much unused. There's a clue there somewhere ! ^ number 2 HT lead as it was in the cap. I think the dark marked hole through the orange insulation was where it had been fitted sometime in the past, and the dark marked hole through the white insulation was where it had been refitted, and has been like this since I bought the car. As I said I've not touched the distributor or the HT leads, aside from routing them more neatly, since I bought the car, although I did fit new connectors to the low-tension wires. I might only guess that when I had the cap off, to get to the forward two cylinder's spark-plugs I mush have pulled the lead, the end of the split orange insulation has broken off and the lead was loose in its hole, although when I pulled on it it didn't appear to be. For anyone who doesn't know, it's important to undo the pin screws (on the inside of the distributor cap) all the way when you refit these leads. Only when the screw is right the way unwound, and after you'ved checked there no debris inside the hole, should you push the lead in, hold it securely pushed into the cap, and then refit and tighten the grub screw. If however the screw was still partly in, and even you push the lead hard into the cap, then the sharp end of the screw can catch the insulation and the lead doesn't go all the way in. It only just held there. Even when tugged it feels secure, but over the years the lead is also twisted and that can break it out. As has happened here. Those grub screws by the way can fall out of the cap when they are fully unscrewed. they look like this . . . ^ you can just see the pointy ended screw (..just a little down from the centre of this photo) which I dropped (i being the twit who inverted the cap) ! It dropped down by the oil filter to the chassis (silver painted on this car). For those astute enough to notice, that screw is above the brake pipe ..and there's no shadow from or around it. That's because it is suspended in space. No, it wasn't that I was incredibly quick with my camera ..it's simply caught in a cob-web. It might be worth remembering this image next time you drop a small screw or washer and you simply cannot find it anywhere on the ground. Moving on, with the end of this HT lead cut 1/4" shorter and carefully refitted, I have since retried the car down the A14. When first started the ammeter shot around and off the scale, but tapping it and turning the lights on again restored it to read normally. I guess the control box is forewarning me that it's about to die. Engine ticked over more smoothly and at all speeds things are back to normal again ..running on four cylinders. Vibration of the engine is still very noticeable above 3000rpm, so I guess there's a still a little more carb tuning to happen, as well as a difference in compression between each cylinder. That is something I am not going to check because I do not want to know ! As 3100 is 70mph I can live with some vibration as I work through the gears, and otherwise it is not a problem. It is noteworthy that the vibration period of the engine has moved from 3000 - 3200rpm to now peak at 3300 - 3400 rpm. This I might attribute to the points gap being 0.008" ..which I've now corrected to the handbook's specification of 0.015". The gap effects exactly when the points open (when the spark happens), so by increasing the point's gap by another 0.007" .. I've retarded the ignition a little. This in turn can be felt as a slight drop in the engine's gusto, as well as in the rpm change of its peak vibration. Why the engine cut out completely ..and when checked there appeared to be no spark across the contact breakers - I do not know. I think that intermittent faults reveal themselves in time, or else I've corrected something without knowing it. It's my local TSSC club night tomorrow, at The Sorrel Horse, Barham, so we'll see if she runs OK for that. Frustrating issues these past few weeks, but all in all really nothing very major. One thing to be noted here is that ; while my focus was on carburettor tuning, having previously (..and deliberately) changed absolutely nothing to the ignition side of things, aside from cleaning the spark plugs - the engine's rough running after I adjusted the twin SU's mixture.. was mostly due to my inadvertently twisting the one poorly attatched HT lead. Pete
  18. Certainly the car came from Bury, I bought her two years ago in March from Bob and Patty Bell. It had white wall tyres and wire wheels then, and its red cover over the folded hood frame is unusual. It also had a wooden dashboard, original seats and black carpets, whereas now she has a black dashboard and green carpets, with black leather MX5 seats. Pete
  19. On Monday afternoon : I had good but still confusing advice from several kind persons. including this from Tom Cox who restores gearboxes and overdrives. . . Hi Pete, When you push the operating lever (I presume you're referring to the one on the same side as the valve with the red paint), is there any resistance or does it feel like you're pushing against nothing? You should be able to feel a "barrier" of pressure that once overcome, the lever moves quite easily (and the overdrive should engage). If there isn't any pressure in the system then you wont feel anything. The fact that oil is pumping out of the valve with the plug removes suggests the pump is working, but the accumulator may not be generating enough pressure to engage the OD. Tom - - - My friend Rich C-R invited me to call Tom, which I ended up doing twice, and he was exceptional generous with his time and patient in his explanations of how things should work. . . Thank you Nigel and Charlie, and again to Stuart and Peter, to my friend Rich who phoned me in support, and especially to Tom Cox who I called again today for a second round of advice. GREAT NEWS is that the overdrive now appears to be working, albeit spinning away inside a breeze shaken and quite chilly poly-tunnel rather than yet tested on the road. Today, Following clearer advice in the Haynes manual, I fished the operating valve out with a bent piece of wire . . . ^ That to me is an odd looking valve, but I'm sure there's good reason for that. The bottom end, of the plain shanked length, is closed off but the drilling inside this tube otherwise goes all the way to the bottom. You'll see the small hole by my index finger which needs to be clear. After blowing through that, and it appeared to be clear, I washed it out inside and out in petrol. It is possible that a tiny flake of something was laying across the inside of that hole, but I cannot say for sure. ^ While that was out, I found a length of clear pipe with a sleeve of rubber pipe on the valve-cap-hole's end to seal it, and ran the car up to speed in top gear. Fine bubbles came out but surprising little trickle of oil, even at 2500rpm ..I was getting braver doing that sort of speed (50mph) in such a confined space with a garden seat and brick wall in front of me. This is when I phone Tom again. He reassured me that ; oil coming out showed the pumps was working, and they tend to work or not. And that the slow rate did seem rather slow but it was pressure rather than flow which counts. Next, if it didn't work.. would be to find a pressure gauge and check what it read. Above 100psi and it should just about work, 200psi would be much better. And if the pressure was Ok then things pointed to a mechanical fault ..and most likely the circlip (item 21 in the parts manual, page 2-302) on the thrust race which has failed or come out. Without that - the thrust ring assembly (item 19) can move rather than it engaging the overdrive. It's so helpful when a kind man explains what should be happening and why it may not. Thank you Tom. I'm close to the end of my tether after a catalogues of 'experiences' with this car. I'm surprised at the dirty state of the oil after just 2000 or so miles, so I'll order some more and change it very soon. In the meantime, I reassembled the operating valve and tried it again ..using the lever on the RHS, and with the solenoid lever still disconnected, the overdrive engaged.. and although the revs didn't drop (because there's no load on the spinning rear wheels) the speedometer showed a marked increase. As you might imagine I was delighted. So what was the issue ? . . . I get the impression that the solenoid's operating lever was not moving far enough, just a tad out of adjustment, perhaps having slipped on the cross shaft. One of the solenoid's two mounting screws was a little loose. It tightened by screwdriver more than 1/2 a turn. I'm not sure where it came from or if it were part of the problem, but I caught a fleeting glimpse of a tiny metallic flake inside the operating valve, when I was flushing it out in petrol. I think Nigel's observation that tick-over rev's might not give sufficient pressure (to overcome the eight springs on the thrust ring assembly) might be right. Taking the engine up to 2000 rpm, in top gear - clearly registered the overdrive engagement on the speedo. I'll now reset the solenoid's lever and try the car on the road. I need to shop for groceries anyway. In case that lever needs slight adjusting, I'll just rest the rear half of the gearbox cover in place while I do that. My gratitude to those who supported and educated me through this episode. A tid-bit of information from here and there and between us we got the hoped for result ! Thank You. Pete - - - Postscript : the overdrive now works again on the road. According to the Haynes Manual one might have checked the current across the solenoid to ensure that when switches the current reduces to a 2amps holding current, rather than 15 - 20 amps as the solenoid is activated. I don't know how to do that measurement, but the ammeter is not showing a discernible discharge when the overdrive is engage ..which I would expect it to if there were 15 or 20 being drawn, so I guess then the solenoid's lever arm is now adjusted OK.
  20. On Monday : Hi Stuart, thank you again. No the gearbox oil level was a little down but only by 30 or 40 ml, measured with a family size syringe. As you suggest I've tried pushing forward on the operating lever, but with the back wheels off the ground rather than when driving down the road. I tried this in each of the three upper gears, pushing hard forward with a screwdriver blade on the operating lever, but the overdrive did not seem to operate. There was no suggestion of the drive-shaft rotating at a different rate and although the speedo was only reading 10mph, there was no sign of rev's dropping when overdrive solenoid was activated. Having read of an air-lock, but having not yet identified what an accumulator, nor where a choked air bleed might be ..in must be the worse workshop manual I've ever used, I've subsequently tried to bleed the bubbles out of the operating valve hole. If only because I reason that anything hydraulically operated doesn't work very well with air bubbles in the system ... Without the ball valve in place, I've been running the engine at tick-over speeds in forth gear, with and without the overdrive switched in. The book tells me that it is correct that oil wells out of this hole if the pump is working. Using the syringe I've been pulling out what comes up. After doing that three times I tried the overdrive again, with the ball valve, plunger, spring and cap back in place ..but still Katie's overdrive doesn't appear to be working. Lifting those components out again, I started and engaged overdrive in forth and clearly are still bubbles in there. Surely that means there are bubbles within the closed hydraulics from the pump, &/or else the pump is sucking in air ? . . . ^ mostly the bubbles are smaller than these, but any bubbles don't seem right to me. Admittedly I might be on the wrong track so I'll now try reading the Haynes manual. Perhaps that's written in clearer English than Triumph's own WSM. I'll also do a search through this websites pages and see what else I can find. The link I saw to Buckeye threw my old computer into a right wobbly (..opened numerous tabs), so I'll need to dig out the horrid HP with its later windows version on it before I try that link again. I don't know anything about overdrive units, or how they work, so please excuse me if I'm not asking the right questions or otherwise seeing the obvious. Pete
  21. From Sunday. . . On another note ... Overdrive not working. Professionally rebuilt just last year / 2000 miles ago, I don't know what's wrong. It was working fine until last weekend when I had the fuse blow due to a fault in the brake light circuit. Since then, although the solenoid clicks and seemingly operates fine, I have no over-drive in any gear. Following previous advice to other owners having the same or similar issues - I've checked the gearbox oil level, and it took a topping up of between 30 and 40ml. The oil is Dynolite Gear 40 non-hypoid & non-friction modified gear oil. I've also check the solenoid's operation (audio and then visually only. I have not made any adjustment to it). It seemed to be working fine. and while driving I can just about hear it disengaging and reengaging as I change gear. ^ peekabo for overdrive perverts ^ off and.. activated ^^ Note. I can hear this, and could see it from underneath the car, but I've lifted the rear half of my gearbox cover off, because i wanted to visually check what-was-what under there now, and to access the operating valve. ^ Following the suggestions in the workshop manual - I've removed the valve operating cover (the top of which is painted red, centre of this photo), pulled and checked the spring, it plunger and ball. As expected of it having been professional restored, the ball's condition looks brand new. The spring wasn't broken, nor did it appear to be unduly weak. With the ignition on, but the car not started ; I engaged a higher gear and clicked on the overdrive switch. The ball lifted (against a 1/4"-drive-socket screwdriver) as prescribed. I haven't measured it but it seemed more like 1/16" to me rather than the 1/32" specified in the book. Is too much travel an issue ? or perhaps the solenoid's lever arm needs to taken down a bit ?? ^ To test the operation of the pump, which is inside the overdrive unit ..with the rear wheels of the car lifted (timber blocks under the trailing arms) and the front wheels chocked, I started the engine and engaged 4th gear at engine tick-over speeds. When the overdrive switch was operated.. oil very quickly welled up to fill and overflow the valve cover flange. According to the book, only if this doesn't happen the pump is at fault. However, I did note a ring of small air bubbles inside the hole's oil. Perhaps there was air in the pump and/or the valve that has stopped the overdrive unit from working ?? That's as far as I've got. I have not subsequently driven the car to see if the overdrive is now working or not ..but aside from letting those air bubbles out, I can't see that I've actually done anything. The car is still up on the blocks with the rear wheels lifted 1/2" off the ground. And I'm very much open to advice as to what to check next. Thanks, Pete
  22. On the TR Register forum, the above post prompted more than a few owners to share their 'multiple fuse solution' to not having to do those first steps of switching one thing on at a time diagnostics, which I did to hone in on the brake light circuit. One chap has now 17 fuses and five relays on his TR6, and yet if his brake lights failed he still wouldn't know about it. A couple of responses said that their and my opinion was that the wiring loom's three fuses were inadequate. To which I replied . . . Semantics perhaps, but I never said that the original wiring design was inadequate, I simply said "Are more than just three standard fuses such a good thing ? Perhaps yes.. I think.. " In my mind, anything which has served well for 55+ years, on tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of vehicles of all marques, and which has generally been neglected from maintenance, cannot honestly be said to be inadequate. Could it be improved ? .."perhaps". But then one might possibly say that about any aspect of any vehicle ever built. My Sunbeam motorcycle has just one fuse from the battery, and 70 years on it still starts easily, is remarkably reliable, and in a worse case scenario is usually easy to fix at the side of the road, as was Katie when this fault occurred. I did go home to fix it, but only because we were just a few miles away and I was carrying an inadequate number of spare fuses with me. My objective with the car was to make it as reliable for touring - as economically and time-invested practical. But then to be prepared for roadside repairs for those other niggles. i failed in the latter respect, as that type of fuse is no longer stocked by most filling stations (on a bank holiday Sunday). As an aside ; other things like fat tyre valves, the wide fan belt, and a selection of bulbs, all need to be carried - if even minor roadside / modern garage repairs are to be made. I look at Nigel's and Rob's, very neatly done, eight fuses and think of the latter - where's one or two for the lights ? - it or they must be on yet other fuses. And then I think what is the real benefit of having that many fuses ? If your own car's brake light fuse blows - then would you even know about it ? This is surely a deficit to be balanced against the benefit of it not having effected other circuits. So., could those multiple fuse wiring systems be improved ? " perhaps " The benefit of multiple fuses it seems - is in isolating and therefore in tracing the fault to a particular circuit. Seems a lot of effort to save me putting a new fuse in and then trying one switch at a time ? That is after all - all the diagnostics came down to ..in tracking the fault to the brake light circuit. And if I hadn't found the fault - then I could simply have pulled the brake-light's wiring connection off ..then all the other circuits still worked fine. What am I missing ? - - - This then prompted the comment that "ALL modern cars have multiple fuses ..so it must be right". - - - I replied to that with a long list of electrics that even my 2002 Chrysler Voyager has ; with engine management and fuel injection, fault sensors on all sorts of things, and limp-mode, electric windows, mirrors, fobbed central locking, electric side and tailgate doors, six interior light plus one under the bonnet and another two in the boot, plus rear screen wash and wipe, and two dozen other things, which account for its addition fuses ..and a host of diagnostic fault codes - None of which I want on my Triumph. - - - Nevertheless the conversation carried on and I did learn that the Triumph lighting fuse did not actually include the headlamps ..which remain unfused. That to me is unacceptable so I will add a fuse for those, and I'll use a lower rated fuse for the sidelights. I'll not add the headlamps to the side-lamp's fuse because I wouldn't want to loose all lights at the same time. On reflection ..because I do actually listen to other people's opinions, I looked at how this car's wiring was protected and how it would be a nuisance if for example the brake-light fuse blew which stopped the windscreen wipers from working, or vice versa. Still, I liked the fact that within just half-a-mile, my Tom-Tom turning off alerted me to a fault (my brake lights not working), but things like the indicator / hazard warning light might easily be on a separately fused circuit - because they do of course have their own tell-tale light. . I'm presently thinking . . . I don't want a voice activated or any other diagnostic computer telling me, or the car, what to do Nor do i want more complication than absolutely necessary. I like NASA's philosophy of KISS. my car's headlamp wiring and its switches are not fuse protected. That to me is unacceptable. But it'll be best not to have the headlamps on the same fuse as the side lights, as I'd not like to loose all the lights at once, The side-lamp's fuse (presently 35A) is way too high for this car, which now has LED bulbs. I also think it would be prudent to have the brake lights and indicators / hazard warning lights on different fuses. As the indicators have their own tell-tale then it seems logical to leave the brake lights on the same fuse as the instruments, because those instruments not working would alert me to the likelihood of brake light failure. The Indicators / hazards can have their own fuse, which again because of the LED bulbs can be a low rating. Having the screen wash, wipers, heater blower and cigarette lighter (aux power to Tom-Tom and phone charging) all on the same fuse as 'safety items' ..like brake-lights and hazard warning light, also doesn't make good sense to me. I think it would be worthwhile to fit another two fuses for those four circuits. probably screen wash and heater blower on one, and wipers and auxiliary chargers on the other ..as Tom-Tom will alert me to any problem in the wiper's circuit ..even when they are not turned on. . So, I must admit that I've moved to think that perhaps six to eight fuses might be wiser. Katie already has three and so a block of just four more would not be difficult to fit in. Thanks to all, Pete
  23. Katie suffered an electrical affliction on Sunday morning, insomuch as soon after I drove off to go to Hedingham Castle - a fuse blew. The first I knew of it was that Tom-Tom's power was cut and a screen notice came up asking if I wanted it to shut down or resume. I then noticed that the fuel gauge read zero, despite the tank being filled the previous day, and also the temperature gauge read zero. I then discovered the indicators didn't work and nor did the overdrive ..and yes, I did check the power lead connection into Tom-Tom Ooh, this was annoying, not least insomuch as I was booked in (read ; pre-paid) to an jousting event at the castle (an hour's drive away) rather than my usual day out in the sunshine of getting in the car to go somewhere where I'd pay on the door. Naturally, the main event was going to happen at midday whether or not I was late. In addition, I was faced with a car that worked but which without instruments and indicators wasn't roadworthy. One cannot blame Katie for this, it must have been something the plonker (me) who checked the wiring didn't do right. I pulled into a filling station and checked. Yes it was the fuse for green wires (..ignition switched-on power). There was no wire obviously shorting out to be seen under the dashboard, so perhaps it was just an iffy fuse that had blown. I had two spare. I replaced the fuse and all seemed fine Now, with with just one fuse as a spare - any diagnostics would require a methodical approach.. A fuse blows when the component draws too much power too quickly or else when the wiring circuit shorts out to earth. The latter is more usual, particularly on a car that had been reliable for the passed 2000 miles in six months. So., with the new fuse in and the engine started . . . The fuel gauge was now working, as was the temperature gauge. I had not used the wipers, the screen wash (converted to an electric pump on this car), nor the heater's blower. So the blown fuse was unlikely to have been caused by an overload through any of those circuits. The indicators flashed ..all is good so far ! I put the car into second gear (foot on the clutch) and even though were were still parked I could hear the overdrive's solenoid click to activate. So that too was OK. I touched my foot onto the brake pedal and the new fuse blew. The fault, by deduction my dear Watson, was somewhere to be found in the brake-light circuit. Following this simple but systematic approach - I very quickly knew where to start looking for the fault ..it was going to be somewhere in the brake-light circuit. Because i was still nearby, and although I had the tools in the car - I drove home to sort it out ..and to replenish the car's spare fuses . . . ^ This photo (turned on its RHS because it seems clearer that way around) shows the ex-motorcycle brake light switch I'd fitted in Katie's footwell, not far from the fuse box which along with the voltage regulator is now also under there. This switch is a very simple pull-the-rod ..connected, via a spring, to the brake pedal, to bridge the electrical contacts. The green wire to the right (middle of photo) into the switch, is the green switched-power from the fuse lead. That was not going to be at fault ..because the fuse doesn't blow until the switch is activated ..so the fault must be in the switch itself, or anywhere thereafter ..all the way back to each brake-light bulb (which btw are now low-amperage / high luminosity LED's on this car). The switch's bracket attachment of the brake-light-switch had fluff in the screw hole (centre of photo), which at first I thought must be fine wire filaments that would short from the electrical connection to the screw / to the bracket / on the underside of the bulkhead / to the car's body / to earth. My screwdriver's blade attracted the fine filament, which again implied magnetic. However when pulling the filaments out I found that they broke, and were mostly trapped under the screw head.. They were probably filaments of the felt underlay, I'd used over the gearbox tunnel, and were most likely attracted to the screwdriver blade by static rather than magnetic. Even when pulled out and the surrounding area wiped clean (..of Vaseline smeared into the wiring connections), the next fuse I tried also blew. The fault was not there then ! I pulled the switch and visually inspected it, ensured that its body was clean and not cracked (which can cause electrical tracking). I refitted it and tried again. Another fuse blown, so the fault was not there then either. Nevertheless, the methodical approach of working my way along the circuit made good sense, if only in eliminating the power feed wire and the switch itself from being at fault. Nevertheless, although I'd just traced the wires between the fuse holder and the brake light switch ..for obvious sign of fault, I checked them again. Satisfied with my logic, I proceeded to check the wiring, wrapped as part of the loom, as it drops down the front corner of the bulkhead and then back along the inside sill corner of the floor (under the carpet). No fault could be identified in that stretch of the circuit either. Thereafter the wires disappear up behind the B-post's trim panel. The wiring harness is next seen is within the top corners of the boot space, as it leads from behind the fuel tank covering board to the rear lights. Again all looked fine. I then pulled each rear light bulb to check for anything obvious (like a bulb that had half fallen out or otherwise blown to bits ..and those bits were shorting against the bulb holder). But no each were very clean, and the bulb holders lightly smeared with Vaseline to minimise corrosion. There was no tell-tale sign of anything having arced an electrical short. The one connection I couldn't see was that hidden by the boot / fuel tank covering board. This is a double-bullet-connector which splits the brake light circuit to both left and right hand rear lamps of the car. So out with my overnight bag and the car cover (which I take to hide the car under when I'm parking overnight away from home) to unscrew that end of the covering board. With that pulled forward on just that one side I could, ease the wiring connector into the boot space. I had replaced & Vaselined that double-connector just last year and it looked fine. I made sure that each of its three bullets were thoroughly pushed into the connector and refastened the lining board, but this time with the connector still inside the boot space, rather than hidden behind the board. When checked the brake lights now worked again ..without blowing the fuse. Success ..but I still don't know for certain where the fault was. It may have been one of the bullets into that rear double-connector was just touching / shorting against the angled bracing under the rear deck ..in there besides the full of petrol fuel tank ~ which on reflection is not at all a happy prospect. Or was it that in pulling that section of the car's wiring loom out of the corners, and twisting it to inspect all around its insulation for a fault, that it was shorting in some other place. I cannot be certain. I'll sometime revisit this wiring. in the meantime I wanted to get to the Spring Joust at Hedingham Castle. I was almost 2-1/2 hours late and so just missed the first bout of jousting, but still in good time to see the castle, and other attractions before the second bout of the day. - - - Although long-winded - I've written out this episode in the hope that it may be helpful to those who are less-than-comfortable with vehicle electrics &/or those of us who can generally fix things ..if only they can find / identifying the fault or faults (ie., what to fix). Methodical approach ..checking one thing at a time in order, and then as required changing and retest before moving on. It may seem slow and laborious but in the end it's inevitably quicker and less frustrating. So ; When several things are not working - what's the common factor to those ? - in this instance ; it was the power feed that came from the same source ..one fuse in looking for the fault - start by looking for where there was not a fault. ie., eliminate what you can, so then you can hone-in on where the issue is. In this example ; the things least likely circuit to draw heavy electrical current, and also the least likely to be faulty, were the instruments. With a new fuse, turn the ignition on and start the engine ..with nothing else turned on, and check the gauges worked. No fault there then. You can also mentally eliminate (check off ) those things that were not being used (in this instance ; the screen-washer pump, the wipers, and the heater blower). Then systematically try other things... Indicators = check. Overdrive solenoid clicking in = check. Brake lights = FAIL. Acknowledge that the brake lights caused the fuse to blow only after the brake pedal's switch was activated. So the fault was not before the switch ..otherwise the fuse would have blown when the ignition was turned on. So - after the wire, which feeds power to the brake light switch, comes the switch itself. I checked this and then checked again to see if the fuse still blew when the brake lights were switch. They did = FAIL ..the fluff seen in the screw hole by to the wires terminal-connector was my chasing a rabbit down a blind hole. It happens. But take heart ..not finding a fault is progress as it eliminates that component. I then methodically followed the wires and any connectors, looking for any sign of fault (cracked, slit or otherwise broken or chafed insulation) or perhaps signs of arcing (very localised burn marks on adjacent metal) ..all the way back to the bulb holders and the bulbs themselves. I couldn't find any sign of fault, and so I retraced the route back to the one connector I couldn't see, without first undoing pulling it out from behind the boot's trim panel. Had I not found the fault then I would have gone back to the start and gone through the process again, perhaps with better lighting &/or with my reading spectacles, to see what I'd missed. If you are not intimately familiar with your car's wiring, then please do carry a diagram - that you've previously checked is accurate to that particular car. Note ; having a diagram doesn't tell you the route of the loom as it runs through the car, so have a look beforehand and then also recognise that certain coloured wires only go to certain places. Lucas tracer-colour wiring codes are particularly easy to work with, and it's worth becoming familiar with those colours ; for your own car's primary earth and live wires, for each of the different light & indicator circuits, and for the horn. Any of the others can be looked up, if and when you need to know what they are. In the meantime those tracer-colours you are familiar will allow you to say, " it's not that wire because it's an earth wire, or for the headlamps, for the side-lamps, the horn, the indicators " which immediately eliminates 50% of the wires in the loom. A compact torch is necessary to see clearly in the footwells and darker corners. I keep a small (waterproof) flat but adjustably bright rechargeable LED one (..a beanie-hat head-torch) for such purposes in my car's tool kit. A lesson I learnt - was to carry lots of spare fuses (..of the right type for your car). Although a multi-meter (which I do carry with me) can be helpful to trace faults (in this instance ; it would be used across the fuse holder to see if there is an excessive spike in power when different things are switched on, when the fuse blows). I'd say that fuses are easier, cheap, small to pack into a corner of the car for touring ...and absolutely definitive. When this happened, I immediately kicked myself that I hadn't fitted a multiple fuse holder, allowing one for each circuit. But then I thought, well if the Tom-Tom's power hadn't been lost, and then I'd been alerted to the instruments not working, then how would I know that the brake lights had stopped working ? Or the windscreen wipers ? ..which I mostly I use when it's miserable weather ..and not a time time when I'm happy to trace a wiring fault. As it was - I was alerted to something being wrong within half-a-mile, when Tom-Tom didn't (audibly) tell me which way to go. Surely that's an aid to road safety.? Isolating each circuit with a separate fuse wouldn't have done that. It's useful to note ; that had I been unable to trace the fault, to get back on the road - then I could simply have pulled the wiring connector to that particular circuit off the fuse box. In this instance ; I would have had no brake-lights, but everything else would still work, to continue the journey &/or until I was in a better situation (perhaps in an illuminated service station if it had been at night) to trace the fault. So I now ask myself - Are more than just three standard fuses such a good thing ? Perhaps yes.. I think.. If so is it best to add more fuses, for individually fused circuits, after the existing main fuse holder (which has a 10amp fuse in it). ? Katie's wiring has (deliberately on my part) not been complicated with additional relays. She now has just one horn (and it's loud) so no relay is necessary for that (the original one I've removed along with a few meters of wiring and their x-number of connections). I think now, only overdrive solenoid has a relay in the circuit. - - - Katie has driven a hundred miles since this incidence, including some pretty horridly wet weather where the instruments, brake-lights, indicators and wipers were all on at the same time ..from that single 10amp fuse - and it hasn't blown again. Unfortunately since however the overdrive has stopped working, despite the relay or solenoid clicking. That's on the menu as the next job-of-the-day. Hope the above notes are useful to some, Wishing you happy and reliable motoring, Pete
  24. I think probably not, they already had their Morgan plus 8 and so sought to jump on the modern-retro band wagon. Sadly it ended up looking like a fibreglass kit car. Possibly the reason for that is its blobbiness (..lacking refining details), the excessive raking of windscreen and headlamps, and the avante position of the radiator grille relative to the front axle. Try as the designers did they either weren't brave enough, or allowed to, move it that far back (as the Panther J72 did). More Bat-mobile than stylish imo.
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