Triumph 2000 Project - SOLD

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I would do a course just so somebody more experienced can tell you where you are going wrong - please bear in mind it used to take 3 years to serve your time as a welder.

You can practice in terms of patching etc. however you may need more than that if you want to replace the sills - you want it to look tidy and you dont want a call from the tester to say your new sills have come adrift!

Many moons ago a local SD1 club member fitted a new wing to his SD1 despite having no experience welding and being advised not to - he thought he had done a good job until a set of ladders fell on it and the wing came off.

Do a short course and you won't look back.

To be fair, this could and probably did happen to new SD1's.

[The Moog]

I think i am going to have to tuck it safely away for now then. Local college are doing a welding course over 4 sats in September which i think i will do, plus need to save the pennies for sills.

 

Hopefully catsinwelder is going to sort me out his old welder which needs a new torch.

[Ratdat]

I learned to weld mainly through trial and error and although I can now work to a decent standard I would definitely recommend doing a course, simply because it'll get you up to speed a lot faster. One of the problems with the suck-it-and-see approach is if you are having problems you'll never know if it's your skills or lack thereof, something wrong with your prep work of even a shitty welder. Any course you do is likely to provide good equipment and they'll also start you off with the correct techniques.

 

 

I used to work for a Triumph specialist years ago and we restored a few of the 2000/2500 range. Looking at yours, I'd prepare yourself for bit of a welding odyssey as they are nearly always worse than they look. It's all perfectly do-able though, even when they are pretty rotten. I would invest some money in whatever panels you can get for reasonable money because it'll save you a great deal of time and work, especially if you don't possess much metalworking equipment or tools for fabricating panels. With time and patience you can make nearly anything with a few hammers and dollies (and a vice) but it really does take quite a lot of time. The more equipment you have the easier and faster it gets but if you are only ever going to do the one project it might not be worth spending too much on tools, although that depends on how much you need to make for that car obviously.

[mat_the_cat]

One of the problems with the suck-it-and-see approach is if you are having problems you'll never know if it's your skills or lack thereof, something wrong with your prep work of even a shitty welder.

 

Agreed. At the very least I'd suggest getting someone more experienced along to start you off with your equipment. If it's set up correctly and the metal properly prepared, at least you will be starting off on the right foot and you can experiment with what changes cause which problems with the weld.

[The Moog]

So I need the car to run to move it into the garage which is up a hill so cant really push it. Following the starting triangle I sorted out the electrickery.

 

Whipped battery off and put it on charge and ordered an Acuspark, rotor arm, sparkplugs and HT leads. Fitted them all (apart from HT leads as I need to make them up and not sure how) and I can haz spark. Bit yellowy but still a spark to the plugs. But it still wont start.
 

Turns over happily enough and I cleaned out the fuel filter yesterday. Fuel filter is full and when I popped the hose off the feed to the carb it was full of petrol.

 

I am going to have to take the carbs off I think to see what the issue is. Little bit scared as I never have played with carbs before always fuel injection cars.

 

Any hints or tips?

[dollywobbler]

Give the old adage that 90% of fuel problems are actually ignition related, I think I'd be tempted to explore that side of things a bit more before messing with the carbs. It does sound like the spark is weak, so finding why might be a good move. A jump pack of jump leads might be handy, just to give it the best chance.

[lisbon_road]

With the debate about welding, I always found that resistance spot welding was very good for someone not proficient in welding.  It is easy to learn and is all about preparation.  You can practise on scrap and smash them apart until you're sure they are good welds.  With a set of varied arms it is surprising how much can be done - but never everything of course.

[The Moog]

DW - wouldn't it catch even with weak ish spark? Battery is very healthy as spins car pretty freely.

I also double checked the ht leads to make sure they were on correctly

 

I know i need to put fresh fuel in as it is 18 months old

[HillmanImp]

What carbs are they? Twin SU?

[The Moog]

Yes think so. Will get pics

[The Moog]

Pics - new ht leads, ngk plus and acuspark.

 

Also the filler made a bid for freedom leaving behind lovely orange flakes

[HillmanImp]

After I had laid the GT6 up for some time it would not start for AGES. It would eventually but would really need some perseverance to get going. Once I got it going it was fine and started each time.

 

I thought, fine, maybe its just because its been laid up for so long but the next day it was the same.

 

I did the same as you changing all the usual suspects but still nothing. I managed to trace the problem to the jet head at the bottom of the carb:

 

 

Which had seized whilst the car had been laid up. There is one right at the bottom of each carb and is opened up when you pull the choke when starting the car from cold. I simply freed it off by undoing the bolt at the top of it, lubricating it, moving it up and down and bit until it was obviously free and re-tightening the bolt. Car starts fine now. 

 

I am not sure if this could be a common SU carb problem after they have been laid up a while? Worth looking at if it seems like it wants to go but isn't?

[Bren]

You need some of this -

 

 

[The Moog]

Cheers will check that. I pulled the plugs after spinning it over and they were dry as bone so looks like fuel isn't getting through.

[brickwall]

Pics - new ht leads, ngk plus and acuspark.

 

Also the filler made a bid for freedom leaving behind lovely orange flakes

 

 

Those blast holes are too accurate for Sandpeople.

[The Moog]

I spent this morning tinkering. I applied the shiters easy start. It caught but dies as soon as i stop spraying.

 

Decided to be brave and took off the carbs. Never having played with any before i was scared to break stuff. I needn't be, they are pretty straightforward. A mix of HBOL and interweb let me take them apart.

 

Float bowl had orangey crud in them so emptied that out. Blew threw the jets and they don't seem to be blocked. Put them back together and lobbed then on the car. Took 4 attempts to do so as i kept forgetting to do things (still forgot the choke spindle but cba to dismantle it again)

 

Next thought is that the petrol might be rubbish. Can is the best way a feed from a petrol can? Does it need a pump or will gravity do?

[carlo]

Know nothing about carbs but have a bump...

 

Love Triumph 2000s and Rover 2000s

[dollywobbler]

Very, very possible that 18 month old petrol is not helping. Is the pump not on the engine? If so, a can and a short piece of pipe to the pump should do the trick.

[The Moog]

Emptied out the old fuel and removed the Broquet fuel additive that had been plumbed in. After tasting the old fuel versus new fuel it was definitely off. But still no start.

 

Pulled the feeds off to the float bowls and the fuel will happily spurt out of the line, so I know the pump is working. It will turn over on easy start meaning that the spark is ok, so it looks like it is carbs causing the issue. 

 

I was trying to avoid buying a rebuild kit because it is money I dont want to spend yet. Mainly beacuse I dont want to spend another £80 on that then get to a point that I cant complete the body work.

 

Any cheap solutions? Would lobbing just new needles in work?

 

I need the car to move about 300m to a garage, but up hill and the garage has a ramp into it.

[Ratdat]

SU's are so simple that there's very little to fix. Proving the fuel is getting to the jets, the float chamber level is right and the pistons are free to move they should work. If your choke isn't operational that won't help as pumping the pedal does nothing with SU's unlike most other carbs.

[nigel bickle]

Sounds like sticky float needles to me. Try tapping the flaot chambers with a block of wood a few times. If they are stuck, there's a reasonable chance that, once freed, they'll start to flood the engine, with fuel everywhere!

 

But -at least you'll know, and stripping the float chamber is easy, cheap (or free)! 

[The Moog]

Spot on Mr Bickle. I went out in the 2 minutes of non rain and whipped top of float chamber. As I did that the fuel drop and came out the needle. The float seems ok and you:can blow through the pipes but it must be sticking in the shut position.

 

is it a case of take it apart and clean it with carb cleaner?

[The Moog]

Took both carbs off again (getting good at this) and comandeered the kitchen table. Both carbs were stripped and float bowls dismantled. Scraped all the gaskets off and cleaned them up. Took the float bowls off, jet out and blew through. Massive (relatively) bit of crud shot out.

 

Cleaned, reassembled and refitted (includng choke bar)...and...... cough cough... brum!

 

Sounds as if one of the cylinders is missing (probably my shit ht lead connections) but I moved it 100m up the road with no issues. The rear sticking drum popped itself off. I need to do the peugeot leak off stuff tomorrow then I can waz the car in they dry.

 

Pleased with myself I closed the door and a bit lump of filler fell out....give with one hand take with the other..

 

I really can see why people loved carbs,they do seem fairly straightforward and very satisfyingly mechanical

[scooters]

Great to hear she's growling again. Well done. SUs are nectar compared to some.

 

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[scruff]

GR8 NEWS

[The Moog]

Tucked up in the garage for now. I will get under it in a months time to start evaluating what i need to do.

[The Moog]

Today i finally got some time to have a better look at the Triumph.

 

Pics speak louder

 

 

Before

 

Finger Poke

 

 

At first glance it needs both sides sills done, the front sub frame has crumbled,  all the wheel arches are requiring work and there are lots of bubbles that I think once poked will expose hidden stuff. Scooter said it had been undersealed which seems to have trapped the rust in.

 

Positive is that the engine runs ok and got good tyres

 

I think that I need to wave the white flag on this one. I am living in a rented house which is on the market and so even if I wanted to take it to bits ( I dont) I cant really in case I need to move.

 

 

Any ideas of value as it stands?

 

 

[AnthonyG]

Around £400? The sum of its good parts really, what's the interior like?

 

I'll probably get flamed mercilessly for saying this but a banger racer would take it off your hands if no-one else will.

[The Moog]

So this is now collecting dust in my garage so time to move it on. It is a project too far for me and I could do with the cash to sort out the camper conversion.

 

It has masses of history, engine runs (fitted Acuspark). Guaranteed no gearbox has been stolen then refitted in this bad boy. Comes in pussy magnet Beige and I can throw in a free stick to keep them at bay*

 

it starts and drives although back left brake does stick on.

 

Bodywork it needs both sets of sills done plus the front crossmember. It is an ideal project car for someone with Skillz. You can buy all the parts to get it done.

 

Scooters is still sorting out the V5 so i dont have that at the moment but can give a receipt, I can then ask Scooters to do V5 direct to you.

 

For sale at an unbelievably amazing £350 (which is what I paid for it) .. form an orderly queue please

 

Located in lovely Accrington, not that nasty Rochdale.

 

*Limited Stock of Sticks

[The Moog]

Could do flexible payments with 0% down to regular Shiter*

 

I got it transported down from Scotland via the magic of Scruff.

 

*as copied from world famous Cavcraft.