Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Now in black & white! - 26/02/25

[D Spares & Tyres]

I thought the Triumph Acclaim used Morris Ital front seat frames?

No,no definitely Cortina.

 

I know this for sure as a man in an anorak told me at a classic car show

[Eddie Honda]

Rear seat belt anchorages have been a requirement since 1981.

 

Belts themselves since 1987 and actually wearing them since 1992.

[SierraMikeHotel]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the nostalgia from this thread.

 

My great-uncle had one.  I was about 16 when he died and it was offered to my older sister but she didn't want it.  I'd have had it like a shot if I'd been old enough to drive, but nobody thought to wait a year and offer it to me...

[captain_70s]

Went at the exhaust with the welder today.

 

For reference I've only ever welded once before, a few lines down a scrap bonnet from a Fiesta, and never with the stick welder I actually own. With this in mind I had a bit of a practice on a mild steel Dolly 1300 downpipe I have which is miles off of fitting and would cost more in postage to return than it's worth anyway. Got a few good runs in and then checked the time and realised I was alarmingly close to girlfriend visiting time so moved onto the actually exhaust.

 

Long story short the flange is solidly tacked to the rest of the pipe but I need to attack it with the grinder and re-do most of my pigeon shit welding. Doing a bit more reading up on the whole lark I think I had the amperage set too low, the good news is that the welder seems to work fine, as does my new auto-dimming mask, and I managed to avoid any serious burns or eye damage!

[captain_70s]

Reet, exhaust is back on. Front mount is still AWOL, centre mount is still made of jubilee clips and rattles like a bastard, silencer mount is still waaaaay too low and causes the back box to kiss every speedbump I encounter regardless of how slowly I take them, but it works! Taking the 3-ton jack out the boot may improve things... You don't get pictures of my welding because fucking hell it is shite.

 

Taking the car to work tomorrow morning and will pick up new wiper blades and hopefully something to make a front exhaust mount out of on my way home. Here she is with a Mini tonight:

 

 

 

[320touring]

Al set for wed evening then:)

[captain_70s]

Al set for wed evening then:)

Indeed!

 

Aside from re-hanging the exhaust the only thing I still need to do asap is to find some way to listen to banging tunes (Duran Duran, Supertramp, etc) in the thing. I don't want to get rid of the original MW/LW radio, wonder if there is a way to tap an aux input directly into it somehow. I'll need to check the connections, it MIGHT have some sort of input for a cassette player or something that I can use...

 

The alternative is finding a period cassette player and using an adaptor but I'd rather keep the poverty spec head unit...

[320touring]

Clyde 2 FTW

[somewhatfoolish]

Indeed!

 

Aside from re-hanging the exhaust the only thing I still need to do asap is to find some way to listen to banging tunes (Duran Duran, Supertramp, etc) in the thing. I don't want to get rid of the original MW/LW radio, wonder if there is a way to tap an aux input directly into it somehow. I'll need to check the connections, it MIGHT have some sort of input for a cassette player or something that I can use...

 

The alternative is finding a period cassette player and using an adaptor but I'd rather keep the poverty spec head unit...

Some bloke has converted his shite period pushbutton radio to have an auxiliary socket = choonz.

[MorrisItalSLX]

You need an under-dash mount cassette player, simmilar to the one depicted here on Vulgalour's Princess when he got it:

 

[captain_70s]

Aaaand I climbed in this frosty morning, turned the key, the starter motor coughed, the dash lights went off and that was that.

 

Next step is to check the alternator is working, if it is then I'll leave the battery disconnected overnight to see if something is draining it. The battery is brand new.

[SiC]

Is there really any electronics in there that can really cause a drain?! Apart from maybe the alternator or ignition switch not turning off properly.

[captain_70s]

The starter has always been very sluggish if the car has been sat any length of time but works fine if the car has only been shut off for a couple of hours.

 

Electricity can't be trusted, the car has some odd quirks. The left indicators flash twice as quickly if the brake lights are on, but the right ones and hazards are uneffected...

[D Spares & Tyres]

Disconnect the boot light?

[captain_70s]

Got home, turned key, car fired right up. It did sound a bit lumpy and the dash lights flickered for about 30 seconds after it started.

 

Did some tests, 12v across the battery with the engine off, 13.6v at idle, belt doesn't seem to be slipping at all. Nothing is staying on in the car with the ignition off with the exception of the clock (I checked the boot light). I did notice the clock was about 20mins behind, when I got in the car in the morning it was correct and had kept time all night so it must have lost power at some point.

 

I'm going to disconnect the battery tonight and see if the car starts tomorrow when it's reconnected, that'll show if it's a duff battery at least.

[SiC]

When revved for a bit does it hit nearer 14v?

13.6v is a tad low but could be correct if idling and battery discharged.

 

12v when engine off is pretty low though. Likewise could be because the battery is discharged.

 

I have suspicions you may have a few duff earths. Especially on the back lights.

[Asimo]

Doing well to fix an exhaust with a stick welder I reckon.

 

And it will be mouldy earths at the lights and bad / missing earth straps / manky starter connections. It always is.

[somewhatfoolish]

If you've got a meter you could put it in series with the battery with the ignition off to see if there is parasitic load and if so how much there is.

[captain_70s]

When revved for a bit does it hit nearer 14v?

13.6v is a tad low but could be correct if idling and battery discharged.

I pulled the choke out and idling at 1000rpm it went up to 13.9v so I imagine under normal use it's fine. It's impossible to get to the throttle linkage under the bonnet without removing the air filter so I can't fiddle as much as I'd like.

 

Today's tinkering involved:

 

Dialling in the radio so I can listen to Clyde 2 (ta' for the tip Mr 320!), I also discovered I DO have a second speaker and I managed to coax it into life.

Replacing the wiper blades for some new 16" examples.

Replacing a blown reverse light bulb.

Trying to replace a rusty rear numberplate screw and realising I don't have anything the right size to replace it so now the rear numberplate is on the wonk.

Patching a minor exhaust blow with paste.

Adding some more jubilee clip based mounts to the exhaust to take the strain off the manifold/downpipe.

Investigating why my front Cibies don't work - They aren't wired up.

Accidentally prodding a large hole or four in a structural bit of the chassis.

[SiC]

13.9v is acceptable for alternator output. Either knackered battery or duff earths.

[plasticvandan]

Re the radio,all you need to do is connect a 3.5mm jack lead to the volume control

[320touring]

I pulled the choke out and idling at 1000rpm it went up to 13.9v so I imagine under normal use it's fine. It's impossible to get to the throttle linkage under the bonnet without removing the air filter so I can't fiddle as much as I'd like.

 

Today's tinkering involved:

 

Dialling in the radio so I can listen to Clyde 2 (ta' for the tip Mr 320!), I also discovered I DO have a second speaker and I managed to coax it into life.

Replacing the wiper blades for some new 16" examples.

Replacing a blown reverse light bulb.

Trying to replace a rusty rear numberplate screw and realising I don't have anything the right size to replace it so now the rear numberplate is on the wonk.

Patching a minor exhaust blow with paste.

Adding some more jubilee clip based mounts to the exhaust to take the strain off the manifold/downpipe.

Investigating why my front Cibies don't work - They aren't wired up.

Accidentally prodding a large hole or four in a structural bit of the chassis.

Huzzah on the Clyde2 - that's what mah maw would listen to when we were in the car:)

 

Dislike for everything else though:(

[captain_70s]

Numberplate can be sorted with a small enough self tapper, the front fogs are more for decoration anyway.

 

The real problem is how my passenger side chassis leg has ceased to be. While fastening my jubilee clip exhaust bodge the screwdriver slipped and went right though it... A bit of prodding yielded distressing results! I think it's been used as a jacking point in the past and has creased, weakening it. The driver's side has already had the same section welded up with a box section which is what will need doing to the passenger side. The floor around it seems fairly solid, as does the leg further forward and back so it's not HUGE undertaking but is irritating.

 

Also a really good thing that the low silencer was causing me to take speedbumps at glacial pace!

 

In happier news a guy passing a car wound down his window to check I still had the Dolomite and was pleased that I did and had simply acquired another rusty heap. Another bloke who'd seen me working under the car earlier asked if I'd got it fixed and when I responded with "more or less" he said "Wish my car was, bloody sick of it", before driving off in his Range Rover Sport...

[captain_70s]

Drove the Acclaim to work, started on the button after leaving the battery disconnected overnight. I've never heard the starter spin so fast!

Now just to find out what exactly is causing the drain.

 

There is a bit of a wobble through the wheel at 55mph+ which is probably unbalanced/flat spotted tyres.

[320touring]

Yay! Looking forward to seeing this again tomorrow:)

[Pillock]

Pull fuses and jab a multimeter across each empty fuse gap, with the ignition off, and see if anything is more than 0.00A. That'll be the draw so just need to work out what's wired in through that fuse.

 

As a stop gap, you can just pull that fuse every night until you sort it.

 

Is there anything bodged straight into the battery live terminal, any extra wires coming off it?

[vaughant]

Pull fuses and jab a multimeter across each empty fuse gap, with the ignition off, and see if anything is more than 0.00A. That'll be the draw so just need to work out what's wired in through that fuse.

 

As a stop gap, you can just pull that fuse every night until you sort it.

 

Is there anything bodged straight into the battery live terminal, any extra wires coming off it?

Slightly easier way of doing it, put multimeter in line with the battery connections i.e remove pos clamp, secure using croc clip or similar the red probe of the multimeter to the clamp,meter set to amps/milliamps (usually needs some leads swapping about, should be pretty obvious), place the other lead probe into the battery terminal and secure, it should be reading pretty much zero. Open the door so the interior light comes on and you should see a current reading, quick maths of about half an amp assuming a 5W lamp. This way, you know it's working alright. My guess is because it's a volt/current drop, you'll get some sort of a reading straight away. Then, as suggested above, start removing fuses and see which fuse stops the current drop, you then know what circuit the fault is on, my guess would be a stereo or if a towbar had ever been fitted to a permanent live circuit and not disconnected properly etc, if it's a quick current drain then maybe a failed rear heated screen circuit, but that's guessing, only the multimeter will help you out with this. Boot light is another popular one but being a bASe my guess is that was never fitted, unless it was retro fitted?

[captain_70s]

bASe does have a boot light, but I locked my phone in the boot recording a video to confirm it turns off when the boot is closed! The radio won't turn on with the ignition off, no extra leads feeding off the main positive terminal, I'll go through the fusebox with the multimeter when I get the chance.

[SiC]

I'd still remove that bulb as a precaution. Is the ignition coil still getting hot with the ignition off?

 

Maybe someone put in a hidden GPS tracker in case it got stolen... (or not )

[somewhatfoolish]

Boot light, such louche decadence.