Door Locks

Spent the morning fixing door locks on the GT6, the door lock mechanisms are so fiddly it's a real PITA especially if you've got short stubby fat fingers and poor eyesight like me!

Any way, replaced the door latch assembly on the drivers side so I can now actually lock and unlock the door from outside the car. Big thanks to James Cooper who had a spare door latch assembly which fitted the bill, a new one is stupid money and even 2nd hand ones now seem to be getting rarer unless you want to pay Rimmers prices....


Then I fixed the passenger door which wasn't locking from inside. I've fixed this about 3 times this year and the rod that runs from the inner handle to the door latch pivot keeps popping out of the plastic block at the door handle end. |This time I decided to hold it in pace with some electrical tape, to me this is a sensible improvement not a bodge but others may beg to differ!

Anyway all sorted now, except I've now found the Drivers door check strap has some bits missing so I have a new kit on order from ebay, that's a job for another day.

Running Cool

Today I fixed my electric fan on the GT6. The old fan thermostat had packed up, a couple of weeks ago it was sticking on which wasn't too much of a problem, just needed to disconnect it when I stopped and re-connect it when I drove off. However on the way back from Duxford it decided to fail totally and stuck in the off position.  I managed to Bypass it to get home but it was now time to fix it properly.


The old thermostat that came with the Pacet fan kit was a capillary type with a probe that you stuff up the top hose. I've never been much of a fan of these as there is a risk of leakage where the capillary connection enters the hose. So I forked out for a nice aluminium billet housing with a modern sealed thermostatic switch unit from ebay. It was only about a fiver more than a replacement pacet capilary one so well worth the extra.

The instructions stated it was to be fitted on the hot side of the radiator, ie the top hose. I must admidt I thought about fitting it to teh bottom hose because, a there is more space, b it would be measuring whatever the radiator was coping or not and c I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't cause problems due to a lack of flexability in the top hose as the standard hose is a bellows type to allow flex.


Anyway after a few Club Triumph Forum discussions and finding out at my local TSSC meeting that a couple of guys have them fitted to the top hose I went ahead and fitted it there. If I had fitted it to the bottom hose I would have had to experiment to find a suitable switch as the temperature would have been lower so it saves a lot of hassle.

The kit stated that it must be fitted with a relay to switch the fan, the old capillary kit didn't need a relay so I had to do a bit of wiring and fit a relay. Anyway all done now and having tested it it works fine. Temperature sender fitted is a 90/82 degree one which comes on at about 7/8's of the way top the red on the temperature gauge and switches off just above 1/2 way.

New arrangement, billet aluminium adaptor in the top hose and relay fitted.

Old Knackered capillary unit previously fitted.

Duxford Sunday 2nd October

Took me a few days to get around to write this but last weekend had an enjoyable trip to the Duxford all Triumph Day organised by the Herts and Beds TSSC. This was the 18th year the event has been held so a bit of a birthday. I was one of the organisers of the original event as it started off being run by the Essex TSSC area 18 years ago. Right from the start we decided that this would be a general Triumph event rather than just a TSSC event as we invited loads of other Triumph Clubs which meant we had a   great variety of cars right from Razoredges, through to Bergerac type roadsters as well as the more modern stuff. Here's a couple of pictures from then, let me know if you can see your car in the picture after all these years!

 We had a prize draw 18 years ago to win a flight in a Tiger Moth and they gut who won it (Richard)  took the flight there and then at the event. Here's a picture of him with his prize.

Anyway back to this year, as the weather was so great (yes you may remeber we had a heatwave last week), I decided to camp over the night before with my son James. A nice little camp site up the road at Fowlmere had been recommended by Pete Lewis who organises the Duxford event. had a walk into teh nice little village, a curry in the local curry house washed down with a few pints of Abbot Ale in a social club opposite the campsite. The actual event at Duxford on the Sunday was well attended, I understand there were about 300 cars in attendance. Plenty of airborne activity as is usually the case at Duxford with some lovely passes by the Sally B B17 Flying Fortress. On the way home the GT6 started overheating, a problem with the electric fan thermostat which had packed up, easily bypassed with the fan wired in permanently as a temporary fix. However this week's job will be replacing the old capillary type thermostat fitted in the top hose with a nice billet ally housing and modern screw in thermostat switch.

Flat Battery

Went start the GT6 tonight as it was the local Club Triumph Meeting at Potters Mytchet. Turned the ignition on and no ignition light turned the key and nothing. Put the battery on charge and it wouldn't take any charge at all. High Quality Bosch battery as well none of your cheap crap....

Oh well the good news is it's only 18 months old so under warranty. And in fact the last one failed under warranty and Costco gave me my money back with no quibble and I bought a new one there with a fresh warranty. Hopefully it'll be the same this time around. If it goes on like this I could have batteries for life under guarantee like the old Samson Bartteries that BL used to do! I used to have one of those but Unipart stopped honouring the battery for life garuantee around the time Rover went bust which is why I ended up buying a Bosch one from Costco  in the first place.

Midsummer Madness and Fathers Day

Had a great weekend last week at the TSSC Southern Midsummer Madness Camping Weekend at "the Flowerpots, Cheriton,near Winchester. The Weather was a bit wet, especially on the Friday evening but the fact that the campsite was afield behind a pub that brews it's own excellent beer more than made up for it. We built a Gazeebo city in the corner of the field with 5 or 6 Gazebos so everyone was able to keep out of the rain.

Saturday there was a nice drive out through the Hampshire Countryside and a visit to the Army Museum of Flying at Middle wallop which was great for my son James as he's been wanting me to take him there for ages.

On Saturday evening we had a bring your own food Barbecue as the Pub had kindly let us use their Gas Barbie. This was followed by a quiz in the Gazebo City and a Raffle where I reckon nearly everyone got at least 1 prize with some lucky winners getting several.

Sunday was Father's day and I got a couple of small presents, but the main one was saved until we returned home. An Excellent Haynes Book with a collection of cutaway drawings of 60s, 70's and 80's cars, the drawings are the ones that Haynes used to put on the front of all the workshop manuals, real works of art and a great bit of classic car memorabilia.

Nice day out at the Ace Cafe

Today was the annual Triumph car Day at the Ace Cafe on the Norf Sirk....

I love this venue, steeped in modern history and so cool, the atmosphere is stright out of the 50s & 60s and it's absolutely perfect for a classic car meet.

The food isgreat as well, I had the fish & chips and the batter and the homemade tartar sauce was well scrummy!

Nice to meet up with Mark Smith in his immaculate wedgewood blue GT6 and his friend Bex. Good company, good venue, good food and a nice selection of cars, plus the sun was shining, a good day out in the GT6!

A Nice Day after a Soggy Night

Saturday Night at SEM was a rather soggy affair as it absolutely bucketed it down with rain. I'm glad James brought along a gazebo so that we had somewhere to try and shelter from the downpour. Sunday came though and it was a lovely day which brought out shiny Triumphs in their droves. My GT6 started making a whistling noise as I drove into the site on the Saturday afternoon so I investigated under the bonnet and found a 2 inch long split in the hose connecting the emission valve to the manifold. A few minutes work with some plastic insulating tape gave a good old fashioned bodge repair to get me home. The TSSC club shop had some double walled silicon hose versions of the hose for sale which should be a bit more durable than the rubber ones which only seem to last 2 or 3 years nowadays, so I now have a set and will be fitting them this week.

Another weekend another Triumph camping Do...

Not quite such a salubrious location as last week's Isle of Wight camping weekend but I'm at it again, camping with the GT6 at a Triumph event. This time it's the TSSC South of England Meet (AKA SEM) at Leatherhead. The main event starts tomorrow but there are a few camping over tonight so it's Barbeques and Beers at the campsite for the rest of the evening for me!

End of another great weekend in the Isle of Wight

Sunday was an eventful day at the Isle of Wight Camping weekend.

A run out to Calborne Water Mill, again the weather was kind and it was a good run around the Island to get there including a part of the run along the sea front at Ventnor and a climb up the infamous zig zag hill.

Then back at the campsite was a demonstration of lead loading followed by an excellent hog roast.

Then in the evening the TSSC Hants & Berks area (+ friends) teamed up for the quiz and duly won, From memory, this is the 4th time in 5 years we've won the quiz! Not bad as we don't take it that seriously and have a good laugh while taking part.

Then came the results from the treasure hunt, the raffle and the announcement of the winner of the Appuldurcombe choice trophy presented by the owners of the Campsite for their favourite car of the event. Well as a group we did well in all of these, Jason, Poppy and Kelly came 3rd in the treasure Hunt, Anne Marie and Glynn got 2nd place, Jason won the star prize in the raffle a tablet PC. But the most unexpected result was that I won the Appuldurcombe trophy for my GT6!

On Monday it was the usual run out to the Wight Mouse Pub for some lunch and then [pack up camp and off home having had an excellent weekend. Thanks Go to Angela and Graham and their team for putting on yet another great weekend.