"Drive it day" becomes "Bodge it Day"!

Today (21st April) was Classic Car Drive it day. It all started out with good intentions, James  and I left home mid morning in the GT6 aiming to arrive at the Hritage Motor Museum in Gaydon before lunch for the Triumph Day that had been arranged.

The car didn't feel right from the start as it was a bit down on power, then after about 15 miles it started to run really rough on aceleration but not too bad cruising. Anyway pulled over to investigate and found that the diaphragm in one of the Stromberg carbs had a big rip in it. We were at Theale just outside Reading so I gave Jason Chinn a call as I knew he lived fairly close on the off chance that he may have a spare diaphragm in his stash of Triumph bits. No luck but I limped the car round to Jason's house to try and bodge a reapir. After stripping down the top of the carb I found that the rip had become much worse, in fact the whole of the outside of the diaphragm had become detached. No trouble though as Jason set to work with electrical tape and a scapel to make a really "professional" bodged repair. The intention was to go back home but the car was running so well that I risked continuing on to Gaydon and it didn't miss a beat on the way there or back so cheers for an excellent bodge Jason!. As James remarked, "Drive it Day" is now "Bodge it Day"!

We got to Gaydon eventually at well gone 2pm, although some of the Triumphs had already left we still got a chnace to have a good look around the museum which was well enjoyable.

When repairing the carb I also noticed a slight drip coming from the water pump. I've now therefore got a couple of jobs to do so I've ordered a pair of Diaphragms (one as a spare) and a water pump on line this evening.

Best thing to do with an MG, saw it in half!

Little & Large, Tr3A and matching pedal car

Last Stag off the line

Tony Ponds TR7 V8, just like my scalextric car!

World's fastest diesel

Educating my Boy!

Today is Saturday and Julia works from 1:30 onwards so I have to look after and entertain the kids. I also wanted to do some servicing bits and bobs on the GT6, so found a way to combine the two, give my boy James some education in car servicing. ( And leave Alice in doors playing girly games on the PC...)

Today I taught James how to change the oil and filter, introducing him to "Tommy" the chain wrench which I used to undo the old spin on filter.

We then checked and adjusted the timing using "Sammy" the Superstrobe.

Then we adjusted the fuel mixture using a Gunsons colortune, James found it well cool that you could actually see the explosions taking place in the combustion chamber.

Finally I introduced him to my Snail Syncrometer for balancing the carbs, for aome reason James decided the Syncrometer was called "Gary" the snail, not sure why he chose "Gary" as the name though, I'd have thought "Brian" was more appropriate but then James is not from the "Magic Roundabout" generation!!

"Gary" the snail!

Time to make a new Rocker Cover Gasket

The GT6 is fitted with an SAH Alloy Rocker Cover, a nice bit of kit, but one problem is that the standard Rocker cover Gasket's don't fit and of course SAH disappeared years ago as a company so no chnace of buying a new gasket off them.

I'm giving the car a service over the next few evenings so decided to do the tappets first while everything is cold under the bonnet. Of course what I hadn't bargained for was the fact that the rocker cover gasket had deformed, I thought I'd noticed a bit of a leak so that explains it!

A few years ago I purchased some cork gasket sheet on ebay to make up a gasket when  I first fitted the SAH cover. Luckily the sheet was big enough to make 3 gaskets so I set about making one up this evening. Easy enough to do using the Rocker cover as a pattern and cutting out the gasket using a scalpel with a nice sharp new blade.

The only other issue is the fact that the SAH cover just has a flat gasket face with no groove to locate the gasket like the standard one. I therefore stick the gasket into place using Blue Hylomar gasket cement, I coat the gasket in the Blue Hylomar, then put the rocker cover on top and weigh it down to leave it overnight. The gasket then stays in place. The beauty of the Blue Hylomar is that it stays soft and both the gasket and the Blue Hylomar  is reasonably easy to remove when the Gasket needs replacing.

I believe that the TSSC has now had some gaskets made up in rubber suitable for the SAH rocker covers, so I may give one of them a try next time I need to replace the gasket, however there is a certain amount of satisfaction in making one up from cork yourself!

Gasket Cut Out and Coated with Blue Hylomar

Gasket fitted to the Rocker Cover and weighed down overnight to stick it in place. Note the use of bricks and Tool boxes as weights!