Over on the Isle of Wight

Just returned from a great weekend again at the annual Isle of Wight Triumph Camping Weekend at Appuldurcombe camping and caravan park. As usual Graham and Angela organised a brilliant event, with runs out to Amazon World Zoo, Calborne Water Mill and lunch at the Wight Mouse Pub. Evening Entertainment on the Saturday included the excellent Darek Sandy (Reggae) and a Magician. On the Sunday our area did well again in the quiz, coming 2nd (although we had won it the previous 2 years).

Only one little problem for me, the clutch on the GT6 started slipping intermittently on the drive down to the Island and then on the various runs. So it looks  like I need to do a clutch change sometime in the next couple of weeks as I'll need a decent clutch for the Triumph Marque Day at Prescott. I fitted the last clutch back in 1988 and it's done a good 75,000 miles so has lasted pretty well. It was a genuine Borg & Beck one though so I'll certainly be looking to see if I can find another genuine one to install as the extra cost more than outweighs the hassle of changing out a cheap one that may not last anywhere near as long.

It's Spring Time!

2 years ago I picked up a bargain at Stafford, a pair of brand new Koni front shocks for £65. At long last I’ve got around to fitting them, together with a pair of Triumphtune lowered and uprated springs and poly bushed. Also replaced the top ball joints and trunnion bushes while I was at it, although they didn’t actually need replacing but it’s well over 15 years since I last changed them so thought it would be a good idea.

The nearside lower trunnion was a bit of a bugger, the bolt had seized to the steel sleeve within the bush despite assembling it with copper ease last time around.  Ended up drilling the head off and hacksawing through the bolt.

One side completed, other just needs re-assembly, all ready for the Isle of Wight camping weekend, SEM, our area treasure hunt and Prescott Standard Triumph Marque day next month.

GT6 Cake!

I've just managed to complete my half century, or 5 decades.....


Had a bit of a party with family and freinds on a narrow boat last night which I enjoyed immensely. The surprise birthday cake had a Nappy Cack Yellow GT6 iced on to the top, accompanied by cup cakes decorated with gear knob, speedo and headlamp symbols and also some little choccy cars!

A Fish n Chip Supper and a Keg of Hogsback Brewery T.E.A. ensured all were suitably fed and watered.

 

Christmas came at last!

We had our postponed TSSC area Christmas meal last night which I had organised, a little delayed after snow stopped play last time around! A good time was had by all though at the Hoggett Pub Restuarant. We spent some of the money we have raised at the raffles at our monthly meetings on some Christmas Gifts for all that attended, and had a raffle with decent rather than naff prizes for a change. Many Thanks to Carl and Beckie for organising the shopping! a few Triumph's in the car park as well, I opted for a lift from my wife Julia though, I had intended to travel in the GT6 but she was feeling a little under the weather and offered to drive which meant I could have a few beers. As it is the week of St David's Day I opted for some Welsh stuff that they had on tap !! Picture below from the meal.

One step forward two steps back !

Part way through putting the GT6 back together I decided to start it up as it hadn’t been run for a week or so but found the battery was KO’d. I thought that the battery was only a couple of years old and it was a high quality Bosch one so thought I’d dig out the receipt and take it back under warranty. When I found the receipt it turned out it was actually just under 4 years since I bought it. I wasn’t sure whether it had a 3, 4 or 5 year warranty and couldn’t find any paper work or signs on the battery to give any clues. So I went back to Costco the cash & carry where I bought it, the good news was it had a 4 year warranty, the bad news was they wouldn’t do an exchange but were happy to give a refund so having been refunded off I went to their tyre and battery dept to get a new one. Battery’s have gone up a lot in the last 4 years, the last one cost me £32 from Costco, the new one was £56 but having checked out Halfords the same Bosch battery is £104 so I’m reasonably happy.


I got home put the new battery in and started the car up no problems. I then finished putting it back together and bled the brakes etc. Then went to start the car out to take it for a test run and found that the starter was KO’d! So now I need a new starter, maybe it was on the way out and that killed the old battery. Ideally I’d change it for a high torque starter conversion but I’m in a hurry and can get a good old reconditioned Lucas LR101 locally tomorrow
All being well the car will be back in one price by tomorrow night ready to take back to the MOT centre for some welding and a re-test….

MOT Issues :-(

It's been a long time since my GT6 had any problems passing the MOT, 2001 was the last time I had a MOT failure so I was probably about due for another one!



One of the rear wheel bearings had excess play, the brake pipe across the rear of the chassis had signs of corrosion and there were 3 areas of corrosion underneath. The most serious being a hole about 1 inch x 1/2 inch that the tester managed to poke in a front out rigger. The other two are pretty minor a very small split in the passenger floor pan near a seat mounting and a small split at the edge of the boot floor. The last two are not in a particularly structural position but were within 30cm of a load bearing area so are a failure under the MOT regulations.

I'll get the corrosion plated by the MOT place just to get a quick pass.

I took the halfshaft out last night and rebuilt it tonight with a new bearing and a new genuine metalastik rotoflex coupling that I was lucky to pick up cheap on ebay. It's been a long time since I've done a wheel bearing on the GT6, I did have a stock of shims and spacers for setting up the end float but I can't find them anywhere in my Aladdin’s Cave of a Garage. Luckily though the existing spacer was the right size to give about 1 thou of end float which is within tolerance. I remember last time I replaced a bearing I had trouble getting the outer bearing off the hub as it disintegrated leaving the inner race in place. So this time around I treated myself to a bearing splitter tool, that certainly makes the job nice and easy.

So just need to change the brake pipe and put the halfshaft back in, I can then book the car in to get the corrosion plated and the car retested. I always take my car to a place that does free retests on principle, however they have now reduced their free retest time limit from 14 to 7 days and I'll probably miss the 7 day cut off which means I'll have to pay for the retest which is a pain....

Christmas is Cancelled

Well at least our our local TSSC Christmas bash that was due to happen tonight is cancelled anyway.

Despite Heavy Snow in North Hampshire this evening I did try and drive through the snow to be there, after all I was organising the meal. However after just a couple of miles of slithering about in the Jag it was obvious that it was not a good idea. A few other members also threw in the towell and reluctantly there was no option but to cancel.

I think we'll have to organise another meal in a few weeks as a belated celebration.