Finished getting the GT6 back together on Saturday afternoon but couldn't test drive it as the missus was out and I had the kids to look after, in fact I didn't get a chance to drive it until fairly late last night.
I only tried it around the block but noticed an intermittent very light click, click click noise coming from the rear on the side where I'd had the halfshaft out. Not very loud and I may have thought it was slight play in the UJ if I hadn't just replaced it.
I jacked the car up tonight and traced it to a balance weight on the inside of the wheel rim just catching on the lower outer Wishbone seal metal shroud. As it was a back wheel I decided balancing isn't that critical, also the tyre is nearly worn out so I'm replacing it soon anyway, I therefore took the balance weight off for the time being.
Clearance has always been marginal with the offset of the cosmic alloys ad the rotoflex suspension, in fact I used to run it with 1/4 inch wheel spacers at one time. I may have to revert back to them. I stopped using them as I didn't like the idea of less thread in the wheel nuts so I may have to replace the wheel studs with slightly longer ones.
The car is booked in for a bit of welding on the chassis just in front of the anti roll bar mounting and an MOT re-test, then I'll be all set for the rest of the year.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Getting There!
After a 3 hour struggle this evening the halfshaft is now back on the GT6 with all the various Rotoflex suspension bushes lined up and bolted in place. Rotoflex halfshaft refitting is never an easy job in a cramped garage even though I've got the special spring lifting tool. It wasn't helped by the fact that my trusty old large lorry bottle jack that I've had for about 30 years decided to pack up this evening and this is what I normally use to jack the spring lifting tool up.
Just need to go around and tighten everything up, reattach the brake hose and handbrake cable, bleed the brakes and give the nuts and bolts a final toque once the suspension has settled. Should hopefully be able to get that done in an evening although it won't be tomorrow night as I'm out with the boys for a few beers, I think I deserve it!
I must remember to replace the wiper blades I purchased before taking it back to the MOT station for welding and a re-test, it would be a pain if I forgot to fit them and it failed again on something so simple to fix!
Just need to go around and tighten everything up, reattach the brake hose and handbrake cable, bleed the brakes and give the nuts and bolts a final toque once the suspension has settled. Should hopefully be able to get that done in an evening although it won't be tomorrow night as I'm out with the boys for a few beers, I think I deserve it!
I must remember to replace the wiper blades I purchased before taking it back to the MOT station for welding and a re-test, it would be a pain if I forgot to fit them and it failed again on something so simple to fix!
Slow Progress
Well it's been taking a little longer than I'd hoped to replace the wheel bearing on the GT6 for the MOT. First of all we had the cold snap with snow and temperatures down to minus double figures, needless to say this impacted my motivation to get out there into a cold garage and work on the car!
When i did start work I got the halfshaft removed in a couple of hours. I'd already ordered a wheel bearing so I thought it would be a fairly quick job. However, after stripping down the half shaft I found that the existing shim for adjusting the end float had disintegrated. Quite often you can get away without re-shimming the bearing when you replace it so I hadn't ordered any shims. This put a bit of a delay on things while I ordered some shims and other bits from Canleys. I decided to replace the inner wishbone bush with a polybush as this is one of the few suspension bushes I haven't upgraded on the car so I included a polybush in my order.
After the delay while I waited for the parts to come and some trial and error I managed to get the end float sorted with 2 shims, last time it only took one so I would have needed a shim even if the old one hadn't disintegrated. I then noticed there was some play in the UJ, so I replaced that as well. Rather than send off for one I went to a local motor factors, blimey UJs are expensive from a non-Triumph place nowadays, it weighed in at 17 quid!
Anyway halfshaft is now all rebuilt and ready to re-install in the car which is always a bit of a fight with a rotoflex car so I'll get ready to swear and curse and bruise my knuckles! Hopefully I should be in a position to get the welding and new MOT done sometime next week and that'll be that for another 12 months.
When i did start work I got the halfshaft removed in a couple of hours. I'd already ordered a wheel bearing so I thought it would be a fairly quick job. However, after stripping down the half shaft I found that the existing shim for adjusting the end float had disintegrated. Quite often you can get away without re-shimming the bearing when you replace it so I hadn't ordered any shims. This put a bit of a delay on things while I ordered some shims and other bits from Canleys. I decided to replace the inner wishbone bush with a polybush as this is one of the few suspension bushes I haven't upgraded on the car so I included a polybush in my order.
After the delay while I waited for the parts to come and some trial and error I managed to get the end float sorted with 2 shims, last time it only took one so I would have needed a shim even if the old one hadn't disintegrated. I then noticed there was some play in the UJ, so I replaced that as well. Rather than send off for one I went to a local motor factors, blimey UJs are expensive from a non-Triumph place nowadays, it weighed in at 17 quid!
Anyway halfshaft is now all rebuilt and ready to re-install in the car which is always a bit of a fight with a rotoflex car so I'll get ready to swear and curse and bruise my knuckles! Hopefully I should be in a position to get the welding and new MOT done sometime next week and that'll be that for another 12 months.
Monday, 6 February 2012
Oh no it's MOT time
Put the GT6 in for MOT this week and it failed. Nothing too bad fortunately though.
Windscreen Wiper blade, Wheel Bearing Exhaust Clamp and a small bit of corrosion on the chassis.
I must admit, the wiper blades have only been replaced once in the 24 years I’ve owned the car so I deserve that one so I’ll even splash out and treat the car to a pair!
The tester fixed the exhaust clamp there and then, it had come loose and had moved along the pipe, no big deal there then!
The wheel bearing is unfortunately a rear one which is a bit of a pain to do with rotoflex suspension both because any job on the rear axles is a bugger with rotoflex, plus the bearings are shimmed. Still this will be the 3rd bearing I’ve replaced and I've have managed to shim them up OK in the past so it should be OK this time as I know what to do.
The chassis corrosion is just in front of the suspension turret, it was repaired in the same place on the Chassis about 20 years ago. I’ll have this repaired at the MOT centre as it’s only a small bit of work.
I had the car tested this year at Moonface Service Centre in Hook, up until a couple of years ago they were a classic restoration company but changed direction a couple of years ago to change their business and concentrate on MOTs and servicing. They did a load of bodywork and a respray on the GT6 a few years ago when they were into restorations and I’m happy with the quality of their work. The good news I did get from Jim the owner is that they he is expanding into restoration work again and is currently setting up a new bodyshop so that’ll give us back a reasonably priced and reliable restoration company locally again….
Sunday, 16 October 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
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.
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.
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.
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