Diff Post Mortem Result!

Just got the result back from Canley’s strip down of my old diff as this impacts how much of a refund I got on the exchange deposit. Seems it broke in a big way, the note from Canley’s states; “Lost Tooth, hole in rear case – scrap, Run without oil – carrier scrap!”. Obviously the run without oil was due to the oil escaping from the hole in the case as I had only topped it up 1500 miles before it broke!

Duxford All Triumph Day

Had a good day out at the Duxford All Triumph Day organised by the Herts & Beds area of the TSSC. I've always got a softspot for this event as I was one of the orgnaisers of the first one back in 1993 when it was orgainsied by the Essex area of the TSSC.  One thing we did right from the start was to invite all Triumph Clubs and encourage Triumph's outside of the marques then represented by the TSSC to attend. Add the excellent venue with a museum with enough to keep anyone interested for more than a day and it's easy to see why this event has remained a success.

Today's event was graced with a nice sunny if breezy day, as usual there was a bit of flying going on with  Harvard up above the airfield carrying out a few aerobatics. A pretty good turn out of Triumph's as well, must have been a couple of hundred at least. The interesting thing was that the MG club had a meeting at the other end of the site which only had a handfull of cars in attendance!

                            

A few interesting cars as usual, including this stag engined Vitesse.

                             

Good to catch up with a few old freinds and family, including ex Triumph enthusiast my sister Lizzie and her husband and my mate Colin with his Sierra Cosworth Turbo Engined GT6.

Plus it was the first chnace to test out my car on a long run with it's new 3.63 diff. Crusining is a little better on the motorway with 70mph at 3,500 RPM in o/d top, that's with speed measured by satnav, the speedo is still somewhat optomistic and was showing 80mph!

Back on the Road!

After my mishap with a broken diff at the TSSC International in Stafford my GT6 is finally back in one piece and I drove it around the block this evening. The 1st time Ive managed to drive it for 7 weeks!

The Diff that Dave at Canleys built me seems nice a quiet so thats good news. Hopefully take it for a run out of town tommorow so I can see how much difference a 3.63 differential makes over the original 3.89 ratio.  I'm hoping that besides giving me a better motorway cruising experience the speedo may even be a bit more accurate as it was overreading quite a bit. The change of ratio should help this.

Just need to give it a good clean now to get all the greasy finger prints off. The target was to get it on the road for the All Triumph Day up at Duxford on Sunday 4th October so it looks like I'll make it. If you are going up to Duxford look out for the nappy cack yellow GT6 and come and say hello!

Diff Picked Up and Fitted !

Picked Up my new Diff from Canley's this afternoon so I've been busy tonight fitting it. Well at least the Diff itself is in the car bolted up with new Polybushes. I've owned Spitfires and GT6's for 25 years but I've never had the pleasure of fitting a diff before, one of the few mechanical jobs I've never had to do. A bit of a tough job lining everything up single handedly. Still managed it in the end.

Need to reconnect the driveshafts and put the rear rotoflex back togther tomorrow.

Cookie Now has a Blog!

OK, So I keep seeing all these blog type things on the club Triumph Website so thought it was about time I started one!

So what am I doing Triumph wise at the moment?

Well, having broken my diff at the TSSC international in Stafford I'm in the middle of changing it. I've got a new unit being built by Canley Classics and I'm upping the ratio from the standard overdrive GT6 3.89 to a 3.63 as fitted to the later 1500 Spitfires. As I understand it, not only will this be a bit more relaxed for motorway cruising but also it's supposed to be the strongest set up.

While changing it out I'll add a few replacement poly bushes in place of the original rubber.




I also had a few problems with the overdrive on the way up to Stafford with the wire through the gearstick shorting out intermittently and chattering the overdrive in and out when in the switched out position. No big deal just need to replace the wire, something that seems to go wrong every 18 months or so. Wires in a constantly moving and hot and oily environment do have a habit of chaffing their insulation!




I also had a little job to do re attaching the front numberplate which got half broken off when the recovery truck hauled my car on when the diff was broken. I've tucked it up a bit closer to the front valance this time so it'll be a bit less vunerable.


While working on my car I've also found a small crack in the chassis near the rear lower nearside wishbone mounting. This has been fixed once before about 15 years ago. I'll be looking to get this fixed professionally once I get the car back on the road.

I pick up my new diff on Monday and the target is to get the car back on the road in time for the Duxford Triumph day on the following Sunday so I have my work cut out next week.