LTRG TRipe May05

GROUP MEETING –19 MAY 2005

MEMBERS PRESENT: Paul Bowler Jag

Reg & Irene Bowler TR6

Andrew Burford Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Skyliner

John & Vivian Cutting TR2

John & Chris Day

Martin & Sue Faulkner

Mark Field

Mick & Linda Forey

Dick Goodey TR4

Phil Gunn TR7

Roger Guy TR6

David Guzzetta

Andy & Jennie Holyoak

John & Margaret Martin

Ray Mills Merc 190SL

Terry & Sue Pruce TR6

Tony & Ruth Richards TR6

Tim Sharp & Kathryn Morris TR6

Ben & Lisa Ward

MEETING NOTES

Those of you not there missed a real treat tonight, Andrew Burford brought along his newly acquired Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Skyliner. The most impressive feature of the car is the sheer size of the thing; it’s vast. It looks as if you could park a TR on the enormous flat boot lid alone, it’s more akin to an aircraft carrier than a motor car. Although its size is what you notice immediately, it has even more surprises to come. Yes this is the model with the rare retracting/folding steel roof. Andrew very kindly took it through its party piece. First the boot opens, then the roof retracts and folds back and away, to be concealed beneath the closing boot lid; all done at the touch of a button. Very impressive when you consider the technology we were driving in this country in 1959.

Following a healthy time tyre kicking in the car park, Phil finally brought the meeting to order. There was not much to discuss this month, the gist of it was as follows:

There is to be a raid on the Camb Followers, Wednesday 1st June. Meet at Dick’s house at 07:30. [this event has now happened – see you should go to the meetings, see Dick’s notes on it later].

The Welsh weekend, no not the TR Register Y Ddraig Gocg, our own version organised by Andy & Jennie, is all sorted and for those going a few final points were agreed.

Ashby Folville was mentioned. This meeting, the second Tuesday of the month, seems to be getting more and more popular, two fields were used as overflow car parks last month. If you haven’t been I recommend it, there is usually something to see for everyone. If you need directing give me a ring, or drop me an email.

There is to be a Best of British show at Gaydon on the 26^th June, Whit Sunday. Not sure if anyone was intending to go from the LTRG, but if you fancy a trip out, why not try and whip up some support at the next meeting – it’s always better to convoy down than just drive down on your own.

Final arrangements are being made for the Derby weekend on the 8/9^th July. All the B&B accommodation is fully booked but there are still spaces on the camping field.

Speaking of July, who is going to the International this year? It’s on the 22-24^th July, and traditionally we always get a good turn out from the LTRG. Let’s make this year no exception; more discussion to follow at the next meeting.

May Day Holiday, Welsh w/e, Riverside Lodge Guest House, Rhayader.

Terry & Sue met up with Reg & Irene, to travel together to Powis Castle, near Welshpool, to meet up with Sue and Paul Newby.

First stop petrol of course for Terry’s car and full English breakfast at Tesco’s. Anyone know that really busy island at Telford where you leave the A5 for the M6? Reg’s TR6 decided to park on it having lost all drive to the rear wheels. Sue being the observant type realised and did a 360 round the island. Reg and Irene had decided to create a traffic jam on the busiest island on route. Fed-up with looking at Terry’s backend, a return to Hinkley on the back of a lorry was the only way out.

Sue, the ultimate Guider had come prepared and provided them with sandwiches and a drink, then they continued their journey to Powis. 2½ hours later via B’ham they returned having had some interesting encounters on the island; Doing a traffic census are you mate?

(Plum in mouth) Have you called the RAC?

On arriving back home, Roger having phoned and discovered Reg’s predicament, came to the rescue, with the help of handy Andy and his Aladdin’s garage of odds and sods, there was no changing to the saloon, the TR WILL go to the party. (I’m told - The differential drive shaft bearings were incorrect and the drive shafts were ejected.)

I travelled by rail express via Nuneaton – Crewe where Anthony having waited uncomplainingly for my arrival in B&Q, we proceeded south having Fish & Chips on route meeting up at the Triangle pub at 9.30. Reg and Irene arriving at 10.00, too late for dinner a bag of crisp had to suffice. Thank goodness for Sue’s sarnies.

Riverside Lodge was an excellent choice with a visitors lounge and dining room with superb views. Reg having survived the night swiftly demolished His and Irene’s full English breakfast.

Saturday morning we headed North East to Bishops Castle and lunch at Mellington Hall Hotel.

Sunday Morning we headed West to Haford and Devils bridge, and then onto Aberystwyth and a walk along the front. We convoyed through some absolutely stunning countryside even tried a mini hill climb!

Saturday evening we all walked into Rhayader along the Elan Country Park Cycle Track. Only the four intrepid adventurers returned by foot. In complete darkness Sue and I courageously led the way back, Terry and Anthony following gingerly behind! Sue’s pen torch come panic alarm, casting the dimmest flicker, the panic alarm blaring when the switch was turned the wrong way.

Monday after a relaxing start Paul and Terry headed north, first stop the petrol station for Terry, and Reg and Anthony headed East. First stop for Reg and Co was Presteigne, and The Judge’s Lodging, winner of ‘Britain’s Local Museum of the Year’, a hands-on historic house, where you can open cupboards and wardrobes, touch the china, sit on the chairs etc. It is the most interesting Victorian museum I have seen, ‘cos I do like to touch!

Making our way to the villages of the Black and White houses of Herefordshire, down the dirtiest of narrow country lanes Reg comes face to face with a potato tractor, four cars in a row, you can guess who did the reversing. Reg being a novice to country lanes and unaccustomed to ditches, anticipating what was about to happen, I honked Anthony’s horn, toooo late! Reg had one wheel well and truly in mid air. Our selves with the other two car drivers got out to give him a push, Irene yells “Get the Camera”. They were really quick pushing him out but I was quicker. I’ve got the evidence!! The shock was too much for Reg. We had to stop at the nearest house. First for the toilet, he was rather pale, then for drinks and a piece of cake, extra sugar. Fortunately no damage was done.

I suppose I ought to add it was Bryan’s Ground Gardens the author of Hortus, a gardening quarterly. It was now about 4.00 o’clock and we had only travelled about 30 miles. Next stop was 10 miles later and a walk around two of the Black and White villages, in the latter we stopped for 2 Ploughman’s and 2 Salads, tea and coffee, No Beer!!! Why? Well obviously it was a café, the pubs weren’t serving food. We did stop for a pint about an hour from home. We eventually arrived home at 8 o’clock, after a superb weekend, you all really missed a treat not joining us!

Ruth

MEMBERS CARS: Part 1 – Overheating problems in a TR5, David Guzzetta

My car had been over heating, indicating that the head gasket had blown, but there was no evidence of loss of water and no oil in the water (or vice versa). Unusually the cooling system after overheating appeared to have the ability to "recover" when more favourable conditions ensued (slow down, cooler weather etc.). After proving/testing suspect components (i.e. radiator, water way flushing, compression testing, water pump testing) and finding nothing conclusive, I came to the conclusion that the head had to come off so that we could "take a look". I managed to do that just before the Group meeting in April, and brought it along for some expert advice. It was soon spotted that the car had been fitted with the wrong head gasket and that as a result many of the water ways were blocked, thus reducing cooling efficiency and effectiveness. So, thanks to all for your help. Now I can appreciate why the car's cooling system behaved in the way that it did.

There were other questions though which others posed that were not satisfactorily answered like "why are some of the valves orange whilst the others are black"? Is the engine running too rich? What head gasket was it any way (I found a serial number, see photo) any clues, some said it could have been from the 1600 six cylinder?

Once again thanks to all who gave advice. Being in a club like ours is very beneficial when any problems occur, baffling (like this one) or not. Please convey my thanks to all.

MEMBERS CARS: Part 2– Adding an overdrive to a TR6, Derek Bramford.

I thought this may be of interest so I put some notes together regarding the fitting of an o/d to my car, as follows:-

During our trip to Denmark last September I realised that having an overdrive on a TR6 would be desirable. Driving on the continent at 80 MPH with the engine revving at about 4000 RPM is not good for the car or us.

So over the Winter I started to look for a A type gearbox and overdrive, but with no luck. Dani had bought me "how to restore a TR6" by Roger Williams and one of the chapters stated how easy it was to use a none TR gearbox and overdrive. So I bought a gearbox / overdrive from a TR member in Bristol who said that as far as he knew it was a good unit, it was taken from a 2500PI Saloon in good working order, and therefore took the chance and fitted it without having it checked.

So, now the challenge to buy the parts I needed and then watched the costs escalate.

· O/D column switch and escutcheon and speedo 90 degree angle gearbox were obtained from TR shop.

· Correct coloured wiring, exhaust bracket were obtained from Moss in Manchester since this is only 5 miles from our office in Manchester,

· Final drive coupling, clutch set with 1 inch drive plate, shaft bearing bushes and shaft pin - TR enterprises near Mansfield, It is possible to re drill and modify the original output coupling, but since I would have to pay for this and it would take time, I decided that it was easier to buy a new one.

· J type gearbox mountings were obtained from CTM Eng because these were the only people who I could find to supply them. They are in the Moss and Rimmer catalogue, but I was told that they are not available.

· Also CTM recalibrated the speedo because they could lend me a spare one since I did not want to wait until after our trip to Berlin. I was quoted for the calibration of the speedo by several different companies and the price was similar, but the time varied from 4 to 8 weeks.

I wanted the gearbox / overdrive swap to be completed before our trip to Berlin and with help from Shaun and Neil at Performance Cars the job was completed with 3 weeks to spare. Unfortunately the replacement gearbox / overdrive had been stored in a garage for several years without oil and therefore when the time came to try it, the overdrive did not work and had to be removed from the car so it could be repaired. The repair was carried out by Top Gear at Mountsorrel with only 1 week before our trip to Berlin.

The problem was the o/d would not engage fully. I am told that the cone clutch sticks when not used regularly and does not fully release. Also the cone clutch surface can be damaged when it operates for the first time after storage. Some of the gears within the gearbox also had slight rust showing, which were cleaned up. My problem was that I only had 1 weekend to get the gearbox back before the trip to Berlin, so I could not ask or shop around. There may be a way of operating the o/d manually before fitting so as to make sure that the o/d does not stick. If any of you have a new reconditioned o/d then this may be okay, although it might be interesting to ask the people who originally did the reconditioning what they recommend about storage.

Several points I had not considered was to fit a new bolt / pin to the clutch shaft. In the end I decided to have an additional roll pin fitted as back up to the original pin. Also the later Triumph gearbox have a thicker bell housing flange which means that the clutch slave cylinder is mounted about 3 mm further back from the clutch arm. The normal cylinder actuator arm travel is about 16 mm therefore this reduced movement (about 13mm) causes clutch drag and difficulty with first, second and reverse gear selection. This was resolved by connecting the slave cylinder actuator arm to the top hole on the clutch lever. This would normally cause the clutch operation to be heavy, but because the thrust bearing is the smaller diameter saloon type, then this cancelled out this effect and the clutch felt about the same as other TR6 clutch pedals.

So what was the final cost besides the strain and stress of actually doing the job?

Replacement gearbox / overdrive	£145
Output coupling	£59
Clutch set, shaft pin, shaft bushes, oil seal, gasket	£120
A type gearbox mountings	£106
O/D switch and escutcheon	£58
Speedo angle drive, TR6 speedo gear, bracket for new gear	£65
Overdrive refurbish and gearbox check	£411
Speedo recalibration	£100
Gearbox oil, wiring and connectors	£52
Exhaust bracket, gasket, nuts, thread inserts, etc.	£12
Total costs	£1128

The question is was it worth it and would I recommend this modification to anyone else? This is difficult to say, since it will never pay for itself in fuel saving, however the resale value of the car should be higher and the driving experience is improved especially while touring at high speed.

The good news is that replacement J type saloon boxes with overdrive often come up for sale on eBay for about £100 and therefore I will have no problem with finding spare parts in the future. I have kept my old 4 speed gearbox to be used as a donor, since I cannot use it now because it is an A type box - the A chassis gearbox mountings have to be removed as part of the modification to change to J type.

My old box which I thought was a TR6 A type was actually a saloon box with a 1 inch input shaft. My advice would be to buy a TR6 with an overdrive fitted unless you find a really good 4 speed car, but then add on at least £1.5k to the price.

By the way, we covered over a thousand trouble free miles during the trip to Berlin. The overdrive made a real difference to the performance of the car and I am really pleased with the result.

[One final question – has anyone else had similar experiences re-commissioning an o/d unit after prolonged storage? – Ed]

MEMBERS CARS: Part 3– Andrew & Corrine Burford

1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Skyliner, 5.4L 332 Cu in 225 BHP, 17 1/2' x 6 1/2'

“This takes a lot of polishing 3 x the area of a Herald?”

Melayne’s Funeral.

This took place last Friday (3^rd June) in Glenfield church. It was a lovely service celebrating her life. At her request, the horse drawn hearse was followed to the crematorium by a convoy of Leicestershire Group TRs, there were 14 Triumphs in total. Our thoughts are very much with Paul and his family at this time. Thank you to Tony and Ruth for lettings us all know the arrangements.

Update from Massachusetts: Pete & Heather are away on holiday this month, so you will all have to wait for the ongoing rebuild story. Their monthly contributions are greatly valued in TRipe, but we’ll let them off this time for a well earned rest.

In next month’s edition:

Here is a taster of a some of the photos I have been promised from the recent TR Register European Meeting in Berlin.

Watch this space….

Subject: Camb Followers Raid

Yesterday evening (Wed 1st June) was the planned Raid on Camb Followers.

I can report that the raid did take place, but it was a solo mission, just me and Blackfour.

However, that doubled the TRs in the car park, a light blue 4. It seems only TR4s operate in the rain!

When making his excuses for not attending last night, Martin Ward suggested another, better attended Camb Followers Raid in July. As it turns out, this could be a memorable event, The Cam Followers will depart their usual pub, the Millstone at Barnack at 8.00pm, in a convoy drive to The Newby Wyke at Little Bytham. The attraction there being a micro brewery. The landlord and Chief Brewer is a Triumph owner, who brews award winning ale.

To sample the ale, I will be leaving Exton at 7.30pm prompt on Wed 6th July. Join me?

Dick

Articles in TRipe

Thanks to all the people who sent in articles for inclusion in this month’s TRipe. Not only does it make my job easier, but it also makes it more interesting and varied for the reader, who doesn’t have to plough through my drivel yet again! So thank you one and all, and please keep it up!

CALENDAR FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS:

June
1 Wed	Raid: Camb Followers
3 Fri – 5 Sun	LTRG Welsh w/e
12 Sun	TR race day, Snetterton
14 Tues	Ashby Folville
16 Thurs	Group Mtr
22 Wed	Raid: CV TR
26 Sun	TR race day, Mallory Park OR Tour of Leics
July
2 Sat	TR race day, Oulton Park
6 Wed	Raid: Camb Followers (to be confirmed)
9 Sat	LTRG Derbyshire w/e
10 Sun	LTRG Derbyshire w/e
12 Tues	Ashby Folville
13 Wed	Raid: Derby Dales
21 Thurs	Group Mtr
23 Sat & 24 Sun	TR International & Race day, Silverstone

AND FINALLY: Extracts from military “squawk sheets” These are maintenance forms filed by the flight crews to inform the maintenance crews of problems with the aircraft.