November 20th, new project started and non starting issues with the Mk2.

 As in my last post, I said there would be a new project starting soon. Well that project is to replace the engine on my Mk1 2.5 Pi. There isn't a lot wrong with the engine that's in there other than the fact that it's a little bit smoky. The big end and main bearings were replaced about three years ago an the crankshaft looked ok, so I think it just needs a set of piston rings or possibly valve guide seals.

The main reason for the engine swap is the engine that's currently in the car isn't the correct engine for the year.  It's actually a Mk2 Pi engine instead of a Mk1 and being such a rare car these days, it should really have the correct engine. So, I spent a couple of hours each morning stripping off all of the ancillaries and extras that had been added (Oil cooler etc) and by Saturday morning, the engine was ready to be lifted out. This can be quite a task on your own so my friend Gavin came round to help me remove it. 

With the engine removed we turned our intentions to my troublesome Mk2. I recently had problems with the float in the front carburettor sticking and therefore flooding and making the car difficult to start. Twice it has done this recently, but even with this cured the car was still difficult to start. I had already suspected that there was another problem afoot and sure enough when I tried to take the car to work on Friday morning it wouldn't start at all and wasn't even firing!

Mk2 Triumphs have a ballast resistor and a 6 volt ignition coil fitted. The idea is that the ballast resistor provides 12 volts while cranking over and drops to 6 volts once started. My suspicions were with the ballast resistor and putting a multi-meter on this showed that it was only providing 9 volts while cranking the engine over so the spark wouldn't be strong enough. We then by-passed this and ran a wire straight from the positive terminal on the battery to the positive on the coil and the car then started straight away, thus proving the ballast resistor that was faulty. We then swapped the 6 volt coil for a 12 volt coil and took the car for a test drive. The drive still showed the car to be a bit 'jerky' so we moved onto the distributor. This looked ok, but the sparkright distributor cap was a poor fit and could be moved about even with the retaining clips on it. I'm not a great lover of points and condensors on ignition systems anyway, so I fitted my old lumenition electronic ignition distributor that I had in my spares box. (It had removed from the Pi when I fitted the 123 ignition)

With this fitted the car now starts and drives a lot better. A longer test drive will take place later next week to do some more fine adjustments.