March 26th. A full day in the garage.

 I decided to do something about the exhaust rattle on my Mk2 before next weekends overnight journey. When I was underneath the car a few weeks back I noticed that it didn't have the correct exhaust mount where the exhaust goes through the rear cross beam. Well to be more precise, it didn't have one at all!

So, this was purchased (See above) and promptly fitted. This isn't as easy as it sounds as I had to remove the back box and the link piece that goes over the axle before I could get it where it needs to be. 

Once fitted I then started the car up and found that the exhaust was blowing. (Grrrr!) But after a few minor adjustments the exhaust was corrected and the blowing had ceased. Another job off the list then.

I then decided to remove the gearbox from the Blue Mk1. I've had a annoying bearing rumble on the run down on this car for some time and seeing as this is my chariot of choice for the upcoming 10 countries in 5 days rally in September, I thought it I'd get it sorted out before taking on such a mammoth journey. After a few hours the gearbox was out and sitting in the back of my Renault Clio waiting to go to the gearbox specialist.

I rang him later that night, but to my disappointment, he cant do it for a month. I was kicking myself as I should have rang him first to check. It doesn't really matter as I don't really need the car, I'm just annoyed with myself that I never checked with him first. I now have the car up on axle stands for a month taking up garage space. Let's hope I don't need the workshop for repairs to the other cars!

March 19th. A drive out in the sun.

 Seeing as we hadn't been out for a while, Gavin and I decided to have a leisurely drive over to Wallasey Island. It's not that far, but far enough to get the temperatures up on the cars and the roads going over there are twisty enough to test acceleration, braking and suspension. 

The drive was fine but the wind was a cold biting one that made us not want to stay too long. Plus, I was going to a footy match in the afternoon as well so I couldn't stay over there all day. 

Both cars performed well although I did have an annoying rattle from the exhaust on tick over, but I know what that is anyway and it's on my 'jobs to do list'. 

The other reason for the drive out was to test the rear suspension on my car. Since owning the car I'd noticed a 'clonk' when pulling away and a metal rattling sound behind my right ear when driving. Almost as if the off side rear door wasn't shut properly and was banging on the door shuts. I wondered if the clonking was the propshaft and so inspected that, but could find nothing wrong there. I then decided to check the rear suspension bush. It turned out this was exactly what the problem was. The bonding between the metal and rubber had failed and the bush was collapsing and providing excessive movement. 

So I replaced this bush with an old genuine Triumph part that I had in stock. I then decided to check the other side and found that this had started to fail as well, but wasn't quite as bad. Needless to say that one was replaced as well. and I now have a rattle free and clonk free car.