Sunday 20th February - Mk2 seat challenge

 Since buying the Mk2 triumph last October I've found that I've had to crook my neck when getting in and out of the car. The previous owners (team Rusty Custard) had fitted MG ZT front seats which although very comfortable are absolutely huge! They have you sitting quite close to the door and also in a higher position that I'm used to as well. 

I decided to look for a set of Alfa Romeo 156 seats which I have now found although they are up in Mansfield. They will be collected some time soon by Dave Harvey (He doesn't live that far away from Mansfield) and he will bring them down with him the next time he visits. In the mean time Dave Maton still had the original seats from Gertie in his loft and offered to loan me them, so I collected them Saturday morning and attempted to fit them in the afternoon. 

After removing the MG ZT drivers seat I stumbled across a problem. There had obviously been some problems involving the floor pan in the past and repairs had been carried out. The problem was that new metal had been welded over the top of the captive nuts where the original Triumph runners would have bolted in. 

It was at this point that it also started raining so I took that as a sign that I wasn't meant to get this job done today and locked up and went indoors. 

Sunday morning saw me playing musical cars so that I could get the Mk2 into the garage. With the drivers seat and carpet removed I then got an old seat runner and bolted it into place using the front bolt only. I then positioned the rear of the runner to where I thought it should locate. I then drilled a small hole through the repair panel to see if I had found the position of the original hole of the captive nut. Luckily I had, so I moved up to a bigger drill bit drilling very carefully so I didn't damage the thread underneath the repair panel. I then tapped the hole with a 5/16th tap to clean up the original thread and then tried a seat bolt to see if the runner would bolt down and hold tight. It did! Success! 

I then had to do the same to the repair section on the side near the sill and luckily this went just as well as the first one had and before long I had the Alfa seat bolted into position. The passenger side had had no such repairs done to it, so this seat fitted straight in with no issues. The seats aren't the correct colour, but as I said I have only borrowed them until my ones arrive. 

While the car was in the garage I carried out a couple of other repairs to the windscreen washers and improved the earthing to the electric fuel pump and with that done, I called it a day. Quite a successful morning all told. 

Thursday 3rd February - Spare engine refresh.

 Good friend Dave Harvey was down for a few days this particular week so while the weather was fairly mild we ventured out into the garage to have a potter. 

The Mk2 Pi engine that I had recently taken out of the Mk1 Pi had been a little bit smoky, so we removed the pistons and found that the oil control rings had failed thus letting oil past and creating the smokiness. After giving the cylinders a hone new piston rings were fitted and the pistons were then re-inserted into the cylinders using a piston ring compressor and my usual mode of assistance, a tin of baked beans. Tesco baked beans are very similar in diameter to Triumph pistons and therefore give a very even pressure when you push down. Perfect for the job. 

With the pistons re-housed we then fitted a new set of big end bearings and checked the engine rotation to make sure all was well. We also checked the main bearings but these were found to be fine and didn't need replacing. With the bottom end all back together (including a new sump gasket) we then fitted a new set of cam followers and called it a day. If this had been an engine I was going to use in a car, I would have probably fitted a new camshaft, but at present it's just going to be a spare that will be sitting in the shed in case it needed so I couldn't see the sense of buying a new camshaft for an engine that's just going to be sitting idle.  A very productive day thanks to the help and experience of Dave Harvey. 

Thursday January 27th - Rolling Road session booked

 With the Ten Countries Rally coming up in September I decided that the car could do with a good tune up. I had recently fitted a  piper cross air filter and different carburettors, so I wanted to make sure that everything was spot on. The car also has a 123 programmable distributor fitted as well, so the car was booked for carburettor tuning and distributor re-mapping at the same time. Thursday morning I drove the car down to Atspeed Racing at Rayleigh and left it with them.

Friday afternoon I got a phone call at work saying that the car was ready, so arrangements were made to collect it on Saturday morning. Upon collection a test drive followed and the car was found to be a lot smoother and definitely more powerful. Very  pleased with the result and another job off the list before September. 

January 22nd/23rd - A few little jobs.

 What with having Covid, Christmas and the cold weather etc, I've really not been up to much in the garage or working on the cars. 

Dave Maton and Gavin came round and a few odd jobs were carried out. I also had to move my cars around as my Blue Mk1 is going for a rolling road session on Thursday, so I needed to make sure that it was going to start and run ok. (It hadn't been started since last October) Once this had been started and parked in the street, I then started up my Mk1 Pi which hadn't been started since last November. (Since the new engine was fitted in fact) I then took it for a spin as it hadn't yet been driven with the new engine in. I have to say it went very well. 

The Mk2 wasn't keen on starting, but to be quite honest I think I flooded it. It could also really do with a bigger battery on it I think as it doesn't turn over very fast and just needs a bit of extra oomph. It did start eventually though and was driven around the block a few times to give it a run. 

On Sunday I started inspecting the Mk2 Pi engine that I had removed from the Mk1 Pi. It was a very good engine whilst in the car although had been getting a tad smokey. The big ends and main bearings look in good condition, so I might just fit a new set of big ends and piston rings and just keep it as a spare engine. 

The cylinder head also looked ok, so this may just be given a clean up and re-attached to the engine block once that's finished. I've also been doing a few bits to a spare set of twin carburettors that I have. 

Until we all get back to normal it doesn't look as though there are going to be many driving events for a good few months yet, so this is going to be my hobby for the time being. 

November 24th-26th Project Pi engine completed.

 I finally had some time off work, so good friend Dave Harvey came down for a few days and while he was here we cracked on with the engine install. 

Dave arrived on Tuesday evening so we made a start on the car Wednesday morning. Gavin also came round to help. We had a bit of a late start on the Pi as we were messing about with the Mk2 first which was still suffering from starting problems. It turned out the choke mechanism wasn't working at all hence the poor starting. On the Pi engine we fitted the flywheel, clutch, a new thrust bearing and fitted the new engine into the car. 

Thursday morning saw the slave cylinder, starter motor and cylinder head reinstalled. The front axle was also re-secured. (You have to loosen this and bounce the car on its springs to allow the sump to drop over the front beam) The oil cooler was then fitted complete with new hoses, then the alternator, fan, fan belt and throttle bodies. The temperature in the garage had by now dropped considerably so we called it a day. 

Friday morning saw the fitting of the metering unit, injectors and distributor and after a few false starts the engine finally fired up and ran. After a few more fine adjustments  it was running well and sounding good. Which was quite a relief with all the money spent. 

This is the first engine change I've done on a Pi and I was surprised how much longer it takes compared to a carburettor set up. There's so much more setting up to do. However, I'm really pleased it's now done and I'm really grateful to Dave and Gavin for their help. 

When I bought this engine I was amazed to find that it had been rebuilt before and that the block had been bored out and had plus 60 thou pistons fitted. It was an incredible coincidence because my other Mk1 had had exactly the same thing done to that. So I'm now in a unique situation of having two Mk1 saloons both with 2.6 litre engines as apposed to standard 2.5's. 

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. 

 

 

End of modifications, new project starting shortly.

 Today was the day that the Mk2 finally left the garage after completing the modifications that I wanted to do. They included fitting some bigger spotlights, lowered springs and new rear shock absorbers, adding a Pi dashboard and fitting an electric fuel pump. I also wanted to fit the bigger TR6 15 inch wheels, so to do this I had to fit Mk1 trailing arms and shorter drive shafts and not forgetting the shorter handbrake cable. 

A tiny problem of the front float sticking open and flooding the front carb had to be addressed before the car left the garage, but once this was done it was all systems go and the I will now be taking the car to work tomorrow for a test drive. 

While the Mk2 was in the garage my new wheels arrived for the Pi. I had these fitted along with new tyres last Monday morning and then drove the car to work for a few days. 

Driving the car to work though highlighted my smoky engine and convinced me that I need to crack on with the planned engine change. So the cars were moved around, the replacement engine was finally taken off the engine stand and everything was put in position to make a start at some point this week. 

New 2.6 engine ready to go in

Saturday morning saw a run up to north of Colchester to visit fellow triumph enthusiast Colin Wake. Dave Maton was also visiting, so we met on route and had a good breakfast at a Toby Carvery. It was a good day out and good to get out and have a blast in the cars again.