Moving day!

Busy day today! A couple of years ago Marc put his MKI 2000 Estate "project" in my barn for storage......... but due to a huge rent rise we are having to give up the barn, so today was moving day for the Triumphs. He has done all the welding on it, new panels and a respray in the original Jasmine Yellow......... its going to look well hard when its finished!!

Also out there was my MKII PI Estate "scrapper"......... it used to be a lovely car, but it has seen better days now...... rotten as a peach! But, the 180bhp TR5 engine, A type manual/overdrive gearbox is still excellent, so the plan is for Marc to fit the engine and gearbox into his MKI.... so oday he got his MKI back and "acquired" a MKII into the bargain!

Here are our "barn finds"......................



Once the green PI estate was out, it didn't look that bad.................. but it is!!




Rather than hiring a trailer, Marc had purchased (very reasonably!) a towing frame. What an excellent piece of kit........... I think I'll be borrowing that in the future!! Clamps onto the suspension arms and away we go!



Trip number one................

Trip number 2!

All in all, a good days work........... now all Marc has to do is to FINISH it!!!

Catching up!

Sorry!! Been so busy and I only noticed the other day that I hadn't updated by blog since before the Round Britain Run in October 2008!

So here we go with a quick update on Triumphy things since then!

Sam & I did the 2008 RBRR in the yellow estate. No major issues really apart from a snapped speedo cable and then the Road Angel blew up so we had no idea of any speeds! Many thanks to Brian Millington from the 2000 Register who dug around in his shed, found a speedo cable and then met us at midnight at Oswestry services! Thanks Brian!

The car was unbelieveably filthy afterwards, so not surprisingly, I spent most of the Monday cleaning (and maybe a little polishing!!) the car............ got busted by Sam who took some photos of me to prove what a sad case I really am!

Then in November I was at the NEC show, with the Red PI on the 2000 Register stand. Excellent show, met loads of friends and put up with the usual leg-pulling about polishing!

On New Years Eve, I took a trip down to Wiltshire and met up with some friends from Club Triumph for an informal lunch at a pub. It was flippin' cold and the washers kept freezing (got the car dirty AGAIN!) but a really nice day. Well worth the 280 mile round trip! (note the polish bottles on the floor infront of my car.......... these CT jokers, relentless they are!)
Now the sad news, my Stag has finally been sold. I had it advertised on Piston Heads and it sold quite quickly to another Stag owner from Kidderminster. He wanted a better one and decided that mine was for him. I delivered it to him the other day........... sob!! I do regret this sale, but we had to get rid of one car as we just had too many and not enough space.

Anyway, with the Stag gone it made some space in the garage. Today I had a tidy up and a sort out and then put the yellow estate back in the garage. Its been living outside under a cover for the last 18 months and it was time to bring her back into the warm and dry!

Thats it for now, I promise I'll try and keep things more up to date in future!

Getting there........

I drove the estate today for the first time since the engine rebuild.......... all I can say is wow.......... I am so pleased with my little self. The engine runs perfectly, good oil pressure, no noises, no rattles and it does seem to pull well............. can't really find out yet as I need to run it in first!

I took it to Craig Bennett's garage for some welding on the front chassis rails. Nothing serious, just a small patch............. what is serious is the huge hole we found in the boot floor....... right under the tank in the "fake" spare wheel well which is a carry-over from the old MKI's. So, next Saturday we are going to take the tank out, cut out the useless "bulge" and re-create a flat boot floor.

It's not an MOT failure, so the MOT is still on for Monday pm. Fingers crossed.

When I got it home I carried on tinkering. The new wood I had re-veneered needing fitting. I'd done the door trims.... (the easy bit!) but I now had to do all the dash and the radio surround.

I'd had the radio surround modified to have the hole a modern stero size, so while I was at it, I put the new stereo and cd changer in.

What a result, I think it looks great!




While I had the dash out I put in an extra 12v cigar lighter on the passengers side parcel shelf. Might come in useful on the RBRR for the Sat Nav, Road Angel and phone charger.

I had a new gerlever trim panel "in stock" so what went on too.

It really has lifted the inside, looks much better now.

Tomorrow is cleaning and (dare I say it...........................) POLISHING time depending on the weather. Then its MOT Monday, tax and then the open road beckons..............!

Engine rebuild......... FINISHED!!!!

So, put the rad back in, reassembled all the front suspension including the new power rack.

Topped up all the fluid then realised I couldn't put it off any longer, I had to try and start it!

Primed the oil pump, fitted a new filter then turned it on the key with the plugs out................... after a short pause the oil pressure gauge started to climb and hit 75psi just on the starter!!! Wow!!

Put the new plugs in, and tried again................ first turn of the key it fired into life!

I cannot explain the feeling of relief and utter joy at hearing the 6 pot burst into life!!!

The new carbs need fettling, they are stiff and won't open and shut properly, but they just need to lube and working a bit I think. Timing needs to be set, but apart from that its fine!

Ran for a couple of minutes then I think I've run out of fuel........ but it was getting dark so I guess this was a good time to stop!!

I have to admit there have been times when I've wondered if I would ever get it back together again........ but the feeling of hearing it start was worth all the sweat!!!

Engine Rebuild Part MCMXXVXIIX !!

So, today I needed to get on with putting the engine back together......... so it was raining! Figures.

A bit of playing and here we have a purpose built engine-rebuild-shelter!
All going well, head back on and torqued down
Virtually finished!

All thats left to do is;

Bolt in and connect up the Radiator
Fill with fluids
Change the oil filter
Change the oil pressure relief valve
Reassemble the suspension

Then its ready for firing.

I was planning to have it running today, but the rain wore me down and I'd just had enough!

Not far to go now though!

Rocker Shaft Rebuild

Sounds simple don't it.................... strip, clean and replace the rocker shaft.

Hmmmmm.

Okay, so, I wrote it all down, exactly which bit goes where............. then halfway through stripping it all down the dog jumped on me, which made me drop the rocker shaft (bits everywhere!) and spill the ice-cream tub of Jizer all over my carefully drawn plan.

Bugger!!

No I don't know which order things go on.....................

Of course I do, I've got another Triumph 6 pot in the garage!

So, off with the rocker cover on the PI, noted down all the positions........... then I could happily clean everything and put it all back together.

The old rocker shaft was worn beyond being worn............ the ridges had their own gravity field they were that big!!

Glad I did it now, looks good, no more slop in the rockers..................

Thats another job done...............

Your Piston's coming to the boil!

So, collected the new piston from Mr Papworth last night (many thanks Mike!), I met him at The Griff Classic car meet (informal pub car park meeting).

Bumped into our very own Chris Allen, he was dropping his car off to Mike to, and I quote "To shut the bloody thing up"...........new exhaust I think!!

Also was a very tidy MKII PI........... (no not mine!) a white PI BWK581K, which is weird as I used to own (and now Craig Bennett does) BWK14K which is also a white PI............

Anywaay, this evening I had to fit the new piston to the connecting rod........... which won't just push in........ needs to be heated.

So, gudgeon pin in the freezer for 15 minutes, and then I boiled up the piston and the little end of the connecting rod in a sacuepan of water............

At exactly this moment Sam came home and thought I had made a start on dinner................."What are we having then?" she asked.........

I guess my cynical reply of "goujons on Piston on a connecting rod mousse, served with frozen gudgeon pin drizzled in 20/50"............. didn't really go down too well......... opps!!

Anyway, it just slotted in, and the two circlips dropped in, all done in less than a minute!!

Excellent!

Now, to fit it. I was going to do that this evening.......... but I really haven't the drive to do this tonight. I think I'll rebuild the rocker shaft and paint the timing cover this evening............!