A busy end to 2016...
An update at last. How many of these blogs have I started with that line?
It generally means I’ve been so busy in the shed I haven’t
had time to write down what I’ve been up to or I’ve been so busy with what I
was meant to have been doing that I haven’t been able to get near the shed ..
So let’s start with the 1972 Triumph 2000 TC (a.k.a Shedi
2000)
Shedi 2000- I must admit I surprised myself getting this
finished in time to make the start of the Round Britain run-
and surprised myself even more getting it to the finish without breakdown!
..That has to be said is down to fellow crew members “Homer and Pud”-the car
wouldn’t have had seats let alone seat belts if it wasn’t for Homer, and doing
the run with a three man crew makes life so much easier .. don’t get me wrong
the car had problems from the start that I hadn’t had time to iron out but
thanks to Homers and Puds patience and skill in driving the old tub we got
round with “death wobble” “sticky throttle” and “arctic heater syndrome” in one
bit with good humour ..And of course some
sat nav rage from me! ..
So to recap-
Back in the Summer of 2015 I ended up proud owner of the
“Basildon Banger” a rather tired 2000 from fellow shed dweller “The Scrapman”
..It was tired but refused to die -the Scrapman taking it on the previous RBRR
and a thrashing across Europe..my plan was (at first) just to wipe a WD40
soaked rag over it, then tuck it away in the shed ready for the 2016 RBRR ..But
I sort of got carried away. I knew the engine would “probably” make the run but
it had a slightly iffy crank and it was only a bog standard 2000…Homer likes a
bit of something under his right foot so I thought whip the engine out and put
in a second hand 2500 -that will chug around better ..so I took the old engine out and looked around for
a 2500 lump…I ended up with an early PI engine that had been used in a TR6 –it had been resting in bits in an Essex
shed for 18 years ..I did a deal and it came with original cylinder head.. tempting
as it was to “just put it back together” and see if it works -It had already
had a 20thou re-bore and was a complete unknown— I decided to think about that “later”
as I had “lots of time” (ha ha) and needed to crack on with the body....Whilst
the engine was out I thought I would “sort out” the engine bay. Oh and as the
heater was rotten-fix that as well… then repair the bulkhead… as the brake
lines were a bit iffy replace those. Oh and the brake master was from of an Alfa...Replace
that. Oh and the wiring could do with being relayed up… it will need an
electric cooling fan and decent upgraded rad … electric fuel pump...blah blah .you get the idea ..I got a bit carried away.
Then I got really silly and decided to replace the inner and outer sills which
had been repaired so many times they looked like a patch work quilt. The work
involved can be seen in the vid in the previous post. Believe it or not Rover
P6 inner sills are almost the same length as Triumph 2000 ones –I picked up the
inner strengthening panels from Mr Cooper and the outers from Lloyd...all spot
on thank you – I am pleased I did replace them, I found previous inners that hadn’t
even been welded top and bottom, these simply peeled off like opening a big “tin
of sardines” (or can of worms depending on how you look at things!). Made me
laugh out loud! If I had left them as found I reckon the extra torque from the
2.5 would have bent the car like a banana!
I also got a bit side tracked by wanting the thing to go
round corners and stop. So picked up a set of stag struts, hubs and
callipers-callipers were sent away for refurbishment at BCS …slow but I wasn’t
in a rush! And hey they came back very shiny…oh dear this was getting way out
of hand!
Rear trailing arms re-bushed with supeflex along with the
front bushes... Rear springs were 575lbs from Chris Witor- fronts progressive
1” lowered, again from Chris, new rear dampers and front inserts...More of the
front strut saga later!
The whole idea of Shedi was the exterior didn’t really matter...I
wanted it to be a bit of fun...Leave the existing repairs as found ,new welds
simply ground and painted ..So to painting... Enter the 7 year old with his paint
brush and tractor paint. He decided the colour and brush painted doors and
wings so they were all the same colour. (He couldn’t reach the roof). He also
wanted some “cool stickers” to put on it and insisted on spraying the wheels
gold
It was now the beginning of September – the engine wasn’t
put back together, the front and rear suspension needed re-built– including
replacing both rear box sections no heater/interior fitted and wiring still to
be completed …over the next 30 days there were some very late finishes in the
shed! –the worst day I think was getting the engine and box in on my own…I
struggled to get my angle of dangle spot on before lowering the car onto it ..Anyway got there in the end after much
swearing.
I had a right old faff getting the new engine to fire and
run (After priming the oil pump and getting good oil pressure etc.)... I kept
loosing spark (I use one of those inline spark indicators you can see from the
driver’s seat whilst cranking) .The fault- again difficult to detect when
working on your own- was the dizzy clamp being a bit bent thus allowing the dizzy
to move just enough to loose drive.. Just at it went to fire – once the dizzy
was seating correctly she fired up and ran sweet –relief!
Homer then visited and between drinking cider and cycling
around in ill-fitting Lycra he fitted the seats and interior stuff –which was a
godsend! I worked through the long list of other jobs
to get it ready for MOT/RBRR prep –I also had to get 500 running in miles on
it! It was booked for Mot on the 30th Sept finally passing on the
1st Oct with just 50 miles on it...
Time to get some miles in...this was helped by the 9 year
old being sent home ill from school -I couldn’t go to work and had to “look
after her”- which consisted of her falling asleep on the back seat of the
Triumph whilst I drove around the Somerset levels for two days- pulling my hair
out trying to find an intermittent misfire, which turned out to be the brand
new out of the box coil failing ….arggh maybe I cooked it whilst trying to
start the lump?.
Anyway with a new ballast and 1.5 ohm coil I knew worked it
started to run better and I was able to get some miles on it -finally plucking
up courage to take it up to 70 on the motorway-by now the 9 year old felt well
enough to help me and the 7 year old put the gold go faster “speed” stripes on it!
The motorway test showed up some nasty steering wheel wobble coming in at 60
mph …bugger so with just a couple of days before the start I went through all
the obvious stuff..I checked and re-checked ball joint tightness, track rod ends,
drag struts, made sure the bushes had settled (i.e. I didn’t fully torque up
the first time I put it on its wheels, rolled it around a bit then torqued
up)..I went through this process again and got rid of a bit of the wobble...but
it was still there. So loosened the rack off on its mounts when through the
rack installation process again etc. etc . . . . Had the tracking checked again...
again this helped a little but wobble still there! What it did show up is there
is a bit of play in the rack. This can be shimmed out but I had run out of time...I
wasn’t giving up and set out for the start Friday morning...
After about 60 miles I pulled into the services …wobble
seemed worse than ever at 60/70 the tick
over was stuck on 2,000 rpm and me thinking what the hell am I doing? “It won’t
ever make it...It’s going to be a nightmare...We will have to stick to 40 mph
all the way round” those and other such feelings
of crushing doubt lasted about a minute …I put an extra throttle return spring
on ..Which made the pedal /linkage very stiff but would do to stop the sticking
for now, and decided to get the wheels balanced again in Stevenage before the
start- just in case a weight had fallen off-I knew it wasn’t that but had to do
something positive! My gut was telling me that it was something else that I had
missed -either way it was something which we would “just have to put up with”...hey
ho I thought- it will go one of two ways!..Pud
summing it up very aptly at the start saying “let’s hope it breaks down in the first
10 miles so we can spend the weekend in
the pub rather than in the middle of no-where”
On a positive note the engine was running lovely – steady
oil pressure, steady temperature, pulling well, sounding smooth –just let down
by the dodgy carb linkage!
Kenbworth worked very well as a start location, stunning
backdrop to 133 Triumphs lined up waiting to take on 2,000 miles-we were soon
out onto the A1 heading towards Blyth..I kept to a very steady pace due to the wobble.
And much self-doubt! After the control It became apparent I was going to have
to up the average speed a bit and see if
the car dropped to bits ,so whilst bypassing the A1 road bridge repairs (via what seemed like a
massively long detour-sodding sat nav) I held it at the speed limit for a good
½ hour ..Nothing fell off and if you got the speed just right the wobble decreased.
Or I was getting used to it? At legal speeds on the “carter bar” road it felt fine, handling well and behaving its
self-wobble just about at bay -my feelings of doom decreasing by the mile.
I drove on to Kinross where a red bull infused Pud took over
the driving – I jumped in the passenger seat- the first time I had been driven
in this car...The Rover seats giving plenty of comfort- and guess what? As a
passenger the car felt great! – Yes a bit noisy and unrefined but that was
mainly due to Homer in the back- no vibration at average speed camera settings
and Pud was driving it lovely – I was asleep within minutes it was great – I
woke just before Skiatch and briefly when Pud had a “stag” moment-Ironic as it
was him driving last time when we ran over a deer in Devon back in 2006!- this
time the animal didn’t make a death run across the road, maybe the 15 quid
E-bay spot lights blinded it into staying still ?
Pud reported the car felt great and drove well...
"really?” I asked
whilst taking over the driving for the leg up to JOG …this is where they always
start “pinking” the only car that didn’t was the sprint back in 1996...fuel was
a bit more full fat back then?. Anyway it meant I had to try and be subtle with
a very on off throttle pedal! Once at JOG I backed off the timing a few notches
on the dizzy thumb wheel (after checking the clamp hadn’t moved) –all good so
with a slightly bewildered inner glow that we had made it thus far I went in
search of a breakfast!
Breakfast was busy –as it was bound to be with this many
entrants – but still really good and the staff were doing their very best to
keep a load of sleep deprived grumpy old gits happy –no complaints from Team
Shedi as we made our way down to the car park for photos with the famous sign
post
 |
| Buffoon |
The car had had a chance to cool a bit over breakfast and
was running sweet although felt to be a bit heavier than before turning into
tighter corners…a dim light went on in my head regarding strut top mounts...I
made the most of the winding loch roads, we stopped more than we would have
normally to take photos as the weather was so good and the scenery stunning it
seemed a crime not to.
We made the 2nd Skiatch control just as the queue was easing and the pumps became free.
We made the 2nd Skiatch control just as the queue was easing and the pumps became free.
Perfect timing...I had a fiddle with the heater control
valve which had been movable the day before -well I say moveable...you have to
adopt a yoga position along the lines of “squatting fly on jam tea cake” to get
your hand on the thing to rotate it slightly from cold to warm -the levers and
control cables had given up a long time ago-an operation that once past the age of 45 has to be done with
the car stationary driver’s door open and the operator lying face down
half on the seat ..Arms up “helping” the
valve rotate. The valve didn’t want to. The last 800 miles of constant driving
had obviously caused it to give up the will. Not wanting to force it too much
and cause a coolant leak I left it where it was cursing myself for not setting
it up in the “semi” warm position before setting off …again one of those little
jobs that gets lost when you have a mountain to climb
Post control I was demoted to the back seat and within
minutes fell to sleep to the dulcet tones of Homer having an argument with
himself, the sat nav,Pud and the road book all at the same time!.I left them to
it...
Waking at Fort William I let Pud and Homer go off and buy
the traditional fish and chips whilst I checked and adjusted the front wheel
bearings just so I could tick them off my worry list...by now I was pretty sure
the “wobble” was down to one of the strut top mounts starting to give up...
Our fort William stop is unofficial but since team sheds
first run back in 96 we always try and stop there for chips if time will allow
A five cylinder PI Pete joined us from Fort William to
Sterling – one of his injectors had given up so we decided to stick together
until the next control– we got split up taking our “quicker” route a few miles
from the Morrison’s halt...i.e. following the sat nav and got scuppered due to
traffic backed up from an accident closed motorway,. The throttle being a real
pain …luckily the brakes were still on top form as demonstrated when rounding a
corner to find a twat in a modern parked up on the left blocking our lane- he was
on the sodding phone! The modern in front of me hit the brakes and came to an
ABS assisted controlled halt...I, in the meant time locked up and resorted to cadence
braking to come to a halt in a cloud of tyre smoke. Inches from the moderns.
The guy on the phone just shrugged! The air was filled with my air horn and expletive’s
trying to get them to move on before something spanked into the back of me!
Homer and Pud might have also added some hand gestures...I was glad I had gone
to the effort of fitting decent brakes and the very best tyres I could afford...Good
Year Efficient grip this time around. Anyway they certainly helped deal with
this years “brown trouser moment” and bought me a valuable half second to react
and get the car to a controlled stop
I tried re-jigging the throttle whilst eating pies and
filling with fuel at Sterling -we did a rough MPG calc coming to the conclusion
it was doing around the 30mpg mark as Homer took the wheel for his
traditional blat…and blat it he did..I
woke at Tebay services. It was here I noted the N/S strut top was sitting a
couple of mm higher than the O/S...that will be the wobble then...
 |
| Complete Buffoon |
We made good time to Glenrid in Wales and set off into the
dark twisty magic of the welsh roads heading for Sugar loaf. I was behind the
wheel indulging in the low geared diff like a child with a new toy, helped
massively by the “cheap” eBay spot lights. Best £15 I have spent, they were
excellent ! . Sugar Loaf onwards I was 100% focused on the black stuff – I had
no spare capacity for navigating at this point as demonstrated when I had
brain/sat nav conflict trying to get onto the M5 ..A few minutes of sat nav
rage, map throwing and calling each other tossers got us on route to WZL...
At WZL a much needed
bacon roll hot coffee and a chat to mates sorted me out, we tootled down to
Taunton services to fill the car for the run into Lands’ end. Homer took over
driving again- allowing me to get some sleep...cursing the bastard heater valve
as my toes felt the cold! Homer handed over to Pud at Oakhampton...
I only woke again in the final few miles into Lands end...breakfast queue awaited us but it was worth the wait , I stacked my plate high- post feed..I took the drive to Bude,-which was superb, early morning sunshine, great road -car still running what more could you want?
I only woke again in the final few miles into Lands end...breakfast queue awaited us but it was worth the wait , I stacked my plate high- post feed..I took the drive to Bude,-which was superb, early morning sunshine, great road -car still running what more could you want?
Pud took over after the control and I was happy to
sleep over Dartmoor...a first for me.
I took over driving from Dartmeet where our great mate
“Uncle Slimey” met us on his motorbike –the car by now had developed “sticky
clutch” pedal. Annoying as I had had a bit of a saga with the release bearing
carrier…
 |
| Knackered one on the left ..wrong one on the right. |
When I took the box off the old engine I found bits of the
old carrier in the bell housing, the collar had been broken off, the spare I
had obtained turned out to be the wrong one, so I bought a new one –all worked
fine for around 2,000 miles then once hot the clutch would stick slightly
resulting in “all or nothing starts” as Homer described them. Further
investigation on my return revealed it can be a common fault possibly caused by
the angle of “attack” on the leading edge of the sleeve... a
quick fix is to drill a hole in the bell housing to allow careful application
of spray lubricant on the sliding section of the bearing carrier. Something I
did on my return with the help of a mini camera inserted in the bell housing to see
where I was spraying the stuff. It worked but will need a proper fix when the
gearbox comes out next –
Hey ho it was onto the cake stop with sticky clutch and
racing starts in heavy traffic –not ideal- so we peeled off route and found
some flowing back roads which cut out the worst of the infuriating A35 Sunday
Traffic –arriving in time to make the most of the seamless endless supply of
tea and cake at Pimperene
We took a breath readying
ourselves for the final slog back to Knebworth knowing it could take hours via
clogged overworked Sunday afternoon motorways. Not what the car or crew really
wanted at this late stage! But like the weather for the entire event we were
blessed with a mobile M4, M404, M25 and A1 all the way to Knebworth...the only
thing that didn’t make it was my bladder-overworked by Tea it had to stop on a
busy M25 hard shoulder to be emptied! How embarrassing –never mind!
The Knebworth junction loomed into view and that lovely
feeling of “we are going to make” it came over me, a final racing start
negotiating the entrance gate and we were cruising up the stately drive to the
finish control, bang on 48 hrs. since setting off in a car that a mere 30 days
ago had been in far too many component parts for comfort.
It had got us round without breaking down , yes a few
“niggles” which on my return to Shedtune HQ could be sorted- but overall a
massive success-I was particularly pleased with how well the engine ran,
smooth, lots of torque and fun to drive, just how they are meant to be.-the
only thing that broke was the speedo cable on the way home
On my return “Death wobble” was cured with a second hand top
mount on the N/S strut
-I also noted that on full lock the fronts tyres were just catching on the ARB..Couple of
things sprang to mind. Why on earth didn’t I notice when putting the thing together?
I guess I didn’t notice/check as I was preoccupied with everything else going
on? Had Something “settled”?I did notice the front track looked a bit narrow
but not having a 2000 for a couple of years guessed it must be right. All I can
conclude is that the second hand wheels don’t have enough offset...I was told
they came off a MK2...anyway the quick fix could be some spacers I have kicking
around with longer wheel studs (no bad thing) ..Will check that out when I
have some more time.
 |
| old strut top mount breaking up |
Sticky throttle
sorted by soaking the cable and stripped linkage components/springs etc. in EP90 overnight along with a home-made “lever
pin thingy”-ultimately it needs new carbs,I like the idea of trying out some
bike carbs!
Heater sorted with a new valve
Clutch has been fixed for now as described above.
Jobs and “nice to haves” before its next major outing –
New Strut top mounts
A new “Quick” steering rack would be nice.,but think I will
have to make do with refurbishing the inner ball joint’s on the old one!
Tidy interior a bit, fill it with spares and fuel and roll on
2018!
I also picked up a 3.7 diff to put in to replace the 4.1 one
in it –all though part of me wants to keep the 4.1 for the “hooligan” element
it provides...but sensibility tells me I should fit the 3.7 for the longer
runs!
Thanks to all that helped- in particular Chris Witor for
putting up with me turning up at random
times with hands full of old broken bits wishing to swap them for new working
bits!
Dale Barker as ever for his advice and calming words of
reassurance in my own abilities
The 2000 register lads for advice and encouragement
All the sponsors who have helped the event raise £100k for Dogs for the Blind...awesome
Last but not least all in Club Triumph that make this such a
brilliant event –its after you read
Derek’s book it slowly
dawns on that you really have taken part in a historically important motoring event that will be remembered for
many, many years to come ,it’s been an honour and pleasure to complete 10 RBRRs
and be a little bit of that history with my various sheds taking part since
1996 ,I intend to keep going, taking part in “Shedi 2000” for as long as it holds
together..
So what’s next in the shed? ..well the Scimitar needs a few minor jobs doing to ready
it for a “Jolly” to Scotland in the summer
I also need to get cracking on the P6s ...I now have a
sorted base unit to make a really good car out of the two
Then at last I can start the restoration of the Mini..Something
I am looking forward to spending as much time on as I want, to make exactly how
I want ...Happy Days lay ahead
posted by shedtune @ 16:36
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