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The Lobby
Enjoy the blog this week with Seals & Croft, Summer Breeze
One of those erie moments. I heard summer breeze this past week, cooking out on my 70s pop rock playlist, and thought – I haven’t shared any Seals and Crofts ever. They were everywhere back in the day, and should be on a TR6 playlist, right? Then Jim Seals passes on Wednesday…..so, lets share some of that joy this weekend.
D6 breakfast this morning, which included Wylie from the Hill Country Triumph Club, in town for family. Always good to solve some problems, break bread, and get out early for all the chores that come with a Texas summer Saturday. New home AC system has a drain leak – something inside the unit is dripping where it shouldn’t. So, AC guy is headed back today, but that’s annoying. Work/life balance is very good. Family, kids, life in general, good, but with a few reminders of how delicate time on this planet is. A celebration of a life ended too soon tomorrow, and a cousin battling and improving from what is now diagnosed as a form of meningitis.
Whats new
Dash project is progressing – ended up reaching out to my friend Ray, who I gave my old dash to 10 years ago. I borrowed it for the tracing, and I’ll give it back or to someone who can use it.
So, this was a big week. I popped into the body shop, as I usually do. The shop lets out this sigh, as in, damn. He’s back. They are kind, don’t get me wrong, but I am there…..alot. The painter is standing outside the booth – we chat, and I tell him, Alex told me you were shooting color this week – yes, wanna see? Of course, and he walks me into the booth. My hood and 2 trunk lids are laying on rack stands upside down. With color on them. I am drop jawed right now, days later, as I was then. So shocked, that I walked out, maybe carried out – I don’t remember. Forgetting to take any pictures. We are down to the final stages – I told Alex to have them pull the muffler so they can get to the bottom of the rear valance – I’ll take it home, refurb that too with new semi flat black grill paint. I’m tempted to cut into my bundle of snakes muffler, and drill out some passages for flow……maybe…..then fold the skin back, and have a muffler shop weld up the cut.
I have a woodworking shop that is going to help me with using my leftover dash material to make a rectangular blank to turn for a knob. Robert is helping with a Turn signal assembly crack – tig weld on this pot metal structure. Other than that, hurry up and wait.
Did you put gas in your car? Go do that, even if it’s a gallon.
The Wax
In my next installment of what still needs attention. Our main bearings.
Everyone loves the note of the TR6. That lovely purr that grows into a light growl around 2500 rpm, then goes away. One of the reasons people keep this motor in that engine bay, frankly. One of the mesmerizing pieces of this mark, along with our original rims and trim rings, bundle of snakes exhaust pipes, along with other bits. That growl doesn’t come in with the GT6 version – the 2 Liter block. At least I don’t think it does. You see, what you are hearing is a crank wobble. A resonance inside the engine that is unhealthy – but not critical.
One of the continued issues we have with this mark is oil pressure. Much of this number comes from the hydraulic effect between the crankshaft and the main bearings. There is a spec on what the clearance should be. And this block, given its stroke and design, creates additional wear on these components as at certain RPM, the crank wobbles in its saddle. Kas Kastner figured it out, and braced it for racing, but we don’t have that, nor do we need it for extended RPM driving. What we do have, is a need for attention to this area at a very young age in the engine life. 70,000 miles is the number in the book. At 70,000 miles, the main bearings should be replaced. They knew this during production and development of this motor. By today’s standards, that is a crazy number. My 99 tahoe, which may need main bearings, has good oil pressure at 250K miles. True, it’s a great chevy V8 block, but to think we should focus on that number – 70K – is odd.
Here’s the good news. You don’t have to pull the motor to to replace the mains. A good shop, or even a good mechanic, can do this with the motor in the car, front and rear seal mounts removed, allowing the crank to fall down out of the saddle. Sorry – removing the main caps too – should have said that. At this point, many? Cars are at or over that 70K number, and chasing oil pressure with thicker oils, oil coolers, and other wizardry. Fresh main bearings, and a blueprinted oil pump, replaced at the time of this work, is the best solution to the next 70K miles. And to add some more good news - there are improvements to our cranks. Wishbone Classics, along with Goodparts, has developed a lighter crank - taking some of the weight out of the crank to help smooth the motor, which will help improve the stress on the main bearings. Its a crank swap - you send yours, and get this back, measure, install, and move on, but this is engine out, and most likely, a good engine build. In the meantime, we have improvements to our dampeners - which, frankly, are worn over these many years. Google Damper Dudes, and also consider the kit from Goodparts.
Up next week, the rear engine seal, and some gearbox commentary.
Tech: Gauge Love
Responsibility
Throwback. Carsearch
Tech: Some Gauge comments
I am not the only one who has pulled a dash or gauges at least once. I’m about to do that again, much older now, and that’s a bit obvious, isn’t it. Each time I pull the dash, or gauges, I find myself with – ah, remember last time. Don’t do that – do this instead. So, in no particular order, or fashion, here are some mental notes I have on the TR6 dash.
This may not need to be stated, but disconnect the battery. This is true for all years, but I particularly remember this for my early 72 car with the ammeter and hot hazard switch. Serious sparks fly when you don’t get that funny bone out of the Operation! Man’s leg without touching the sides. Next, pull your driver seat and set it somewhere. I didn’t figure this out, but someone else shared that – genius. The dash is held in with the screws and these odd J connectors on the backside of the speedo and tach. We all have our way of marking wires, so use your best solution for that – I’ll use my iphone camera. On the oil gauge? That is engine oil coming thru that line, so when you pull that, oil will drip on your tunnel cover. I’ll wrap it with some plastic, tape it, and push it thru the firewall back to the motor and zip tie it up so it won’t drain down.
You really don’t have to, nor should you, break into any of the gauges. I’ve been tempted to bend stuff, like in my fuel gauge. Goes past full when full, and when it barely touches E, I need to be at the pump. I might have 50 feet before I am pushing it. Once with my speedo out, I got the urge to get into that gauge. I decided to take the face off, which requires removing the needle. I pried towards the end, like an idiot. crack - I have 2 pieces of gauge needle now. I glued it back on, and its held this many years, but if you want to pull the tach or speedo needles, do it at the spindle with thin levers, like needle nose pliers. I’ll pull mine again and paint them. My 76 speedo and tach needles are now yellowish, and I want them white like the numbers on the gauges.
If you’ve never pulled your gauges, you’ll find the glass and bezel to need some love – the black…glue? ..is brittle, and useless, so dig that out, clean it, and then get some clear silicone, fill that backside, press the glass in, and let it squeeze out. Leave it like that for a while -like a week – to insure that silicone really cures. Then, take a box cutter or xacto blade, and trim it off. While that bezel is free, most will shoot some fresh flat black on them. I’ll do that again, and this time, I’ll add matte clear on top of that flat black just to help protect it.
Back to the oil pressure gauge – that line is old, and Ted Schumacher at TSI Automotive told me to consider renewing it – and he has a nice kit for it. If interested, reach out to https://www.tsimportedautomotive.com/ and 419.384.3022
Lastly – for now, anyway – that J hold down I mentioned on the speedo and tach? Before you put those gauges back in, put them on the gauge with those thumb screws. Turn the screws so that they are a few turns on the spindles. Push the J brackets up to those screws and note how much it misses spinning around to the inside of the gauge. Usually, like an 1/8 of an inch. Remove them, grind that much off, and put them back on. Spin the J inside of the gauge, push the gauge thru, and when install, reach back, spin the J around to mount position, and screw down the thumb screws. This trick will help in reinstalling, and not dropping or losing those thumb screws. It also helps you from becoming a member of Cirque Du Soleil's contortion team.
That’s enough on that for now. Hope everyone else is getting to some of their dash stuff – Many are, certainly, with the LED wave.
Good luck.
The influence
Some people are meant for vintage car stewardship. You might think this comes naturally to me. No. I am an only child. I was designed to only care about me. But I am reformed, and I am proud to say that. Pay it forward. Help others. This blog is therapy – if you haven’t figured that out yet. I get as much out of it as you do.
The phase of any car goes from concept to production, then to that forgotten period of storage and junkyards. Then, this phoenix era of rising from the ashes. As I read this, it ain’t completely right or true, but you get the jist of at least a phase of each old car. A 1978 honda cvcc, well, that’s probably just an old car, but you never know – it might find a following like the beetle. And with this phase comes this expectation from the public – this is a special car, so that driver must be special. Right? Well, not really. I certainly don’t feel that way, and I certainly don’t want any of us to act that way – or give that impression. I’ve said it many times. This car will outlive you. It is the special one.
The TR6 is at this point where is noticed every single time. 10 years ago? Maybe most of the time. Today, hard to have this mark anywhere where people don’t notice out of the corner of their eye. Many not only stop, but turn around to get a better look or iphone pic of it. Whether you drive this car, or just polish it, the responsibility is healthy. We don’t buy collectibles like a GI Joe, and start playing with it. And even if your TR6 is a driver, we probably don’t throw it around like a rental. Sure, we push it – it’s a sports car, but the responsibility comes from awareness that happens when the switch flips. In other words, we might have purchased a TR6 new from a dealer, and we might have taken it straight to a long road and wound it out to see how fast it would go. And we might have thrown stuff in it, and left a fast food cup in the seat. Those early phases of a different responsibility. Today, a mark that pulls people behind you – asking questions, and bring back memories. A civic responsibility, much like being a mayor. Yeah, that’s a good way to say it. Mayor Guvna. You try it. Go on. 😊
Throwback. The car search, circa 1995
I’ve blogged on the current car, the school car, and how that came to be part of this family in 1998. There were several years of renewed interest, test driving some cars, putting a plan together to do a frame off restoration, and getting fully distracted with this next phase of TR6 engagement. I am surrounded by many that are in that boat today, and wanted to share some of what we were going thru 20 years ago before the world wide web.
The struggle then was finding stuff for sale. I remember hemmings and local news papers. In Orlando, we would make a Sunday evening out to the Barnes and Noble to get a current Sunday paper from other cities, including Dallas, and each month, to get the current version of Hemmings. I guess if we had AOL or a personal computer, we would have used it then – but the web was so new then, we were just on the edge of wanting or even needing that device. Cars for sale all over, maybe even around me, and me catching some of that buzzing by those simple smoke signals. There seem to always be decent inventory in Florida. And we trekked to southern cities to test drive and meet some owners, have dinner or drinks, and drive back. The biggest trip we took, was to Richmond, VA, to see a yard find, best I can describe. 72, saffron, which has sat outside for who knows how long, but what seemed to be the perfect candidate for a restoration. And it had an A overdrive and hard top. I ended up passing on that – the price was right, but the logistics, time, and expectation of overall spend on that project….lets just say, I’m glad I had some patience.
Today, we have more resource, but even so, we still tend to miss good ones. And I’ve learned, if nothing else, even bad examples can be good again. We have so many parts at our fingertips, including simply, the greatest improvement in this mark – the frame by Ratco. With that, a tub, corners, and a motor, I mean, you are in the TR6 game, and looking for bits either new or on a shelf somewhere. I’ve learned all about this underground railroad with my bender back in January. I mentioned Wiley from Roundrock Texas in the first segment above. Wiley, up from Roundrock for the weekend, told the story of finding his 71 car in Alabama, talking to the owner extensively, made the trip to near Huntsville, bought the car, and drove it back. I mean, its one thing to buy one and ship it. Its another type of owner that does that due diligence, and prepares his or herself for that type of takeover. He found that car on Hemmings, if I heard him right – so, cheers to that portal, and to all the places that help us get acquainted with our next car. And here’s to those around us that help each of us search and sort as we pass on these cars to the next generations.
Have a great weekend.
That’s enough for today
Thank you for caring for your Triumph TR6, and a special thanks to those considering one. Owning this car isn’t scary and you have an amazing network around to help you. Your TR6 helps people around you, without even knowing it. You bring happiness to crossing guard at the local elementary. Please start your car with it out of gear and foot off the clutch to save your thrust washers. Please pop your hood and have a good look around the engine bay. Please put fresh gas in your car each week, even if just 1 gallon. Please have good insurance, and review your policy today. And please drive your 6 defensively, as if it was a 4 wheeled Harley.
And I always say. Smile when you drive, and whenever possible, take a kid driving.
See you on down the road,
L.O Guvna
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I am the steward of CF50460UO, born September 1975 with current paint code 19 and 11 black interior. Nicknamed “the school car”, is now over 100K in miles, in the paint shop, moving to Cayman Blue Mica 2 stage paint. I am the 3rd steward. Car was delivered with original hard top and factory overdrive. Current upgrades include Volvo overdrive gearing, Konig Rewind 16x7 rims, Falken 205s, 4Runner calipers and 7/8 rear wheel cylinders. Poolboy carbs, FlexAlite electric fan, Patton Machine Fan Eliminator, Pertronix ignitor ignition, TR5 cam, pacesetter header, 70amp Lucas direct fit alternator, Silverstar Halogen headlights, WBC blueprinted oil pump, Bastuck 9LB flywheel, Goodparts suspension on all 4 corners, Goodparts sway bar, Goodparts trailing arm brackets, Uprated Armstrong lever shocks with cycle fork oil, JVC audio with 4 speakers, high torque starter, solid state Rheostat, pending LED dash gauges. Adding Vietnam bumpers, flip up scuttle vent, hidden antenna, window tint, and several more bits
The to do list. r200B diff with goodparts cv joints and hubs, fresh head with roller rockers. At some point, a fresh motor with lightened crank, cam bearings, improved compression and roller rocker valve train. Oh, and AC.