Cross Member Out

This mechanical stuff is harder than the body work with all the seized bolts

Here is the front crossmember after removal.

Note how the rack mounts are not in the same "plane", but have one set at 90 degrees to the other.

The arms and roll bar are still attached as all these bolts need cutting off, the track control arms have the bolts rusted in the rubber, so need hacksawing through the rubber and bolts - Nice!

Picture of the front diff and transmission, which are bolted to the engine block
and although you cannot see it here, the engine pan is modified too to clear the diff.


Design Flaw!

The brown wires that you can see attach to the starter motor. There is no way to get this out without removal of engine, transmission and front crossmember. Not a quick job, and I cannot even tow start this, being an automatic. I may make provision for a starting handle !

Next time engine out, then back on with the body work

Front Transmission removal

Let me say that I had intended for this title to say engine removal, but its not that simple to remove the engine and gearbox, nevertheless some very interesting details of the modifications have come to light.

I would also like to thank the various people who I met at the 2000 national yesterday and for their help and encouragement. I learnt a lot, and I am very grateful for your advice, comments, and the new parts that you have helped me find.

I still need:-

Passenger side front wing
Middle sill passenger side
2 front seats in Black Velour

For the Concours Specialists, the car still has original (original to Stag on 14" rims) Michellin XAS tyres - tread left on them too, but I suspect past their sell by date!

back to the work - here is a view of the engine mount driver's side

and passenger side

transfer box under the car (attached to the rear of the gearbox)


Propshaft from transfer box to front diff


Removal work started - I must say it was strange to jack up a triumph, and turning a front wheel made a rear wheel turn too.

Progress was slow as ALL nuts and bolts were siezed, and most had to be cut off, or a nut splitter used, or heated red hot before they would turn. Obviously grease had not been used on assembly, and many bolts had hacksaw evidence of having been shortened on assembly.

You can judge the condition of everything from the picture of the propshaft - incidentally the UJs feel fine.


Front brake hubs and disks - note the castellated nut, and the allen head bolts. the disk appears to be a custom "bell shape", which is attached to a machined down 2000 hub, held together with the allen bolts. Disks are surprisingly unworn, but the pads only have 3mm left. The bearing arrangement uses a standard pair of taper roller bearings, with endfloat set by the castellated nut


Front drive shaft and steering arm


Strut removed - note altered holes in strut mount.


Front strut, not a 2000 top mount - looks like Hillman Hunter to me, and it has a roller bearing - so spins freely. Comes complete with alluminium top collar, which helps fill in and relocate top strut mounts. Strut appears to be standard 2000.



Front hub and drive shaft, into custom cast hub carrier, still uses 2000 steering arm and brake caliper. All ball joints were u/s, boots gone and had play.


View of front diff CV joint, drag strut and chassis rail mods.


The other side is the same (except drive shaft is longer), front diff is bolted via brackets to engine, with a modified sump - I will post pictures of this when engine removed.

I will now remove front crossmember, and hopefully get the engine and box out.

But thats for next time.

Back and Front

Stripped out the old tail gate and got this new one fitted and aligned - This will let me adjust the shut lines, and rear light housings etc

I was going to stop there, but this arrived today, its repressed on the original tooling

So out came the grinder (again) and I got to this - cheating really as the other panels were just clamped in place so it didn't take long

Passenger side top wing is ok, but the drivers side is like this - so more grinding

radiator panel and top panel in place

Front of car trial fitted again - some small adjustments still to make.

At least these panel welds are all accessible with a proper spot welder so much easier and quicker to do


However after reading a recent post on the forum about engine removal, its obvious the V8 won't come out from underneath - the heads won't fit between the chassis rails, so while the front is off the car I am going to pull the engine and gearbox out. I'll worry about the refitting it later!

Then I will have room to get the spot welder to all the seams.

I have decided to rebuild the front panels as standard and then let in the Stag parts - much as was done originally, this will keep the alignment correct, as there isn't much holding the front together

Anyone got the Haynes manual for the FF transmission removal ??

Boot Done

Boot floor welding done!

It was a lot of spot welds!

And from underneath, a little bit too much penetration on some of the welds - but that will soon grind off, better that though, than welds that don't penetrate and fail.

The welds on the wings and wheel arches are still to be done, but I am replacing the wings and the arches need repair. I will do the arch welds when I roll the car onto its side to tackle the floors.

More Welding

Chopped the rear valence off this morning.

Look at how Carbodies chopped away the car to do the estate conversion, the curved cut panel above the bumper mount, had been cut with a welding torch - complete with molten metal runs!

The bumper mount on the driver's side was soon knocked back into place with a large hammer without the valence in the way.

Damage to be repaired on the passenger side rear lamp housing - its rusty as well

Compare to the drivers side

Valence and rear lamp housing tack welded in place - the lamp housing requires some modification to make it estate compatable.

Other view of the rear valence.

I have not finished welding this as the shiny panel area above the valence is the remains of the lead loading. The fumes from this are very nasty when you weld, so I need to roll the car outside and get a fan to blow the fumes away (without affecting the mig gas!) before I complete this.

When that is done I shall tackle the plug welds in the boot floor area, as I need to push the valence up a little underneath to get proper alignment.

The valence has not been welded to the rear wings either, in case (when) I remove these to tackle the wheel arches and other rust areas.

Cheese

Well thats what the boot floor reminds me of now I have punched and drilled hundreds of holes into it for the spot welds

Shiney fully preped flanges

Boot floor back in, this shows some of the welding on the floor supports added to the estate

Right hand side - still need to grind off some spot welds

and left hand side

The floor has not yet been welded to the wings or valence as they will be coming off later.

My trip to cornwall for the roof has been postponed 1 week, so I will remove valence and rear lamp holders tomorrow (if allowed, as its fathers day), and I may be required for other duties!

Boot Floor FLanges

It has taken a lot of time to remove the old metal and grind off the spot welds and flatten the flanges but at last its done, right hand

and left hand

not helped by the Triumph assembly method in this area, spot welds, then braze then tack welds all in the same 2 or 3 inches, and I HATE grinding off braze, little bits of molten braze fly everywhere, usually onto your overalls causing them to smoulder too, rotten job, so to cheer myself up tried a trial fit of the boot floor

Doesn't that look nice ! - Its got to come out, I need to punch holes in it for the spot welds to the hidden flanges behind the diff.

After the joy of the boot floor fitting, look at the rust in the lower corner of the rear passenger side inner window frame - that'll be fun to fix

And, the rear valence will have to come off, the damage on the outside has distorted the inner panels and split some welds, and I will need access to beat this back into shape and then reweld. Its a bit of a pity as all the lead will have to come off the upper valence area near the boot shut, but as its a flat surface will be easy enough to replace.

Thats it for now, no more grinding or drilling tonight as the twins are going to bed.

Putting The Boot in.

I cannot proceed much further with the work at the front until the remaining battery box panel arrives, so I decided to have a look at the boot floor.

Part of the exhaust mystery is now solved, as you can see the left hand rear of the floor has a Stag exhaust hanger (fixed with bolts - not weld), so it must have had a modified Stag twin box system

The removed boot floor also reveals 2 brackets with hanger straps - I am not sure of the route the system would have taken to the twin tail pipes from this point. As to how this floor got removed read on.

Fuel tank was removed first - its PI one with the fuel return blanked off
Tank is good, only light surface rust and no leaks

The boot floor was in a bad state with holes every where so its got to come out

More holes
Rear valence is rust free, but has a dent on the drivers side, although I have a spare I am undecided if I will replace it yet, I will try a slide hammer to pull the dents first and see what shape it can be brought into before making a final decision

In the car, the load bay supports shown here need to be removed carefully to be reused - right

Middle
Left hand
And now removed (by grinding off the welds) in one piece, to be refitted later

After removal of the floor there are a lot of flanges to be cleaned up, this is the progress so far, showing the box section behind the diff carrier - good metal here

And a view of the garage floor where the boot used to be


There is 1 to 2 days work to clean and prepare all these flanges, then I will look at the valence.

On the panel hunting front, I have found good doors for the front left passenger, and rear right passenger, so I just need a good drivers door.

I think I have also found an estate roof, subject to confirmation with the gentleman who has offered it me, I am going to cut it off an estate in Cornwall next weekend, its supposedly good apart from a little rust at the passenger rear - we shall see - so if you see a Vauxhall Zafira carrying an upside down estate roof on the M5 next Sunday its me. At least the car its coming from is already scrapped, so I have not taken one off the road to fix this one.

Still looking for black velour front seats.