Well we made it, all Controls visited and following all the route in the road book - no short cuts, so no more rude comments about the Sprint and its reliability please - even I might stop being rude about it.
Thanks to my co-driver AJP - Shedtune we had a most enjoyable RBRR, much banter, rudeness and squashing of furry animals (badger, fox and rabbit spring to mind - there were others) happened during our drive.
Back to the car, we got 36.5 mpg average out of it, which is significatly better than I had hoped, and we were not hanging arround on the twisty bits, the car had a Trackerjack Brake conversion with Mintex 1144 pads, and both of us managed to get brake fade, myself on the stretch from Conon Bridge to Glen Coe, and Andy on the twisty bits in Wales before Sugar Loaf.
The handling is just about right, Yoko tyres with lowered suspension and Gaz adjustables (nearly at maximum rate), make it turn in well and minimise roll, although they are a little harsh on the Motorway stretches.
All was going well, so well in fact that we had time to fettle a few outstanding jobs on the car at John O'Groats, stiff throttle cable - needed some lube and the passenger door that had wind whistling past the door seal - needed the window frame twisting to reduce the gap.
Driving down the loch road we were lucky enough to see a full grown stag (with large antlers) cross the road in front of us, followed by 2 other deer - we did stop and try not to add them to the road kill total, besides which, I think the car would have suffered some damage.
The loch road did however reveal that with two "large" drivers who had eaten a lot of pies and a boot full of spares and tools, the ground clearance was a little low ! - might need to replace the rear antiroll bar !
All went well until we left Badgers Holt, when the car ground to a halt 400m from the car park on the hill leaving the car park. This was soon traced to a blocked fuel filter, which was checked and clean before departure from home. Bad fuel somewhere.
Filter cleaned and carbs primed with fuel we were on our way and reached the cake stop at Pimperne in good time.
On departure the car misfired and stopped, we presumed it was a blocked filter again, but no cleaning, or blowing through the pipes fixed it. I replace the lumenition system with good old fashioned poits and capacitor and the car started again, but with a random misfire. Accompanied by Alan and Bradley in the 2000 (thank you both) we nursed it to Didcot, still within time and signed in.
Here we checked the car again and found the points gap was now 1/5", so this was reset and off we went again to the Plough still misfiring, to be confronted by the worst traffic I can remember on the M40 and M25, with the misfire, lights, electric water pump and fan on, the pump / fan controller started playing up too, so we had to reset that on the move several times.
We finally made it to the Plough, and after a brief rest pulled the distributor, which had significant wear in the shaft bearings, which explained the random firing and increasing points gap. Luckily I had grabbed the seized spare distributor ( from the timing chain tensioner donor engine) on my departure from home Friday morning, so we rebuilt one good distributor from the two on Michael Helm's signing in table in the bar at the Plough, and that's what got the car home to Birmingham on Sunday night. My mad hardcore co-driver drove back to Somerset that night!
On inspection the wear in the distributor was caused by the oil pump drive shaft seizing in the dristributor drive, which put excess sideways loads on the distributor bearings.
Would we do it again ? you bet, I'd sign up for 2016 now if I could, and Andy is so impressed with the Sprint he's going to buy one.
Lessons learnt, don't have 4 hours sleep the night before the run, replacing a timing chain and tensioner - I was wrecked before we started and remained so through out
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Friday, 3 October 2014
The Curse of the Dolomite Strikes again !!!
Got the car home last night and the engine sounded very rattly, removed the alternator - it wasn't that so took the rocker cover off to find no tension in the timing chain.
The PO had rebuilt the engine and had obviously bought one of these crapy replacement rolon tensioners, where the rubber pad comes off.
Luckily I had an old engine to reclaim a tensioner from and a brand new chain, so at 4.30 this morning I started an engine strip.
Just finished and it workss, what else can go wrong ?
Right I'm off to the Plough to meet Andy and hopefully do the RBRR
The PO had rebuilt the engine and had obviously bought one of these crapy replacement rolon tensioners, where the rubber pad comes off.
Luckily I had an old engine to reclaim a tensioner from and a brand new chain, so at 4.30 this morning I started an engine strip.
Just finished and it workss, what else can go wrong ?
Right I'm off to the Plough to meet Andy and hopefully do the RBRR
Saturday, 27 September 2014
Sprinting to the RBRR sorry RBR
What a pedantic name change, no longer the RBRR now to be the RBR - why does the word Reliability suggest racing on Public Roads ? What a shame to mess with the name of such an iconic event.
OK rant over.
Anne cannot make the run so AJP (Shedtune) has kindly agreed to accompany me - I hope he can drive in the dark ! No Lambrini either as McJim won't be manning the Scottish Border this year, Jason will miss his marigolds
Having put a few hundred miles on the Sprint last week it was time to fix a few things. I had already put the new alternator on, which has fixed the charging issue, and its rated at 50amp so will probably help the battery during the night runs on the RBRR
There was a blow from the manifold to downpipe joint, and once the old manifold was removed you can see where it was leaking, probably caused by a missing bolt as there were no threads left for the middle bolt.
However I had another manifold which I have helicoiled all the threads, so the bolts now fasten.
It was time to replace the starter too, the previous one which had been bought as reconditioned by the PO last December was playing up, solenoid clunking but no starter whirring away so I have replaced this as its easy to do with the manifold off.
I fabricated a small alloy heat shield for it too as everything gets very hot down there on a Sprint.
Next job was to swap the plastic expansion bottle for a genuine metal one which I aquired earlier, as the plastic ones tend to split.
Then it ws time to check the new wheel bearings which required a slight tightening of the castle nut by one notch
Then a general check over the car, fluids, etc, and what do I see but more EP90 leaking from the gearbox - this time it was from the gear selector rods - the PO had rebuilt the box but obviously hadn't replaced the O rings, or if he had they were from China - needing to fix this today, and not having the required size O rings, my spare Sprint box donated its gear selector cover, but it did mean transmission tunnel and part of the dash out. If this doesn't fix it, I will get some O rings on Monday and repeat the process again.
thats it for tonight, just headlamps to replace with some Cibies, and I have promised AJP a sound system ( that's so he doesn't hear the clattery engine at cold, or the gearbox whine, or has to talk to me I suspect) wonder what his taste in music is ? Hope he likes Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin
OK rant over.
Anne cannot make the run so AJP (Shedtune) has kindly agreed to accompany me - I hope he can drive in the dark ! No Lambrini either as McJim won't be manning the Scottish Border this year, Jason will miss his marigolds
Having put a few hundred miles on the Sprint last week it was time to fix a few things. I had already put the new alternator on, which has fixed the charging issue, and its rated at 50amp so will probably help the battery during the night runs on the RBRR
There was a blow from the manifold to downpipe joint, and once the old manifold was removed you can see where it was leaking, probably caused by a missing bolt as there were no threads left for the middle bolt.
However I had another manifold which I have helicoiled all the threads, so the bolts now fasten.
It was time to replace the starter too, the previous one which had been bought as reconditioned by the PO last December was playing up, solenoid clunking but no starter whirring away so I have replaced this as its easy to do with the manifold off.
I fabricated a small alloy heat shield for it too as everything gets very hot down there on a Sprint.
Next job was to swap the plastic expansion bottle for a genuine metal one which I aquired earlier, as the plastic ones tend to split.
Then it ws time to check the new wheel bearings which required a slight tightening of the castle nut by one notch
Then a general check over the car, fluids, etc, and what do I see but more EP90 leaking from the gearbox - this time it was from the gear selector rods - the PO had rebuilt the box but obviously hadn't replaced the O rings, or if he had they were from China - needing to fix this today, and not having the required size O rings, my spare Sprint box donated its gear selector cover, but it did mean transmission tunnel and part of the dash out. If this doesn't fix it, I will get some O rings on Monday and repeat the process again.
thats it for tonight, just headlamps to replace with some Cibies, and I have promised AJP a sound system ( that's so he doesn't hear the clattery engine at cold, or the gearbox whine, or has to talk to me I suspect) wonder what his taste in music is ? Hope he likes Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Triumph Therapy
It was Anne's turn to visit our girl in hospital tonight, so I got some Triumph therapy in !
Especially as the new hub bearing carrier had arrived from Moss !
All built up and ready to fit - the carrier is a repro part, and very similar to the original but must be made from billet not a casting as its machined all over.
Next fitment to the car - this involves replacement BUT you need to shim the endfloat to a maximum of 4 to 6 thou, by using shims like this behind the brake backplate
Needless to say its a little long winded as you need to do up the 6 housing bolts before checking endloat, and if you are unlucky - like me, there's no float to start with, so its remove halfsahft add shim, check, and repeat the process a few times. I needed to add 14 thou of shims to this side and got 3.5 thou endfloat in the end - 4 to 6 thou is the maximum allowed so I am happy with this.
I still need to torque the castle nuts up, but I need at least one of the wheels on the ground as its 90 to 120 ft lb.
I have filled the diff with oil too before I forget.
As it was still daylight I started on the Trackerjack disc conversion, by stripping the hubs and replacing the bearings - good job I did, there were no felt grease seals fitted - another bodge ! at the same time I have fitted the Shacktune stub axle stiffener
which also needed shim adjustment, but only the castle nut and the outer bearing race to remove to achieve this so a lot easier. I had to replace the D washers in the bearing assemblies too - they were both like this (on both sides of both D washers ! The groove was several mm deep
So after dooing the bearings I fitted the new vented disks and checked disc run out - my dial gauge got a workout today
The first disc was a pig to get right, and it turned out the the disc mounting holes in the original Triumph hub weren't quite at even spacing so the disc was sitting at an angle on the hub - a littlle work with a file on the disc holes resolved this and one disc has 2 thou run out, the other 3.5 thou which should be satisfactory
I then proceeded to fit the brake caliper carriers and the caliper - although the original caliper bolts were too short - even fitted without lock washers !! only about 4 threads were in the hub carrier as you can see from the dirty threaded end on the short bolt - you can see the difference between the original bolts ( which must have been replaced by the PO as they were shiny ) and the correct length ones here - very very glad I found this - who the hell fits bolts in a safety critical component like this at about half the required thread depth
and here we are, just brake pipe plumbing and a brake system to bleed to finish
Especially as the new hub bearing carrier had arrived from Moss !
All built up and ready to fit - the carrier is a repro part, and very similar to the original but must be made from billet not a casting as its machined all over.
Next fitment to the car - this involves replacement BUT you need to shim the endfloat to a maximum of 4 to 6 thou, by using shims like this behind the brake backplate
Needless to say its a little long winded as you need to do up the 6 housing bolts before checking endloat, and if you are unlucky - like me, there's no float to start with, so its remove halfsahft add shim, check, and repeat the process a few times. I needed to add 14 thou of shims to this side and got 3.5 thou endfloat in the end - 4 to 6 thou is the maximum allowed so I am happy with this.
I still need to torque the castle nuts up, but I need at least one of the wheels on the ground as its 90 to 120 ft lb.
I have filled the diff with oil too before I forget.
As it was still daylight I started on the Trackerjack disc conversion, by stripping the hubs and replacing the bearings - good job I did, there were no felt grease seals fitted - another bodge ! at the same time I have fitted the Shacktune stub axle stiffener
which also needed shim adjustment, but only the castle nut and the outer bearing race to remove to achieve this so a lot easier. I had to replace the D washers in the bearing assemblies too - they were both like this (on both sides of both D washers ! The groove was several mm deep
So after dooing the bearings I fitted the new vented disks and checked disc run out - my dial gauge got a workout today
The first disc was a pig to get right, and it turned out the the disc mounting holes in the original Triumph hub weren't quite at even spacing so the disc was sitting at an angle on the hub - a littlle work with a file on the disc holes resolved this and one disc has 2 thou run out, the other 3.5 thou which should be satisfactory
I then proceeded to fit the brake caliper carriers and the caliper - although the original caliper bolts were too short - even fitted without lock washers !! only about 4 threads were in the hub carrier as you can see from the dirty threaded end on the short bolt - you can see the difference between the original bolts ( which must have been replaced by the PO as they were shiny ) and the correct length ones here - very very glad I found this - who the hell fits bolts in a safety critical component like this at about half the required thread depth
and here we are, just brake pipe plumbing and a brake system to bleed to finish
Saturday, 17 May 2014
Taper Roller Bearing failure
I haven't had much time to attend to the cars recently, because one of our twin girls has had to go into hospital, and she is likely to be there for another 2 months or so, before she can come home, so most of my spare time has been taken up with hospital visits, and this will continue, so no Auto Eccosse and other similar events for me for this year,
However I did have a few hours to spare today, and a very nice man from Coventry had kindly lent me a hub puller so it was drive shaft repair time. Incidentally for those with Sprints who may want to do this job, don't buy the spitfire hub pullers - they are not deep enough - the original Churchill tool that fits Sprints and Spitfires is far deeper so fits both models, you do need to search out the proper tool.
Anyway with the correct tool and a few very hard taps on the hub flange using a steel drift and a lump hammer apart they came. The side that "felt" Ok was good and would have undoubtedly gone on for thousands of more miles, but this is what I found on the other side
The big bang that I heard from the back was obviously the bearing fracturing. There's no sign of blueing on the shaft or housing so I must have caught it in time - or so I thought.
I had been to see Mick Dolphin and had managed to get a set of NOS seals and bearings from him - the seals are very different from the ones currently supplied and it was good to get original good quality bearings although I could have bought some new SKF.
Anyway I pressed the new bearings on and assembled the "good" side first. However when I came to press the bearing into the housing from the side that failed - there was no need, the bearing simply dropped in ! I had inspected the housing and there were no wear marks, but using a vernier I found that the bearing housing was over .5mm oversize on the diameter - loctight bearing fix isn't going to give a reliable result. Its as if the entire housing has expanded - I cannot believe Triumph built it like this, as it should have failed ages ago.
If I cannot find a good second hand housing, I can buy new, as Moss stock them for the TR4 - which uses the same axle, although the method of mounting the axle is different. The new housing is sadly subject to the TR tax as its about £150
I had though of having the housing machined and fitting a sleeve, but the housing isn't very thick and it must carry a lot of cornering loads , so I think it will have to be replaced.
While I await parts I am going to fit the Trackerjack brake conversion to the front.
However I did have a few hours to spare today, and a very nice man from Coventry had kindly lent me a hub puller so it was drive shaft repair time. Incidentally for those with Sprints who may want to do this job, don't buy the spitfire hub pullers - they are not deep enough - the original Churchill tool that fits Sprints and Spitfires is far deeper so fits both models, you do need to search out the proper tool.
Anyway with the correct tool and a few very hard taps on the hub flange using a steel drift and a lump hammer apart they came. The side that "felt" Ok was good and would have undoubtedly gone on for thousands of more miles, but this is what I found on the other side
The big bang that I heard from the back was obviously the bearing fracturing. There's no sign of blueing on the shaft or housing so I must have caught it in time - or so I thought.
I had been to see Mick Dolphin and had managed to get a set of NOS seals and bearings from him - the seals are very different from the ones currently supplied and it was good to get original good quality bearings although I could have bought some new SKF.
Anyway I pressed the new bearings on and assembled the "good" side first. However when I came to press the bearing into the housing from the side that failed - there was no need, the bearing simply dropped in ! I had inspected the housing and there were no wear marks, but using a vernier I found that the bearing housing was over .5mm oversize on the diameter - loctight bearing fix isn't going to give a reliable result. Its as if the entire housing has expanded - I cannot believe Triumph built it like this, as it should have failed ages ago.
If I cannot find a good second hand housing, I can buy new, as Moss stock them for the TR4 - which uses the same axle, although the method of mounting the axle is different. The new housing is sadly subject to the TR tax as its about £150
I had though of having the housing machined and fitting a sleeve, but the housing isn't very thick and it must carry a lot of cornering loads , so I think it will have to be replaced.
While I await parts I am going to fit the Trackerjack brake conversion to the front.
Thursday, 8 May 2014
Nick's theory IS wrong
I've been using the Sprint as a daily driver this week, and put a fair few miles on it - about 350, and its been getting better and better to drive, more responsive, more willing to rev higher, and generally behaving like a Sprint should.
Admittedly I have been giving it plenty of full throttle.
But the car had a lot of care and attention lavished on it last weekend so it should be grateful, but it wasn't
1/2 mile from home, just after a tight right hand turn at a T junction, where there was a little bit of wheel spin - due to the wet road, a large bang and a funny noise from the rear of the car.
I nursed it home, jacked up the rear, and ....
the diffs gone ! :(
so much so that one drive shaft was turning freely, a little bit more rotation of the drive shafts and propshafts to try and see if it was just a half shaft, and both drive shafts turn freely, so its the diff, a fairly bad failure I think. I'll leave rear axle removal for another time - I want to take the cover plate off as well to peer inside and see what has failed, but its obviously bad!
There's still oil in the diff, but one of the half shaft wheel bearings is noisy too - and looks like it has got hot, so its a full axle rebuild I guess. Maybe its rust from condensation (during its long storage) thats caused some of the case hardning to fail on the teeth ? But there were no nasty noises prior to failure
So its the white FF estate for Wales this weekend, which is probably a good choice with the forecast weather!
Admittedly I have been giving it plenty of full throttle.
But the car had a lot of care and attention lavished on it last weekend so it should be grateful, but it wasn't
1/2 mile from home, just after a tight right hand turn at a T junction, where there was a little bit of wheel spin - due to the wet road, a large bang and a funny noise from the rear of the car.
I nursed it home, jacked up the rear, and ....
the diffs gone ! :(
so much so that one drive shaft was turning freely, a little bit more rotation of the drive shafts and propshafts to try and see if it was just a half shaft, and both drive shafts turn freely, so its the diff, a fairly bad failure I think. I'll leave rear axle removal for another time - I want to take the cover plate off as well to peer inside and see what has failed, but its obviously bad!
There's still oil in the diff, but one of the half shaft wheel bearings is noisy too - and looks like it has got hot, so its a full axle rebuild I guess. Maybe its rust from condensation (during its long storage) thats caused some of the case hardning to fail on the teeth ? But there were no nasty noises prior to failure
So its the white FF estate for Wales this weekend, which is probably a good choice with the forecast weather!
Sunday, 4 May 2014
Rewards
I think Nick has a theory that you should reward your Triumph if it has been behaving itself, so I decided to fit some new shiny bits to the Sprint today, as apart from a little incontinence from the rear of the engine (due to the PO stripping the threads in the rear alloy engine seal block) as there are two bolts missing from the rear of the sump, it seems, touching wood, to be behaving itself.
So as a result of some recent ebay purchases I had a NOS front bumper to fit
some NOS rear lamps and number plate lights
and thanks to a Rimmer's sale I also replaced these
pitted and worn door handles with these new ones
It also got a NOS seal on the front passenger door.
If this works and the car stays working I have some new weatherstrip window seals to fit - actually cut down TR ones as they are the correct profile, and the straight bit is plenty long enough to do a Sprint door
So as a result of some recent ebay purchases I had a NOS front bumper to fit
and thanks to a Rimmer's sale I also replaced these
pitted and worn door handles with these new ones
It also got a NOS seal on the front passenger door.
If this works and the car stays working I have some new weatherstrip window seals to fit - actually cut down TR ones as they are the correct profile, and the straight bit is plenty long enough to do a Sprint door
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