Over the past weekend I took part in the first edition of the "Border Raiders". A two day touring assembly organised by Club Triumph's Pendle and Pennine Area. And as the name of the tour suggests, from the start in Kelbrook the route headed north for Scotland (red), with an overnight halt at Carlisle, and back south to the finish in Kelbrook (green).
But before the fun could begin, there was the almost traditional BBQ at the Old Stone Trough on the night before. It was good to see some well known faces, but also nice to put some faces to forum members whom I hadn't met before. And although the number of participants wasn't as expected, there was a nice collection of Triumphs in the car park, with the wedges again the majority. Sadly though the weather was rather wet so the usual silliness in the car park had to be scraped from the program. So nothing better to do then have some food, a few drinks and admire the cars in the car park in between the rainy spells!
The first day's route was dominated by the Settle and Carlisle Railway, as the route followed this Railway line closely. Although the weather wasn't too bad, every time I wanted to stop for some pictures it started to rain. But I managed to beat the rain at the Ribblehead railway viaduct, to take a few pictures, though only just ...
And when we crossed the border into Scotland the heavens opened up completely. Luckily that didn't spoil the driving fun, as the roads in this part of the route were fabulous. Sadly no pictures to prove this so you'll have to go there and see for yourself! Strangely enough the rain stopped when we crossed the border back into England for the last few miles of Day 1.
Day 2 started quite promising as we headed for the start at Gretna, with only a light drizzle. But it turned out to be the same as the previous day. Every time I wanted to stop to admire the views it started to rain. But again the route was more than entertaining enough to ease the pain. Best bits being the unclassified road over the moor between Arkengarthdale and Swaledale and the also unclassified from Hawes over Green Side into Langstrothdale.
But I think I crossed the Bleaburry Gill south of Langthwaite a little bit to enthusiastic. Because after splashing through the ford, it seemed the engine lacked a little power, not to alarming but noticeable. It looked like some water had got into the wiring/ignition system. But as the miles progressed I forgot all about it, until I started the engine the next morning to head for the ferry and home. The engine did start fairly normal but ran rather lumpy, sometimes imitating a Toyota Aygo. But once on the go it seemed to get better. A long story cut short, we got to the ferry and home afterwards but clearly something was very wrong as she really lacked power now.
So after I got the luggage from the car, I did a quick inspection under the bonnet. The contacts inside the distributor cap were showing signs of corrosion, with clear signs of water under the rotor. The spark plugs told a different story. Spark plugs numbers 1, 2 and 4 looked OK, though slightly lean. But number three was literally washed clean. This one certainly needs further investigation. But that will have to wait till after the weekend.
A few other things that needed attention were the steering column bush (yes the dreaded UKC2322). At least removing the old one was a piece of cake, once the steering column had been pulled back to get it of the shaft;
To pull back the steering column I first disconnected the top UJ from the steering shaft. After which I loosened the G-clamp at the top of the shaft. This sits at the bottom of the steering columns top bearing. For illustration the picture below. In this picture it is the clamp on the left. The clamp on the right is part of the collapsible part of the column, and as such a so called “safety item";
And with some proper tools inserting the new bush also didn't take more than a few minutes. Most important is to make sure that the last bit that needs pressing in is at the top, so it can be reached easily. That is where the pipe wrench comes in;
And the last job I did was remove a rather annoying rattle, caused by the new switch panel and the accountants at British Leyland. The early TR7's had the light panel above the heater switches fitted with 4 screws. But the outer two were deleted on later models. As a result the lower lip of the panel was free to vibrate. With the previous panel that wasn't a problem as it was covered with vinyl. But the new (alloy) panel is not covered so the lower lip of the light panel could happily rattle away against the bare alloy. This could easily be sorted by adding two holes to the panel and fit two new screws and spring clips ...
Hopefully I will be able to look into the engine problems next week but first another weekend away. This time to the Nürburgring. Also the FHC body has to be moved for paint preparations as soon as the weather permits!
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