DHC back home

Picked up the DHC from the paint shop today, and I even managed to get her home dry in between several rain showers. But as it was a bit of a rush job to dodge the various showers there are no decent pictures yet. We just shoved her into the shed as quickly as possible.

But what little I have seen in proper daylight looks very nice, indeed even better than before. This is thanks to the 2 pack paint we ordered this time. The colour looks more saturated and the gloss is deeper compared to the water based paint that was used first. Almost can’t wait to see the finished car, but with my current state of health in mind I have decided to take my time. It might be ready in time for the AutoEcosse in June but I have decided to take ‘t Kreng to Scotland again.

‘t Kreng’s 30th Anniversary

A short look back, as today saw another milestone in the life of ‘t Kreng. It was exactly 30 years ago that she was first registered, after having sat at a dealership for nearly one year.

She started her active life as a Pharaoh Gold FHC. But there was not much of that left when she attended her first official meeting in the summer of 1997 after her restoration was completed, the Dutch National Triumph Day ...

Actually this is the oldest picture I have of the complete car, thanks to a Dutch fellow TR7 enthusiast. And another early picture, while in use as daily driver during a site inspection for a new sewage pipeline ...

Soon found out that she was sitting a little bit too low! And the rest is history as they say ...

More machining

Together with the gearbox’s rear end casing, I also picked up a few bits and pieces for ‘t Kreng last Saturday. Some bits for the rear suspension ...

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts I will use four adapted rear upper links to locate the rear axle a bit firmer. I will first make a set of suspension links using the original four link mounting points on the car’s body. This will give me an opportunity to see how this works and if I will need a rear ARB or not. If so it’s time for the next challenge, a new location for the ARB.

But after having driven the car in earnest with the rear coil overs during the “Nacht van het Oosten”, I am not so sure if it is worth the effort to adapt the rear axle’s mounting points to 5-link (Panhard rod) or 6-link (Watts linkage) configuration. On the other hand it is an interesting challenge ... Luckily more than enough time to make up my mind.

Also had another set of spark plug tubes made in preparation for the new Sprint engine ...

And I can finish with some real progress on the DHC’s new paintjob, the car has been re-sprayed! Only a few minor blemishes need to be rectified after which the sills will get a new layer of satin black. So the car should be back home somewhere next week. Can’t wait to see the final result, as the paint that’s been used seems to have a more saturated colour and a deeper gloss.

DHC’s gearbox rebuild part 2

Picked up a few freshly machined bits and pieces from a friend this afternoon. To start with I decided that, while rebuilding a gearbox for the DHC, it seemed like a good idea to see if I could get the fairly standard oil leak from the selector shaft at the back of the gear box sorted. Ultimately time will tell if it really works, but I think this should do the trick. First I selected an oil seal that would seal around the ø16mm selector shaft. Turned out that a ø16x24x5mm oil seal was perfectly suited for the job, and cheap too!

With the seal sorted, the rear casing was dialled in on a milling machine, and the first part of the hole for the selector shaft was enlarged to accommodate the seal. Also made sure the groove for the original O-ring seal remained intact so I now have a double seal there ...

Also changed the small plug in the oil galley underneath the rear casing for a plug with a proper copper seal. Much easier to check the oil flow this way.

And to finish work on the gearbox for the time being I measured the end float on the bearings for the main shaft and the lay shaft. It always looks quite easy but in the end it took me well over an hour to measure the end float on both shafts. The lay shaft turned out to be spot on, but the main shaft needs a substantially thicker shim. So now waiting for that to arrive!

DHC’s gearbox rebuild part 1

At last, and quite some months overdue I started on rebuilding the gearbox meant to replace the broken one. First job to attend to were the lubricating holes for the gears in the mainshaft. I am using  a new shaft, but when I inspected it, I found out that the lubrication holes were much larger than in the old shaft. On closer inspection I found out that the original shaft had the same diameter holes, but with restrictor pins fitted to ... euhhh ... restrict the oil flow to the gears and supplying more oil to the bearing between main and input shaft. Luckily this was sorted quite easily with a few spring dowels ...

Next on the to-do-list was measuring the clearance of the 1^st/ 2^nd gear set. This turned out to be spot on , so time to start in earnest. First job was to fit the bearings to the mainshaft, layshaft and input shaft. Fitting the bearings to the mainshaft didn’t go quite as easy as we expected, as they needed quite some extra persuasion to get seated properly. Needless to say the other bearings were heated a little bit longer, as a result of which they just dropped in the correct position ...

With the bearings sorted I could start with the next stage of the rebuild, mounting the mainshaft and the layshaft to the ‘boxes centre plate ...

And that nearly ended in disaster. While fitting the 5^th gear to the layshaft one of the shifting plates from the 3^rd/4^th gear synchro hub, decided to slip out. Luckily I was able to put it back in with the help of a very fine screw driver. Otherwise it would have been a case of removing (and probably ruining) the bearing in order to re-fit it.

And I managed to forget to install reverse gear  before fitting the 5th gear to the layshaft, but that was easily rectified ...

Now waiting for the rear extension to return from the machine shop (for a little adaptation for the selector shaft seal) and some shims for the front bearings to arrive.

And some progress on the paintwork, the car is ready for painting and will be moved to the spray booth this week.