Saturday 9 May 2020

FHC resto nr. 93; Ignition lock bolts


A fact that most of you who read my ramblings on here will probably know. On all the TR7’s the steering column’s upper bearing carrier and the ignition lock are mounted with so called break bolts. Very handy when you don’t have a torque wrench when fitting these. But a bit of a hassle when you have to undo them! Therefore I decided to replace them with normal bolts. To start with the bolts for the ignition lock. Sadly I couldn’t find a decent standard alternative. Which meant I had to go for the next best option. Find some bolts with a head resembling the originals as close as possible, and adapt these to fit the ignition locks mounting holes’ recess. The closest I got were these dome headed stainless Allan head bolts.


But despite the fact that their heads look pretty small, their diameter was well over 3 mm too big to fit the ignition locks mounting lugs. Which meant a trip to a friend’s business, and his lathe. And 10 minutes later I had four bolts with the correct shaped head to fit the ignition lock.


Needless to mention they fit perfectly. Though all in all the whole exercise of sourcing and adapting the bolts was a pretty time-consuming exercise. Let’s say that it’s all part of the fun!


And talking of time-consuming. As I don’t have a workshop of my own I have to carry my tools around from time to time. So the most important tools are stored in two traditional tool boxes. Sadly after many years of faithful service one of them was so worn that repairing it wasn’t effective anymore. Time for a new one.


But also time to assign the tools in the two tool boxes differently. And to help this I laid out the tools in the back yard for inspection, cleaning and organize them.


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