More TLC for ‘t Kreng

Part two of the general service and maintenance check of ‘t Kreng, which was carried out over this weekend. With the most important job being flushing and bleeding the hydraulic fluids. From a mileage point of view this wasn’t really necessary. But both clutch and brake fluid were well over three years old. Where my normal interval for these fluids is two years. So time to call on the help of a friend for a traditional flushing and bleeding session!

Starting with emptying and cleaning the clutch cylinder’s reservoir. And this immediately showed why regular hydraulic fluid changes are absolutely essential. The fluid I sucked out of the clutch cylinder’s reservoir was almost completely black. Forgot to take the picture but the one in this earlier post gives a good indication on how it looked! After that the reservoir was cleaned and filled was fresh brake fluid (Bosch DOT4). Flushing and bleeding the clutch system was left till later though.

We moved to the brake system instead. Starting with the removal of the brake master cylinder’s pressure failure switch. Always tricky as this one is by now old and brittle. But I succeeded to remove it intact. Probably helped by the anti-seize paste I used when I re-fitted it a few years ago.

With that hurdle successfully out of the way, we could start flushing and bleeding the brake system. Starting with the front brakes which are fed through the rear chamber of the fluid reservoir. This chamber was also first emptied with a small manual suction pump, after which it was filled with fresh fluid. And the flushing/and bleeding could begin, starting with the front calliper on the right hand side. For both sides together, we used twice the contents of the rear chamber. No air came out.

As the reservoir’s front chamber can’t be emptied with my simple pump (a large syringe type affair) we had to empty this chamber by pumping the brake pedal with one of the bleed nipples at the rear open. My assistant was a bit overzealous though, emptying the front chamber too far. Which resulted in some air being drawn into the system. Luckily the air could be bled very easily though one of the two bleed nipples at the back.

Next job was flushing the clutch system. With the reservoir filled with fresh fluid, and the old fluid still in the pipe, it should be clearly visible when all the old fluid was expelled from the system. It was! But just to be sure all the old fluid was expelled, the contents of a full reservoir were flushed through the system after clean fluid came out of the master cylinder. Job done! Actually the biggest problem here was removing the rubber dust cap from the slave cylinder’s bleed nipple underneath the car! It had collected some oil, resulting in a rather slippery dust cap.

Next on the to-do-list where the wheels. They would certainly benefit from a good clean. Rather straightforward with warm soapy water and a collection of different brushes. I did need a shower afterwards!

Final job on the on the to do list was cleaning the two earth points behind the head lamp mounting panel. Hardly any oxidation there, only a lot of paint. So I cleaned away the paint around the mounting points and refitted the earth points using some copper slip to prevent future corrosion.

And the final job for the day was cleaning the steering wheel and treating it with a leather conditioner. The lack of use in the recent years had dried out the steering wheel’s leather cover. And after well over thirty years of service (it started life with me when I fitted it to a Mini Cooper, in 1994!), it could do with some tender loving care. It did soak up quite a bit of leather conditioner fluid.

DHC repairs #3: Bodyshell nearly disassembled

As I had a few spare hours this weekend I decided to load the tools into the Defender and head for the shed. Main job was preparing the shell for the removal the fuel tank. But I started with the removal of a few remaining parts that were fitted with pop rivets. And I hadn’t forgotten the cordless drill this time. Though after finishing with the drill, I found out I did have forgotten to pack a few items in the boot of the Defender. A pair of axle stands and the socket set to be precise. Bugger!

And this meant it was half an hour later that I could start with the removal of the back axle. Only to find out I hadn’t enough storage capacity for the fuel still remaining in the tank. Though I did have enough (small) containers to make sure no more fuel would escape ones the rear of the car was lifted. Something to bear in mind when I tackle the removal of the tank itself.

With the rear of the car securely supported, the actual removal of the back axle was straight forward. Support the axle on a trolley jack, remove the mounting bolts and pull the axle from underneath the car. As easy as it sounds. And hardly surprising bearing in mind that the axle was swapped only a few years ago.

And with the axle out if the way, I could have a proper look at the fuel tank and its fixings. As expected all four nuts are badly rusted. So these got a good squirt of penetrating oil.

In the lower right corner of the picture above you can glimpse a rather strange fold in the bottom of the tank. And a closer inspection of the tank showed some rather strange damage to the underside:

As the tank's centre part looks fairly undamaged that rules out the back axle as possible culprit. There is also no visible outside (impact) damage to confirm this. So what happened here? The most likely explanation I can come up with, is that somewhere in the car’s earlier life the vents for the tank got blocked, thus creating a vacuum inside the tank. And that resulted in the damage visible. The fact that I have seen similar damage on a few tanks in the past might proof this!? A shame really as apart from this the tank looks in pretty good condition from the outside. At least it doesn’t leak!

A suspension check

After the recent edition of our Nachtrit I decided it might be a good idea to give all suspension pick up points from ‘t Kreng a thorough check. This was prompted by some knocking from various parts of the suspension, mainly from the back of the car and at low speeds.

And to carry out this check properly I (again I should say) used a friend’s work shop, and one of his 4-post lifts. Makes life so much easier, as it gives much better access to all mounting points.

I started with the back axle, unscrewing all eight mounting bolts. A few turned out to be slightly loose, but nothing worrying. More importantly, none of the bolts had seized inside the (poly) bushes’ stainless inserts. The insulation paste I added well over 10 years ago had clearly payed off! And after moving the bolts around a bit they could be torqued down again. The back axle’s wheel bearings also turned out to be fine with no play in axial and radial direction.

It also gave me a good view of the bottom of the car. And yes, it won’t win any prizes at a car show. That was never the intention. But glad that everything is still in pretty good condition and solid. Also no visible cracks around the mounting points, nor any visible deterioration or damage on the various poly bushes. And that despite nearly 25 years of (sometimes pretty hard) use!

Next in line was the front suspension. As with the back axle, the wheel bearings turned out to be fine. And there were no problems with the various mounting bolts either. Though the lower sub frame bushes (Triumph Tune 70 shore rubber items) clearly are showing signs of wear and old age. So these will have to be replaced over the winter. As can be seen in the pictures below the rubber bushes between sub frame and the chassis leg have already been replaced with solid alloy ones, and the TCA bushes have been deleted many years ago for spherical joints. And this of course results in all kind of irrelevant noises being directly transmitted to the cars interior!

Final check were the suspension’s coil-over top mounts. No further action needed! Forgot the pictures though, so I’ll bore you with a recent picture 😜

FHC resto nr. 119; Parts donor's yields

With the car passed on to its next, and hopefully final, chapter, it was time for me to go over the proceeds. Overall well pleased with the parts this car yielded. And I think it is safe to say that some might even manage to change my plans for the ’76 car. To start with this almost brand new looking radiator:

Radiator

Yes this is the later radiator model, so shouldn’t be fitted to an early car. But I like standardisation and reliability, and am not bothered too much about originality. I also firmly believe that a car is for driving, not for show grounds. So the ’76 car will get the later cooling system with the header tank instead of the overflow bottle. But the most important reason for this change is that the latter system is the better of the two! 

My original plan was to have another alloy radiator fabricated locally, to the same specifications as the alloy radiator that was fabricated locally for my DHC But with such a good spare that seems like a waste of money to me! But before I commit myself I will have to flush and pressure test this one first! Just to be sure.

Wiring

Also some of the wiring harnesses, especially the main wiring harness, will probably find their way into the ’76 car. Though it doesn’t look like much in the picture above, a first quick check while removing them from the car showed some very unmolested wiring harnesses:

Engine harness RKC5511

Facia harnessRKC4348

Main harness PKC1946

Again a closer inspection of these three harnesses will determine whether they will be used or not.

Clutch assembly

An unexpected yield are the clutch cover and plate. As they looked almost new, I retrieved them from the engine. And with them removed from the car, the first impression proved to be correct, they indeed are almost brand new. So after a thorough clean, they too will find their way into the ’76 car.

Front screen

The same can probably be said about the front screen. While removing it, the front surface felt very smooth, so probably only very few (tiny) stone chips. There is also no delamination at the edges worth mentioning. Only a shallow chip in the left hand top corner. Probably there since the screen was fitted to the car at the factory, as it was completely hidden behind the stainless screen surround trim. Again a good clean and a closer inspection will determine whether it will be used or not (I have a few spares as back up though!).

Transmission

And finally the transmission. The car had only covered 87.173 kilometres, and the overall condition looked like she was pretty well cared for in het past life. So the plan is to use both gearbox and back axle for the ’76 car. I would have loved to put a 3.90:1 ratio back axle under this car. But I only have one spare axle with that ratio. And that will be used to build the new back axle for ‘t Kreng (the one in front in the picture below).

So the ’76 car will also get a 3.45:1 ratio back axle. Just as the DHC. As it stands now that will be the third one from the front., bearing serial number CL 11955. Will see how a bog standard Sprint engine will cope with this ratio. I take comfort in the fact that the Dolomite Sprint also came with this gear ratio.

And I want to keep the gearbox and back axle together for no obvious reason. So this gearbox, bearing serial number CL-130837C will find its way into the ’76 car too.

Of course for both the back axle and gearbox applies, that they will only be used after an inspection & a clean bill of health, and a good clean. And I have a small adaptation in mind for the gearbox, which I have already used successfully on the DHC’s gearbox. To be continued! 

FHC resto nr. 91; A few Small jobs

While removing the body harness from the old DHC shell two weeks ago, I decided it would be a good idea to remove the back axle from that shell and replace it with the redundant 4-speed back axle from the ’76 FHC, to keep the shell moveable. I had mentally prepared myself for somewhat of a struggle here. Luckily, when I replaced the completely worn original suspension bushes somewhere in the early 90’s of the previous century, I used copious amounts of copper grease. And two weeks ago I was able to reap the benefits! All the nuts and bolts came off without much problems. As did the back axle itself. And the stiffer rubber Triumph Tune bushes fitted in the early 90’s of the previous century turned out to be in pretty good condition. As were the trailing arms. And with the 4 speed back axle being considerable lighter (compared with the 5-speed axle) fitting it to the shell was rather straightforward.

The idea behind removing this back axle is that, with all my spare back axles together and “freely” accessible, I can now easily inspect and compare them. And thus decide what back axle I will be using for this car. But I also think it is about time to (slowly) start on a new back axle for ‘t Kreng.

And although the picture above might suggest something else, all axle casings and brackets are in remarkable good condition. From top to bottom;

• CL 12290: from a late Solihull built California PI DHC (71.823 km);
• CL 12397: the original back axle from ‘t Kreng (101.458 km);
• CL 11314: an earlier Solihull European spec. FHC (72.492 km);
• CH 35143: The original back axle from my DHC (>200.000 km).

As you can see in the list above the later 3.45:1 (CL) ratio back axles are clearly in the majority in the shed over the 3.90:1 (CH) ratio. So it looks like the car will get a 3.45:1 back axle, just as the DHC. That is because I want to reserve the 3.90:1 axle to build a spare axle for ‘t Kreng! On the other hand the Dolomite Sprint also used a 3.45:1 differential ratio. Although that car is a slightly lighter package. To be continued …

And while working on the DHC shell I found a few small parts that looked to be in very good condition, and might come in handy. To start with a very tiny part, the boot light switch. Probably never been touched since it was fitted to the car in early 1980. It only needed a good clean.

But while trying to get to grips with my spare parts last weekend, I found out that I have circa 10 of these switches. All brand new and still in their original packaging. And to add insult to injury I found out that these switches don’t fit in the boot of a ’76 body shell. Of course the original switch hasn’t been found so far. Bugger!

Another item I removed from the shell was the prop shaft’s bump stop (UKC8268). I know, it is a part not fitted to early cars, but it is very good at protecting the brake line to the back axle, in case the prop shaft bottoms out (I have the mangled remains of a bump stop somewhere in the shed, to prove what can happen).

Fitting the bump stop will be a bit of a challenge though, as the ’76 shell of course is missing the necessary welded on mountings studs. And using nuts & bolts will prove my arms are not long enough. But it also has a wiring clip which is welded to the end of the transmission tunnel. And I also overlooked this 😕 And this clip might well be in the way of the bump stop! I’ll see that somewhere in the future. At least the DHC shell has the same clip, though it looks to be positioned more off centre compared to the ’76 FHC’s shell…

And to end this post. While working on the shell I noticed that the original alloys, with which the car left the factory, are marked K 79 (I presume that means November 1979). So it looks like my DHC is a fairly early production car.

FHC resto nr. 53; Nearly there ...

No not the restoration, far from that, but from a coating point of view! I have finished sorting through my spare parts and made a selection of the parts that I want to use for this car, and as such need a new coating.

The last items missing were the various parts from the back axle. Since last week that omission has been rectified. It was time to pull two of my spare back axles out of hiding to strip them of all necessary parts.

Only one brake drum put up something resembling a feeble fight. The last one of course! But that was quickly sorted with some penetrating oil and a hammer. But despite that slight set back all parts I needed from these axles were removed and boxed within 30 minutes ...

Only thing left before sending the parts off for coating is one final check to make a stock list and tie the small parts together as much as possible. Always good to have at hand when the parts return in one big heap. The big disadvantage of zinc plating/galvanising, as it is a bulk process.

And as I did have the hang of the rear brakes I used this weekend's fine weather to renew the rear brake cylinders on the DHC. A few weeks ago a check over of the back axle turned up a starting leak on one the cylinders. As they were fitted to the car well before I started its restoration in 2008 I decided to order two new ones. And with Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run just 16 weeks away I thought it better not to take any chances with repair kits.

For the rest it was all pretty straightforward. Safe for a small plug, meant to stop the brake fluid from running out with the brake line disconnected, not fitting! Luckily I had a drip tray at hand, otherwise it would have become rather messy on the drive. And it was the first time I could try this rather handy little tool. Makes fitting the spring clips that hold the cylinders to the back plate the proverbial piece of cake ...

Just need to bleed them, so waiting for brake fluid and an assistant.