Not all going to plan

2011 certainly won’t go into the books as a good Triumph year! After the 10CR related break down and transport damage to the DHC there were still more things to go wrong. As a result of which I lost a bit of motivation to work on the cars. But luckily there were some positive things too;

Nice toy;

Early last month I went over to a friend to collect a very nice alloy FI fuel tank for ‘t Kreng. As we both had plans for building a rally replica and both love longer distance events, we thought it a good idea to order two tanks from Andy Wiltshire. These are more or less made to order with baffles, swirl pot etc. and have a capacity of a little over 70 litres. Which should gave a nice amount of extra range. But when I walked into his workshop I was pleasantly surprised to see his newly acquired toy ...

A rather nice car and a very good starting point for a proper drivers car, as a result of which the restoration of his old car will be postponed a bit. And while inspecting the car I almost completely forgot the reason why I was there ...

Sadly no decent pictures as I left mine in its protective wrapping. But the craftsmanship of the work is very nice indeed. It’s a real shame to hide it away underneath the car ...

23th edition of the Nachtrit;

As usually the plan was to do a last reconnaissance run on the day of the event. But I had to park ‘t Kreng on the hard shoulder of the motorway 23 kilometres short of the start in Slenaken. On a motorway junction, while transferring from the A2 to the A76, I heard something bouncing underneath the car. A quick look in the rear view mirrors didn’t reveal anything, but a few kilometres further down the motorway the first few drops appeared on the lower left-hand corner of the windscreen. First thought was that I lost the radiator cap from the header tank. But the temperature remained as it had been since the engine got to its working temperature. As the oil pressure also was as it should be I decided to carry on for a few more kilometres till the heard shoulder was a bit wider.

But even before I opened the bonnet it was clear that it wasn’t coolant that was leaking through the left hand side louvers of the bonnet. The left hand side of the car was covered in engine oil. After opening the bonnet, the reason became all too clear, I’d lost the oil filler cap.

Although the oil level was still well above the minimum level (I guess I lost about ¼ litre of oil) I decided to call the guy who would be on standby with his recovery truck during the Nachtrit, and see if he wanted some practice. 25 minutes later ‘t Kreng was loaded and we were on our way to a friend’s workshop to clean of the oil a bit. In the meantime my co-driver who was following in his own car, went to my house to pick up a spare oil filler cap. And after a few hours of cleaning oil from the car, drinking coffee and watch how JM was preparing his TR7V8 for the Nachtrit, we headed for the start. And as the weather was still rather fine for the time of year we decided to make ourselves comfortable in the sun and enjoy the views and a few pints of beer. The event itself went rather smoothly for all who entered. No one broke down or got lost. And just after midnight all teams had arrived back at the hotel. Time for another beer or two ...

New gearbox DHC;

Next set back I encountered was with the gearbox which I wanted to rebuilt. After the Nachtrit I took some more time to inspect the gears properly. Turned out that first and second gears are too far gone to be re-used. The small mesh teeth are all badly damaged on these two gears ...

So I collected another ‘box from my spares hoard and started to dismantle it. Thought it would be easy to dismantle but the layshaft fifth gear put up a bit of a fight. But after a struggle with the extractor tool, lasting almost half an hour, it came off. Removing the bearings turned out pretty easy, using the proper tools. But the last bearing (the small one between mainshaft and inputshaft) wasn’t impressed by the hydraulic press. Especially the inner race refused point blank to move. At the first attempt we managed to chip a piece out of it. For the second attempt we welded a sturdy washer on top of the race to get more leverage. We managed to pull the ring and part of the bearing’s race of, but most of it remained stubbornly in place. There were now two options left, the first of which was to weld an even larger washer to the bearing race. And this option certainly made an impression, as it came off with a rather loud bang ...

With everything in pieces I could inspect all the bits in detail. Clearly should have chosen this ‘box earlier, as everything looks in pretty good condition. But it makes me wonder why I had to replace this box last summer. Either I have overlooked something or there was something wrong with the clutch already, when I changed the gearbox then. Time and an extra inspection of all ‘box parts will tell. Also found some strange markings (SK) on the mounting plate and the casing ...

Only explanation I can come up with is that these are marks from a rebuilder? Which might explain why the bearing and 5th gear where so tight, maybe they used Loctite to fix them?

Damage repairs DHC;

And to end on a more positive note, I had a chat with the guy who still will be doing the paint repairs. And he gave me some rather good news, he should be able to start work again within the next few weeks. So we agreed that the car will go over to him around Christmas.

But most importantly the news has encouraged me to start working on the car again. Have to admit that my motivation had dropped considerably in the last month ... And still waiting for the new clutch to arrive from Britain, certainly to be continued.

Damage assessment

The DHC is ready to be moved to the paint shop, which is scheduled somewhere in this week. Last bits that needed removal for the paint repairs were the mud flaps, central bumper pivot, sill trim and nose badge. And of course I had to remove a fair bit of (seam) sealant (between nose panel and front wings and underneath the ends of the sill trim). At least I know now that my choice of sealant has been a good one, very adhesive stuff and a bugger to remove.

And I used the opportunity to have a better look at the damage to the front spoiler. Actual damage is worse than a first glance might tell. But it is still much easier to repair than to prepare a new one.

Also been busy sourcing the parts for the gear box. As I have a healthy amount of distrust in British Leyland’s numbering systems I decided not to go by the (parts) book, but dismantle everything first and measure all serial number related parts. The typical LT77 parts were sourced through S&S preparations ...

Whereas the bearings were carefully measured and, using SKF’s main catalogue, numbered. After which it was pretty easy to order them through a friend’s work shop ...

For one bearing I opted for a slightly different approach. The rear end bearing (the only ball and metric bearing in the ‘box) will be replaced by a fully sealed (for life) version. This has two advantages. First it is sealed from any debris wandering about inside the gearbox. But most important, as it sits against the rear oil seal it will act as an extra seal itself.

I also spent some time cleaning up the garage. Main reason for that was that I wanted to find a little tool I had made a few years ago when I rebuilt the current gearbox in ‘t Kreng. Indeed a dummy for the main shaft bearing, to enable measuring first gear’s end float.

And last but not least, I received a notice from my insurer last week that they agree with the damage valuation. They even managed to transfer the money to my bank account.

Edit: a serious setback for the damage repairs. Just got a phone call from the guy who is going to do the paint preparations etc. He has a serious arm injury, as a result of which he will be out for at least 6 weeks ...

Here we go again

Got a message from the damage valuator last week, and we agreed on the cost for the damage repairs. He also agreed with the fact that I want to do the repairs myself or under my own supervision. So in preparation for the body repairs I started dismantling the DHC again. Brought back memories from almost three years ago ...

As all bolts and screws were liberally coated with anti seize paste when I assembled them, everything came of pretty easily. Only the first part that I had to remove, the front bumper, put up a bit of a fight. Which was to be expected, as the central pivot point is a pretty tight fit. But after 15 minutes of careful wriggling it came off.

Also the rubber headlamp surrounds decided it was again time to shed some of the steel washers that are vulcanised to the back of the surround. This was caused by the kit I used to glue the steel washers to the surrounds. It looks like the kit became soft (due to high temperatures???) over the past year or so, and after that it set again and glued itself to the steel frame inside the head lamp pods. Hopefully they can be glued back in place with a few blobs of kit. With the surrounds of, the rest of the headlamp pods was rather straightforward. Only the connector blocks for the headlamp bulbs needed removing as they wouldn’t slip through the holes of the headlamp bowl and the bottom of the pod.

Luckily I had a few very fine/slim screw drivers with me to help with removing the three connectors from the block. With the connector blocks out of the way removing the headlamp bowls and pods was straightforward.

Finished work for this weekend with removing the screen washers and disconnecting the bonnet stay in preparation for the removal of the bonnet. But the actual removal won't be done until she's in the repair shop.

So almost ready to transport her to the body repair shop, which is scheduled within the next two weeks. Only items that I have to remove, before she is off for paint repairs, are the sill strips, the front mud flaps and the nose badge. But for the sill strips I need a few special tools to prevent (too much) damage to the sills, see where I can borrow these.

DHC back home at last

Since this afternoon the DHC is back home again from the 10CR. Time to invest the damage caused by the little rock that crossed our path on the Friday evening of the event ...

Overall impression is that the damage is not too bad. All damage is to parts that can easily be removed from the car for repairs or a new coating. And the damage to the front spoiler looks as if it can be repaired fairly easily. Not visible is the damage to the wheel rim, that'll need a fair amount of attention.

Sadly somewhere between Austria and home (but probably in the workshop in Austria that inspected the car before it could be sent home) they managed to chip the paint on the front quite badly. On both front panel and bonnet all layers of coating are completely gone. Looks like they closed the bonnet with something wedged in between bonnet and nose panel ...

It will come as no surprise that this one will be continued. Glad that my insurer has promised they will pay for the extra damage and then will try to get their money back one way or another. But the repair will be very difficult/expensive to get done properly. So not very happy at the moment.