Adding lightness to ‘t Kreng

With the DHC away to get it’s paint sorted at last, I have been able to pick up the thread, for ‘t Kreng, were I left it more than a year ago. As you have probably understood by now ‘t Kreng will be turned into a rally replica. Well sort of! The main jobs that need to be done for that are;

• Adding lightness wherever possible;
• Change rear wheel geometry to get the roll centre down;
• Stiffen the body with a welded in roll cage and ditch the sunroof;
• Try to make the engine a little bit more powerful (max. 200 BHP), tractable and civilized by using a modern injection and ignition system;
• Some more tricks with the engine in order to keep it from self-destructing within 5 miles;
• And a new paint scheme of course.

Over the past year or so I have started collecting some stuff to add lightness, like plastic side and rear windows ...

A larger capacity baffled alloy fuel tank, ready for injection ...

And to add some more bling, a nice shining alloy fuel filler cap that fits neatly in the original fuel filler recess of a later TR7 ...

At the moment I am working on the setup for the rear suspension. Plan is to ditch the current 4 link setup for a parallel four link setup with a Watts linkage. For the parallel links I will be using slightly adapted rear upper links ...

Also still toying with the location of the rear ARB bar. Will remove the current one soon to see how she behaves without and work from there. Probably a standard motorsport item which will be fitted to the rear bulk head and tied to the rear axle with drop links. Clearance between exhaust and upper links might prove an issue here.

But the biggest challenge will be the location of the watts linkage. I am looking at two possibilities;

• Central pivot point on the rear of the axle (using an alloy Rover SD1 cover);
• Or the central pivot point on the car’s body.

Probably enough to keep me of the road for the next year or so. But first I’ll turn my attention to ‘t Kreng as she stands now and prepare her for next week’s start of the driving season, “De Nacht van het Oosten”. After that it’s about time to finish the gearbox for the DHC . . .

New clutch at last

After returning home from the 10CR in a hire car, one of the first things I did was order a new (uprated) clutch kit (well actually two, one for the new heart for ‘t kreng). Because at that time I was still in the opinion that it was the clutch that had failed. I know better now (well 99% sure), On the other hand there’s no point in putting a reconditioned gearbox underneath the car with a 17 year old clutch assembly, is there?

Clearly AP Racing (or should I say Borg & Beck?) took their time with the delivery (through Demon Tweeks), but this week a small but heavy box was delivered to my home. First inspection looks positive, as it looks exactly like the clutch which I have in ‘t Kreng since 8 years and 60.000 kilometres.

And the up-rated clutch plate that came with it ...

Together they are capable of withstanding 276 Nm of torque. So more than strong enough for both the DHC’s tuned 8-valve engine and the state of tune I am aiming for with the new Sprint engine for ‘t Kreng.

Interesting to compare the clutch cover with an “original” Borg & Beck 2540 cover I obtained somewhere in the previous century, but never fitted due to the problems I encountered with a similar item in the early years of driving ‘t Kreng ...

Problem with this cover was that the release travel with the original hydraulics was not enough to release the clutch plate fully. With predictable problems to the gearbox.

It seems that nowadays similar looking clutch covers are sold, which have the correct release travel. But I decided to stick to a known quality with the AP cover.

And to finish a cover  from Quinton & Hazell for a modern Rover that was donated to me by a friend a few years ago. This last one does work with a TR7, but I forgot that I had this one when I ordered the new AP clutch kit ...

Not happy ...

Been a while since my last report, mainly because I lost motivation a bit. And this is caused by the fact that my daily work has taken too much of my energy, so I am at home for the time being to recover a bit ...

Over the past month or so I returned to the DHC a few times to do some more dismantling. Why should that be?, I can hear you ask. Well early in the year I brought the car away for paint repairs and it turned out that the front spoiler was beyond (economical) repair. That wasn’t too bad as I do have two spare spoilers left. After that we found some more accident damage where the rear of the right hand door hit the B-pillar when I hit the stone during the 10CR ...

This meant more than half of the car needed a re-spray. And that was when we discovered that the paint had developed (severe) discolouration at several locations on the car. Worst hit are the driver’s door ...

The inside of the bonnet ...

And the rear of the front panel ...

First thought was that this was caused by the chemicals used for removing the paint (and hadn’t been removed properly from the seams) which than reacted with the paint. And that still is my main thought for the door and bonnet, especially as the right hand door, which received a new door skin after the chemical paint removal, doesn’t have any signs of this discolouration. The other strange thing is that it’s taken two years to show itself?

But we also found a few places that can’t have been caused by the paint removal chemicals. The rear panel near the fuel filler cap ...

The damage is worst on the driver’s door, and rectifying that will be very time-consuming, with no guarantee that the problem will be cured. So we decided to use one of my spare door skins and a second hand door from the shed to make a new one ...

As it stands at the moment both the paint removal company (Giessen/Mitraco) and the paint manufacturer (Sikkens) are pointing at each other. So not much to expect from them I am afraid. Although the general consensus is that the discolouration is caused by some sort of moisture that penetrated the paint from the inside and has reacted with the aluminium particles in the paint. But we are not going to wait till they have agreed on something, which they are not even trying. So we decided for a full re-spray of the car’s exterior. But we’ll be using a different kind of paint, which Sikkens has promised to supply.

Needless to say this will be continued ...

Another year over

As stated in my last post 2011 wasn’t a good year for my TR7’s. I thought it couldn’t get any worse. But when I wanted to take ‘t Kreng out for a short blast, over some nice deserted country lanes a few days ago, I was met by an ominous click from the glove box. A quick check with the multi-meter showed the battery had still 12,47V left.

Which normally should be enough to spin the starter motor. But when I switched on the headlights only one came up (and rather reluctant at that) and the light it gave off was rather feeble too. So it looks like it that (after 15 years of faithful service) I’ll have to renew the battery ...

As for the DHC, she’s still waiting patiently in the shed for the repairs. But the longest part of the wait is over. This Monday she will be brought to the paint shop at last.

Also very slow progress on the gear box. Mainly because I have been busy with other (none Triumph related) jobs. Managed to clean the various casings though, which was rather rewarding ...

Also inspected all parts from the second ‘box I dismantled. Again some pronounced wear on the mesh teeth and a little wear on the main shaft. Especially the part where 1st and 2nd gear are situated ...

So I decided it would be best to order a new main shaft and some new gears, just to be on the safe side. Ohh ... and still waiting for my clutch kits to arrive. Seems there are some problems with the supplier!? Parts are now promised for mid January (2012)

Remains to wish everyone all the best for 2012.