Back to work ...

With my holiday nearly over it is time to mentally prepare for the office again, but also time to look back at another great walking holiday in the village of Sankt Martin in Passeier, Süd Tirol. So again time for my annual photographic report;

In the forests above Sankt Martin in Passeier

The small pilgrimage church of Mörre, Passeier Tal

A fire salamander in the forest above Mörre, Passeier Tal

In the fields just outside Sankt Leonhard, Passeier Tal

Typical wooden roof tiles on a farm building near the Jaufenburg

Tea room in Sankt Leonhard, when you find the entrance that is ...

Faltschnal Alm Hütte, Pfelderer Tal

Guarding the entrance to the Faltschnal Tal

The Lazinser Hof, Pfelderer Tal

Small Field chapel outside the Ski resort of Zeppichl

Seeber Alm Hütte

The Seeber See

The Timmelsjoch seen from the Seeber Tal

Small farm seen through the low hanging clouds, Vellauer Felsenweg

Near the Römer Kehre, Urweg Jaufen Kamm

View from the Fleckner Spitze towards the Ratschings Tal, Urweg Jaufenkamm

On the flanks of the Saxner, Urweg Jaufenkamm

Fleckner Hütte, Urweg Jaufenkamm

(this used to be one of their tables ...)

View from the Timmels Alm on the Timmelsjoch and the Seeber Tal

Große Timmler Schwarzsee

The Timmels Alm with the Schneidlahngrat in the background

One of the many tributaries of the Passer River

On the Timmels Alm

Ancient iron clad door of the Schildhof Gereuth, Sankt Martin in Passeier

Doorstep, Gruber ...

Fiecht Jöchl, Falser Tal

The Fagls See

Typical farm buildings, Unterwald

Ultner Höfeweg, Ulten Tal

The little hamlet of Wanns, at the entrance of the Wannser Tal and the Sailer Tal

Sankt Johann Kirche, Wanns

Autumn colours, Sailer Tal

Typical "Forstweg", Seeberg Alm

Larch trees,Jägersteig Wannser Tal

Gasthaus Lamm, Sankt Martin

Sadly getting there turned out to be a bit of an ordeal resulting in a very late crossing of the Timmelsjoch in dense fog

It's official!

I received a letter from the Internal Revenue Office today. It contained the official statement that the 1976 FHC, which I am currently restoring, was first registered 40 years ago on October the 6th of this year. And as such it will be tax exempt from that date on ...

Next question of course is, how long that is going to last? As I received two similar letters for both my other TR7's. That was when they turned 25. But that limit was changed to 40 a few years ago. Time will tell how long it will last now ...

Also the date on the letter is interesting as it dates from 21 July 2016. Back to the future!

Another MOT

Last month I took the DHC for its biennial MOT, and today it was the turn for 't Kreng. As with the DHC last month I only got round for the most basic of checks of some of the essential items. And luckily nothing was wrong, so earlier this Wednesday I again drove over to a friend's workshop to have the car tested.

As expected not much wrong with the first stage of the test, checking that brakes, lights, wipers etc. work properly. Everything did, even the wipers :-). And although I found the CO slightly high (@ 4,1 %) it did pass without adjustment as it was below 4,5%.

On to the next stage, the suspension and brake lines. Again everything fine except the front suspension. Where we of course had a bit of a discussion. The mechanic thought that the LH steering rod end and the steering rod had some play. But after I replaced the track rod ends and adjusted the wheel bearings everything was fine.

I did make myself a mental note though. With the suspension on full droop there is some play inside the RH front strut assembly. Nothing worrying yet but after 10 years of use and abuse a full service of the AST struts looks near.

And while the mechanic was pouring over  my car in search of any faults I admired the cars standing around ...

I even managed to lay my hands on a small but vital part for the FHC I am currently restoring. In a TR7 he is currently breaking I found this undamaged early interior light. A bit of elbow grease should get it back to its former glory ...

Gearbox oil change DHC

Although the weather is slowly but surely improving, we haven't seen much summer so far. Though we can't complain about a lack of rain! And as a result the DHC hasn't seen much action so far. Actually I only drove her to a friend's workshop for its biennial MOT and back. And while driving home I thought I could hear a very slight whining noise which seemed to be coming from the gearbox. But only under prolonged braking/retardation. As the gear changes were rather good I didn't pay much attention to it. But it kept nagging at the back of my mind.

So for peace of mind I decided to check the oil in the gearbox today. Initial plan was to just top up the oil level. But bearing in mind the awkward position of the filler/level plug and the fact that the previous time I drained the oil it had been rather murky, with lots of swarf on the drain plug, I decided it would be better to drain the 'box and refill it with fresh oil. Removing the drain plug revealed a plug that still did contain a bit of swarf but notably less compared with previous time ...

And the oil that came out did contain only very little contamination, but most importantly no swarf from the synchromesh rings or the gears ...

Time to refit the drain plug, remove the filler plug and put 1,6 litre of Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75W90 in. Easier said than done when you are lying underneath the car with a rather inaccessible filler hole! Luckily I did have a bit of PVC tubing lying around, which, together with a funnel, makes life so much easier (thx for the tip Phil) ...

With the 'box refilled I turned my attention to the drained oil. I always use the containers from the new oil to store the old oil. And I was mildly surprised to see that all the drained oil fitted inside one 1 litre container. With a little room to spare! Clearly the small oil leak I noticed last year in preparation for Club Triumph's 10CR needs rectifying sooner rather than later ...