Last weekend saw another setback in the work on 't Kreng and the DHC. But this time it was because of an extra (short) trip to Britain, to take part in Club Triumph's first edition of "Taith o amgylch Cymru" (or a Tour of Wales). I had been toying with the idea of taking one of my sisters sons for a driving weekend some time, so this was an ideal opportunity. To teach him some old school navigational skills like map reading that is ...
The event started on the Saturday morning from Ross-On-Wye. This meant we had to leave the Low Countries on the Friday morning, with the goal for the Friday afternoon being Gloucester. Here we met up with some of the other teams for a few well deserved beers, not all of which went down to well :-)
Next day started pretty nice for Welsh standards (read dry-ish), as we headed for the start at some services on the A40 just outside Ross-On-Wye. Here we met up with the other teams and it was nice to see that among the 20 teams there were 5 who turned up in a TR7. After a short briefing and a huge cup of coffee we were on our way. And most of the soft top teams even dropped their roofs to enjoy what little Sun there was, sadly it wasn't going to last.

The first stage (green line) was just under 300 kilometres so we had plenty of time to stop at interesting places or just to admire the views. I could now bore you with a long tale of the nice roads we drove on the first day, but it's best to experience Wales yourself. A few pictures of some of the first days highlights ...

And with about half an hour's drive from the finish in Aberystwyth left, the heaven's decided to open up properly. With some very heavy rain and hail coming down I was glad that 't kreng is fairly rain proof now. Didn't really want to swap places with the teams driving behind me with the top down. Luckily for them they didn't have to stop and by the time we arrived at our hotel for the night, the rain had stopped. The evening was spent mostly at the bar ...

The second day's drive was much shorter, but again with some fabulous roads. Sadly the weather changed for the worse with lots of rain. Which of course meant that the stops to admire the views were down to an absolute minimum. And when we did stop we made sure to get out of the car and into the pubs as quickly as we could. The rain also meant that visibility was poor, forcing me to drive at a for me rather sedate pace. At least that gave me the opportunity to investigate the funny noises that seemed to be emitted from the gearbox in more detail. At first it sounded like the noise was only there while not in fourth gear. Which might point to a worn bearing between the input-shaft and the main-shaft. But after a while I found out it was there in all gears but not at all speeds. But as the gear change was still as it had been for the past few years and the 'box is still quiet while in neutral, I didn't bother to much about it. Something to investigate before the International AutoEcosse in less than two weeks time.
And by the time we reached the finish in Newtown it had almost completely stopped raining. But when we passed the "Flying Shuttle" we didn't see any Triumphs there. So after another check to make sure there was no one, we carried on towards our hotel in the centre of Newtown for a quiet night.

On the Monday after the event we took a scenic route from Newtown, heading south across the Bristol Channel, for a visit to Neil Revington's premises. Needles to say it was rather nice chatting with Neil and Alan on things Triumph, even learned some things on TR7's. After the visit we headed east towards Salisbury, where we'd planned to spend our last night. We even managed to find a hotel within walking distance from the city centre and with a room with a lovely view ...

Our original plan was to use a scenic route along the southern coast to drive home on the Tuesday. Sadly the forecast (and the weather) turned out to be pretty wet. So as we had seen enough wet British country side through misty car windows, we decided to walk into town and pay a visit to the Cathedral ...

And a few hours after noon we headed back home. Many thanks to Michael for organising this great event and to Ants for a very nice route. It was a lovely weekend, clearly CT the Club that does :-)

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 20th May 2013 10:42pm gmt

Back axle version 1.1

When I started the restoration of my DHC it was to provide me with a reliable TR7 to bridge the gap while working on the next and hopefully last stage of the upgrades for 't Kreng. Which automatically means that I won't start with any physical work on 't Kreng before the DHC is in proper working condition. But so far the DHC has not shown the reliability I am used to with my TR7's. Since the car came back on the road almost three years ago I had the change or repair a lot of items. As there were two leaking water-pumps, one leaking clutch master cylinder, two bad gearboxes, one worn clutch assembly, one shattered door mirror, one worn viscous coupling, one cracked fan, one broken prop shaft and of course the problems I encountered with the paint ...

As a result of all these problems with the DHC so far work on the rejuvenation of 't Kreng has been postponed for the time being. But not completely. As I had not much better to do with my spare time I decided to have another look at the digital version of the back axle set up for 't Kreng. And it was good to revive my AutoCad skills a bit! So I decided to model the axle and the necessary modifications in 3D, as this gives a much better impression on clearances etc.

Next on the to-do-list are the adaptations to the cars body, like the new upper axle mounting points, the chassis mount for the Panhard rod and the roll bar. Also looking in detail at a new rear brake set up.

And got a phone call today that the stiffening plates for the back axle are going into production soon and that the alloy sheets for the sump guards have arrived too. It looks like it's going to be a busy summer.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 30th April 2013 10:01pm gmt

Getting ready for summer

... Or the last major finishing touches for the DHC (hopefully!). There have been several failed attempts over the past 5 months to work on the car, but due to illness (both mine and the workshop's owner), work commitments or just no motivation to work on the cars for various, reasons they were all postponed. But today I at last had a go at changing the clutch assembly, gearbox and prop shaft of the DHC. In preparation for the swap I brought the DHC out of its winter hibernation last Saturday, and the car behaved rather well from an engine and suspension point of view. But the overall experience was spoiled pretty thoroughly by very bad gear-changes in all but 5th gear. Especially changing down a gear after driving at constant speeds for a few minutes was very bad. Needed brute force to get out of gear and into neutral. And when it got out of a gear, it felt as if it was smashed out with a hammer. Not good, but I arrived at a friend's workshop with no problems.

Changing the clutch assembly and gearbox proved to be a pretty straight forward job. Mainly thanks to some proper tools, like a 4-post lift and a rolling hydraulic gearbox/axle stand. And inspecting the parts coming of the car didn't make me any wiser. OK one side of the clutch plate was slightly contaminated with oil but not enough for any big problems. And compared to the "new" 'box, the old one felt pretty loose, but again nothing clearly wrong with it.

So the only thing I could do was put the new 'box on the axle stand and slide it in place, which went rather smoothly. And before long only the exhaust and interior remained. And of course something had to put up a fight. This time it was (again I should say) the tubular exhaust manifold, or more specific the lower rear mounting bolt. This refused point blank to get in its allocated place. After a rather frustrating hour or so I manoeuvred the manifold out of the engine bay to check the threads. Needles to say the bolt slipped in without any problems, and the thread was fine. But it turned out that the thread insert I fitted a few years to the upper rear bolt had somehow got dislodge a bit and as a result it got damaged. With the insert removed we tried again, but the result was the same.
And although the bolts all looked undamaged, in the end the problem was solved with new bolts. After which refitting the rest of the exhaust and the interior took just over 15 minutes ...

As it was well past 5 o'clock by now it was time to pack my gear and head for home. And needless to say it was with some anticipation that I started the engine and drove out of the workshop. Well all gear are working and although in the beginning it was a bit notchier compared with a good LT77 'box, after a few miles the gear changes became progressively better, result! Also the clutch feels much better compared to the old one (maybe not so surprising as the old assembly was almost twenty years old), and the car has become much quieter. The only problem so far is that the new 'box has a bit of a rattle with the engine idling and 'box in neutral. But I have to confess that the engine needs a tune up as it idles @ ±500 rpm at the moment (if you can call that idling)

oh ... and I forgot my camera ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 29th April 2013 9:41pm gmt

New back axle set-up for 't Kreng

Today I at last found some motivation to take one of my Triumphs out of hibernation, in this case 't Kreng. As she had stood idle for quite a while, it took the fuel pump some time to create enough fuel pressure to get the engine started (almost empty tank), but she did in the end. As she had been sitting outside underneath the car-port since I returned from the 24th edition of the Nachtrit in early November, it came as no surprise that she ran a little rough. The still low temperatures for the time of year didn't help there. But after a few careful kilometres to get everything on temperature she started to behave quite nicely indeed. And with some fresh German 102 RON petrol in the tank I quickly forgot that she hadn't been used for almost 5 months, it really felt good driving the car again.

And that also reminded me of the fact that, as it stands now, she'll be taken apart for the final part of a 15 year upgrade. I mentioned earlier that I have planned some body and suspension modifications, like ditching the horrid sunroof (probably will get a Viking burial!), add a welded in cage, a new suspension set-up front and rear, adding lightness and a new paintjob. And mainly thanks to the rather unseasonal weather (still rather Brrrrr.) I have managed to put some ideas for the back axle on (digital) paper.

As those of you who follow my ramblings on a regular basis know, I have been toying with the idea for a 5-link Panhard rod or a 6-link Watt's linkage set-up for the back axle. So after taking lots of measurements of the back axle and the car and doing some simple mathematic calculations I have decided that the Panhard rod option is the one to go for ...

It is fairly easy to accommodate a Panhard rod with a length of 965 mm (or 38" in old Imperial measurements). Together with my current spring set-up and ride-height the back axle should have a maximum bump travel of 85 mm. Although judging by the markers on the rear dampers 50 - 75 mm of travel is a more realistic figure. And with the mentioned rod length of 965 mm that gives a sideways movement of less than 3 mm, which shouldn't be noticeable when driving the car.

Some other advantages of this Panhard rod set-up are that I only need one fairly simple bracket for the car's body and one for the axle itself. Also this set-up should fit in the original space between the rear of the back axle and the front of the spare wheel-well.
Apart from the very positive fact that with a Watt's linkage there is no sideways axle movement, choosing for a Watt's linkage has some disadvantages. Using the linkage from the Rover SD1 back axle means I have to fabricate two mounting brackets for the body. But I also have to adapt the front of the spare-wheel-well a little to create some much needed clearance. The other option is to fabricate a central pivot point on the front of the spare-wheel-well and add two mounting brackets to the axle. So a lot more work and some extra weight compared to the Panhard rod.

But before physically starting with any work on 't Kreng I first have to finish the DHC ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 30th March 2013 7:12pm gmt

Lots of things going on

Been rather busy with Triumph related stuff over the past few weeks. But first a little milepost in the life of Baerke, my little Land Rover. The previous Saturday morning, while on route to a friend, the odometer passed the 100.000 kilometres.

On arrival at my destiny I was greeted by the job for the day, this rather different (or should I say tasteless) lookingTR7 ...

The appointed task was dismantling the interior of this car completely so we can transport it to a (more or less) local roll cage manufacturer to discuss the possibilities/detailing for two custom cages and get a price offer.
Whilst working through the various parts of the interior we encountered lots of botch jobs, some so bad that you start to wonder what inspired the previous owner to do this. Of course there were loads of wiring bodges, lots of extra gauges and switches, and rather dodgy seat mounts.

But the biggest surprises came after the interior and all (glued!!!) carpets were removed and we put the car on the lift for some measurements for the sump guard. The bad news is that all cavities (sills, chassis legs etc.) have been injected with PUR foam. So now looking for a course in PUR foam removal. The good news is that the car is pretty solid, so a pretty good basis for a rally car, after all the foam is removed that is.

Some progress on the DHC. I received some brand new original TR7 steel wheels recently to replace the previous set. This set was a bit of a mixed bag of problems. One wheel had an air leak through the rim, one had a leak though one of the spot welds that secures the centre to the rim, and one had oxidation inside the steel causing a part porous weld while banding it. And the only good wheel got damaged by a piece of rock "crossing the road".
The new set was dropped of at a workshop last week to have them banded, from 5,5J to 6J just like the previous set. And as they will be used for more sticky tyres (again Yokohama A021-R, 185⁄70 R13) I have decided to go for something different and more aggressive for their colour. The general opinion so far is "Don't Like", but then I was never good at following sound advice. A little bit of Photo-shopping to give an impression how it will look ...

Also been across the border into Germany to pick up an adjustable cam sprocket for the new Sprint engine, and get some info on fabrication of the bits needed for the 5 or 6 link back axle location. Turned out there are even more firms in the area where I live that are able and possibly willing to do small quantity or one of jobs then I imagined.

And yesterday we had the traditional start of the "official" driving season, the already 10th edition of the "Nacht Van Het Oosten", better known as the Chinese Rally. Sadly I haven't had the time/motivation/conditions to prepare 't Kreng, so the Land Rover was put into action for this one. Which was surprisingly good fun. Again a good event with some interesting cars at the start...

And some of the usual suspects who found their way across the pond ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 17th March 2013 7:43pm gmt

Computer work

Still rather quiet on the Triumph front, with still no physical work done to one of the cars. I had planned to change the DHC's gearbox, clutch and prop-shaft some two weeks ago. Even went as far as checking that the car was running, tyre pressures etc were OK, and even moved over all the tools and parts to the workshop the day before. But sadly a rather persistent flu has prevented that till date. So I have to find another time slot to carry out the swap ...
On the back-axle-strengthening-front also not much progress, as the guy who is coordinating the job has been out of his work for 2 months due to an injury. At least that gave us some time to make a wooden template using a full scale print out of my design. I have to admit that I was rather pleased by the fact that it was a near perfect fit, no adjustments to the dimensions are needed ...

Some of the holes around the differential didn't line up 100% but that was due to the fact that we used a rather crude drill to do the job. Most importantly the mounting holes for the clamps on the outside of the brace are centred nicely around the axle-tube.

Than a more worrying bit, I can't seem to make up my mind whether to modify the back axle to four parallel links + Watt's linkage or stick to the original layout. At the moment I think the best thing to do is use one of the spare body shells somewhere this spring and use that to make a mock-up for the pickup points for the axle, Watt's linkage and anti roll bar. That at least should give a decent indication of the work involved with the set-up I have in mind.

So to keep my mind occupied for the time being, I decided to see how the new AutoCad version which I installed recently works, and had a go at designing a 36-1 trigger wheel which I'll be needing when I convert the Sprint engine to EFI. Not yet sure if all the dimensions are 100% but I think this should do ..

And with the computer fired up I also had a go to work out the rough outlines for a sump guard, loosely based on the ones used on the works' rallye cars. Another one that will need one of the cars, this time to determine the mounting points ...

And of course, being Dutch and with the Pound loosing rapidly against the Euro, I have been ordering various parts for the engine and back axle

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 27th February 2013 9:32pm gmt

Christmas period shopping

Been a while since my last update. And I have to admit that I have done nothing physical to one of my Triumphs. Mostly caused by other commitments, like starting work full time again after my illness and playing around with my new version of Photoshop. Which means I have been going over some old RAW images in my spare time, to see if there was room for improvement. Actually there was, as these pictures, shot during the maiden trip of the DHC into the Alps in the summer of 2010, clearly show ...

But that doesn't imply I have been completely idle on things TR7 related. Over the past month or so I have been busy sourcing parts for my new Sprint engine and the rejuvenation of 't Kreng. First parts I received were a brand new matched crown wheel and pinion set for the back axle I will be building and a set of +0.040" Sprint pistons from Australia ...

But then one of my friends spoiled it all, by pointing me to an advert on the internet for a brand new and ready to fit Sprint head still in its original box, and not that far away from home either ...

So maybe the DHC will get a Sprint engine too somewhere in the future. And it turned out that the guy advertising the head also had some original (Austin/Rover) TR7 panels for sale. You never know when you are going to need them ...

And with the shiny bits done it was time to start sorting through my spare parts in search of an engine block suitable to use for the new Sprint engine. I wanted to use the original Dolly Sprint engine I took apart some time ago but as this is in such good condition I will probably put it back together as a spare engine. So I choose the engine block and parts from a very low mileage Californian spec DHC. The added bonus with this engine is that it does need a light rebore, and there is no way I am going to use those silly low compression pistons (indeed no plans for a turbo or blower yet) ...

With the engine removed from the storage shed I went through my spare back axles. Because I have decided on converting the rear suspension of the car to four parallel links with either a Watts linkage or a Panhard rod, I will have to weld some new mounting brackets to the axle. Which is why I choose the worst looking axle from the three I have lying around ...

This immediately explains why I bought a new CWP set, all three axles have a 3.45:1 ratio and for 't Kreng I really want the shorter 3.90:1 ratio as it suits the car much better. The remaining 3.45:1 axles and parts will be kept as spares for the DHC. But at the current rate of wear they might be in the storage shed for a very long time yet.

On closer inspection the worst axle (from a fairly low mileage Solihull FHC that had been lying abandoned out in the open for over 4 years) it turned out to be in pretty good shape too. Internals are very good with no noticeable play. And even all the brackets are in pretty good shape, with only surface rust on them. Almost blasphemous to cut them of ...

And of course I wanted to change the DHC's gearbox during my Christmas holiday but that is postponed for another few weeks.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 09th January 2013 1:09pm gmt

Back axle strengthening

This is one in the category that I wouldn't have done to my car, were it not for the fact that a friend managed to break the back axle of his rally car at the end of this stage during the Deutschland Rally. And because he doesn't want to source and adapt a 4HA Jaguar based axle yet, we had a closer look at what had happened.
The problem was caused by a failure of the two puddle welds holding the right hand axle tube into the differential casing. Clearly the amount of torque available from a modified V8 together with the rough stages had been just that bit too much. So we needed a modification.

Searching through some old CCC articles on building a TR7V8 rally car, learned how to solve what is apparently the only weakness of the 5-speed back axle, i.e.: the fitting of the tubes into the differential casing. These tubes are normally pressed into the casings and welds are built up on the tubes through holes already in the casing. These welds are not intended to bond to the casing, but act as spigots or retaining pins. Unfortunately there are only two of these 'puddle' welds per side, and in this case the two on the right hand-side failed.

According to the people at CCC all that appears to be necessary to solve the problem is to increase the number of puddle welds to four per side. But we decide that we would go one stage further for the rally car, so we had a good look at the stiffening plate from a friend's Mk2 Escort back axle. And after some careful measuring on a spare axle and underneath the car, and a strength analyses we came up with this stiffening plate ...

At the time of writing the drawing file is away to a company to give us a quotation to get the plate laser-cut and the brackets machined. And after all the work I put in to get this far I don't see a point in not using one myself. So we will have a small batch made, depending on the price ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 20th November 2012 12:37am gmt

The RBRR 2012 from the co-driver's seat

It has taken much longer than I hoped for, but at last I finished the photograph's I shot as co-driver with team 44 during Club Triumph's RBRR which took place last month. This was completely caused by the fact that shortly after the event (which coincided with my holiday) I received my new computer, only to find out it wasn't quite the spec I ordered. This issue was sorted without any problems, but it meant I could only start with installing all the software transferring data etc. well after my holiday. Which meant it had to be done in the evening hours. But since last weekend (almost) everything is working as it should, so I could start with the photo's in earnest. Below you'll find a selection of the pictures taken during the run. One way or another there are a fair few wedges in there ...

Meeting up with Gurtie, the car that Dave, Steve and I would have to share for the next 48+ hours;

At the Plough it was business as usual, with a parking area overflowing with Triumph's, lots of last minute spannering going on, and rain of course;

Just after 18:00h we were flagged of, to join the Friday evening rush hour traffic of Enfield and the A10. Heading into the night towards Blythe, Carter Bar (don't mention Lambrini in Scotlandshire for the next decade or two) and towards Edinburgh Airport. Best moment of this part of the route must have been the HGV that almost literally came flying at full blast, over one of the many blind brows in the A68 (which north of the border seems to be called the 'roller coaster' for obvious reasons)

From Edinburgh Airport we headed further north towards the next stop at Skiach Services ...

and from there ever deeper into the night and further North towards John O'Groats for breakfast ...

After a hearty breakfast it was time to start the long haul down South towards Land's End. But first we had to cross Scotland from North to South ...

... to get back to England and into the twilight zone of Tebay Services. One way or another we were constantly being chased by or chasing wedges ...

Next stop, Gledrid Services ...

Deepest darkest Wales, the Sugar Loaf control ...

Whitehouse Services ...

And finally dawn (and breakfast) at Land's End ...

With breakfast finished it was time for the final stages back to Enfield. So we left Land's End and headed North for the picturesque control stop at Bude Castle ..

After Bude I was so busy with the navigating that I didn't take much more pictures. So to finish this selection a few photo's of some of the people who made it all possible, a tribute to all the volunteers who marshalled at the various control stops. And a handful of the supporters in the night ...

Did anyone mention Lambrini?

For a more complete write-up of "our" RBRR have a look at Steve's weblog.
And a few more pictures can be found in the photo album on the Club Triumph website

Oohh ... and as for the car of the event, in my humble opinion that must be Mike Weaver's fantastic Stag powered 4x4 Mk2 Estate prototype, here with Mike busy with his routine-control-stop-check at Bude Castle ...

And will this be the car of the event for the RBRR 2014?

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 17th November 2012 2:02pm gmt

New Sprint engine (part 4)

It's been a while since I dropped of two Sprint heads for some old fashioned modifications. But last week I got a message on my mobile phone saying that the head was ready. Needless to say I couldn't wait to pick it up! Have to say that it certainly has been worth the wait.

But before the actual work on the ports started, first thing to do was decide which of the two heads would be used for the treatment. So to start with they were pressure tested to check for cracks and porosity, and they both passed this test.
Next test was checking if they were warped. This showed a clear winner, the head that came from my spare Sprint engine turned out to be completely flat. The spare head I acquired many years ago turned out to be slightly warped (0.25 mm concave). This is certainly re-usable but no point in not using my best parts.

The chosen head after it had been removed from the engine ...

And when I entered the work shop last Saturday this clean and very shiny cylinder head greeted me ...

Work that has been done to the head includes opening up the ports slightly and polishing them, blending in the valve seats, re-cutting the seats and grinding in the valves.
Also the inlet manifold I acquired over a year ago (how time flies) was matched to the head and doweled for a smooth flow from the throttle bodies into the cylinders. And the manifold's ports received some extra attention.
And last but not least the head was skimmed to increase the compression ratio from 9.5:1 to about 10:1. Added bonus was that this skim got rid of all the pitting caused by corrosion.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 11th November 2012 10:18pm gmt

A little experiment

In one of my earlier posts I reported on the new rear axle links for 't Kreng. One of their disadvantages is that I now have to find a new location for the rear anti roll bar, as the mounting points to the lower link will be gone with this new set up.
In order to give me an indication on what the rear ARB does or doesn’t on this car I decided on a little experiment. I removed the rear ARB and took the car for a little spin in the area. First impression, driving carefully to warm up everything gently, was rather positive. The car felt as she had done since I fitted the rear coil-overs.

But with everything on temperature I put my foot down a bit more. Normally the car's handling should have been biased toward under-steer, which she did but the rear could be made to step out quite easily, actually to easily. There was also noticeable more roll at the rear, which was hardly surprising of course, but still much less compared to the DHC. Also the balance wasn't as good as it used to be, it just didn't feel right. But the biggest problem was revealed on a roundabout. As there was no traffic I decided to provoke a reaction from the rear suspension by suddenly changing direction. With the roll bar fitted this wouldn't have created much of a problem, but now it provoked a rather vicious reaction from the rear. Actually so vicious that even at under the speed limit there (50 km/h in 2nd gear) the car decided to bite back, and point her nose in the opposite direction ... oops. At least that showed me quite clearly that this spring/shock-absorber set-up really needs a decent ARB at the rear. To even further proof this point I took her onto a wide and fairly smooth gravel track. Scary and rather unpredictable sum it up quite nicely.

So on returning home I quickly re-fitted the ARB and took her out for another spin just to see how she really should be, which was rather good fun and much more confidence inspiring. So now comes the next task, finding a suitable ARB and an alternative location. For this I will use this set up as my guide line ...

And I was also reminded of the fact that the clutch release bearing is starting to get noisy when releasing the clutch after gear changes. Looks like it's going to be a busy winter.

And for those waiting for my pictures from Club Triumphs RBRR 2012, I am still busy with arranging my new computer. Took me all afternoon to get all the screen and calibration software going under Microsoft. Hopefully I have everything up and running next week, so a little teaser of Gurtie at the Struie Hill viewpoint in glorious Scottish weather ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 24th October 2012 11:00pm gmt

Reconnaissance 24th edition Nachtrit

Last weekend we enjoyed some lovely autumn weather. So what better to do than finalise the route for this year’s edition of the Nachtrit. As we both have been occupied with other things over the past 6 months we decided to make it a little easier and use a shorter route from the past and add some interesting twisty bits to get the mileage up to around 280 kilometres. It is again a very nice mix between through roads, nice smooth flowing country lanes and in a few places ... mmm ... very narrow farm tracks. But they are all surfaced one way or another.
This year we will be heading towards Beffe again. As a result of this the route takes us past the back of the old Impéria factory in Nessonveaux. Famous for its test track partly on the roof of the factory buildings.

But of course mostly for the fact that they assembled and produced Standard and Triumph cars for the European market in the 50’s. They also thought it a good idea to design a more luxurious version of the TR2, the so called Triumph “Coupé Francorchamps”. Sadly Triumph didn’t see much in this car, so in the end only 22 left the gates of the factory.

Luckily the route has much more on offer, also driving wise. Which is a good thing as you won’t be able to admire much of the very fine views and buildings as you drive past them in the darkness. A few of the driving highlights in this year’s edition projected in Google Earth;

All in all well pleased with the route, so to end a fine day we enjoyed a nice glass of beer on one of the many terraces we encountered along the way ....

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 02nd October 2012 3:58pm gmt

Walking in Süd Tirol

Haven’t done much to or with my Triumphs lately. I even managed to go on holiday in the Alps with a friend’s Nissan Almera. But that was on purpose, I just wanted a quiet and relaxed holiday to aid my recovery. So I put on my walking boots, packed my camera’s and went to explore the Passeier Tal in Süd Tirol on foot. A short photographic impression;

The still rather rural beer garden of Gasthof Christl;

The little hamlet of Magdfeld bathing in the late evening sun;

A nice original Lancia Flavia 1.8 in need of some tender loving care in the Spa city of Meran;

Grave monuments against a wall behind the parish church of Sankt Nikolaus (Meran);

Old mural advert in Meran

The lovely Gilfpromenade running along the River Passer (Meran)

Past Glory in the backstreets of Meran

Views of the Pfelderer Tal, close to the Timmelsjoch

An almost traditional early evening rain shower in Sankt Martin

Views of the Passeier Tal and Kalm Tal from the Fagls Alm

On the Jaufenkamm

On the slopes of the Hirzer/Passeier Tal

And of course walking makes thirsty . . .

And to end a nice week we were chased away by some rain in the evening

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 24th September 2012 9:52pm gmt

Rear suspension links ‘t Kreng

At last got round to finish the new links for the rear suspension.
What started life like this on my computer;

and like this in the workshop;

through various stages turned into this in the real world at last;

As you can see I have decided to stick to the original mounting points, at least for the time being. I will first drive the car with this set up for a while and determine from those experiences if and how I will change the rear set up. In case I decide to go for parallel link Panhard rod or a Watt’s linkage set up I already have the (spare) parts to adapt another pair of links.

And to align the rod ends properly in the rear axles’ brackets, more machining was needed to get me some spacers to do this job ...

One small issue will be the fact that the original lower bushes and thus the mounting brackets are slightly wider compared to the upper links. For the spherical rod ends that isn’t much of a problem, the spacers for the lower mounting points are slightly longer compared to those for the upper mounts.

And for the lower brackets on the body shell the plan is to use shims between the inside of the brackets and the (poly) bushes.

But as I mentioned before, the biggest issue and challenge is to find a decent location for the rear anti roll bar. So far I have been looking at a few possibilities but not yet decided which one to choose. Probably will be decided when I find a useable ARB.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 15th August 2012 2:15pm gmt

Club triumph’s RBRR 2012

On Friday the 5th October 2012 Steve Radley, Dave Maton and I will be entering "Club Triumph’s Round Britain Reliability Run" in Steve’s 1968 Triumph Mk1 saloon, christened Gertie.

We will be leaving North London around 18:30 with some 100+ other Triumphs for a non-stop journey around great Britain ...

From London we will head north to John O’Groats for breakfast on the Saturday morning ...

After that it’s all the way down South for yet another breakfast, Sunday morning at Land’s End ...

And from there back to for the finish at The Plough in North London on the Sunday evening. All in all an enduring 2000 mile run in a 44 year old car!

In 2010 the event raised a whopping £59,500,- for the mental health charity “Mind”. This year the purpose of the event is to raise money for the “Children with Cancer” Charity (formerly children with Luekemia) This year we hope to raise more for this equally worthwhile cause. So please donate what you can using the link below, thank you very much.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/teamgertie

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 22nd July 2012 3:09pm gmt

Short update

After the DHC sailed through its bi-annual MOT inspection a few weeks ago we could at last attend to the last stage, polishing the paint, sealing all visible seams and applying the nose and boot badges.
We finished the polishing last Saturday but due to the still rather Dutch summer weather (wet), there was some moisture in the seams. As I won’t take any chances here I’ll wait till the weather improves a bit so I can put the car outside to dry out completely. And the badges will be applied after that. But it looks like that will have to wait till I return from a short walking holiday that’s coming up.

So in the meantime I switched my attention to ‘t Kreng, Although there were no big problems with her during last month’s international AutoEcosse I thought it a good idea to check a few things before the inspection. I had some mixed feelings about the steering rod ends, especially the inner ones. Sometimes under cornering there is a audible knock and there seems to be a tiny amount of play. But I can’t feel it whilst driving, so I put here in for her last annual inspection. And she failed! Not because there was too much play in the front suspension components (that was all well within the limits) but because one of the dust covers was torn.

I missed this because the damaged side was facing the disc! Sadly they couldn’t find the ball-joint separator to remove the joints from the steering arms. The other option was to whack it with a hammer, which usually works very well. But in this case it would almost certainly damage the powder-coating of the steering arms. So I decided to return home to do the job there, using the proper tools for the job. Only to find out they came out pretty easily. After which fitting the new dust covers was the proverbial piece of cake. For good measure I also checked the inner ball joint only to find out that it had become a little loose. This was caused by the fact that the locking tab had some play on the steering rack. Sorted that with a few well aimed blows with a hammer and drift.
After that I returned to the workshop to pick up my new MOT ticket. The good thing is that with the car now officially 30 years old it won’t need renewal before august 2014.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 22nd July 2012 2:49pm gmt

International AutoEcosse & the North of England

As I have been busy with a lot of TR7 and non TR7 related things lately, I haven’t got ‘round to update my weblog with a little write up on the International AutoEcosse and a walking holiday in the Dales and the Lake District. As ever the IAE was a top event, with some fabulous driving road covering a fair bit of Southern Scotland ...

As we arrived in the Yorkshire Dales in the week before the event we were able to spent a few days walking in the Dales, to enjoy the lovely scenery and weather ...

And of course walking makes very thirsty, so we had to pay regular visits to the pubs in the area !

But despite the beautiful scenery I couldn’t ignore this fine piece of machinery lurking behind one of the many barns in Wharfe Dale ...

On the Friday before the IAE we headed a bit further south to Kelbrook and the Old Stone Trough. Here we met up with several of the Club Triumph entrants for the IAE. There was some beer and a BBQ involved ...

And there was some tinkering on the cars ...

Next day saw a rather early breakfast at the OST, after which everyone headed North to Longtown for the start of the International AutoEcosse.

Well, some pictures just don’t work in black & white, so Team Shorts in action at Loch Lomond Shores in glorious colours ...

And in black & white :-)

The event itself was again a very nice drive over some great roads. Especially chasing the Heeley’s in their Opel Nova over the (rather deserted) Trossachs was absolutely brilliant. No pictures of that as my navigator was unable to keep the camera steady :-)
After the IAE we headed down south again, this time for the South western part of the Lake District. Again to relax and do some more walking. Which meant crossing the Lake District diagonally. Some lovely roads there. It’s a shame that they are far too crowded, especially in the heart of the Lakes. But there were some quieter bits, like this stretch of Kirkstone Pass.

Although the weather wasn’t as nice as the first week I didn’t need my wet weather gear. Which is always nice in England.

And I found out that the old workshop in Broughton-In-Furness were my DHC was repaired many, many years ago still was in business. Although it looked rather sad ...

Luckily our accommodation looked much better ....

Sadly all good things come to an end ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 16th July 2012 10:49pm gmt

An MOT full of obstacles

Since fitting another prop shaft I went over the car in preparation for its MOT. And I found a few interesting faults. To start with I started the engine for the first time since I switched her of on top of the Timmelsjoch in early September last year. She did need a few attempts before she fired. But when I wanted to select gear that was not possible. So I switched of the engine, selected gear, pressed the clutch and started the engine again. Clearly a sticking clutch, but it was released by the starter motor. After which gear selection went pretty well and the car moved under its own power for the first time in ¾ year.

Next on the to do list was a complete check of all auxiliaries like lights, wipers etc. Everything worked fine except the horns. After a pitiful beep they decided to go on holiday. As I could hear the horn's relay clicking in the glove box I concluded that the switch, the fuse and wiring to the relay had to be OK. So probably a relay failure, alas not. Next point of investigation were the earth points, but they all were nice and clean. Which left me with only one possible culprit, the horns themselves. As they were new when fitted to the car during its restoration only a few years ago, I started getting visions of cable loom removal to search for a mysterious wiring fault. But with the horns removed from the car I connected them directly to the battery. In both cases nothing happened. They were both completely dead, weird to say the least. So of to the local car parts store for a new pair, which solved the problem.
Sadly cutting up the old horns to see what went wrong didn’t reveal much. The inside looked fine ... so still none the wiser what went wrong with them.

With everything working as it should, last Saturday saw the cars first test drive. All went well till I returned home after a high speed blast over the motorway. During the last few miles there was a rather clear knocking sound coming from the engine. So after putting her back in the shed it was time for a quick check under the bonnet. I was met by a rather disheartening sight, a big oil spill around the oil cooler thermostat . And the knocking came from the front of the engine, clearly not good. Luckily a quick check of the oil level and the oil cooler hoses showed nothing wrong there. Inspecting the oil spill in more detail showed that the oil was coming from the front pulley’s oil seal. But as it was getting late and all my tools were at home I locked up the shed and went home with mixed feelings. But not before I had found out that the front pulley was wobbling about a bit and had some play.

So on Monday afternoon I returned to the shed with all my tools and a few spare parts to investigate the leak in more detail. With the fan belt and fan assembly removed it became clear that something was very wrong with the crank shaft pulley. Although the bolt was still very firmly in place, I could move the washer behind it, and there was a fair amount of play on the pulley itself. Removing the bolt revealed what had caused the problem ...

This bolt, which was sold to me as a normal European engine front pulley bolt almost 20 years ago, clearly is too long. Checking it against one from an AC equipped US spec engine I have lying around in the shed, proved this. Luckily I had the old bolt still lying around in a box so that problem was sold pretty easily.
And with the bolt removed it was time to remove the pulley itself, which was very easy as it was rather loose on the crank shaft, for obvious reasons ...

As you can see the pulley is very badly damaged. But luckily the crank shaft and woodruff key showed no visible signs of damage. And the aforementioned US spec engine provided me with a new front pulley. Together with a new oil seal all should be OK now up front.

And to finish ¾ years of idleness for the car she got a new MOT ticket today. At last I should say, but just when I was thinking of enjoying the car the fuel gauge decided to go on strike ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 03rd July 2012 8:10pm gmt

More prop shaft woes

Removed the remains of the prop shaft today and had a good look at them. Clearly the weld between the front CV-joint and flange failed completely. And on closer inspection it became clear that a fair part of the crack (almost half of it) is older than the other half ...

Another interesting bit is that there are clear markings on the inside of the broken off part, where the centre of the CV joint made contact ...

I can only explain this as the prop shaft being too long, resulting in the centre shaft of the front CV joint touching the front flange. Which reminds me of an “incident” that happened while restoring ‘t Kreng in the mid 90’s. As I didn’t (and still don’t) rate the CV jointed prop shafts very high I decided to have one made locally with standard UJ’s and using the original one as template. When I fitted this prop shaft it turned out to be too long, with no movement left in the sliding spline. Didn’t think much of it then because they didn’t charge me for shortening the prop shaft ...

But with the original old shaft removed from the DHC I compared it with two spares I have lying around. They are both from late Solihull built FHC’s. The one in the middle is the same as the one that failed (PKC1420) and the one on top is the prop shaft that was fitted to ‘t Kreng when I bought her in the early 90’s (probably PKC 1979, but not sure). I fitted the last one for obvious reasons

When fitted the sliding splines are well over an inch extended from the shaft, so enough travel left. But this brings me to the reason why I think the original shaft failed.

When I bought the DHC it was sitting at the original ride height at the rear for a TR7, so with a little more room for the prop shaft the move. But I lowered it a little and after that I mostly used her for long holiday trips, so fully loaded. And I think the stresses that were put on the prop shaft as a result, killed it in the end. And this might also be the reason why the gear changes were sometimes rather awkward. With the prop shaft pushing onto the gear box’s main shaft, this might lock up a few bits inside the ’box. Test drive scheduled for tomorrow afternoon or Friday to see if my assumption is correct ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 20th June 2012 10:35pm gmt

Interesting transmission failure

Went over to the DHC today to check on a few things for her (already overdue) MOT. And one of the things I wanted to check were the bearings of the half shafts. They seemed none the worse than before the 10CR, so should be Ok. But while rotating the rear wheels there was this rather pronounced scraping sound coming from the rear of the gear box. Being curious if maybe the damage was in the rear of the gearbox, I crawled underneath the car and found this ...

Have to admit that this is one rather interesting prop shaft failure. But the interesting bit is that , when the car failed on the Timmelsjoch one of the first things I checked was underneath the car. At that point the prop shaft still was in its designed location and not hanging on the catch band. It must have dropped out sometime afterwards.

So it was not a gearbox failure after all. But as the ‘box which is still under the car has a horrible gear change and the clutch is also suspect (sticks randomly) I will change them nevertheless. But it gives me a bit more breathing space for the MOT, as I only have to put another prop shaft underneath the car.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 18th June 2012 3:04pm gmt

DHC’s gearbox rebuild part 3

The last update on the rebuilt of the new gearbox for the DHC (at least I hope so). With the measurements to determine the necessary shim thickness for the main shaft done, the long wait for the shims to arrived began. In the end I decided it might be a good idea to contact the chaps at S&S to see if they could supply the correct thickness shims, which they couldn’t. But they were able to supply some oversize thickness shims in. So I could machine them down to the correct thickness. This together with some 0.05mm steel sheets, enabled me to adjust the main and lay shaft end float properly. In the end it turned out that the thickest off the supplied shims for the main shaft was spot on and the layshaft needed an extra shim of 0.05mm to get it spot on.

With the front of the gear box finished I could switch my attention to the rear of the ‘box. Fitting the fifth gear assembly to the mainshaft showed me that this also needed an extra 0.05mm shim to get the end float within the required tolerances. After which fitting the fifth gear selector fork and spool was the proverbial piece of cake ...

Left me with the rear casing, fitting the various seals and oil pump. Turned out that the old O-ring that came out was rather skinny compared to the new one. Explains why there was a small oil leak through the selector shafts hole. But that should be well and truly solved now with the double seal.

But before fitting the rear casing to the gear boxes centre plate it seemed like a good idea to trial fit it, just to be sure. Glad I did it as it turned out that the drive shaft supplied with the new oil pump was incorrect (to long), as a result of which the rear casing just wouldn’t fit properly. Luckily the old one that came out was in perfect condition so that was re-used. And with the correct drive shaft in place the rear casing slipped on as it should.

And with the speedo drive gear, rear bearing, oil seal and flange fitted the box now is nearly ready to be fitted to the car. But as it stands now that will have to wait till after my holiday and the International Auto Ecosse.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 13th May 2012 8:15pm gmt

What went wrong?

With the paint job on the DHC finished and the car slowly but surely being assembled, it is time to look back and see what went wrong with the paint.

The best solution we can come up with (and backed up by a few people who should know) points to the remains of the chemicals used for stripping the paint as the main cause for the problems. But why did it take almost two years for the discolouration to show? This is almost certainly down to the fact that the car was out in the rain for a prolonged period waiting for recovery in Austria after the break down on the Timmelsjoch during the 10CR. This triggered the remaining chemicals to react with the water based paint causing the discolouration. The car was actually soaking wet inside and outside when it was returned from Austria.

So we followed the advice of the paint manufacturer Sikkens, and opted for a two pack paint. This kind of paint is officially forbidden in the Netherlands (due to health & safety issues) but may be used for specialist jobs. As a result of which it's only available on special order. Luckily we still had the old recipe to get a few litres of paint made. Added bonus of this paint is that its application is much easier, giving a better finish, as a result of which polishing out any blemishes is greatly reduced compared with the original paint job. Downside is that the paint alone cost nearly as much as the complete paintjob (including all preparations) during the restoration a few years ago!

And as usually in such cases the company that did the paint removal for Giessen (Mitraco in Belgium) wash their hands in innocence. Or as they say "In the 25 years that we use this process we never had any problems". Strange than, that a representative from a supplier who walked into the workshop, and after looking at the paint discolouration, only asked if the paint stripping had been done in Belgium? But worst of all is the fact that Mitraco even refuse to answer a few normal questions regarding the chemicals they use. Needles to say we won’t use them for future projects.

In the meantime I have been able to work on the car on and off and hopefully it will be fully re-assembled within the next few weeks. Leaving only the gearbox to be replaced by the one I am still rebuilding. Well actually I haven’t done much to it over the past weeks because I have been waiting for shims for almost two months now. Luckily S&S preparations managed to sent some over which where to thick but I was able to have them machined down a bit. But as the gearbox is at home and my tools are in the shed, finishing the gearbox will have to wait a few more days.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 05th May 2012 8:27pm gmt

DHC back home

Picked up the DHC from the paint shop today, and I even managed to get her home dry in between several rain showers. But as it was a bit of a rush job to dodge the various showers there are no decent pictures yet. We just shoved her into the shed as quickly as possible.

But what little I have seen in proper daylight looks very nice, indeed even better than before. This is thanks to the 2 pack paint we ordered this time. The colour looks more saturated and the gloss is deeper compared to the water based paint that was used first. Almost can’t wait to see the finished car, but with my current state of health in mind I have decided to take my time. It might be ready in time for the AutoEcosse in June but I have decided to take ‘t Kreng to Scotland again.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 18th April 2012 9:58pm gmt

‘t Kreng’s 30th Anniversary

A short look back, as today saw another milestone in the life of ‘t Kreng. It was exactly 30 years ago that she was first registered, after having sat at a dealership for nearly one year.
She started her active life as a Pharaoh Gold FHC. But there was not much of that left when she attended her first official meeting in the summer of 1997 after her restoration was completed, the Dutch National Triumph Day ...

Actually this is the oldest picture I have of the complete car, thanks to a fellow Dutch TR7 enthusiast.
And another early picture, while in use as daily driver during a site inspection for a new sewage pipeline ...

Soon found out that she was a little bit too low, and the rest is history ...

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 16th April 2012 11:02pm gmt

More machining

Together with the gearbox’s rear end casing, I also picked up a few bits and pieces for ‘t Kreng last Saturday. Some bits for the rear suspension ...

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts I will use four adapted rear upper links to locate the rear axle a bit firmer. I will first make a set of suspension links using the original four link mounting points on the car’s body. This will give me an opportunity to see how this works and if I will need a rear ARB or not. If so it’s time for the next challenge, a new location for the ARB.

But after having driven the car in earnest with the rear coil overs during the “Nacht van het Oosten”, I am not so sure if it is worth the effort to adapt the rear axle’s mounting points to 5-link (Panhard rod) or 6-link (Watts linkage) configuration. On the other hand it is an interesting challenge ... Luckily more than enough time to make up my mind.

Also had another set of spark plug tubes made in preparation for the new Sprint engine ...

And I can finish with some real progress on the DHC’s new paintjob, the car has been re-sprayed! Only a few minor blemishes need to be rectified after which the sills will get a new layer of satin black. So the car should be back home somewhere next week. Can’t wait to see the final result, as the paint that’s been used seems to have a more saturated colour and a deeper gloss.

posted by Beansnoreply@blogger.com 11th April 2012 9:54pm gmt

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