1972 Triumph TR6 looking for a purpose

In reply to JoeTR6 :

I hope things start turning around for you soon.

I was thinking about putting the flywheel back on today.  Let's do a temperature check.  It's -10F outside and 26F in the garage.  Nope, that's too cold for me.  Plus it's probably not a good idea to torque flywheel bolts when that cold, especially with an alloy flywheel.  It's supposed to warm up later this week and I'll get back to this.

Our temporary house guest is gone.  She is not coming back to our house, ever.  I can overlook many things, but not a death threat.  Yeah, it's been that much fun.

Crazy family drama happens to the best of us all. Hope it's really over for you. Hang in there Joe.

It's finally warm enough to start putting things back together, but there's a catch.  When I removed the flywheel, I didn't have an impact 12 pt. socket, and my cheap one cracked and rounded off a couple of the bolts.  It's damaged enough that I wanted to replace it (to make certain they are removable later), so made a $15 order from Goodparts for new ARP flywheel bolts.  Unfortunately, I didn't read that the bolts for the later steel flywheel have a smaller head.  Here's the difference.

I'm not a real engineer (software doesn't count), but to me the one on the right looks like it would pull into an aluminum flywheel and loosen over time.  There's certainly less of a chance of this happening with the one on the left.  So it looks like I'll save the smaller ones for my brother and order the ones I originally used.  I probably made this same decision 4 years ago, but time tends to erase those things for me.

Good to see you back at it, Joe.  Definitely a lot warmer today.

Bummer about the fastener differences.  I agree that the smaller bearing area might dig in more.  I assume no washers on those bolts?

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

Nope, no washers allowed.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

Then you have to wait for the brown-man I guess.

USPS delivered the new flywheel bolts, so in they went.  The clutch is cleaned up and ready to go in as well.

I'm still struggling with finding time and motivation to work.  I *should* be upholstering the passenger seat while waiting for the garage to warm up.  Family issues are still keeping me pinned down for now.

A big snow storm is hitting us over the weekend, so today is gearbox reinstallation day.  The clutch went in easily, but the gearbox is giving me lots of resistance.  It took a few attempts to get to this stage.

I originally had all three studs in the top, but just couldn't get it rotated vertical because of the clutch lever hitting the floor pan and the overdrive sump hitting on the other side.  It just needed to rotate a little, so two of the studs came out.  It's sitting straight and lined up on the top stud.  Now the problem is that I'm out of vertical room in the rear because of the driveshaft.  I believe if I could drop the rear about an inch, it would ease into place.  How it came out so easily is a mystery.  All of this trouble was made worse by moving the engine back 3/8" to clear the harmonic damper and trigger wheel.

Worst case, I can drop the driveshaft.  The rear gearbox mount is already out.  But I think it will slide in with a little coaxing.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

Looks good, Joe.  I hope you can get it properly lined up.

Good news.  I jacked up the rear of the engine enough to line it up with the gearbox and it slipped right in.  The cat pipe under the gearbox had to be removed to get the rear gearbox mount in place with the gearbox bolted to the engine.  Otherwise, assembly was the reverse of disassembly.  Now I just need to finish bolting things in place.

Things are moving slowly, but I did manage to check the cat pipe for leaks.  Somehow, I forgot to do this after welding in the catalytic converter.  There appear to be a few small leaks on either end of the cat, but the flange and O2 sensor bung are still tight.  I'll fire up the welder tomorrow and get this back on the road soon.

There is soot building up near the O2 sensor and cat.   Maybe it's the occasional running rich when tuning, but I realized that using the zinc rich oil may be making this worse.  Hopefully the cat lasts at least 10k miles.  It isn't too expensive and I can always weld in a replacement.

Yesterday I did some touchup welding on the exhaust to close leaks near the cat.  I also cut down the O2 sensor bung around 1/4" to put the tip of the sensor into the exhaust stream.  For some reason (probably bad), Innovate makes their sensor bungs to place the tip just outside of the stream.  So now it looks like this.

Today, the pipe went back in and everything critical was hooked up.  It roared into life and sounded good except for a weird noise coming from the back of the engine.  There is no oil in the gearbox yet, but pushing in the clutch made no difference.  It shifts fine, and the clutch didn't appear to be dragging.  I added some engine oil, and in doing so remembered the vacuum being pulled by the oil catch can setup.  Sure enough, removing the oil fill cap while it's running makes that noise go away.  I've read about some guys in the U.K. running a similar oil catch can that placed a restrictor (3-4mm) in the vacuum supply line to limit crank case vacuum.  I'll play around with this before doing much driving.

I was thinking about this at 3am this morning, so it may not be lucid thought. Is it possible that the catch can vacuum pulled the rear main seal out of place?  The noise I heard yesterday was quite loud, and air only has the two crank seals to enter the crankcase by.  Regardless, I'm going to modify the PCV system to reduce vacuum, and possibly just vent the catch can into the intake where the charcoal canister purges.  Or I could just vent directly into the charcoal canister.  While the engine is running, the port on the intake (pre-throttles) should be pulling a slight vacuum.  With the engine off, a purge valve closes the port.  Also, I want to move the PCV valve to the hose coming from the valve cover.  Richard Good has it on the vacuum line going to the intake.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

PCV valve needs to be on the intake manifold hose. Do not move it. While possible, I doubt you have enough crank case vacuum to displace the main seal. You also get air into the crank case through the dip stick tube. Pull the oil cap off while the engine is idling and put your palm over the hole to feel the vacuum. Won't be much.

No work to report, but thought I would prove it's actually running again (the image is a link to a video).  I want to paint the sills black and mount the polished trim below the doors before dropping it off the jack stands, otherwise it would be going for a test drive today.

I'm experimenting with putting a restriction in the PCV vacuum line.  Here's the first attempt.

I found a plastic plug that fits snugly into the PCV valve and drilled a 2.5mm hole in it.  Triumph put a similar restrictor on the charcoal canister hose going to the carbs.  The sucking noise is greatly reduced, and removing the oil fill cap while running results in a slight tug versus the hard pull from before.  Seems better.

It's too cold for painting this week, so it's time to work on the passenger seat.

Joe, just went through your entire thread. I am very impressed! I didn't read every single post so I most likely missed it, but is there a reason you stuck with the stock lever type shocks rather than going with a tube type?

Tonyorlo said:

Joe, just went through your entire thread. I am very impressed! I didn't read every single post so I most likely missed it, but is there a reason you stuck with the stock lever type shocks rather than going with a tube type?

I had rebuilt lever shocks that came with the original purchase.  The valving was adjusted using specs from JK Jackson and 20w motorcycle fork oil.  This firms them up quite well so that the damping matches the 480 lb/in springs used in the rear.  Switching to tube shocks would have cost much more, and I'm not convinced it's better.  I've read how the various kits may stress the frame mounts, so the only one that looks good long term bolts through the body shell.  The modified lever shocks have worked well on two other TR6s, and I can always try the conversion to tube shocks later.

Revington TR sells a coilover conversion that puts the shock and spring together and uses the trailing arm shock mount for the sway bar.  That is a nice setup, but puts added stress on the already weak differential crossmember.  With some frame reinforcement, that's what I'd do ultimately.  But the ship has sailed on frame welding.

I did a fair amount of research when I was shopping parts for my bugeye.  They arent too bad if you get the valving and oil weights right.  Drawback of them is that they dont do well over longer sessions. Not sure if its air cavitation or thermal. I would guess its cavitation/airation of the oil, because the nitrogen charge on tube type shocks is to resist that. 

I've been hacking away at getting the car drivable again.  The gearbox was filled with oil before I forgot and drove it without.  Before putting the tunnel cover back on, the wiring under the tunnel was checked.  Good thing too, because the backup light switch wasn't working.  These new Lucas switches take a little more throw on the plunger to close, so I had to remove the last sealing (sort of) washer under the switch.  Liberal use of thread sealer should keep it from leaking better than the fiber washer.  That fixed, the tunnel could go in.  This used to be a lot easier before my back got old, but it's done.

I'm also getting ready to paint the sills under the doors.  They are supposed to be satin black like the rear valance.  Hopefully this is the right place because the next step is to drill holes for rivet clips that hold the chrome trim strip on.  Paint will be done next week after it stops snowing and warms up.

Since it didn't get above freezing yesterday, I stayed in the house and worked on seats.  As the material on the driver's seat settled, the side bolster pulled down and exposed the end of the material.  So I stripped it down and fixed a small tear in the leather that kept me from pulling it any tighter.  The before shot.

That is now back together and I'm working on the passenger seat.

Looks good, Joe.  I really like that color.

TVR Scott said:

Looks good, Joe.  I really like that color.

It's growing on me too.  I originally wanted biscuit, but Moss stopped selling it.

I'm going to try really hard to get the passenger seat done by Sunday as it's supposed to be 72F and sunny.  Which reminds me that I also need to order a soft top.

I'm a little paranoid about spraying paint on this thing now.  But the sills are now black.

The interior is going back in tomorrow and it's getting driven.  Time to see whether the oil leak is resolved.