Who'd Want a Triumph?

Who'd Want a Triumph?

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SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Sunday 12th June 2016
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In typical style I cracked on with the smaller problems when I should probably have gone for the other isses - the tyre wear.

I went to a bloke I trust with this work and it was found that the gauges were not even registering on his equipment! The previous owner thought the suspension needed shimming, but in truth the tracking was miles out. With it set to almost zero toe the car drove alot nicer and seemed to wear the tyres better, now that I changed the tyres.

Next was to weld the holes up on the floor and chassis leg. With that done I fitted yet another new flasher relay. In another thread I will speak of the solution wink.

The steering knuckle coming loose turned out to be a bolt that was not catching on the nylock enough. With this sorted the car almost had an MOT in the bag, but the overcooling problem would need sorting.

This Sprint had one of these controllers fitted:



The only issue with mine is that it had gone into a failsafe mode, with it saying it had a low voltage error, despite there being 14V there. All of the wires had been previously cut and tried here and there, probably to see why the controller was not working which did not help and it looked like the controller had seen water as well due to the water leak. As a result the pump was basically running at full whack all of the time.

Normally the EWP does not have a thermostat. What it does is to run the pump slower and pulse it in how it runs until the car warms up sufficiently. With a duff controller this would not happen. So out I went and bought another controller for £130.

In Davis Craig's defence, despite me not being the original owner they were intrigued to see why their controller was duff and asked for it to be sent back. I obliged in the end. It paid off, DC gave me a new controller FOC biggrin and found that the old controller had gone faulty.

With the controller done it was time to weld up the car. God I love welding...

Retuning the carbs was fun. Both carbs despite being rebuilt by a specialists were terribly out of balance. Obviously the mixture was miles out so this was also seen to. Another issue was that the cable was only opening the carbs up to 60% open. This was never going to bode well for performance. As a result, this was tweaked and obviously the car went alot better!

Eventually I took the car back in for an MOT. It passed well smile.

With that done it was time for a few beauty shots :












Baryonyx

17,990 posts

158 months

Sunday 12th June 2016
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I'd certainly want a Triumph. In fact, the T595 Daytona was the bike that I dreamed on owning, since well before I was into bikes. I bought one when I passed my test and I don't think I'll sell it for a good long while, if ever!

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Sunday 12th June 2016
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Remould tyres on the MG? rotate

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Sunday 12th June 2016
quotequote all
HustleRussell said:
Remould tyres on the MG? rotate
Not when I sold it wink.

It was on Kumho 711s when I sold it; Not many tyres were available in 225/50R15 when I bought the tyres. I could have gone smaller but IMHO it would have looked wierd and unlike a few people who don't seem to care I didn't want to 'gear down' if I could help it ; I like doing 70-80MPH on the motorway, not dawdling wink. Stock wheels are 165(/80)R14.

When I sold it to the resto company he wanted to fit the tyres a specialist recommended ; 215/60R15 tyres. I believe Colway at the time made tyres in that size and in the classic circles were very well respected.

The wheels were Minilites that were 8J x 15".

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Wednesday 8th March 2017
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It's time I got around to updating my tale with BL clutter!

While the Sprint now drove well and shifted at a nice pace I had to move it on. While also making a little in the process sweetened things despite it being a great deal of a car it was a shame to sell it. But I had my reasons. My Stag was a very needy car! Speaking of needing I was not joking:

That said, it did look nice having two 'Rumphs before I sold the Dolly:



On it's new lowered platform the Stag was looking superb. While the wheels were an acquired taste I liked them, especially with them being Rays are quite light to boot!


Given that the Stag was now my main retro I decided to tackle more issues. The interior. Despite the interior being retrimmed it was done very badly! Who on Earth reupholsters seats with shot foams? Yes, the seats were horrible to sit on! I could no longer stand feeling like I was being jabbed in the side from the frame or feeling like I had dropped the soap in the prison block for a poor seat base!

What was the solution? Spend even more and get some foams:





As you can see the seat base diaphragm had seen better days when compared to a new one. But the car was low mileage...



I thought that I may not need a seat base but it was quite tired in all honesty!

Then it was time to move onto the seat backs. In hindsight these were in a right state:




With it sagging more than an old lady's knockers they were hardly appealing to look at! I really did not enjoy the next part. How on Earth the last bloke retrimmed the seats on the collapsing foams is beyond me:





Just look at the mess! I dread to thing what I inhaled as I was covered in dust and generally looking dejected!

With the seats almost finished they looked alot better! There was room for improvement but at least they were far nice to sit in! I thought maybe the seat cover fitting was down to me but more will be shed on that later:

[img}http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a68/randhawac/DSC_2522.jpg[/img]

But with some comfy seats and the car clean at least I could enjoy it over the summer:










Surely it must have been plain sailing from now on?

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Wednesday 8th March 2017
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If only that were the case! The unbreakable ZF 4HP22 gearbox that suited the car started giving me trouble! Owners of such gearboxes will know the tale here. It started holding 1st for about 3 minutes from being driven from cold. After that, all was well and silky smooth once more, coming together very nicely with the TV8!

But the issues did not stop there. Oh no! I had deeper issues. No! Not mentally (well, maybe a little!), but the car! More of the bodgery was coming to light. Instead of buying the correct screws for the front indicators the PO wedged in whatever he could find. No doubt it was suggested that a certain screw would work cheaper than what Rimmers would charge for the correct one. I am not talking about the Red Light district here either!

Forums, you have to love them!

As a result I would need a few more bits to contend with. That is before I even get to sorting out the bodged roof. Sure, it looked fine from 5 feet and from the pictures but they say a photo can only speak a thousand words. In this case, those 1000 words were useless. What they didn't convey was that:

-The hood was not attached to the side at all ; draughty was one way to put it!
-The inside of the car was getting decorated with dust from the roof breaking apart. I am sure that did the occupants' health wonders.

But who cared. Even with a literal band aid solution for the lights at least it looked good eh?




With that in mind I started looking around for hood replacements. Secondhand ones didn't seem that good value for what a new hood and refurbished frame would cost. However, I did strike Gold. Through the unwieldy Stag Owner's Club I found a contact that would really prove his worth. For £450 I would have a new mohair roof and my frame straightened. Naturally , I ended up getting more. Remember those seats?

I asked him if he could sort out the seats. He obliged. On a Sunday of all days I had a phonecall to say that there was not enough seat material to work with and that he would need to stitch more leather on. The cost? Another £30. I was hardly going to complain! By the time I had other missing parts added to the roof (I was missing many of them!) the bill came to £540. I could not complain really for getting a hood and frame put back to great working order in addition to having seats that actually were trimmed well!

With the new hood it did look much better:



With the car vaguely behaving itself bar the gearbox issues logic came into the equation. Or rather it didn't! Remember those exhaust manifolds? It was time to fit them, complete with Stainless Steel bolts:



It's fair to say that they are a tight fit!

But at least it sounded nice...


bungz

1,960 posts

119 months

Thursday 9th March 2017
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Very few threads on here can show you a car that is a absolute money pit and yet at the end of it..


I still would love a Stag yum

Good read keep going smile

Andy665

3,599 posts

227 months

Thursday 9th March 2017
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Very enjoyable read and a great car - still looks fresh and modern even though it was outdated when it was launched

boyse7en

6,671 posts

164 months

Thursday 9th March 2017
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Reading this is giving me some incentive to get my Stag up and running again.

I bought it by accident 15 years ago and despite looking OK from 10 yards away it needed/needs a lot of work.
Spent some weekend replacing the front floors, outriggers and inner and outer sills. PLus a section of boot floor. Got it running (roughly and took it for a drive, which showed that it would cut out at random times. A lot of fiddling about ensued until about three months later discovered that a piece of random floating crud would occasionally be sucked up against the bottom of the fuel pipe in the tank, cutting off the fuel supply. A few minutes later the suction would stop and the crud would fall off allowing the car to start again.

Anyway, restoration had to be rushed when we bought a new house and needed to move it. An MoT was passed and the car driven to the new house. It then sat on the driveway while we spent all out money on rebuilding the house and adding a double garage. It got re-MoT'd and on its maiden journey out on a summer evening it came home on an AA lorry when the rear diff exploded due to having leaked its oil out.

It was pushed in to the garage and has stayed there unloved ever since while other stuff (mainly having two children) has taken priority.

So it needs a new diff, tyres, battery, plugs, leads, filters, oil, some welding to the doors, probably a new soft top hood, plus whatever else turns up needing doing. And also needs all the other car parts that have been parked on it over the years removed...

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Thursday 9th March 2017
quotequote all
bungz said:
Very few threads on here can show you a car that is a absolute money pit and yet at the end of it..


I still would love a Stag yum

Good read keep going smile
Aren't most cars? :P.

Truth be told I hope not to put people off buying such cars. After all, I do miss the cars I have sold in their own little way. But it's good to give people perspective on what they will be buying.

Keep going? I thought I'd put you all to sleep! But on that note...

Andy665 said:
Very enjoyable read and a great car - still looks fresh and modern even though it was outdated when it was launched
Cheers. It's funny you speak of the modern comment:



I wonder if the lattice wheels helped to modernise it a little. I loved the iconic GKN factory wheels but it's rare to find a set that are drilled straight and give seemingly incurable vibrations.

boyse7en said:
Reading this is giving me some incentive to get my Stag up and running again.
If this kind of rekindling is brought about by my threads it makes it all more worthwhile! It sounds like you have a way to go but I am sure it can be done smile. Life does have a habit of getting in the way for many of us as well! But keep the faith.

2012 was an interesting year for me. Not just for health reasons but also because the Stag was being a needy mistress. With the MOT around the corner I had to sort out a number of faults.

The main one was a vague steering rack. Seeing that good racks are £130 I was trying to save some cash. I took a chance on a secondhand item. The good news? It steered better than the old one. But and there is always a but. It leaked like an oil rig with no control with the car running! It was time to get it in the air again:



Begrudgingly I bit the bullet and bought a new one. To be fair, fitting it was a relatively simple job:





An the new item:



There there were the rear lights. Despite them looking in the pictures like they are fanciful US spec yellow covers they weren't. They were opaque and honestly, pretty knackered. Even my blagging could only go so far!

With the covers off it was easy to see how bad they were in comparison. I am surprised it got an MOT for all of the years but I guess you could still just about see light through them!



Next to the new covers there was a marked difference:



I even debated losing some of the colours and getting LED coloured bulbs! But the stock look won me over in the end:



But there was another elephant in the room... Rust:



Arrgh, it was solid there before! I guess with the roof leaking it probably didn't help the car much! On the other hand, moaning about it would not get me anywhere! it was time to take evasive action:



It's always a little scary when you cut metal out! With good metal left I had something to weld to! OTOH I needed card to make a template. I never thought that my sisters veggie eating habits would benefit me one day or me having headaches for that matter from drowning my sorrows! It's a funny old world isn't it?



Before the days of me buying an auto dimming mask my upside down welding was never that good! You can tell where I welded from inside at the back of the patch as the weld is quite tidy! But we live and learn and at least the car was solid again. I guess those Wheeler Dealer episodes were paying off as were other car resto threads in giving me the drive to give it a go.




With some seam sealer on top and the weld linished I had a tidy and more importantly a solid floor again.

With the car MOT'd it was time to start tidying it a little more. But the gearbox wasn't going to be that easy on me!

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
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The Stag it seemed was OK bar the 'box issue.

I however had to deal with a slight amount of bubbling from a careless screwdriver around the windscreen. A bodyshop agreed to do the work along with painting the front valance which previously had been painted in stonechip despite being OK. He did have a condition though. That was that I removed the windscreen or arranged for it to be done. Not a problem I thought.

To be fair it wasn't a big issue. Down I went to the workshop and carefully cut out the now unobtainable chrome windscreen trim. I then came to cut the windscreen trim. I didn't need to cut it so much as to pull the rubber out! It was in a terrible state and perished to Kingdom Come! No wonder the car was trying to be a pond!

A week later I brought the car back home with everything painted up. With the trim being rare and the refitment of it being notoriously difficult I left it to a windscreen fitter to fit.

It seemed like the easiest £90 that I paid him as he had the screen in within 20 minutes complete with the trim. He did have to drive over from Lutterworth mind you. Wards recommended this guy and TBH he was spot on. I'll have to grab his name. He was not shy to give away the tips either. He mentioned where he struggled, what tools he used and what putty/sealer he used to prevent the windscreen from leaking again.

With that in mind it was time to reflect. The car had come on a long way from before!




The keen eyed of you will also notice that the front bumper was now hung straight on the edges for the first time ever. Furthermore I also fitted the new centre bumper section to replace my tired one. Removing these bolts from the bumper though was a nightmare! They were completely corroded!

It was getting there:





Yup, this car was no show queen! It was used!

I also managed to cure the misfire on full throttle once and for all. The cause? The Spark plugs? When I first had it I fitted NGK BP5ESs on, with some being made in France IIRC ; they were cheap after all. I then replaced these with NGK BP5Es sourced again from the Rimmer Bros ; I only got them as they had a sale on! It is very strange ; the misfire went completely and I had a smooth idle. I've never really had an issue with plugs before but that was one time that I did. Was it down to a duff batch or a cheaper batch made elsewhere? Who knows? I haven't been quite as tight buying spark plugs since this moment! A brand is not always a brand that is for sure!

Xtriple129

1,148 posts

156 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
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Brilliant thread, most interesting. I had a love/hate affair with a 2.5PI manual with O/D years ago and I thought I'd learned... but it seems that the bug infects you for life, I now have another old British car that has taken over a year to get right and totally bankrupted me, taken me to the point where I am too poor to actually use it but I still love it!

I need more updates on this thread, misery loves company and all that smile

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Monday 24th April 2017
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Xtriple129 said:
Brilliant thread, most interesting. I had a love/hate affair with a 2.5PI manual with O/D years ago and I thought I'd learned... but it seems that the bug infects you for life, I now have another old British car that has taken over a year to get right and totally bankrupted me, taken me to the point where I am too poor to actually use it but I still love it!

I need more updates on this thread, misery loves company and all that smile
It's fair to say a few of us don't learn. Proof? My M3 is demonstrating that. But then I guess it is a daily that is now 15 years old:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

So, what other British car do you own? I am intrigued smile. I sort of wish I kept the Spitfire of mine.

It's fair to say that the Stag was heading in the right direction. While the interior could have been better it was improving:






But my brakes were not in the best of states and the front was knocking more than we house next door to divorce lawyers. Yup. It was not pretty.

Everyone says that Stag brakes are terrible. When a specialist drove mine he was shocked at how good mine were. He actually thought they were upgraded, and not simply down to a system being given a going over as well as braided lines. With this in mind I wanted good quality pads. Finding good quality ones would be interesting. At the time Robsport, Paddocks and even Rimmers only stocked Chinese rubbish! Given EBCs reputation I was not willing to give the Greenstuff a go either! Would I really be stuck?

No chance. My motor factor sourced some TRW pads for a Ford Transit Mk1 ; the same pad/disc as what is fitted to a Stag! As for the drop links I sourced them from a local supplier:

Yup, my old pads were goosed:



That ceramic grease is superb. It's been wonderful on the brakes.

The drop links however caused a bit of head scratching:



They were longer than stock Stag items. After checking a few things it seems many suppliers now do this. After checking they would clear a few things I proceeded to fit the new items. It was clear that the old bushes were shot to pieces.

With this done it was time to admire my handiwork. I guess this is how it would have looked after a beer:



It was then time later on to tackle two more issues that had been plaguing me.

-A leaking crank seal
-Perform the annual coolant flush

Despite having fitted a new radiator and flushing the block the colour of the coolant surprised me!



I've had this happen on a couple of classics where good IAT coolant like G48 or OAT (red) coolant has not caused this issue. What did I use this time? Unipart CoolBlue, the same stuff I have used in a couple of other classics with similar results. Would I use it again? No chance Once bitten, twice shy. What do they say about the third time?

Sure, OAT *may* attack some soldered joints but compared to this rubbish?

Anyway, I then proceeded to remove the viscous coupling and crank pulley. This would require a gear puller in order to be removed:




After renewing the crank seal it was time to refit it all back together again. A Stag engine bay really is that spacious. Honest:



At this point I also ditched the viscous coupled fan.

Now I would l would love to say that I cured all of the oil leaks and that the engine ran so cool that it produced ice! Not so fast! While the engine was not overheating the oil leak stopped at the crank seal. Unfortunately the sump leak became even worse! What did Bruce Springsteen say about going one step forward and two steps back? Yup? I sort of got there. Balls.

So, in short I had a Stag with a semi tatty interior, an oil leak from the sump as well as a grumpy gearbox. Yes, the same 'box that was refurbished only a few thousand miles ago. How? It started to stick in first gear until it was warm. After that it did not even get any gears until it had warmed up. Once it had warmed up it was fine.

Part of me wondered if it was down to the trip to the specialist that put the scratches in. Apparently you are not meant to rev a ZF 4HP22 'box in neutral or park due to the clutch packs being potentially engaged. I do wonder to this day if he did. But may other factors played a part.

But despite this I would have something coming my way that would cheer me up smile.

SebringMan

Original Poster:

1,773 posts

185 months

Friday 30th June 2017
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So this thread hasn't put you off a Stag yet? Christ, I must try harder.

2014 was the year that the great Coventry MotoFest sprung into action. Think of it as a poor man's Goodwood. It's free to enter after all. But every event needs a ball so as to get the ball rolling. With unreliable classic cars that becomes more of a problem!

James Noble, the founder of MotoFest had agreed that the following cars would be hitting the BBC News Midlands Today programme from the guys he knew:

-Austin Metro City
-Triumph TR6
-Range Rover Vogue Classic ; Also driven by one of the founders of MotoFest and a friend of mine.
-Triumph Herald Convertible ; They were built in Canley after all!

The issue? Insurance debacles, reliability and so on came to haunt the Herald from coming onto the show. Maybe the owner got cold feet, who knows? This however would open up an avenue for me. Being a 4 seater Triumph Drop Top the owner of the Range Rover asked if I could be the lastminute.com saver. Unsurprisingly I obliged. Getting any car some exposure and a new event is always a good thing. That said I knew there were issues in place. The first? I was working 50 hour weeks; not ideal for trying to get time off! The other? With 3 weeks to go with hectic weekends I had a car with its share of issues. What issues? Well, let's see:

- The doorcards were practically hanging off the car like Billy No mates at his first pissup. That was despite fitting new doorclips ; they wouldn't hold!
- A pedal box that looked like it came out of a scrapyard
- Various bits were hanging off beneath the dashboard like the semi-broken indicator relay
- an incomplete centre console since a) I had lost the gear stick surround and b) the wooden part was at a refinishers
- a generally dusty looking interior (with the dash look the worst). ; These were remnants of the previously shot roof and the recent bodywork repairs that the car had received.

A bit of a tall order. Somehow I managed to pull it off. Well, just about!

New female clips in the door would ensure that the doorcard would stay on in a fashion in addition to putting the door handle bezel in place ; these are paramount for holding in the doorcards!. The pedalbox looked great after a dusting of black paint and new pedal rubbers. Furthermore, I sourced in no time a spare centre console which was in a better state of repair than the one I sent off. Furthermore, I actually gave the interior some love internally. All that was left to do was to book a day off.

Before I knew it the big day had arrived and I was rolling out in the Stag, better than it ever had been!

VIDEO LINK IS HERE

It was a joy to drive around and to see it sounding and looking great in the video!

But let's be honest, as the months rolled on by the gearbox was not getting any better. Yes, the one I spent a small fortune refurbishing a few years ago only for it to play silly buggers on me? How silly?

-For 10 minutes the car could not get any drive at all. If you put the car into Drive, Low Gears or Reverse? Nada/
-Upon warming up it went! For the first mile however it held 1st gear! Man, traffic behind me must have hated me!
-After that ordeal it was back to normal!

With that issue I really did not know what to do with the Godforsaken car. A manual conversion was considered as was taking it to the originators of the ZF Autobox conversion where it could have been done right! I should have gone there in the first place. But then I should have done many things with the car.

But, the truth is that I liked the ZF Auto conversion and it really did suit the car over the clumbersome Triumph 3 Rail box. Sorry driving fans but it's my thoughts. There were other things too:

-IMO the autobox in ZF form really gives you the best of both worlds with a Stag (I actually had a spare in the garage)
-Whilst the manual 'box would be a bolt in conversion cheap it would not be (read pedal box, different flywheel (possibly even needing a Spigot bearing, gearbox, overdrive etc.)). That is before I get to hydraulic bits, differing crossmembers etc. It would probably be as cheap to refurb what I already have but properly this time (so new pipes and coolers to the 'box).
-The 3 rail box is not the nicest of changes IMO in the Dolly or Stag.
-The car on the VIN was also down as being an auto. A pretty hard marker to shift smile.


If a 5 speed conversion with a slicker 'box was available I'd have probably considered that. But then I'd have considered a few things!