Tacho is certainly suspect!

[Brithunter]

Classic Chim said:

I’m sure nursing it as you do when it’s all new is great.
Have you floored it and revved it’s head off yet.
Does it feel quick. These are the questions we need answering
Be blinking careful out of corners though!

Well yes have used the acceleration a few times in fact we had adry afternoon when I took a friend out in her he told me that he saw the sat-nav say 109 and ddi see over 5000 rpm on the tach once I think that the rev limiter even cut in though not sure as it might have been a fault.

Also saw 160 on the sat-nav in Germany.

[Brithunter]

Classic Chim said:

Yes I agree. Brave indeed.
Hopefully he’s getting over the shock.
Driving one of these for an afternoon will knock most people about let alone with little experience of the car itself. The weather was a disgrace but showed the car can handle the rain water. Not the roof of course but electrics seem good and they often are on these cars considering the age now.
It’s really good to see he wants to drive it when he can’t sorry Brit but we’ve all been there

You forget that although may be new to TVR's am not new to sports cars of this period. In fact have driven thousands of miles in the MGF's. The alternator packing in like this is a little bit of a shock an annoying little set back in fact. If the factors in the local town cannot help then guess next place to try is "Wildrovers" the Land Rover specialist not too far from here.

[Classic Chim]

I’m not shocked at all.
It’s an alternator failure which is quite common on older vehicles or ones that have stood sometime.
This might be the reason tensioner wheels became employed on later engines.

I’d be over the moon the car didn’t breakdown and cause slightly more hassle to be honest.

[Brithunter]

Have got new parts to rebuild it arriving tomorrow local factors were very helpful so new regulator pack, new rectifier, and new front bearing the rear on is a needle bearing that I cleaned out and regreased the front on is noisy though. The three parts are costing approx £30.

[Sardonicus]

Brithunter said:

Have got new parts to rebuild it arriving tomorrow local factors were very helpful so new regulator pack, new rectifier, and new front bearing the rear on is a needle bearing that I cleaned out and regreased the front on is noisy though. The three parts are costing approx £30.

Good job, rebuild and keep the Lucas unit you have (yes I know it says Magnetti Marelli) they are nice user friendly units to work on besides Bosch if your a bit handy or keen on the tools many of those white box Ebay/Online units are ste anyway

[Penelope Stopit]

You should replace that needle roller bearing as they do wear
If you do take my advice and replace the roller bearing you will need to use a press to push it out, you will also need a socket from your tools socket set or a tube that has a hole in it slightly bigger than the roller, what you do is place the slip-ring end shield over the supported socket in a position so that the alloy in its center very close to where it holds the roller is fully supported, now the roller can be pressed out from the outside inwards using another socket or tube slightly smaller than the roller

If you don't support the end shield very close to the roller the whole end shield will break into bits rather than the roller pushing out when you use the press

[Brithunter]

Penelope Stopit said:

You should replace that needle roller bearing as they do wear
If you do take my advice and replace the roller bearing you will need to use a press to push it out, you will also need a socket from your tools socket set or a tube that has a hole in it slightly bigger than the roller, what you do is place the slip-ring end shield over the supported socket in a position so that the alloy in its center very close to where it holds the roller is fully supported, now the roller can be pressed out from the outside inwards using another socket or tube slightly smaller than the roller

If you don't support the end shield very close to the roller the whole end shield will break into bits rather than the roller pushing out when you use the press

No press or access to one. Actually have no workshop facilities at all really at present. No bench or vice just the tools we brought with us here. The bench and vice never made it. At the moment still have no roof over what will be the garage and car storage. She has only done a few miles really she clocked over to 38k on my drive down.

[Penelope Stopit]

Brithunter said:

No press or access to one. Actually have no workshop facilities at all really at present. No bench or vice just the tools we brought with us here. The bench and vice never made it. At the moment still have no roof over what will be the garage and car storage. She has only done a few miles really she clocked over to 38k on my drive down.

In that case I shouldn't be advising at all
I've been there done that, this is really difficult for you, "what a bad time to have this problem"
You will very likely need to get someone to loosen the pulley nut off, sometimes they are extremely tight

[Brithunter]

Penelope Stopit said:

In that case I shouldn't be advising at all
I've been there done that, this is really difficult for you, "what a bad time to have this problem"
You will very likely need to get someone to loosen the pulley nut off, sometimes they are extremely tight

Indeed it was but luckily it has an allen key hex in the shaft and I used that to undo the nut. Had the pulley off this morning and the casings apart which is how I cleaned out the old grease and applied new to the rear needle bearing. Tomorrow will have t get some solder as don't know what happened to mine in the move. The builder has told me of a company that does these rebuilds in Veliko Tarnovo the city that's about 28km away so if it comes to it can go there but had already ordered the parts by then. The builder is supposed to be putting the membrane on the timbers ready for the battening for the tiles thne putting in the two uprights for the 3 meter wide doors to the enclosed barn that is going to be home to the TVR.

Once this is all done can then think about building a bench and moving my tool chests into it and get some shelving up. The original plan was for a 2 post lift but the extra materail and work to support and stabilise the walls have eaten up the funds for that.

[Penelope Stopit]

Good luck with all that work

[Brithunter]

An interesting development here. I put the alternator back on this morning to see if greasing the rear bearing had made any difference to the noise and heat. Indeed it has improved things the odd thing is that on fully reconnecting and starting the engine it was not putting out 14.3 volts not the 12.7 of before. So drove her into town to collect the bits and pay the electric bill.

The tacho is more stable and coming home I gave it "some beans" in third and saw the needle touch the yellow blocks on the dial. The alternator is still whining but not as bad once she cools down will remove and rebuild it as planned and it will be very interesting to see what difference this makes now. Also bought some electrical solder, they sell it off the roll by the metre!!! and a new electric soldering iron as do not know where mine is ATM a whole £5:30 for the 40A mains one. " meters of solder was about 65p.

Oh yes at an indicated 110 the RPM's are 3,750 on the tacho.

[Brithunter]

Well the alternator is partly rebuilt seems the new bearing was the wrong size and checking to original could find now play so put it back in with the other new bits. Bought a new electric soldering iron as don't know where mine is and 2 meters of solder. Result is a unit that now charges properly does not whine, was very careful the align the stator inside the body, and have a red ignition/charge light that once again works. Tacho seem more stable with only slight wavering of the needle at around 2500 rpm. Needle will now register rpm's above 3000 easily.

While running her up noticed that only the left hand radiator fan was running so checked the right and it was free and not seized then checked the plug and connections. Turned out fan is fine just dirty connections in the plug both rad fans now run as they should do and even in 30 degrees heat like this afternoon running while stationary the fans kept temp gauge at 80 degrees.

Discovered the dash top is not bolted down!!!

And this evening after a test run out found that there reversing light does not work. Bulb is OK so need to find and check the switch and fuse.

Edited by Brithunter on Wednesday 25th April 04:25

[QBee]

Mine isn’t bolted down either. Never found it worth the effort. If it bother you, try Velcro strips instead - from any haberdashers.....

[Brithunter]

QBee said:

Mine isn’t bolted down either. Never found it worth the effort. If it bother you, try Velcro strips instead - from any haberdashers.....

Well it will make checking the connections to the dash LED's easier I suppose. Am sure both red ones used to illuminate but they stopped after the stereo head unit swapped so thought I had dislodged something. e now know of course that alternator wa son it's way out. The amber oil light and alternator charge light now both work again oil light was spade had come off switch. New regulator and rectifier has sorted the charge light.

[Penelope Stopit]

Nicely done Brithunter, it's very interesting to know that the tacho is now behaving even though it's not driven by the alternator, it's all about volts, high volts, low volts, smooth volts and rough volts

[Brithunter]

Penelope Stopit said:

Nicely done Brithunter, it's very interesting to know that the tacho is now behaving even though it's not driven by the alternator, it's all about volts, high volts, low volts, smooth volts and rough volts

Well it's certainly working now even if the needle does still wander around the 2500 rpm mark lower and higher in the range it behaves as one would expect. I will be checking behind the instruments for loose connections later when we investigate the no illuminating top red LED lamp.

As to why TVR have such a problematic tacho has me wondering as other makes don't seem to have this problem. The one in my MGF behaves as one would expect and is stable no wavering about at all.

[QBee]

Brithunter said:

Penelope Stopit said:

Nicely done Brithunter, it's very interesting to know that the tacho is now behaving even though it's not driven by the alternator, it's all about volts, high volts, low volts, smooth volts and rough volts

Well it's certainly working now even if the needle does still wander around the 2500 rpm mark lower and higher in the range it behaves as one would expect. I will be checking behind the instruments for loose connections later when we investigate the no illuminating top red LED lamp.

As to why TVR have such a problematic tacho has me wondering as other makes don't seem to have this problem. The one in my MGF behaves as one would expect and is stable no wavering about at all.

The tacho in my 99 Chim is spot on.....

[Classic Chim]

Since when did they have problematic tacho’s ?
Tvr suffer from speedo issues but I’ve rarely heard of tachometer problems!
Remember the early cars have different gearboxes and diff so gearing might be slightly different to what others record.

Edited by Classic Chim on Wednesday 25th April 09:54

[Brithunter]

Classic Chim said:

Since when did they have problematic tacho’s ?
Tvr suffer from speedo issues but I’ve rarely heard of tachometer problems!
Remember the early cars have different gearboxes and diff so gearing might be slightly different to what others record.

Edited by Classic Chim on Wednesday 25th April 09:54

There is a receipt in the file for the speedo being repaired as for the tacho just watch a few driving videos on You tube and watch the tachos bouncing about like demented wabbit! Only car have ever seen this happen on.

Below about 27 mph the speedo needle on the MGF wavers about a little then steadies up after that and is fine. Mine being a Mk1 has a cable driven speedo with analogue odometer. later ones are electronic.

Yes mine has the LT77 box and I believe the earlier GKN diff.

[Brithunter]

Classic Chim said:

Since when did they have problematic tacho’s ?
Tvr suffer from speedo issues but I’ve rarely heard of tachometer problems!
Remember the early cars have different gearboxes and diff so gearing might be slightly different to what others record.

Edited by Classic Chim on Wednesday 25th April 09:54

There is a receipt in the file for the speedo being repaired as for the tacho just watch a few driving videos on You tube and watch the tachos bouncing about like demented wabbit! Only car have ever seen this happen on.

Below about 27 mph the speedo needle on the MGF wavers about a little then steadies up after that and is fine. Mine being a Mk1 has a cable driven speedo with analogue odometer. later ones are electronic.

Yes mine has the LT77 box and I believe the earlier GKN diff.