1st March 2016, Slow Headlight Motor & DRL's

The drivers side headlight has always been a bit slower to rise than the other one, and sometimes needed a tweak of the manual knob to get it started, so I thought it was time I fixed it.  I knew all the wiring and connections were good from when I fitted the auxiliary relays back in May 2014 so the problem was obviously with the headlight motor or the lift mechanism.  I had also noticed a little bit of "flutter" from that headlight on bumpy road surfaces so that needed investigation as well.

First thing was to take the whole assembly out of the car, but before doing that I tried shaking the headlight and could feel some definite movement even though it was locked in the up position.  With the assembly out of the car you could actually see some movement in the mechanism where the turnbuckle link joins the crank.When I took it apart there is a bronze bush which had developed a small amount of wear allowing the light pod to vibrate slightly when raised.

Worn bronze bush here.

Luckily I have a small collection of headlight assemblies that I have acquired during several years of TR7 ownership - just in case - as they say,  so I was able to find a much better bush in my stock. I was also able to find a better motor as well. Some of them felt a bit stiff or rough to turn but again I found a better one so that went on as well.

The whole lot was then put back into the car and I now have a pair of headlights that rise and fall in unison!

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Next little job was to fit some Daytime Running Lights.  This has been on my list of jobs for a while and I consider it a good idea in modern traffic. The TR7 has a low profile front end and as mine is dark blue I think it might be hard to see coming in shady places - hence the DRL's.

I bought a set of Ring Ursa LED lights which come complete with all the wiring and a neat little relay switch to turn them off when your main lights are switched on which is a legal requirement in the UK apparently. They are normally about £40 but I found a new set someone had bought and not used on Ebay for £19.95.  There are lots of very cheap LED lights for sale but I wanted something that didn't look like temporary fix and one of the guys on the Triumph TR7 Owners Page recommended them. 

They mounted neatly in the "hockey stick" trim just below the headlights and the little relay switch fitted on the hidden side of the radiator side filler panel so nothing is visible in the engine bay.

Spot the DRL's

Top view

February 2016, Door mirrors

The original door mirrors on the TR7's had a solid cast aluminium mounting where they fix onto the door and were a common type on many of the British Leyland range.  Many of these have been replaced over the years with nice shiny new ones but the problem is that on these new ones that nice solid cast mounting has been replaced with a lightweight plastic one which is not up to the job. Also the new ones are fixed with self tappers instead of being bolted through the door skin.
The mirrors on the blue car were the new type and have always been a little bit shaky so I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade them to the old style mountings. I had kept the mirrors from the old red car I scrapped last year so decided it would be a easy enough to use them but of course you always run into a problem.

New style one-piece plastic mount broken

 My intended replacement was not the newest type but an in-between one with a cast base and a plastic bit where the mirror clamps on, but that broke when I did the fixing screw up!

Intermediate type cast base but broken plastic fixing 

This left me with what I think is an original type which has the same cast base and a separate cast metal piece which the mirror clamps to.  The problem with this was that had a broken end as well.

Original type but with a broken end

 My solution was a bodge using a small strip of metal added to extend where the broken piece was missing.

Out of focus but you can see my added piece where the end was missing

Now the mirror can be fixed to the door properly using bolts which go though the door skin into captive nuts on a retaining plate inside the door.

Door mirror mounting plate which fits inside the door.

Final result is door mirrors which are fixed firmly and do not vibrate.

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Update:  Speaking to folks on the Triumph TR7 Owners Forum the suggestion is that the mountings have been redesigned to make them break off deliberately in an accident. This is all very well, but a bit of a pain in my opinion, but I also found out that the Wedge Shop in the USA run by Woody Cooper sell some modified mountings which get over this problem so I ordered some.

Wedge Shop modified mountings, Nice.

Picture above shows the modified mounts I received and have already fitted to the car.  They are simply a section of 1/4" by 1/2" steel strip with the chamfered ends and countersunk holes. They screw straight on to an original cast base and give a lovely stable mirror. 

I actually met Woody Cooper and his son Clint at the NEC Classic Car show and they are a couple of really interesting guys to talk to. Their Wedge Shop business sells parts and modifies TR7's and TR8's to a high standard. They own and run TR8's themselves so know what the cars require to keep them running and performing well.

January 2016, stuck clutch etc

Nice day a couple of weeks back so thought I would give the TR7 a run and found the clutch plate was stuck to the flywheel. I couldn't get any gears with the engine running. This has happened to me before and is quite common on cars parked up so I just went though my usual routine.

1. warm the engine up.
2. switch off and re-start the engine with the car in first gear. You are now hopping down the road like a kangaroo.
3. with the clutch pedal held down go ON-OFF-ON-OFF the accelerator (gas) and it will suddenly free itself.
4. drive a couple of miles to warm it all through and slip the clutch a few times to clean it off.

I went out again two days ago with the same excuse to make sure the clutch was not seized and drove a few miles round my usual "test" route. All was well and I cycled the headlights a few times to make sure they OK. Then as I got home for lunch I found the headlights stuck in the UP position with the switch off and refused to go down. They were not lit but just stayed UP.  No time now so will investigate after lunch.

After lunch I returned to the car to find the lights had gone down all by themselves!  Tested them several times and they worked perfectly.  I will need to keep an eye on them.

December 2015 - TWOA Calender, Fame at Last

Fame at Last.

The 2016 Triumph Wedge Owners of America calender just arrived and my car features on the April page!  Its the picture I posted here back in October and it seems the publishers liked it.

16th October 2015, nice day for a drive.

Not much to report since the Tetbury car show and we have been away for our usual late summer break of three weeks in Portugal. Very nice it was too.  We seem to have brought some nice weather back with as the last couple of weeks have been pretty nice here as well with a lot of dry clear days.

I found a reason to go out for a quick blast in the TR7 this week - not that I needed a reason - but it has been sitting in the garage for over a month so I wanted to give it a run. My excuse was that we needed some ice-cream from our local maker who has a factory/shop about 10 miles away on Rodborough Common.

Lovely day, a bit cool ( about 11/12 degrees) with a mostly blue sky and I loved every minute of it. The trees are just starting to change colour with a few leaves blowing in the wind.  Naturally I had to stop for a picture.

View of the Golden Valley towards Chalford.

Its on days like this that you remember why you bought the TR7 in the first place!

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Now as autumn approaches its time to start work on that jobs list of things to do on the car over the winter. Its quite a long list of mostly small and trivial things that I would like to do, like tidy up the wiring under the dash and radio console and fit a wire mesh screen over the cabin air intake to keep those leaves out.  You never know I may even get that new Sprint engine built.

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6th September 2015, Tetbury Classic Car Show

Nice day out last Sunday at the Tetbury Classic Car show, its a local show less than 20 minutes drive from home but is well supported with over 500 cars this year.  We belong to the GLAVON group of the TR Register and we had 13 TR's on display including two TR7's, both unusually with Sprint engines. Our group leader has a very nice red TR7 coupe fitted with a Sprint engine and power steering. I have offered to buy it from her but she loves the car and drives it almost daily. 

GLAVON TR Register stand being set up.

 You can see from the picture it was a beautiful day and we found all kinds of interesting cars to look at. Our cars attracted quite a bit of attention and there was also a lovely row of Healeys opposite which were much admired.

Big Healy row.

Few pictures of various other nice stuff at the show.

Mod heaven.

Nice Karman Ghia and Alpine, both GLAVON members.

Pretty tidy Avenger Tiger. Don't think its a replica.

Nice row of Imps.

I know its a Marina, but it is in superb condition.

How does he keep that exhaust manifold looking so good?

Flat Head hotrod, the guy drives it regularly but is it road legal?

20th August 2015, MOT

Just back from the garage with a nice new MOT certificate so good to go for another year.  No real issues with the car, the tester just made a couple of observations.

1. The mixture is very slightly rich so the SU's just want to be adjusted up a flat or two.

2. The driver side front wheel bearing has a little too much free play but not enough to fail.

Back home and legal for another year.

The all-important proof!

Item 1. may well be down to when I changed the carb mountings and replaced them with aluminium ones.  I wanted to let it all settle down and will now see if I can set them up properly.

Item 2. I have been looking for the cause of a slight flutter on the brake pedal and found the drivers side has about 10 thou run-out in the disc so need to take that apart and clean it all up anyway so can fix the free play as part of the job.