WWWedge Ezine
                          It's here to help you

Current readers: 219                September 15 1998, Year 1, no. 10
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The purpose of this newsletter is to give (technical) information
about the British classic cars Triumph TR7 and TR8.

To make this newsletter a success, I need your HELP:

o Let me know if this newsletter contains the information you're
  looking for.
o Let me know if you want to write a feature article.
o Let me know if you have suggestions, improvements, etc.
o Let me know if you find this newsletter useful and practical, and
  if there is anything you would like to see covered.

For comments, articles, etc. send an e-mail to

                   workshop@voskotan.demon.nl
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                   THE WEDGE TEAM
The WWWedge website is entirely maintained by volunteers.
Johan Vorsterman van Oijen is responsible for the design and the
daily updates. Mark Elbers is fully occupied with the Registry pages.
Eric Teunissen is responsible for the TR Scale Models pages.

The WWWedge Ezine newsletter is moderated by yours truly (Johan
Vorsterman van Oijen), and my native language isn't English.
But I'll do my utmost to create readable articles.

To save me from the biggest spelling mistakes, David Parnham (an
Englishman in Holland) will check the Wedge Ezine. Great huh?

To get started, the WWWedge Ezine newsletter is heavily based on
the Wedge Tips collected by Philip Johnstone from Australia.
Another source is the TR7/8 mailing list. I will extracts threads
from this list and publish them in this newsletter.

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                   INTRODUCTION

Well, your Ezine moderator returned safely from his trip to the UK.
Unfortunately one of our group (48 cars) was involved in a fatal
accident. The car, a TR4, was driven by husband and wife. People are
guessing they were hit from the side because they forgot that you
have to drive at the left side of the road in the UK. We heard this
the 2nd day of our trip. Very sad news!

As for the fun; me and my wife (Christa) had a great time. I took
some pictures (but have only developed one film yet!) which you can
find at the WWWedge website. I met some nice people. See my article
later on in the Ezine.

Cheers,

Johan Vorsterman van Oijen.
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                   TOPICS
           
            o Tech tips
            o Do It Yourself windshield
            o CARS
            o Various
            o TR7 do flex!
            o TR Register meeting 1998
           
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                   TECH TIPS

Here are some famous wedge tips.

HANDBRAKE
The handbrake on a wedge can gradually fail to operate over time as
the lever arm at the backing plate to which the cable is attached
seizes at the riveted joint with the shoe links. It may only be
evident by disconnecting the cable at each wheel and operating the
lever arm by hand with the drum removed. The problem is cured simply
with a few drops of lubricant and working the lever arm. In cases of
severe corrosion of the joint it may be necessary to remove the arm
and link from the backing plate to work the pivot point loose.

CLUTCH
After periods of no use, the clutch plate can become bonded to the
pressure plate and flywheel. Starting the engine while in top gear
and the clutch pedal depressed may be sufficient to break it loose
other wise drive it with the clutch depressed until it frees. Choose
a quiet stretch of road as chances are you will stall the vehicle and
you don't need someone behind urging you on in these circumstances.

CAN'T RELEASE THE CLUTCH
The clutch throwout lever arm pivots on a ball headed post. When the
post wears and the corresponding bearing surface of the lever wears
then the effective throw of the lever arm is reduced and this leads
to insufficient clutch thrust bearing travel. The only cure when this
is suspected is the removal of the gearbox and replacement of the
lever arm and ball post. Lubrication of the ball pivot on reassembly
would appear desirable although the ROM makes no statement of this.

The actuating rod is held to the throwout arm with a speed clip. If
you need to remove the clutch slave cylinder at any time do NOT pull
on the actuating rod as it may come free from the clip and replacement
requires the removal of the gearbox!

Philip Johnstone (Australia)


LOW COOLANT LIGHT
The low coolant light goes on and off even though the coolant level
is good. I changed the low coolant module (RKC 5259) thinking this
would solve it, but there appears to be no difference. I unplugged the
thing which keeps it off, but I'd like it to work properly. I'm
assuming that if I really did have low coolant, I'd be overheating
which would be indicated by my temperature gauge, yes?

Anyway, did I just buy a dud module, or is there something else to
do?

My problem turned out to be a loose and corroded connection at the
sensor located in the side of the coolant header tank. After
tightening and cleaning this, the light no longer goes on and off. I
replaced the low coolant module located under the dash, a simple
exchange, but expensive and unnecessary.

So if your light starts going on and off first check your coolant
level, second check the connection at the header tank and third the
low coolant module under the dash. Also just to make things
complicated, there is the actual sensor device in the header tank,
but fortunately, that wasn't my problem.

Paul Williams (Canada)

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                   DIY windshield
                  
In July I was driving home from my holiday trip with my family. I saw
a BMW 3 convertible passing by with a plexiglass rear windshield. The
windshield was obviously self-made. I was struck by lightning. Why
shouldn't I make a windshield for my wedge? You have to know that my
wife (Christa) doesn't feel comfortable when we drive open for a
longer period.

Could a windshield solve my problem, so that we can make more journeys
without the top? I decided to make a prototype out of wood. I took some
wood which I had lying around in my garage, and knocked up a simple
prototype windshield. You have to see the pictures on the webpage to
see what I mean. Don't laugh, O.K.?

Could it be so simple? I installed it at the rear shelf just behind
the seats and took the car for a spin. I was pleasantly surprised. No
wind in my neck/hair!! I hit the gas pedal and cruised to a speed of
80mph. Still no wind (well, a little bit ;-D). Good grief! This
windshield was the answer to my problem.

I returned home and Christa was sitting on the porch. She smiled and
wanted to open the garage door to let me pass through and park the car. I
smiled back and said she had to drive. She smiled harder, in fact she
started to laugh. Together with my oldest daughter she took the wedge
for another spin on the road. After she returned she said she didn't
notice any difference. What? I took the windshield out of the car and
let her drive again. Within 5 minutes she returned and said: please
put that thing back!!!! YES ;-D

Now came the hard part. The next days I visited the local shops in
search of material for the final windshield. I was surprised by
the prices of synthetic fabrics such as plexiglass. Too expensive.
Then I remembered that I had some (left-over) wood. This wood was
made of MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard). Perfect material to build a
windshield.

The real problem came in sight! I wanted to make the windshield easy
to install and easy to remove. So EXIT screws, nails, etc. Well, after
three days of thinking, and measuring, my dad came up with a solution. Just
take a look at the pictures to see what I mean. It's really great.
You can lower the top without any problem. You can bend the
windshield when you're driving with the topup, so the view in your rear
mirror isn't disturbed.

Yep, I really love this thing. Although it is a final prototype, it
is now time to get the perfect material. I still love the idea of
see-through plexiglass or a metal frame with sunshade material, etc.
Any idea is welcome. Take a look at the pictures to see how simple
this DIY windshield is.

Johan Vorsterman van Oijen ( vvo@voskotan.com )

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                   CARS

Perhaps old news but I just wanted to make sure everybody knows about
CARS.

We are pleased to announce that the new version of the TR7/TR8
mailing list archive is now online.

New features include:

- Clean new interface (going for the professional look)
- Ultra-fast searching
- Over 13,000 messages (full digests from FTP site assimilated)
- AND, OR and NOT operators to refine searches!
- Bug fixes based on the feedback from the list
- PHRASE SEARCHING!!

 This is my favorite.  You can now do specific phrase searches:
 "clutch slave cylinder" returns messages that contain that exact
 phrase. This provides really refined results and is probably the
 most useful way to search if you know exactly what you want.
 Keep common spelling mistakes in mind (don't want to miss a good
 post because the posted spelt something incorrectly).

 Example:
     "new convertible top"  (quotes are required to denote phrase)

 - Verbal ands, ors and nots as in:
     tr8 and radiator and leak

   Another example would be:
     tr7 and southern and skies not fake

 - Combination phrase and boolean search:
     "rear disc brakes" not tr8

 This is now a valid (although a little slower) search.  This
 allows you to get very specific.

 - Backwards compatibility with old syntax
     The old "+ and -" syntax still works, in fact you have a number
     of options to express yourself:

     AND is + or & or and
     NOT is - or ! or not
     or is just or

There are a few other small changes, but nothing that I need to
document for you to enjoy it.  Let loose and let us know what you
think. Many more features still to come.

 Please let me know what you think.  Some comments have trickled in
but a lot of people drop by, use the resource, and don't give us any
comments. If you have received good value from the archive, please
let us know and provide any feedback that you can.

 As always, you can find the search engine here:

 http://www.corenetworks.com/cars/

And as always we are looking for more lists to archive to test our
system.  If you have another mailing list you are on, get people to
check out this list and see if they like it.  The service is free to
the list owner and the list users.

As always your feedback is HIGHLY encouraged.  In fact we'd like
to offer a trade.  Use it all you want, just send us some comments.
Send them to listquest@corenetworks.com.

Hope to hear from you soon.
 
Jeffrey Campbell (Canada)
ListQuest Ambassador

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                   VARIOUS

1. A picture of David Parnham's TR7 DHC. This is the guy who does the
   spelling check on the Ezine.

2. 68 TR7/8s in a row. Send in by Bill Sweeting of the TR8CCA. More
   will follow soon at the TR8CCA official website. (picture on
   webpage)
  
3. A friend and I have had a good ten day trip to the Beaulieu jumble
   in the UK. The biggest deal I've done was to buy a phantom brochure
   of the TR7 and the legendary Japanese brochure. As attachment you will
   find the front- and backpage of them! (pictures on webpage)

4. The TR7 dhc model is available (picture on webpage)
   Kit price 24.50
   Built to your choice of colours 62.50
   These prices include p&p

   Stephen Roff, K & R Replicas.

5. Graham Gay from Australia send me some unique pictures of TR   
   rally cars. I'm collecting information about these cars so I just
   show you the pictures. An article will follow. Reminds me to
   redesign the TR in Competition section of the WWWedge.

   http://www.team.net/TR8/mp/html/various.html
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                   TR7 do flex!

For the past 10 years I have autocrossed a 1980 TR-7 convertible with
less than 30,000 miles in SCCA events in E stock class. For the first
3 years I did not have a roll bar and the flexing of the rear body
was evident in the cracking paint at the seam where the rear fenders
meet the panel between the boot top and the trunk lid. After I
installed a 4 point Autopower competition roll bar (it had a cross
brace but still fit below the top) and repainted the seam at the rear
fender, the cracking of the paint stopped. In addition, the handling
of the car improved greatly from the stiffness that the roll bar
added to the rear structure of the car. I was amazed at the
difference.

Tom Herbert

+---------

I can vouch for the rigidity of the FHC TR7...
I have had a Buick 350 in the car since '91 (when I bought it), and
probably even a couple of years before that by the previous owner.

This car has never had any problems with the doors flying open, or
getting stuck - the door gaps are quite good (even all around) and
this hasn't changed since buying the car. There hasn't been anything
done to reinforce the body, and there has never been any frame damage
to this car (no sign of accidents). As far a flexing goes, I suspect
that there would be very little, as continuous flexing with the added
weight and power of the Buick V8 would have likely distorted part of
the frame by now... I think that there is an inherently weak point on
the chassis though - the metal around the strut tower. I do see signs
of distortion in this region (although not severe), and I will likely
reinforce this area before I take the car out of the moth balls
again.

However, my TR7 DHC is another story... If you jack it from the wrong
point, the doors will pinched closed, until it is again lowered.

I recall that BL had problems with the prototype convertible doors
flying opened because of body flex on corners, so the engineers
designed a safety catch to keep them in place. It is this safety
catch which is often responsible  for the doors becoming jammed. To
solve this, many list members have had success with degreasing this
part, and then applying fresh grease to keep it free (the old grease
gums up with dirt, and hardens over time).

By the time the convertibles made it into production, these catches
were fitted  to all the cars. I have a quite early TR7 drophead coupe
(chassis number 691, built in March of 1979), and it has them in
place, providing evidence for this fact.

BL engineers also noticed that the DHC had a tendency to shimmy
around corners, so they designed a special front bumper to detune the
chassis resonance. You can see the difference if you look underneath
the car:

The DHC bumper uses rubber mounts and a pivot pin in the centre,
along with large metal weights on each end. The FHC bumper is simply
bolted straight to the chassis, and not weighted at the ends.

Essentially, the TR7 was never meant to be a convertible, and it was
rather hard to make it into one afterwards. The FHC TR7 is probably
one of the safest vehicles on the road today, owing to the fact that
it was designed to pass a rollover test, which was never implemented
by the American Gov't., despite their threats to do so.

Greg Gall

+---------

Everything I have read to date states that the car was designed to be
a convertible, but was released as the hard top due to pending US
regulation that would outlaw convertibles.

This seems to jive as Detroit quit making convertibles during this
period.  This regulation never passed and beginning in the early 80's
Detroit began producing convertibles again.

Looking at the car it looks like it was conceptually a convertible to
me.

Notable Quotes...

September 79
Motor Trend

Triumph's seventh son to take the place among the other open-bodied
cars in the TR Hall of Fame.....Due to the belief that then-pending
US safety regulations would soon make the convertible a matter of
history books the coupe configuration became more of a foregone
conclusion than a conscious choice. 

September 79
Road & Track

While Triumph regretted the lack of an open version at the time, it
was a period when the US government seemed determined to outlaw
convertibles for sale in this country.  fortunately that course was
blocked by a court decision but by that time the coupe design was in
steel and British Leyland was in a precarious economic position,
relegating a roadster version to the back burner.

September 79
Sports car graphic

In the first place the TR was never intended to be a coupe.  From
it's humble beginnings, standard-triumph conceived it as a spirited,
2 passenger roadster...  Triumph never wished to shelve their 2-seat
convertible, but they recoiled at the thought of possible government
legislation that could ban the soft-top. Directly on the heels of the
rag-top death were all sorts of one-off conversions:  the Hurst Hatch
which quickly started the T-top craze, assorted targa designs and
even the hilarious, non-functional fake convertibles.

I just thought this info might be interesting to someone.

Boyd Bailey

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  Just opened the new WWWedge Market Place.
 
         http://www.team.net/TR8/class/
        
  A fully Automated Classified Ad System for the British classic
  car Triumph TR7 and TR8.
 
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                   TR Register meeting 1998

Finally, finally. I did it...well my wedge. The car went back to its
roots.

My wife and I decided to bring our wedge back to its home country. We
just wanted to do that, and luckily the UK isn't that far from
Holland. We went with the TR Club Holland (http://www.trch.nl).

2 days before the trip the wedge started to act funny, and finally
stopped on the motorway. With a couple of hiccups, I managed to get
to the house of a friend. I phoned my dad to tow the car back to
my home. Diagnosis: fuel filter broken down! I just completely forgot
to change it, and never thought of it since I bought the car 4.5 years
ago. I had a filter in my garage so the trip to the UK was saved.

We assembled in Calais, France. We were 48 cars in all, but only three
TR7 DHC's. Mostly TR6s and TR3s. It was a tremendous experience to
board the ship. Much, much noise from the exhausts, and of course
the looks from almost every 'normal' driver.

After one hour we were finally in the UK. On board the ship we met
some other couples and decided to take a nice route with three cars
(TR5, TR3 and TR7). Of course with open top, we're real men/women, eh?

A marvelous trip along the coast with lots of sunshine. In the
evening we arrived at the first camping spot. To tell you the truth -
it was our first camping trip ever. We went to the pub for a drink
and meal and had a great time.

Next day we took off with 4 TR6s, 1 TR7 and 1 TR3. We visited the
National Forrest (actually we drove through it), got lost and drove on
the most narrow roads I have ever seen. On our Dutch map, these
roads were pointed out with a white color. One time, the road was so
narrow that only one car could drive on it. These English even had
the nerve to draw a white line in the middle of the road!

We arrived in Shepton Mallet, and I have never seen so many Triumphs
in one spot. Also, we finally spotted more TR7/8s. We camped, of
course, at the noisy area. Went to the pub for dinner. Again lots of
fun, beer and good food.

Next day I had to visit the suppliers. Didn't buy any parts though
;-D. It was good to meet some suppliers in person. My only
conversation with most of them was per fax or email. RobSport, S&S,
Moss, they were all there. Saw the (famous) yellow car S&S had
prepared with a Rover 2.016V engine. See Ezine edition no. 8.

My DIY windshield was talk of the day. I have promoted it so much
that I had to take some beer to grease my throat (you must know that
I normally don't drink alcohol). I also spread around a special Ezine
edition.

I also did meet Graham Robson, Tony Beadle (Triumph World) and Steve
Redway (editor of TR Register club magazine 'TR Action'). Yep, a lot of
nice people. In fact, I am going to write for the TR Action magazine.
I will extract articles from the Ezine so there's a chance you might
recognise them. Oh yeah I also met the woman, I mentioned in Ezine
no. 6, Becci Hamilton, a good-looking redhead. She's a dancer, and
calls herself  'the official party animal'  of the TR Register's Kent
group. She owns two TR7V8s - one of them with 300 bhp(!) gained from
a 4.6 litre Rover V8. Her license plate is:

      HOT 1 SIN

PS. my wife Christa also dances really well. The first night a band
was performing some Irish folk music. She introduced a Dutch dance
called 'Bird Dance' to the visitors. Next day everybody recognizes
her and instantly she got a nickname - Bird Dancer.

I have taken some evidence that I was there at the meeting. I have
some pictures online but I still have two films to develop.

Very impressive also, was the trip we took to Bath and Cheddar. Very
nice country roads. Bath is beautiful with all those hanging
baskets and the Roman fountain.

My wife and I have already started to make arrangements to attend
next year's meeting. Hope to see you again!!!

Johan Vorsterman van Oijen ( vvo@voskotan.com )

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WWWedge Ezine is a free email newsletter for anyone who is interested
in the classic car Triumph TR7 and TR8.

Please note: the list of subscribers will not be shared with anyone.
The information is used to distribute the newsletter. This newsletter
is not SPAM. It's sent to you based on your subscription.

Advice, articles and opinions are offered 'as is'. The publisher
cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.

The newsletter may be freely copied and/or distributed in its
entirety.

(c) 1998, The World Wide Wedge (http://www.team.net/TR8/)
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